Two months later…
Wow, it has been a while since I last posted here guys! I hope you’re still out there, even though our output has slowed to a trickle in recent months (@walter.farmacia, thank you for continuing to post nice work here). I haven’t forgotten about you, but unfortunately work has eaten my life lately and taken precedence over fun. I can’t speak for the entire team, but I do think that the pandemic focused our efforts (being stuck at home will do that) and now that it is letting up, people are out doing stuff. But I do intend to continue posting new overlays here and updating the website, and I appreciate your continued interest and support.
To reward you for your patience, I’m back with… two games that are actually quite hard to properly control via MAME! You’re, um, welcome. Both of these are games I have the privilege of actually owning now, so these are based at least partially on photos of my own cabinets. Here we go…
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Vindicators (Atari – 1988)
MAME version
RetroArch version
Vindicators is known for both its unusual cabinet design (which looks sort of like an upright arcade cabinet crossed with a tank) and its novel control scheme, it being one of a number of Atari tank games that used two joysticks to control your tank’s treads (another being Assault, the last game I posted). Vindicators uses quasi-isometric graphics to create a series of randomly remixed station levels (the layouts are the same but enemy locations change) that you must assault to push back the forces of the Tangent empire.
Your tank and turret can rotate independently, and you can pick up a variety of special weapons and bombs, all of which means the controls are relatively complicated and not easy to accurately replicate via MAME (you can use a regular joystick and use the directions to move forward/backward and rotate, which is far from ideal but is playable). Vindicators is a somewhat overlooked gem from Atari’s late 80s heyday, which can even net you a free t-shirt as long as you beat the game before -checks notes- October 1, 1988!
The MAME version includes multiple screen sizes, a darker version and curved/straight versions.
S.T.U.N. Runner (Atari – 1989)
MAME version
RetroArch version
Another game with a great cabinet design, S.T.U.N. Runner (the acronym stands for “Spread Tunnel Underground Network,” supposedly – OK, Atari) puts you in a futuristic racer flying through a series of roads and tunnels at high speeds while avoiding or shooting enemies, hitting speed boosts and collecting stars that power up a powerful Shockwave weapon. The game’s claim to fame was its 3D polygonal graphics, which were quite novel in 1989 but would take over arcades a few years later (its rudimentary, untextured polygons give it a pleasant period feel).
Unlike the cars in RoadBlasters and other thematically similar games, your S.T.U.N. Runner vehicle actually accelerates automatically, meaning all you really need to do is steer and occasionally tilt the yoke back to shoot flying enemies, but the fact that you can drive 360 degrees around the tubes makes it unique among racers of its era. You need to consistently hit speed boosts and steer competently to make it through most of the levels without running out of time, but thankfully you skip to the next level when putting in a new credit, so you can keep moving forward even if you’re not the greatest racer of the future.
I added a fun feature to the MAME version of this one – the addition of a couple of different backgrounds that fill out the remaining space, an arcade scene with a crazy 80s arcade carpet and a background that evokes the tracks you race through in the game (shown above, but probably hard to make out). These are separate image layers in the lay files, but currently they are attached to the different screen sizes (medium curved has the arcade scene and large curved has the track scene). You will have to edit the lay file to change the scene assignments or turn it off, as I didn’t want to create a ridiculous number of presets, but I can post additional versions if people have a strong preference. These images exaggerate the brightness so you can see it better:
The RetroArch version includes both of these scenes as well as black background versions, but you will need to manually choose them.
Enjoy, even if you have to fiddle with the controls to get them working properly!
