Codebreaker
released on Nov 01, 1978
This one's not for stupid people. The goal of codebreaker is to guess a 3 or 4 digit number in 12 tries. The computer lets you know when your on the right track with some vague clues. In the second game, NIM, you and your opponent strategically remove blocks in an attempt to be the one to remove the last block.
Reviews View More
Codebreaker was one of the first games in the second wave of Atari titles in '78. It’s actually made up of multiple games, Codebreaker and Nim being the main draws, the former being a game about figuring out numerical sequences and the latter being a strategic version of hot potato. Both games are simplistic but not simple, but neither are very exciting in digital game form. At least not in 1978.
You could use the keyboard controller to play it which was neat, and reviewers at the time found it passable and challenging enough as a proto-strategy game which I agreed with at first, but due to limitations within the uh lets call it a ‘game engine’ repetition sets in almost immediately. It also isn’t particularly hard when you figure out its just different levels of process of elimination. Like a lot of these early Atari games, the box art is cool as hell though. Sorry, I don’t have a high school story to pad this one out like with Basic Math. This is about the level of analysis you can expect until we get to the late 80s. SPOILER ALERT I am absolutely going to quit on this misguided idea to be a one man All Game Guide (RIP) before we get that far.
You could use the keyboard controller to play it which was neat, and reviewers at the time found it passable and challenging enough as a proto-strategy game which I agreed with at first, but due to limitations within the uh lets call it a ‘game engine’ repetition sets in almost immediately. It also isn’t particularly hard when you figure out its just different levels of process of elimination. Like a lot of these early Atari games, the box art is cool as hell though. Sorry, I don’t have a high school story to pad this one out like with Basic Math. This is about the level of analysis you can expect until we get to the late 80s. SPOILER ALERT I am absolutely going to quit on this misguided idea to be a one man All Game Guide (RIP) before we get that far.