Magazine Archive: HomeBrew Reviews: Oystron (Atari 2600)

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- Peter G, from Issue #3 (March 2008)

If you’re one of those people who collects alternative labels and such on games, don’t bother with this one. The label has had so many permutations, you’ll go nuts.

Inspiration comes in the strangest ways. Sometimes it’s looking at something and thinking, “I can do that.” Other times, it’s just looking at something and seeing relations that prompt a game, like how the guys at GameLab came up with Diner Dash! And some games come about from a simple experimental demo that makes the designer go, “Hey, wait!” Pitfall! and Fathom for the Atari 2600 supposedly were inspired by the sprite animations the creators came up with.

Oystron has a similar origin. It originally started off as a demo for the homebrew crowd to demonstrate how to put multiple objects on the screen at once. From there, a few things were changed here and there, and soon, a full blown game sprung out of it. It was part of the first wave of Atari 2600 homebrewing and has been a mainstay since. Some games simply vanish beneath the waves after a while, but this one hasn’t, and for good reason.

The game is a single-board shooter. You con

trol a ship that cruises around the playfield, shooting at a never-ending stream of enemies. The key ones are space oysters, grayish-blue orbs that, once finally destroyed, release a space pearl. You grab the pearl and head to the left half of the screen, where you store your pearls. Complete a row of eight pearls (not a column, I made that mistake the first time I played this) and you get a bomb for later use. A timeline at the bottom of the screen creeps along and, once full, an Oystron appears. It is coming after you, and can only be destroyed by the bombs. So you have to plant one and lead the Oystron into running into it.

This is no simple task. The game boasts an impressive array of enemies. The oysters not only travel at various speeds, but they take a random number of shots before they crack and give up the pearls. It is very easy to find yourself pinned against the far wall, shooting like mad at an oyster that just won’t drop and unsure if you should move out of the way and into the path of others or just keep firing. There are also other ships out to reduce your pearl supply, from missiles that just blow them up to ships with front shielding that you can only shoot from behind. It’s like a cliffhanger movie serial, with no-stop action and close calls.

Thankfully, Oystron has some of the tightest controls on any platform. Your ship skates around the screen but the crispness enables you to recover if you overcompensate. The control scheme is also simple – the bombs for the Oystrons can’t be deployed until the Oystron appears, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally releasing your stock before you’re ready.

This game is a great way to kill an hour or two with your 2600. The action is fast without being confusing and all the elements work well together. There are moments where holding your fire is better than blasting away. You don’t passive mash the fire button with this, and the result is a game that would be a classic on the system had it been released during its heyday.

Available for $20 at www.AtariAge.com