Dodge 'Em

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Dodge 'Em
two-player

Dodge 'Em is a driving-themed maze game programmed by Carla Meninsky and published in 1980 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS (later renamed to the Atari 2600). Similar to Sega's 1979 Head On arcade game, Dodge 'Em is played on a single screen of four concentric roadways. Sears released the game for the "Sears Video Arcade" as Dodger Cars.^[2]

The Dodge 'Em cartridge includes three versions of the game, accessible through the Game Select switch on the Atari 2600.^[3] The first game is for one player, and the remaining two are for two players. The second game has the two players, one player playing the role of the player's car, alternating turns. In the third game, one player plays one car the other player controls the other car at the same time, alternating turns.

Gameplay

The player controls one car and has to drive counter-clockwise, avoiding computer-controlled cars whose sole aim is to produce a head-on collision. The goal of the player is to collect all the dots from the maze. Each roadway of the maze has four gaps in it, at the top, bottom, left, and right of the screen. The player can use the gaps to change lanes in order to pick up dots or to avoid the computer-controlled cars.^[4]

The player's car can travel at two speeds, a normal speed which is the same speed as computer-controlled cars, or a fast (doubled) speed activated by pressing the controller button. The computer-controlled cars have only one speed. Players change lanes by pushing the controller in the appropriate direction when their car is near one of the gaps in the roadway.

The difficulty switches adjust the speed and the starting position of the computer-controlled car. Screens 1 and 2 have a single opposing car; 3 through 5 feature two. Screen 6 is as if going back screen 1, losing one life. The point counter resets at 1,000, although it reads as " 00" (with the hundreds digit blank) due to an error. A

occurs at " 80" (1080 points) even if a player plays perfectly.

Reception

Dodge 'Em was reviewed by

^: 76

See also

• List of Atari 2600 games
• Dodge Racer

References

1. ^ Yarusso, Albert. "Programmers: Carla Meninsky". AtariAge. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
2. ^ "Dodger Cars (Sears)". AtariAge.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
3. ^ Dodge 'Em - Atari 2600 - Atari - Color Box Style Archived 2011-08-13 at the Wayback Machine. AtariAge.com. Accessed 8 March 2009.
4. ^ "Dodge 'Em Manual". AtariAge.
5. ISSN 0147-8907
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6. ISSN 0147-8907
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