09/18/2006: Frankenstein’s Monster Atari Game!
First, my apologies if the site has looked all screwy and misaligned today…it wasn’t coded correctly for certain browsers, like say, the browsers everyone uses. It may look like that for another day, but it’ll be fixed tomorrow. Second, my head hurts. Third, there’s a new article on the Halloween Countdown, taking us back to the days when the Atari 2600 was president of the world and could get away with giving us games like Frankenstein’s Monster. As Player 1, your objective was to erect walls around the titular creature, using big rocks. Uh huh.
Discussion Thread: 74 comments
First!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL that is a terrible game.
Posted by
Charlie S. @ 09/18/2006 8:45 PM EDT
The ghost doesn’t look like a ghost, it looks like a cephalopod with a trail of blue slime.
I see your point, but that just makes him cooler.
Posted by
Matt @ 09/18/2006 8:57 PM EDT
Wow! A Frankenstein game for the 2600! I’ll have to see if I can find a copy in time for our halloween parties. Usually when the 2600 comes out at parties Winter Olympics is the drunken game of choice.
Posted by
Ryle @ 09/18/2006 8:58 PM EDT
That is the bossest 2600 boxart I have ever seen.
Anyone else notice the picture on the front page looks like franks about to suck his own, or maybe someone elses, uh, “thumb”
Fellatios.
Posted by
Travis @ 09/18/2006 9:06 PM EDT
Vid game heroes need to learn how to swim. Or at least make do with underwater bubbles like Sonic.
Travis: Wow, your’re right, and that “thumb” is glowing with some mighty aura, presumably enhancing its suckability!
Posted by
Ryle @ 09/18/2006 9:13 PM EDT
Awesome Halloween Countdown so far, Matt. The Halloween spirit has definitely hit me early this year. Got my tickets to A Nightmare On Elm Street on Wednesday. Can’t wait. I never saw it on the big screen.
Have you seen this for the “2006 Scream Awards” on Spike? I attached the link. It’s for horror/fantasy/sci-fi/and comics. And no announcements of presenters or anything. And there’s fan voting, which never seems to turn out too well.
Dam, no wonder the game crah happened…i forgot how hideous the games actually looked…its a wonder there was no class action suit brought against Atari for false advertising.
Posted by
mandy_Reeves @ 09/18/2006 9:40 PM EDT
Another great article, Matt, though I never could wrap my head around the appeal of old Atari games…
ahhh frankenstein, such a great movie.The game looks like one of tose games where the game is so bad it’s good.
Posted by
Mightystalfos @ 09/18/2006 9:46 PM EDT
Great article. Bonus points awarded just for the box art.
P.S. It’s hard to believe that the X-E art contest ended a year ago. I still have those drawings.
Posted by
The Manimal @ 09/18/2006 9:48 PM EDT
Awesome article. The Monsta Stomp…priceless. Seriously, I laughed out loud here at work. Everybody thinks I’m crazy anyway. 
Posted by
mudogramx @ 09/18/2006 10:01 PM EDT
Ironically, I read about this game last night at an Atari site recommended by a girlfriend. (Click my name to see the site.) I remember very, very little about Atari, since the only one I ever saw was at my grandma’s house when I was about four years old, and this definately isn’t one of the ones I remember. I think it looks sort of cool, though, especially compared to some of the other games at that site!
Posted by
starwenn @ 09/18/2006 10:02 PM EDT
Onw of the only times I’ve ever seen the guy properly called “Frankenstein’s Monster” instead of “Frankenstein.” No one really cares what Mary Shelley intended.
During my absence I saw the strangest thing come on TV….a Freddy movie where the premise was that he was trying to break into “reality.” So instead of Nancy, the tortured protagonist was actually Heather Langenkamp and producer Wes Craven appeared as himself as well, and so did Robert Englund (but only for the first half; then he disappeared when Freddy showed up, moo hoo ha ha ha).
According to Craven in the movie, the reason Freddy was able to break into the real world was because he was no longer effective at scaring people in the theater, and the fright was holding him inside the script pages, or something crazy like that. This was the ultimate fourth-wall movie. The guy was actually acknowledging here that the Nightmare franchise was losing steam, and he built a movie around THAT.
The movie also had a perfectly hilarious scene where Freddy’s tongue comes through the phone and licks Heather’s face on the other end, which I think Matt wrote about a long time ago.
Posted by
Mars @ 09/18/2006 10:08 PM EDT
Haha, good old crappy Atari games. Have a happy Halloween!
Posted by
Willem138 @ 09/18/2006 10:39 PM EDT
I had to ask my boyfriend what a Kessel Run was… he practically laughed me out of the state!
Holy crap, I just got back from Wal-Mart (Who BTW has the worst Halloween selection available) where I was trying to find “Spooooky” stuff to spice up my desk for the holidays. Anyway as I was perusing the Isle a mother came around the corner with her brood in tow, as soon as he saw the halloween decorations he immediatly started screaming, like someone had just hit him with a hammer screaming, the worst part was the mother who obviously was very used to this, didn’t do anything she just kept dragging him deeper and deeper into the hall O’ death and blood.
Posted by
Jester @ 09/18/2006 10:56 PM EDT
Jester, I think you should draw out what you just wrote in crayon. I can picture it.
Posted by
Matt @ 09/18/2006 10:59 PM EDT
Mars, that would be “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”. Terrible title.
Posted by
The Manimal @ 09/18/2006 11:01 PM EDT
I hear Frankenstein’s Monster is really packin’.
Posted by
Mystie @ 09/18/2006 11:02 PM EDT
I went to my local Target and they totally had Pitch Black in Icee form; needless to say, I got one, and drilled them for a bunch of subsequent free refills while nobody was looking. I have to admit, during the first couple drinks, I couldn’t help but have a dumb grin plastered across my face after every sip. It defintely got me in the Halloween “spirit.”
Matt, Yeah it was pretty rough, Had to cut my losses and ended up only buying a coupla cheap ass glowsticks.
Oh well, tommorrow i’m thinking of making my 45min trek to the nearest Target store. Thats place is friggin awesome when it comes to holidays.
AND ANOTHER THING……………..
Why the hell does Wal-Mart have 3 isles of Halloween follwed by 4 Isles of Christmas crap, it’s the most disturbing thing in the world to be staring at a bloody axe with a pentagram emblazoned on the side while hearing “Holly Jolly Christmas” blaring from a breakdancing reindeer!
Posted by
Jester @ 09/18/2006 11:18 PM EDT
hahahahaha that game is Donkey Kong with Halloween spirit.
i still refuse to believe that those are bats.
Posted by
brian @ 09/18/2006 11:20 PM EDT
hehehe…”erect”….hehehe…”titular”…hehehe
Posted by
Roadblock @ 09/18/2006 11:35 PM EDT
Weird Al premired the music video for his latest single “White & Nerdy” on his myspace tonight! (it was supposed to be on aol.com, but some asshole leaked it to youtube, so that link is on his site now) And…it. kicks. ass. Possibly the best video he’s ever done.
And here’s a survey: What would make up an XE-opoly game? spaces, tokens, chance cards, etc?
I picked up a copy of that game ages ago at a yard sale. What happens when you win the game isn’t nearly as cool as the losing screen stompfest.
The “big finish” is this: Once you drop the last brick, the walls become as tall as the monster. Then as the cheesy victory music plays (the tune, if you can call it that, sounds like a Skeeball jackpot reinterpreted as a vaguely cheerful air raid siren), the screen flashes and the monster is erased from the top down, one line at a time. This takes place on the regular three-level game screen, which really makes it seem like the designers put the serious effort into the losing animation, while the winning screen was just a lazy afterthought.
There’s one other semi-interesting thing about FM. Sometimes with the old Ataris, you could cause strange variations in the games by quickly turning the machine on and off multiple times. (In Space Invaders, for example, you could corrupt the game so that you fired twice as many shots at once.) With Frankenstein’s Monster, you could screw up the background colors and turn the main character into a bizarre-looking purple and green dude, making this the one and only Atari game to feature an 80’s-era Elton John as the hero.
Posted by
SJ @ 09/18/2006 11:43 PM EDT
I’m glad travis said it before I had to.
Posted by
dohopoki @ 09/19/2006 12:05 AM EDT
Thanks for the info, SJ! Of course, now I am determined to beat the game so I can witness the amazing ending you speak of. This could take weeks.
Posted by
Matt @ 09/19/2006 12:08 AM EDT
Jester, going to Wal-Mart is always sort of surreal, but your experience is the best by far.
A cephalopod ghost - a giant cephalopod ghost - would be really creepy. I’m glad its in the game, warms my heart. I’m an ex-biology major.
Awww yeah, I love your video game reviews! Keep ‘em coming!
Posted by
Brandon @ 09/19/2006 12:52 AM EDT
Jessica, Yeah it was weird, I had the satisfaction of seeing a child tortured by his mother by being forced down a tightly packed hallway of terror, But I was also pissed off because it ruined my shopping, before they showed up I was the only one in the halloween section. I just might take up Matts challange and draw out the story, Hmmmmmm now I need to go back to the Wal-Mart to Buy Crayons.
How the hell do I not have any crayons?, I remember having and entire plastic yellow construx briefcase filled with broken crayons when I was little. When did crayons fall out of a list of requirements that should be in my apartment?
Posted by
Jester @ 09/19/2006 1:00 AM EDT
Jester, just go buy some crayons. I got a pack of 24 of them for less than $2 Canadian. You can probably get a pack of 96 for under $4 US.
And folks, more of you should own a pack of crayons. I’ve done more than one page full of stuff with them for friends, and there’s just something awesome about that texture they leave behind.
I’ve had “download Atari 2600 emulator and play Frankenstein’s Monster” on my to do list for years now. No I’m really going to have to do it. The best Atari site by far is Atari Age. (atariage.com)
Of course,if you’re looking to buy any upcoming new releases for Atari or Colecovision,they’re pretty much the only place that’s going to stock them. I just think it’s cool that new Atari games are being made at all.
Speaking of old games,you can click my name for downloadable PC versions of old handheld games,mostly Nintendo’s old Game & Watch series. Say what you will about the technology limitations,but some of these games are awesome. Lifeboat especially is a must see,because of the shark attack death scene you see when you fail to catch a guy. Snoopy Tennis is a classic too.
Sorry to be a snotty little bastard, but I just noticed that your Halloween Jukebox lists “Cry Little Sister” as a Sisters of Mercy song, it’s a very common mistake really - it’s actually done by Gerard McMann (McMahon). 
And Christ, what a delightfully horrid game
What the fuck kind of expensive ass crayons are you buying, Ronald? I don’t think I’d pay over 50¢ US for a 24 pack of crayons. Shit, I think I spent $2 on my Special Edition 100 pack.
God I need some motherfucking coffee.
Posted by
Mystie @ 09/19/2006 7:31 AM EDT
LMAO at Mystie.
And I think I said something about the Sisters of Mercy error last year.
Posted by
Kid Nicky @ 09/19/2006 7:47 AM EDT
Oh, and I forgot… ARRR!!! It be Talk Like a Pirate day!
Posted by
Mystie @ 09/19/2006 8:01 AM EDT
I think this is one of the games that my only friend who had atari had. But I always played pacman.
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day evereyone!
Posted by
kb @ 09/19/2006 8:08 AM EDT
Arrrrrrrrrrticle and the Atarrrrrrri game gets bonus points for correctly distinguishing between Frankenstein and his creation.
/English Major..
//Yarrrr!
Posted by
Cameron T. @ 09/19/2006 8:48 AM EDT
Mars - that movie terrified me to my very soul. It was the only Nightmare that I saw in theaters and the concept of Freddy no longer being just a movie character caused me to sleep with a stuffed dinosaur to this very day. I’ve been afraid of Freddy since I was a wee one. Note to parents: Don’t let your 5 yr old daughter watch horror movies. that shit will stick with her.
I’m a sissy and I don’t care who knows it!
Posted by
bitchpants @ 09/19/2006 8:51 AM EDT
Holy shit, I just got into work and there is a HORDE of people across the street waiting for their shot at that new Elmo doll. Why’d I forget my camera today?
Posted by
Matt @ 09/19/2006 9:19 AM EDT
ARRRRRR. yeah, im a pirate…
that looks like a fun game, dunno why, but lately ive been on an atari kick, although i’ve never owned one myself, thank god for emulators,
WHY DON’T WE HAVE TARGETS IN CANADA DAMMIT!! i guess im not meant to taste the ghoulish delights of the PB3….The Bill for my therapy is in the mail matt, make sure you take care of it before the end of the month will ya?
Posted by
JoshC @ 09/19/2006 9:36 AM EDT
Ahoy! Be havin’ a happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day, ye scallywags!
YARRRRR!!!!!
Pirates suck. Ninjas rule.
Posted by
Knegative @ 09/19/2006 9:43 AM EDT
Jester - do it. I want to see the artist’s rendering of the torture.
Okay, been busy, got some catching up to do.
Went to Milwaukee last Tuesday night. At Wisconsin State Fair Park they have a “Halloween Express” set up in the parking lot. It’s a fucking HUGE inflatable jack-o-lantern with a Halloween store inside. I was so pissed that I didnt have a camera. Or time to stop.
Once in Milwaukee, saw Rob Zombie in concert (it was actually a Godsmack show but I could give a fuck). Everyone’s personal music tastes aside, it was kind of cool. The screen in the background was showing horror movie clips almost the whole time, including the beautiful shootout at the end of Devils Rejects. But my point is this: after one of his little breaks, he came out in a Michael Myers costume, the movie screen had the Halloween pumpkin on it, and the guitarist played that Halloween theme that I cant think of the name of right now, the music when he’s stalking after someone. So…I dont know if that means he’s gonna do the movie, is mocking the fact that he isn’t gonna do the movie, or maybe it meant nothing. The whole thing was fun, like watching a haunted house on stage.
Then Thursday, my little sister finally went in to have her baby (a boy). After 14 hours of labor and an emergency c-section, I am finally an auntie for the first time. 
Spent most of the rest of the week at the hospital with them, just chillin.
Somewhere in there, I went to Target too…I bought some of the mojito soda, and it makes me want to puke. Makes me feel like I’m drinking toothpaste spit. I was gonna buy some cans of Berried Alive too, but they had the regular berry lemonade in bottles so I just got that instead. That stuff is the best ever.
Posted by
MaryJane @ 09/19/2006 11:13 AM EDT
I just saw the same Rob Zombie tour a few weeks ago…he’s awesome.
I picked up the candy corn soda last nite….. its really weird. Definitely tastes like candy corn, almost a creamy aftertaste. Its drinkable but Im glad it only comes in a tiny can.
I did pick up the “lemon drop dead” flavor, and i’ll be trying a bottle on my lunch hour…its chillin in the mini fridge right now!
Target has awesome halloween stuff, bought me a sparkly light up skull!
MaryJane
Last I heard, he was directing the new Halloween!
I heart Zombie.
Wait a second, that scrawny blue faced hippy guy with buggy yellow eyes is supposed to be Frankenstein’s Monster? Awesome. I guess they were trying to modernize him or something. The inaccuracy does go with the goofy premise of the game I suppose. It’s almost as if they were thinking, “Hey, we’ve got this game that doesn’t make any sense, what should we do with it? I know! Let’s put a strung out Frankenstein with jaundice on the box art! Awesome!”
Posted by
Justin @ 09/19/2006 12:11 PM EDT
Zombie is directing the new halloween - but its a rehash of the original. He said he will be using a mask as close to the one in part 1 as possible because its his favorite
Posted by
Frederick Charles @ 09/19/2006 12:14 PM EDT
Yeah, I’d heard he was gonna do it, but then I thought I heard it wasn’t for sure…you know how it goes. Hopefully he does, that will be pretty sweet. So much of my favoriteness all at once will be pretty overwhelming. Wonder if he’ll sneak some of his actors into it…
He did look kinda funny in the costume though, he’s just a little guy.
Posted by
MaryJane @ 09/19/2006 12:38 PM EDT
tool just cancelled in madison tonight. they are refunding tickets. glad i didnt score any off ebay, we usually buy em at the last minute… that sucks.
Posted by
MaryJane @ 09/19/2006 12:40 PM EDT
I think I realized why I heart Halloween so much — it coincides with the start of hockey season. Yea Halloween! Yea hockey!
Posted by
LemurCat @ 09/19/2006 1:20 PM EDT
Can I talk like a Straw Hat Pirate? Or an Ice Pirate?
Posted by
kingklash @ 09/19/2006 1:20 PM EDT
Last night in sign language class we were learning the signs for holidays and the teacher was asking us our favorites. I couldn’t resist saying Halloween AND Christmas, and I was thinking of X-E the entire time.
God I love holidays.
Posted by
jazzy @ 09/19/2006 2:07 PM EDT
Whoops, I meant to say: Arrr, I be lovin’ the holidays, yarrr. Especially the booty.
Posted by
jazzy @ 09/19/2006 2:08 PM EDT
Arrrrr…… We’ll be keelhaulin’ ya now lad!
Posted by
Captain Deuce @ 09/19/2006 2:22 PM EDT
Matt, I don’t know if this is old news, but I just read that the Nightmare on Elm Street house is for sale! Take a look for yourself!
http://www.realtor.com/FindHom...67227604&p&poe=realtor
Posted by
J-Dog @ 09/19/2006 3:05 PM EDT
WOW! Check out this TMX Elmo auction. Granted, this Elmo is autographed compared to the other Elmo auctions, but still, this is expensive.
http://tinyurl.com/kwhg2
Also, I also have no clue what a Kessel Run is either.
Posted by
JLAJRC @ 09/19/2006 3:55 PM EDT
Yarr…What be a pirate’s favorite fast food joint?
ARRRRby’s!
…That joke was stupid, says I.
And…yarr, I don’t think Han Solo ever explaineds what the Kessel Run was, but he did it in under 4 parsecs.
Posted by
Invadarrr Norbert @ 09/19/2006 5:41 PM EDT
The new Elmo… I have to admit, it IS really cute, and much better than the first one, but Jesus, 40 bucks? I dunno… I could see 30. But, I’m just glad we didn’t have a pack of wolves waiting outside our doors today at 10am.
Posted by
Ryane @ 09/19/2006 5:47 PM EDT
I saw one for 500.00 on ebay.
Posted by
Old E @ 09/19/2006 5:50 PM EDT
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/translator.html
just in case anyone needs to translate English to Pirate for todays festivities.
Posted by
Old E @ 09/19/2006 6:02 PM EDT
Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Posted by
The Manimal @ 09/19/2006 6:10 PM EDT
Arrrr! All these people saying they were born after Atari (before people started referring to it as the 2600, to distinguish it from the 5200 (anyone remember that??)) are making me feel like an old curmudgeon. Almost like the people who are too young to remember the *first* time Star Wars (episode IV to you youngun’s) was in the theater.
You really wanna go old-school, anyone remember TV-Pong?
Posted by
Jeff @ 09/19/2006 7:16 PM EDT
The Kessel Run was explained in officially-recognized Star Wars fiction - it was a route that smugglers took to deliver spice (a drug) from the Kessel Spice mines to avoid Imperial interdiction.
Posted by
Jeff @ 09/19/2006 7:18 PM EDT
Not a body has spoke to me today in the parlance of us that lives on the account :(. It’s got me so gutted I can’t even be fussed to make a joke about the Kessel Run and tha rum routes ‘tween Saint Barts and Jamestown. Ah well. May all your night skys be red, me hearties.
This has nothing to do with anything, but, have you ever had a song stuck in your head you couldn’t remember the name of, or even who sings it? Click my name, and go to a site where you can simply tap the beat with your space bar, and get a list of song choices. It works miracles, nearly 6 months of a song haunting me are now over because of this site! It’s also fun to do as a game, trying to get the thing to correctly guess the song you tap in.
Posted by
Rob @ 09/19/2006 7:53 PM EDT
Jeff:
“You really wanna go old-school, anyone remember TV-Pong?”
No, but I’ve played it over the Internet.
I so remember Pong. Loved it. We had the Intellivision (from Sears, I think?) too, and man I lived for Super Breakout and umm… god I can’t remember the name. You were in a space ship and sucked up these little creatures in your beam, and tried to get them before you got attacked, then there was a 2nd part where you had to shoot the asteroids flying at you from each side of the screen. Me and Mom used to take turns playing that one.
I was Queen of Pitfall - I used to go for hours, and amazed everyone. River Raid and Enduro were total favorites, too.
Posted by
Ryane @ 09/19/2006 9:27 PM EDT
I truly think the scariest game ever created for the Atari 2600 was E.T. :( The flashing “you are dead” ending was used in a few games if I recall, such as the not-well-known-or-played Star Raider.
I had a Nintendo back in the day but as I got older I skipped the entire Genisis/Super Nitendo 64 generation. When I bought my next system it was a Playstation and my first game was Resident Evil. I didn’t know that the controlers had a rumble feature and the first time a zombie took a hunk out of my neck I almost pissed myself.
Posted by
medevac @ 09/20/2006 11:58 AM EDT
Sounds like Space Ark from Imagic, Ryane. Very entertaining sequel to the very entertaining Atlantis.
Posted by
kingklash and his all-joystick orchestra @ 09/20/2006 12:19 PM EDT
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