Underachieving the impossible: Tank Command & Impossible Mission [7800] | NES Works Gaiden 68
925Atari 7800 is back! Learn more about it by preordering The NES Era Vol. II: NES and the Console Revolution, a comprehensive photographic atlas of every console game released for NES and its competitors—including the 7800—from October 1985 through December 1987. Take a deep dive into the prehistory of NES with this limited-edition oversized (12x12"!) photo book: https://limitedrungames.com/products/the-nes-era-vol-2-hardcover
As we wrap 1988 for Atari's flagship console of the NES era, the console finally gets its first third-party publisher. And it, uh, well, it certainly is a thing that existed. Froggo Games' Tank Command is not especially good, but you can kind of see what it was going for? There's potential here... unrealized potential, yes, but potential all the same. Meanwhile, Impossible Mission for 7800 doesn't need anyone to vouch for its bonafides—it was a top-tier Epyx computer classic converted to console in perfect form. Well... almost perfect. Aside from the game-locking bug that makes it impossible to complete. Rough times for the poor 7800, but that's just kind of par for the course for this era of Atari.
Production notes:
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7800 footage captured from original hardware in RGB via 7800 GameDrive (thanks to @stoneagegamer!). NES footage captured from Analogue Nt Mini. Video upscaled to 4K with RetroTink 4X.