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Sword Fight
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Name:
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Sword Fight |
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| Company: |
Mattel |
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Model #:
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N/A |
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Programmer:
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Stephen Tatsumi (Deign/Program) &
Pat Lewis Du Long (Sound Effects) |
| Year: |
1983 |
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Released?
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No
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Notes:
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Originally called Swordfighting |
In case you didn't guess from the title, Sword Fight is one-on-one
fighting game in which two players try and subdue each other with large
swords. Sword Fight never saw release during the 2600's heyday,
but Intellivision Productions produced a limited number of professionally
produced carts in 2000. These carts sold out quickly and due to
copyright restrictions the rom file has not released, making it still
widely unavailable to most gamers.
The goal of Sword Fight is simple, hit your opponent
enough times until he's dead. Your hit points are shown as circles
underneath each player. Your warrior has three different types of
swings: a left slice, a right slice, and an overhead chop. Each
type of swing has it's own advantages and disadvantages, so it's up to
the player to determine which swing is appropriate at the time. Of
course Sword Fight would be much of a game if all you could do is attack,
so your player also can block the various blows that are thrown at him.
If the graphics of Sword Fight look a little odd, it's because of
an interesting technique used by programmer Stephen Tatsumi. Stephen
used background graphics to increase the player size, this made for much
larger (if slightly blocky) characters that are unique amongst 2600 games.
So why was Sword Fight never released? According
to the Blue Sky Rangers, Mattel was trying to promote one player games
and since Sword Fight was two players only it was shelved. A similar
fate befell Sea Battle which was also finished around the same time. One
has to wonder why a simple computer AI wasn't added to make the game more
marketable? Whatever the reason, Sword Fight is definitely one of
the lost classics of the 2600.
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