Denial

Berzerk was one of the great maze shooters from the golden age of arcades. The VIC had some playable adaptations in its heyday, but it was Robert Hurst's 2010 Berzerk MMX that finally brought the full version home to VIC gamers. Berzerk MMX / MMX+ is among the best adaptations for any home console or home computer.

Berzerk MMX requires 8K. Berzerk MMX+ requires 16K but adds the voice effects from the arcade. "Chicken, fight like a robot."

Berzerk MMX / MMX+ Berzerk MMX / MMX+ High Scores
5550 …… akator
5400 …… hasseapa
3890 …… Ola H
2400 …… R'zo

This ZIP archive contains both Berzerk MMX and MMX+ in PRG formats. As always, your posted scores will be added to this first post. Play, discuss, have fun! And remember:

hasseapa wrote:... posting in the old threads should be encouraged. Old players can update their score, new players can post scores, and anyone can leave comments on the games.

I remember playing this on my 2600 when I was a kid. I never was any good at it. Usually died pretty quick . But it's still fun and I still played it quit a bit.

My high score so far is 2400. I'm currently playing on my tablet which can't seem to handle screen shots so unfortunately no screen shots.

Berzerk is definitely a tough game. As much as I love playing it, I've never been very good at it, either

I played the Atari computer version a few times earlier this year. MMX+ on the VIC is just as good, probably better because of the voice synth, and that's quite an accomplishment considering the additional hardware features and graphics on the Atari computers.

Even though 2600 Berzerk is one of my favorite games on the system, I hadn't played it for some time. After playing MMX+ for a while tonight, I played some 2600 Berzerk for comparison. I'm still impressed with how good the 2600 version is. Not as good as MMX+, thought

Perhaps playing a lot of Berzerk this month will finally improve my game in a way I haven't been able to in the last 35 years

3650 Some excellent scores here:
http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... h_Scores#B

I won't get anywhere close to the best. At least not with keyboard controls. I will probably be able to play on a real VIC with joystick later this month and I will give it a serious try then.

There is basically no threshold to get into this game so I hope many will give it a shot or two. But I am sure there are many subtleties to learn before you can post a >10 000 score.

3890 this far. While it is an an excellent conversion, I didn't enjoy it much due to two aspects:

• Playing on Vice with a keyboard - awful! (I definitely need to buy a SD2IEC in order to enjoy modern non-commercial games.)
  
  Evil Otto - made sense in the arcade but not at home IMO - I want to take my time to use the walls for cover, run to and fro and try different approaches.

Amok and Super Amok on a real machine with a fine joystick, though But I think I could enjoy Berzerk too (even with Evil Otto) if only I could play it on a real Vic.

I seem to average around 2K. This 5550 is a outlier. I've made it to 5100 once, but my next closest score is around 3800. I'm a little better than when I started, but it is now clear I'll never be setting any records

MMX seems more difficult than some other versions because Evil Otto shows up so soon. One day I'll have to sit down and compare all of them at once...

Yep,

2000 is an average score. Few times over 3000.
Evil Otto is an annoying guy. Always kills me.

I don't feel so bad now, that bouncing smiley haunts my dreams

Unfortunately no joystick play for me, but I still decided to give it another go and improved a little bit - to 4190. Will attempt a 5K score tomorrow

akator wrote:MMX seems more difficult than some other versions because Evil Otto shows up so soon. One day I'll have to sit down and compare all of them at once...

Evil Otto's appearance is a result of the level and the number of robots spawned. And he goes berzerk if 2 or less robots remain on the level. Sometimes the hardest levels rendered are having to snake & shoot your way around a wall -- with only 4 robots -- just to get to an exit. That forces your hand to be quick & accurate.

I've always liked Robotron's two 8-way joystick action. Berzerk is made harder by moving to point in the same firing direction toward an oncoming enemy. Brave or foolish, you decide.

Finally made 5000 and a much needed extra life.. Phew!
At 5400 I did not beat akator however. My breakthrough came when I realized that you score even when the robots kill each other! This enabled a more defensive strategy.
I found diagonal shooting, both hitting and avoiding, really hard. VIC's 1.5-width pixels do not help either.

IMO the best part of the game is its randomness and emergent game play. The structure of the maze and the positions of the robots make a big difference.

I really should try Amok and Super Amok now. It should be fun to compare, but also very relaxing to not have to deal with Evil Otto!

I enjoy Amok. While it appears to have been inspired by Berzerk, the slower pace makes it a much kinder and relaxing game without being so easy that it gets boring too quickly.

In hindsight, I really should have included Amok and other Berzerk inspired games in this round...

akator wrote:I enjoy Amok. While it appears to have been inspired by Berzerk, the slower pace makes it a much kinder and relaxing game without being so easy that it gets boring too quickly.

In hindsight, I really should have included Amok and other Berzerk inspired games in this round...

I do enjoy it more when the club is set up as a game vs game competition/comparison.