The Dreadnaught Factor

[Graham Mitchell]

I hadn't played this game for 17 years until a couple days ago, but I never forgot it. When I was younger, it was my favorite game on the Atari 5200.

I was really impressed by the David-and-Goliath concept of your little ship taking on nothing but one huge cruiser (not unlike Shadow of the Colossus, huh?), and I never forgot how loud and abrasive the audio was. The rumble of the Dreadnaught ship is intimidating, even a bit frightening! The mechanics of the gameplay are pretty unique for a shooter, as well. You take multiple runs over the huge ship, trying to take out as many cannons, power sources, and engines as you can without getting torched by laser fire. After each run you make, the Dreadnaught ship gets closer to the earth (it travels more slowly if you knock out the engines, though!). There is no set number of "lives" really; every time you die it counts as one run and the Dreadnaught ship advances normally. But if the ship gets to Earth (or whatever planet it is you're defending) the game ends.

The Dreadnaught Factor is an intense, unique experience that I found so profound, I couldn't forget it after 17 years. I finally got off my ass to set up a 5200 emulator just so I could play TDF, and I'm pretty fascinated with it again. The reason I started this thread was to draw attention to this game that I've never seen anybody on DP talk about, and to ask what everybody else thinks of this game, if they have any inside stories or info about it, etc.

So, am I the only one who digs it?

[Trebuken]

I bought this a while back, but have been unable to play it. My controllers are misbehaving. Thanks for the review though....I feel like cleaning up those controllers now...

Later,
Trebuken

[slapdash]

Oh yeah, I always liked this game a lot... I think I predominantly played the Atari computer version, though that might have been a hack from the 5200 (can't remember any more). I'd love to see an updated version of this game...

[Graham Mitchell]

Been doing a little research. There's an Intellivision version as well, but check this out:

Atari 5200 version:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-1/1139771/dreadnaught_factor.JPG

Intellivision version:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-1/1139771/XHEFP-dfactor.JPG

The Intellivision version appears to be horizontal-scrolling, while the 5200 version scrolls vertically. Now, there were darn few pics of these games detected when I googled it, and a lot of the same Intellivision pics showed up at different sites, leading me to believe that somebody may have rotated that image and then a bunch of leaches copied what they failed to recognize as a flawed original. Can anybody verify this discrepancy?

[PingvinBlueJeans]

No, it's not a flopped image, the Intellivision version is side-scrolling.

[Scream And Fly]

I used to play that on my Atari 800 all the time. One of the greatest games of all time for that system. Lots of fun, and very challenging.

[asharru]

One of my all time fav's!

[Flojomojo]

Yup, the Intellivision version was a side-scroller. I had and loved that version. I love all these games where you're basically a gnat going up against a giant -- "Razor Rendezvous" in Rogue Leader is the closest to TDF we've gotten lately except for Shadow of the Colossus.

More, please!

I'd even love TDF on a plug-n-play device.

[RJ]

Anyone ever see more than 5 types of Dreadnaughts?

triangle/star destroyer
long & skinny
ring/hex-shaped (hole in middle)
TIE fighter
"flying v"

[Mayhem]

I've always believed that TDF may have been an influence on the brilliant Uridium (http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=8331) but I guess only asking Andrew Braybrook would we find out the answer.

[Vengevar]

Yes, it was a good game, I remember being frustrated by it as a kid! I actually just sold my original Intellivision copy a few months ago. You don't really hear too much about it, some of the other Activision titles got a lot more press.

[vintagegamecrazy]

I actually tried that game for the 5200 and never understood what to do, now that you gave a review for it, I may have to give it another try and see what I can do.

[ddh819]

So which version is the best? Intellivision or Atari 5200/800?

[blue lander]

I've always loved the Intellivision version. It's got a real epic feel to it, taking down such a huge ship. I've never played the 5200/800 version, though, so I can't comment on that version.

[fishsandwich]

Yeah, I spent A LOT of time with this one on my 5200 along with that tank game where a huge skull popped up on screen when you died. Hell, I played a lot of shit on my 5200 back in the (mom was smart enough to buy several sets opf replacement controllers) and I wore them all out. Miner 2049 was a BITCH with those controllers but I made it all the way through anyway.

I think Dreadnaught Factor is one of the many standouts on the 5200. I've never played the Intellivision version and was surprised to see the change in format.

Which one is better? Anyone?

[Graham Mitchell]

I actually tried that game for the 5200 and never understood what to do, now that you gave a review for it, I may have to give it another try and see what I can do.

Here's a hint: There's a certain part on the ship that you have to bomb every part of in order to destroy the Dreadnaught.

[Pantechnicon]

I dig thid game. It was one of the 1st 3rd party titles I found when I started collecting for the 5200. Lotsa fun. I like the 5200 better than the Intv version, but only because I'm partial to vertical scrollers instead of horizonatal ones.

[Haoie]

Sounds like an inspiration for the typical shump level where your lone ship blasts its way through an entire space fleet before finally having a showdown with the mega capital ship.

Starfox comes to mind, as well as any number of the Ray- series titles.

[Flojomojo]

I actually tried that game for the 5200 and never understood what to do, now that you gave a review for it, I may have to give it another try and see what I can do.

Here's a hint: There's a certain part on the ship that you have to bomb every part of in order to destroy the Dreadnaught.There's more:

Shoot the command bridges and they don't shoot you as much
Bomb the engines to slow their advance
The little black things also have an effect (can't remember what, though)
and most importantly, bomb all their exhaust vents, making their internal pressure build up ... and KABOOM! the whole thing explodes, taking your ship with it, so make sure you have a reserve!

[rxd]

I've had the 5200 version since it originally came out. Good stuff. I really like almost all the games available for the 5200. I also have the Intellivision version. Not bad, but I prefer the 5200 version because I find the Intellivision controller a bit tough for Dreadnaught Factor and I prefer the vertical scrolling of the 5200. But still the Intellivision version is pretty good too....

[Graham Mitchell]

I actually tried that game for the 5200 and never understood what to do, now that you gave a review for it, I may have to give it another try and see what I can do.

Here's a hint: There's a certain part on the ship that you have to bomb every part of in order to destroy the Dreadnaught.There's more:

Shoot the command bridges and they don't shoot you as much
Bomb the engines to slow their advance
The little black things also have an effect (can't remember what, though)
and most importantly, bomb all their exhaust vents, making their internal pressure build up ... and KABOOM! the whole thing explodes, taking your ship with it, so make sure you have a reserve!

I believe the little black things are missile silos. If you bomb all those, the Dreadnaught will not be able to destroy Earth, even when it reaches 0 parsecs distance.

I'd like to make a correction to my little review, too. You actually DO have a limited number of lives, apparently. That's what all those little dots are on the map screen. But since you start with 10, and get 4 extra every time you kill a dreadnaught (on the higher difficulty levels, anyway), the Dreadnaught is more likely to hit the Earth before you'll ever run out of ships.

[Flojomojo]

I believe the little black things are missile silos. If you bomb all those, the Dreadnaught will not be able to destroy Earth, even when it reaches 0 parsecs distance.

I'd like to make a correction to my little review, too. You actually DO have a limited number of lives, apparently. That's what all those little dots are on the map screen. But since you start with 10, and get 4 extra every time you kill a dreadnaught (on the higher difficulty levels, anyway), the Dreadnaught is more likely to hit the Earth before you'll ever run out of ships.Aha, you're right about the missile silos. It's been too long since I played. :(

Every time you make a pass at a Dreadnaught, it moves forward a little -- faster if it has all engines intact. When you die, it moves forward as well, so you're right ... having a lot of ships is not going to save since they're always coming to the earth.

A cheapo remake on XBOX Live Arcade would be a blast...