Ever wondered what the R-CADE staff like to play on their downtime? Today we find out what Sam likes to play when he should be dusting the arcade....
Outlaw (Atari 2600): The beauty of working with more than 1900 games is that you’re exposed to new worlds that you’ve never encountered before.
The world of the old west isn’t new to me - as a kid “The Magnificent Seven” was one of my favourite movies - but the Atari 2600 catalogue was. Amongst classics like Donkey Kong and Centipede, what stuck out to me most were our selection of two player games. Overall the Atari 2600 is a console I’ve come to love during my time at R-CADE, and I’m always looking to highlight it to some of our younger gamers.
With Outlaw, it’s an old western shootout, one-on-one, you versus a friend, usually with a cactus in the middle. First to ten points wins, bouncing shots off the top of bottom of the screen to defeat your enemies with geometry. Angles are key in Outlaw because of the items that are placed between the players - that is unless you select a destructible option.
It sounds simple, but the existence of destructible environments in an Atari game blows my mind. I remember when I was younger, and the biggest selling point to try and convince people to move from Call of Duty to Battlefield was destructible environments - now you’re telling me they had it in 1976!
Another benefit is that it’s not particularly taxing to play. When I turned 23 I invited friends to R-CADE for the night. When I wasn’t running around changing games (I may have still been working…) I got the opportunity to play a couple of rounds of Outlaw with former R-CADE staff member Lewis. It was easy enough to compete for a win, and also to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while.
Credit: Board Game Review
Cobra Paw: A big thing personally, in life and in R-CADE, is laughter, excitement and energy. These are provided in spades by Cobra Paw - the game of fast reactions and flared tempers.
Roll dice with a variety of symbols, then select the matching token from the table in front of you before anyone else playing realises. The first person to capture 5/8 tokens wins (depending on how many people are taking part).
If a symbols come up for a token you already have, you better remember! Or someone else with a quicker claw can snatch it from under your nose.
Seeing families giggle from eight to eighty playing this game makes my day every time I see it - and that’s usually a goal here at R-CADE.
If you want to find out more about what Sam likes, or the entire R-CADE staff - make sure to check out out meet the team videos.