Talk:River Raid

Untitled

 * Please, can someone who reads german put a translation to Bundes...Medien in parentheses ? Fbergo 15:24, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Done! Carioca 06:46, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Does anyone have a good reference for the increased popularity of River Raid in Germany due to it being rated for adults only? --Ben 15:53, 3 February 2006 (UTC)


 * A note for trivia -- the River Raid "refueling" sound effect was used in the science-fiction series Babylon V as the doorbell/hail sound. Drove me crazy. -- RJK


 * I would like to see a note about "how it works". I mean: how such a small game has infinite levels (bridges)- or it hasn´t ?


 * * I added a note in the trivia section. The terrain is dynamically generated during gameplay by algorithmic means.  It can't quite be infinite since it runs on finite-state machines, but the repeating period is on the order of 2^16 = 65536 bridges.  (Not cited since I can't remember where I read that, but it was by a programmer that disassembled the 6502 assembly code.)


 * Someone put something on the page about how the C64 version is different than the Atari version??? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.251.229.141 (talk) 04:38, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * You can do that, actually. Just go to the article page, click on "Edit this page", and edit away.  JYolkowski // talk 19:31, 19 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Does anyone have a link to the original German text in the "German controversy" section? The translation given in the article seems kind of stilted to me.  JYolkowski // talk 19:31, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * from the German Wikipedia article: „Jugendliche sollen sich in die Rolle eines kompromisslosen Kämpfers und Vernichters hineindenken […]. Hier findet im Kindesalter eine paramilitärische Ausbildung statt […]. Bei älteren Jugendlichen führt das Bespielen […] zu physischer Verkrampfung, Ärger, Aggressivität, Fahrigkeit im Denken […] und Kopfschmerzen.“ The translation seems to be correct, the original German version is also very stilted. German bureaucrats talk like this all the time, especially in the 80's ;-) --91.23.76.200 (talk) 01:35, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Why is this even here? The game was barely popular, please delete! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.120.31.15 (talk) 10:52, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
 * And yet you've taken the time to seek out the Wikipedia page devoted to it. Not popular, indeed.172.191.63.132 (talk) 00:59, 8 May 2011 (UTC)
 * One of the most popular games on Atari 8-bit. Yeah indeed not popular ;) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.190.60.176 (talk) 23:12, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

AI
"A more highly randomised number generation system was used for enemy AI to make the game less predictable." I've played this game a lot, and as far as I know from the Atari 8-bit version, there is zero AI in the game. Units move purely deterministically. -OOPSIE- (talk) 14:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Ports to other systems
Please do not add information to the infobox about ports without finding a reliable source first (see WP:RS and WikiProject Video games/Sources for more information. Thanks. Andrzejbanas (talk) 13:40, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Quit lazily reverting my routine edits, then. Add the sources yourself! Bumm13 (talk) 13:51, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Per WP:BURDEN, "The burden to demonstrate verifiability lies with the editor who adds or restores material" Andrzejbanas (talk) 13:52, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
 * For clarification, we are looking for sources stating the release info on the Commodore 64, IBM PC, Intellivision, MSX, and ZX Spectrum ports of the game. Andrzejbanas (talk) 13:51, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

Placement of enemies is not random
There is a statement in the Legacy section, "The game was one of the first games to randomly generate the placement of enemies and items within its levels, which prevented players from memorizing routes to master a game.". That statement is wrong. The level layout, including terrain shapes, enemies and items, is procedurally generated, not randomly - this allows it to be generated infinitely, but the layout is always identical. The only thing that changes between playthroughs is the moments at which the enemies start moving.

The problem is, that factually wrong statement is cited from a Richard Stanton book, and I was not able to locate a reliable source that discusses this procedural generation on a detailed enough level to specifically mention that the level layout is not random. Even Carol Shaw herself (in an interview in Electronic Fun with Computers and Games volume 1 no. 11, p. 80) said that the game is "always different" - I guess what she meant was that the progressive levels do not repeat, but the statement could be misunderstood as something different.

Could anyone help with locating a good reliable source? --Krótki (talk) 06:24, 15 February 2024 (UTC)


 * I'm happy to remove it. From what I know, the Atari 2600 is not even capable of pulling up random numbers and has to do tricks to make things appear to be random. (further detail on this can be read in the Haunted House article. I'll remove it for now. Andrzejbanas (talk) 22:55, 19 February 2024 (UTC)