The Odyssey² Today: AMOK! (Odyssey²)

The Odyssey² console’s official lifespan ended somewhere around 1984, and while a few games inevitably trickle out after the “death” of a console, there are odd cases where devoted fans will produce games for a system years after its relevancy has faded. In 1998, John Dondzila released a project he had been working on, the first new game for the system in nearly 15 years called AMOK!. With the benefit of years of time on his side, a thorough understanding of the console, and no concern of profitability, the game that John Dondzila made could have been something that pushed the capabilities of the console to their limit. So what type of game is AMOK! after all this?

It’s a Berzerk clone.

Many Odyssey² games were admittedly slight variations on popular titles, a gimmick or two introduced to set them apart from the more famous game they were copying, but AMOK! feels like a port of Berzerk to the system rather than a reimagining, with at least one room design being a complete transplant of a Berzerk level design. Surprisingly though, this port still suffers from the limitations of the Odyssey² despite being developed years after the system’s lifespan.

For someone who has played Berzerk, all the details will seem familiar. Playing as a green man in hostile territory, the player must reach one of the exits in rooms filled with enemy robots, contact with them, their lasers, or the walls proving to be lethal. You do have a laser shot to strike back with, although it is fairly small and fires from an odd spot on your character’s body. The enemies randomly fire at you, meaning sometimes you face little resistance and sometimes you just die before you had a chance to respond, but mostly they just sort of amble about. They are mostly just a threat because they give you less room to maneuver when you encounter this game’s Evil Otto analogue: Smileybot. About five seconds into every level, a purple smiley face will drift into play. Completely invincible, able to pass through walls, and constantly homing in on your character, Smileybot is meant to prevent the player from staying in a room racking up points killing the robots, but unlike its Berzerk counterpart, Smileybot has such a huge advantage in pursuing the player that the moment and area of his appearance can already guarantee a loss.

Smileybot is the game’s biggest issue and, despite the game being a Berzerk clone, the changes to Evil Otto set this game apart from it in a very bad way. Save a few levels, the maze designs essentially guarantee the appearance of this deadly pursuer. Smileybot will abruptly enter from one of the room’s sides, sometimes popping right out next to the player or even blocking the exit with his body. Smileybot has very little limitation on how he moves, quickly drifting towards the player in the best path available to it. Early on, room designs will have tight corridors that the player avatar barely fits through, and there can be cases where Smileybot is in a position where the player can’t do anything to avoid him. If Smileybot comes out of the exit, it might be near impossible to get him to move out of your path. If you have the room, you can shuffle around the smiling face and squeak by or throw him off your trail with some fancy footwork, but the rooms in AMOK! don’t always have the room to do so. It is possible to sort of game Smileybot at least, as he seems more likely to spawn in certain areas based on your current position, and you can figure out the best place to be so you can better throw off his huge advantage against you. Berzerk’s Evil Otto has a visible spawn, multiple exits to escape him with, and a bouncing pattern that makes him challenging but avoidable, so it’s surprising that Smileybot has no similar limiter on him to make his appearance more fair.

Smileybot is the most obvious issue with AMOK!, but it’s not the only one. Collision detection isn’t the best, your character sometimes having their legs or head safely glide over dangerous walls and robots and other times your character dying for what didn’t even seem like contact. The claustrophobic levels make this more common than you might imagine, and some of the late levels seem designed in complete ignorance of this issue. The room design also comes with another issue, that being that there is almost always one perfect path through that gives you the best chance of not getting screwed over by Smileybot. It doesn’t really feel like you’re figuring out a puzzle either, as the map layout heavily suggests the path you must take, you just need the speed to do it and know how to game Smileybot to make it. There is a nervous glee to making progress into the game’s later levels, but the constant risk of being done in by inconsistent collision dampens the joy of reaching the later levels, especially with Level 11’s requirement of weaving through tightly packed barriers.

Despite the technical limitations leading to many of AMOK!’s issues with collision and Smileybot’s behavior, there are a few programming hurdles the creator was able to overcome with the benefit of time. AMOK! has a clear progression through different levels, with 12 unique ones before it begins to repeat maze designs. Surprisingly, the player doesn’t have to make a full run through them with only one life, as you are given three to start with. You can technically earn extra lives by earning enough points as well, but lingering in a room to earn them is too dangerous with Smileybot’s tracking and at best you might get it passively while blasting the robots that block your path. There are no doubt some other small features that make AMOK! more technologically impressive than early Odyssey² titles, but none of them can really help salvage the poor copying of Berzerk we ended up with.

THE VERDICT: It can be quite easy to get tripped up on a few details about AMOK! to give it a fair shake. It being a fan project made years after the Odyssey²’s death, the game pushing the hardware’s limits (even if it doesn’t feel too much like it did), and bringing a fairly famous game to the system all make its existence interesting, but that doesn’t help the gameplay. It is a sloppy copy of Berzerk, with poor hit detection that pairs badly with tight mazes and a Smileybot who has so few limitations that success is contingent on him due to the straightforward paths you must take in each level. You can breeze through the first few levels well enough, but everything after is just slamming yourself against a brick wall in the hope of breaking through, the struggle alleviated a tiny bit by having multiple lives to do it with.

And so, I give AMOK! for the Magnavox Odyssey²…

A TERRIBLE rating. It seems like most everyone encounters the same issues I’ve found with AMOK! but will give it glowing praise anyway, perhaps because of its interesting development. This is not a good or faithful adaptation of Berzerk though, with early stages being too simple to enjoy and the later ones requiring too much luck with Smileybot and collision detection. Repeated plays just involve robotically repeating the simpler stages and then rolling the dice on the more complicated stages, but you can eventually learn how to kite your invincible enemy around to at least make things a bit more fair. It still can’t make up for the general issues, but you can eventually make it through most stages after you’ve learned just how Smileybot needs to be tricked.

AMOK! may be a technical feat technically, but the gameplay doesn’t benefit from it. Despite being made years after both Berzerk and the Odyssey², it can’t really capture the appeal of the original or match the better games made for the system. Had AMOK! just been a personal project it would have been an interesting curiosity, but as a video game people can play, it unfortunately comes up short.