Homebrew of the Month: Juno First

Juno First
Developer: Chris Walton
Available: Atariage.com

What's All This Then?

When this game launched it was the biggest thing since sliced bread and it has remained one of the most lauded homebrews in the every growing 2600 library.  Somehow I missed it back then.  I think I was already covered up in some really great shooters, games like Backfire and Seawolf, and I wasn't quite ready to add another one to my rotation.  But the roar of the crowd indicated that I had missed the boat.  So Homebrew of the Month is giving me a chance to make up for lost time and find out what all the cool kids were going on about.

Juno First is a straight-on classic shooter.  The game is just fine without a story behind it, but for those that like to be immersed, the plot is also a classic.  The Earth is under assault and the only thing standing between it and annihilation is you, the Juno Colony.  Just a handful of ships must fend off endless waves of enemy invaders or all is lost.  Jump in the cockpit and go!

As stated, the game is a traditional vertical shooter with your ship at the bottom of the screen and enemy ships pouring in from the top.  Since the action takes place on the surface of a planet, Juno Colony, the screen scrolls the same as in games like Solaris.  This means, based on your speed, you can control the appearance and distance of the enemy ships.  You can slowly scroll and pick them off one or two at a time, or you can try blazing through the ranks taking out as many as you can in the scrum.  The game is broken up into waves, giving you a slight break in the action to collect your wits before you are thrown back into the fray.  Waves are characterized by the variety of ships that appear and the formations they fly in.  Once per wave you have the opportunity to blast an enemy ship and rescue an astronaut.  If you are successful in this, then you enter hyperspace, a brief period when enemy ships cannot fire and you get bonus points for each you destroy.  As you progress, the waves get longer and significantly harder.  The "longer" part of that statement is important because you have a limited amount of fuel per wave with which to eliminate the enemy and there is no refueling.  So you'll need to hone your aim and be prepared to make a few daring sweeps to progress in the higher levels.  And that's it.  That's all you need to know to get going on your first Juno First adventure!

What you'll need to know on your second Juno First adventure is how to be really, really good at shooting games.  Juno First will put all of your shooting prowess to the test, and it will do so quickly. I've been playing this game for a month and I'm lucky to see waves in the double digits.  I'm not the world's greatest shooter player, but I'm far from a slouch, and this game is tough.  My Achille's heel is the ability to control the scroll.  It takes everything I have to resist the urge to just plow through the enemy waves blasting like the Kool-Aid man on his way to a parched picnic.  Because that's where the fun is, right?  Zooming through space, blowing away aliens left and right, racking up huge points.  But in Juno First, that is the recipe for disaster and an early Game Over.  This is the kind of shooter where the action is going to be frantic, no matter how fast you fly through it, so take your time and make every shot count.  Of course, don't take too much time, because that fuel meter is counting down, but don't think you can just zip your way through this game like it's Space Jockey.

How's it Play?

But is it any fun?  Sometimes games that are very simple can be brutally difficult and that can easily suck the fun right out.  Fortunately, Juno First has earned it's reputation as being one of the top shooters, and maybe homebrews, for the Atari 2600.  The game is fun.  Lots of fun.  And it definitely has bucket loads of "just one more game" appeal.  When you first start playing it's a lot of fun to see what the next wave has in store for you. As you get better and better the challenge becomes clearing waves in record time and scoring as many points as possible during hypespace.  But no matter what skill level you possess there is a lot here to like.  Best of all, the game is totally pick-up-and-play, so even novice gamers can jump right in and enjoy the fun.

Whistles and Bells

Juno First features top notch graphics for the VCS.  Crisp and clean sprites for the player and enemy ships and scrolling horizon lines give the game sleek look.  The scoring and fuel displays are unobtrusive and easy to read.  Juno First features a swanky title screen that lists the scoring table for enemy ships, reminiscent of classic arcade games.  There are two modes for firing: autofire and rapidfire.  Autofire is fairly self-explanatory, Rapidfire allows you to shoot much faster, but requires a recharge every five shots to allow your laser cannon to cool off.  I prefer the autofire, but I'm willing to bet there is a trick to using the rapidfire to really tally up the bananas.  Juno First also allows you to continue at the level in which you perished.  This can be helpful at higher levels, giving you a chance to practice before your next scoring run.  Finally, Juno First is one of the those fancy games that takes advantage of AtariVox and SaveKey features so you can save your high scores and hear some "chatter" from the alien ships. These are really sweet features that truly move VCS games into the modern era.  Juno First also features a nice, full color manual with art by Dave Dries.

Final Assessment

Juno First truly belongs in every Atari 2600 fan's library.  It's a pure shooter with lots of action, challenge, and replayability.  The difficulty isn't so great that novice players will be discouraged and it ramps at a good pace for more advanced players.  I foresee it getting a lot of play in the future in my house.  I can strongly recommend this game to pretty much anyone who likes shooting games and it might even convert a few who don't.

Tips and Tricks

I wish I had more to give you in this department, but honestly I still feel like an amateur.  So here's what I can tell you thus far:

Don't Waste Hyperspace.  It can be easy to get busy blasting aliens and forget to rescue that astronaut. But once he or she scrolls off the screen, your chance at hyperspace goes with him/her.  Make sure you slow down long enough to rescue the astronaut and engage hyperspace.

Hyperspace Clean-Up.  I find that hyperspace is a great opportunity to clean up any stray ships or clear space to get ready for the remainder of the ships in a wave.  I generally speed up a little when in hyperspace so I can take out as many ships as possible, not just for the bonus points, but also for the reasons previously listed.  Hyperspace also gives you a breather because the enemy ships can't shoot.

Slow and Steady.  Really does win the race.  As I said before, trying zoom through will end your game very quickly.  Find a scroll pace that fits your style of play and stick with it.  Don't try to go faster than you can reliably take out enemy ships without crashing.  The fuel gauge is an impending fate, but you are more likely to die from crashing or getting shot than running out of fuel.

Invincible Respawn.  As the manual will tell you, when your ship respawns it will be invulnerable for a few seconds, yet firing will immediately cancel your invincibility.  Take advantage of this brief window to scroll your way to a clear spot before you start blasting away again.  At higher levels the screen gets crowded quickly and this might be your only chance to find a break in the action from which to start fresh.

Stay Sharp!  Higher levels introduce new and more deadly kinds of aliens.  Don't get so consumed with extra-terrestrial carnage that you fail to notice a new kind of baddie that is consistently handing you your butt.  Once things like homing missiles enter the game your strategy is going to need to be tweaked.


So there you have it.  Do you have what it takes to lead the Juno Colony to victory? There's only one way to find out!

See you next month when we'll switch gears completely and have a look at a different kind of VCS game:  Titan Axe!

Homebrew of the Month: Omicron

Welcome the inaugural edition of our new feature: Homebrew of the Month.  Each month I will be purchasing a new homebrew to add to my collection, playing it and then reporting back to you with all the pros and cons of the game.  Given the quality of homebrews coming out I have a feeling this will be a love letter column to the community, but more than anything I hope it will motivate you to get out there and try some new games you might not otherwise have considered!  For the sake of being thorough, every game featured in this project will be played a minimum of 2 hours cumulative play time, usually more, just to make sure there are no hasty generalizations or snap judgements.  So without further fanfare, let's take a look at this month's homebrew:  Omicron.

Game:  Omicron
Developer: Simone Serra
Available:  Atariage

What's All This Then?

I purchased Omicron because it's description sounded much like a simpler version of a game I already like and find endlessly challenging, Mutant Virus for the NES.  That game can be found in my list of the 30 Hardest NES Games Ever.  However, what I was pleased to discover was that Omicron is bigger on action than in Mutant Virus while the strategy is a more subtle aspect of the gameplay. That doesn't mean you can overlook it, though.  I have found that the strategic elements are what make this game far more compelling than your average shooter.

The premise of Omicron is that you command a team of scientists combatting an alien virus that has gone out of control.  You've lost communication with your team and must now battle all four elemental iterations of the virus to rescue your comrades.  Battling the virus requires collecting immunity fragments and pushing the virus back.  Contact with the virus elements is instantly fatal, however, you can blast them away and in the Absorb levels you can soak up the strains to keep them at bay.  The virus manifests as each of the classical elements: water, fire, air, and earth.  Each manifestation comprises a level of game play, increasing in difficulty as you progress through the elements.

Thus the game is divided into 4 levels, each level made of up various stages.  There are 4 kinds of stages:  Resist! Absorb! Rescue! Collect! We'll take a closer look at each one in a minute.  The basic game play varies by stage, but the general gist is that you need to collect immunity fragments, avoid and blast the virus elements, and generally survive until you have collected enough fragments to progress to the next level.  Sounds simple, but the action is fast-paced, your ship moves with virtually no friction, and the virus actively hunts you down every time you grab an immunity fragment.  Omicron is challenging right from the start.  Let's take quick look at each stage and briefly discuss the merits and difficulties therein:

Resist!  This is the most straightforward stage of the lot.  The virus begins to spread and you must use your anti-matter cannon to blast it away.  Immunity fragments appear at regular intervals (a time bar at the upper left counts down to the next manifestation) and you must collect them before they expire.  Failure to do so will cost you a life.  This is a good introductory level to the basic game play and will give you a chance to get used to the controls.  There is some learning curve here, because the game doesn't handle like Asteroids; your ship moves very swiftly and stops on a dime.  The physics will take some getting used to.  Otherwise, just blast away, dodge the virus, and collect the fragments.

Absorb!  Now take everything you just learned and forget it.  The anti-matter cannon is off and you'll spend most of this level working to evade the spreading virus.  However you can pick up Virus Cores which imbue your ship with the power to briefly absorb the virus and clear it out.  You can stockpile 3 Virus Cores (noted at the upper right of the screen below your extra ships) and no more will appear until you have used at least 1 to absorb the virus.  Use the cores sparingly, however, or you'll find yourself stranded, defenseless, and late in the stage collecting cores can be tricky.  Oh, and you still have to collect immunity fragments on a time limit to progress to the next level.

Rescue!  Maybe my favorite stage, this is a variation on the Resist! stage only this time the immunity fragments spawn inside a viral bubble and you must blast them free before you can collect them.  The same rules apply as in Resist!, but the challenge is increased since every fragment now comes with a hefty viral deposit to add to the already growing menace!

Collect!  Just because the manual calls this a "bonus" stage, don't think it's a cake walk.  True, the virus is non-lethal here, and you can't really lose a life, but collecting the fragments is no easier because the virus will slow you down dramatically if you come into contact with it.  And you will come into contact with it, a lot.  The spread rate is much greater than in the other stages and trying to plow through the virus is like running through mud.  But, if you collect all the fragments you get a point bonus and an extra virus core for your stockpile.

How's it Play?

Ok, so all of that is well and good, but is it any fun?  Oh my, yes!  Not only is it fun, it's challenging and engaging, and definitely has that "just one more game" quality that great shooters possess.  Be forewarned, there is a decent sized learning curve when you get started.  The ship physics take time to learn and the basic game play reads as obvious in the manual, but can take a minute to translate into actual game play.  I also recommend you play with the colored background option (Left Diff A) as it makes it much easier to see and differentiate the Virus Cores from the Virus Roots that spawn the virus.  This tripped me up for a long time when I first started playing.  Switching to the colored background fixed this issue right away.  But once you get going, Omicron is very addictive and lots of fun.  I've played it now for at least 3 hours and I've only just gotten to the Fire level (that's level 2).  It gets very hard to turn this game off.  Omicron features a perfect blend of action and strategy that makes it more engaging than your average shooter and definitely one of the most compelling homebrews in my collection.

Whistles and Bells?  

Omicron features one of the most striking label designs I've seen in a while.  Colorful, bold and definitely distinctive, Nathan Strum's work really shines here.  The manual is equally impressive.  There's lots of info crammed into it, so take the time to read it.  The game itself features a few whistles and bells as well.  An option screen lets you choose from a couple of difficulty and controller settings. There is a 2.5K version of the game you can play, which presents plenty of challenge as you fend of endless waves of virus.  And the game features AtariVox/Save Key support to save your high scores.  The music does a nice job of matching the frenetic pace of the game.  Don't let the punchy title screen music fool you, the game play music really adds to the intensity!

Final Assessment 

Omicron is a great addition to any 2600 library and a must have for fans of shooting games that require more than just a quick trigger finger.  This game gets a very strong recommendation from me!

Tips and Tricks

Before we go, here are a few words of wisdom from the field:

Don't Sleep on this Game.   Ever.  The virus might seem quiet right after the immunity fragment appears, but they come alive the minute you grab it and will hunt you down and corner you.  During Resist! stages, blast virus elements constantly, and when you use virus cores to absorb, clear as much room as you can in the short time allotted.  Never get lulled into false senses of safety, they do not exist.

Room To Move.  Regardless of the stage, you are always going to need room to navigate, whether it's just buying time until the next immunity fragment spawns or if you are trying to get to the fragment to collect it.  Make sure you keep plenty of free space around your ship.  The virus will actively close in upon you, so make sure you have plenty of room to negotiate safely.



Clear First, then Collect.  It might seem tempting to rush forward to grab the immunity fragment when it appears, particularly with the time limit and all, BUT it is good strategy to clear plenty of space around the fragment before you make a dash for it.  The fragment likes to wander about and can easily leave an area that looks safe for one fraught with peril.  If you clear out a nice wide area, then you can collect it with some confidence that it won't meander into trouble.

Go Around.  In the Collect! stages don't try to plow through the virus to get to fragments.  The rate of slowdown is so dramatic you can easily miss several fragments just trying to get free of the mess.  Go around the virus clusters.  It may take a little more time, but it will take far less than trying to push through even what looks like a small strain, as those can quickly expand and surround you.

Stake Your Claim.  Early on when playing this game, I find it is best to pick an area of the screen and focus on keeping it clear of virus.  Using this area as a safe place to hang out while you are waiting for the next fragment to generate.  Grab the fragment and retreat to your camp.  In later levels this isn't as easy as your camp will fill up with virus elements rather quickly, but for the first few stages it can help you get your bearings.


That's it!  What are you waiting for?  That virus isn't going to destroy itself!


See you next month when I'll take a look at what has been heralded as one of the MUST HAVE homebrews of the modern era: Juno First!