Activision's version of Checkers is a bare-bones standard Checkers game. All of the usual rules apply and I'm not going to bother explaining them right now. Because, if you don't know the basics of Checkers by now, why are you reading this?
The interface is nothing spectacular and is exactly what one would expect from a very old video game version of the classic board game. If you're expecting anything unique looking or groundbreaking, you'll be greatly disappointed.
I never bothered buying this game as a kid, pretty much because if I wanted to play Checkers as a youngster I'd grab the board, the pieces, and bug my grandpa to play with me. The idea of playing the game on the Atari Video Computer System struck me as fairly silly at the time and frankly, the idea still strikes me as rather silly today too.
I ended up with a copy of this game when I bought a pretty large lot of cartridges off of eBay. And, it took me running into a scanned copy of the manual online before I realized that my copy wasn't actually a faulty one.
My biggest complaint about this particular game is something that I kind of just hinted at. Once you make your first move, the screen goes blank for anywhere between a matter of seconds to a matter of minutes while the computer's AI decides what move it's going to make next. And, it does this for every move it makes. The first few times I tried the game out, I really thought that it was a broken, or just a defective cartridge.
Is the game worth seeking out? No, not really. It's fine, but nothing special. Is it worth adding to your Atari collection? Sure, if you can find it for cheap, or better yet, for free.
-Jay
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