Brain / Brain - Miscellaneous · 1984
Zenji
Published by Activision
atarimania.com — atari-400-800-xl-xe-games-zenji-5922
Information
- Genre
- Brain - Miscellaneous
- Language
- Machine Language
- Controls
- Joystick
- Programmer(s)
- Hubbard, Matthew L.
- Year
- 1984
- Publisher
- Activision
- Country
- USA
- License
- Commercial
- Medium
- Cartridge
- Rarity
- 7
Votes / Statistics
Rating: 7.7/10 · Votes: 59 · Downloads: 3,064 · Hits: 38,410
Additional Comments
Excerpts of an interview with Matthew Hubbard by Scott Stilphen:
SS: 'Were the games that you wrote ones that were chosen or assigned? How long did it take you to program each?'
MH: 'Of my released games, only Dolphin and Zenji were truly original works; everything else was assigned. Each game took 9-12 months.'
SS: 'Are there any Easter eggs in any of your games? Any bugs/glitches?'
MH: 'Lots of bugs and glitches; very few Easter eggs.'
SS: 'Zenji was rumored to be slated for the 2600. Did you work on it? Was it ever finished?'
MH: 'I started Zenji on the Atari 400 / 800. It was not planned to be a 2600 game, and I never worked on any port of it to any other system. All the ports were done by others.'
SS: 'Did you go to Electronic Arts after leaving Activision?'
MH: ' ...While at EA, I (briefly) worked with Dani Bunten (of M.U.L.E. fame) her for a few weeks, on the update to M.U.L.E., before the project was canceled. She was very nice. I once told her that she and the other transsexuals in the game business should make a comic book about their work and call it "The Ex Men". She thought that was funny.'
Screenshots (2)
Cover Art (2)
Instructions (1)
Ads (3)
Comments (1)
Daniel Thomas MacInnes — 9 May 2011
By 1984, Activision had finally began to take the Atari 800 seriously, and the result was much better and more complex games. Zenji is a terrific puzzler, catchy music, always fast and challenging in that classic Activision way. They should bring this game back for modern consoles. A must-have classic for the 800!