In the early days of gaming, many games had extremely simple gameplay, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were boring and easy (you wouldn’t say that about the original “Pac-Man” would you?). Games that are easy to learn should be difficult to master, otherwise they have very little appeal -“Surround” is a perfect example of why.

PRESS FIRE TO START

The concept to “Surround” is simple. There are two blocks on the screen and when the players move them around they leave trails. The object is to get the other player (or the computer) to crash into your trail, their own trail or the edge of the screen. Every time the other player crashes you get a point and the first to 10 points wins.

There are a few different ways to play the game, whereas up to four different variables can be added to increase the “difficulty,” or at least make the game slightly more interesting. These options are: “Speed Up” (where your blocks move exponentially faster); “Diagonal Movement” (the blocks can only move vertically or horizontally, otherwise); “Erase” (hold down the button to NOT leave a trail, but doesn’t erase your opponent’s trail); and “Wrap-Around” (where you’re able to leave the screen and come back on the other side instead of crashing).

The cart also offers an additional feature called “Video Graffiti,” which was fairly novel for the time. This selection essentially turns the Atari 2600 into a video Etch-a-Sketch. You (and a friend) move the block[s] to draw pictures on the screen. And yes, you can erase.

PLAYER 1 – READY!

Anyone that’s seen the movie “Tron” might recognize the premise to this game, as it’s a lot like the “Light Cycles” game within that movie (and the subsequent games made based on the movie). It’s quite easy to play because all you have to do is (as the game title says) surround your opponent. By cutting off your opponent’s circulation, you leave them with no other possibility but to crash. You could also play it as something of bumper cars game where you lead them into a wall or into their own trail to crash. Depending on which setting the difficulty switch is set, you may opt to not be able to crash into your own trail, but why make the game any easier? That’s the problem with “Surround,” it’s just way too easy.

There are 12 different games to the cart, but only TWO of them are for one player only. I must give this game the benefit of the doubt and admit that I only played it in the one player mode. However, you don’t have any of the additional options of the two-player games other than “Speed Up” while playing solo. I can imagine this would be a fairly challenging game between two people and even have a bit of a pwnage factor to it. Then again, the game is so easy the appeal would probably wear off quickly.

JOYSTICKING

For a game that’s based on reflexes, “Surround” certainly doesn’t have the quality of play control you’d expect. It’s a bit daunting at first because you begin the game by moving at a snail’s crawl. The pace does increase but you’ll constantly think that if you crane the joystick harder you will move faster, but such is not the case.

And because this is such a primitive game, the field of play is limited. After all, you’re literally a block and you leave a trail of blocks in your wake. Even moving diagonally doesn’t give you any feeling of finesse or fluidity to your movements. The controls are also entirely too sensitive. Many times I found myself crashing into the wall while moving up or down adjacent to it. The true challenge to “Surround” is not learning how to outsmart your opponent, but learning how to maintain perfect control of your block.

SPRITES & PIXELS

Since this is the oldest of the old you can’t expect “Surround” to be a great-looking game. The graphics are reminiscent of “Combat,” the pack-in game for the original Atari VCS. The screen is made up of just a few colors (ugly pastel ones, of course).

The worst visual feature to the game is that you control a BLOCK, not any kind of icon, just a block. You can tell the game designer’s had a wild imagination when they came up with this one. Not that this game would be improved by flashy screen images, but its unsightly palette only enhances the simplistic gameplay.

CHIPPED TUNES

The sounds are in the same league as the basic, unappealing visuals. In fact, I think there are only two sounds in the entire game – that of the blocks speeding up and the crashing sound. At least they’re not grating on the ears, but what else would you expect of a game this archaic?

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

As a one-player game, “Surround” is fine for one round and that’s about it. As a two-player game it might have more appeal because you’re trying to beat a friend. Even still, I can’t imagine many people going round after round trying to one-up each other at such a boring game.

GAME OVER

“Surround” is a perfect example of a game that’s not so much bad as it is pointless. If it had any appeal whatsoever (and halfway decent controls) it might’ve been simply average.

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