Name: Plattermania
Platform: Atari 800
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: Joystick
Genre: Action
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1982
Developer: Epyx
Publisher: Epyx
Players: 1 to 4 Alternating
Programmer: Michael Farren
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Wow! Running away to the circus. That's what the instructions say this game is about. Baby stuff! Plattermania may put you off at first. But, the saving grace of this cartridge is that it isn't really about running away to join the circus. Rather, it's a horizontal action game of skill that gets so fast so soon, it can provide a tasty challenge.

When you start it up, Plattermania is instantly pleasing to the eye. Your player, a yellow clown who we'll call Bozo, waits behind a long table. On the table are a row of 12 evenly spaced upright sticks or stands. When you hit the red button on your paddle controller, Bozo reaches up and puts a spinning platter on the stand touching his hat. After a while, the platter starts to wobble-a pretty good 3-D effect-then it wobbles more and finally it falls. You can spin the platter to keep it from falling by positioning Bozo behind it and hitting the red button. Hit the button twice and the platter will fly off the stick and crash. (The exception is that when it's really wobbling badly, you have to give it two or even three spins.)

Keeping the platters spinning for 8 seconds is all there is to it. There are no different screens. This clown act is the entire circus!

Sounds simple? It is in the beginning. In the first level, all you have to do is put your platters up. They take about eight seconds to wobble and 25 seconds to fall. But, by round eight, things are really cooking. To keep the platters spinning, you've got to whip Bozo's butt up and down that line. I found this doable after 20 minutes of getting the hand of it. But, by the last round, the platters start to wobble in one second and fall in five. By the time I could get to the end of the row, the first platter had nearly smashed!

The problem is that Plattermania can get old on you, since it only gets faster, never different. How much time do you want to spend spinning platters?

At higher levels, don't even look of the plotters. Just keep whipping down the row hitting the trigger button as you pass each stick.

[Electronic Fun - Vol. 1, No. 5 March,1983]
