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Battlezone 2000 - The Atari Times

Battlezone 2000


This one is the REAL DEAL
by Gregory D. George

October 8, 1996
For those of you who own a Lynx and a copy of BattleZone 2000, you're definitely in for a treat! By pressing OPTION 1 on the tank configuration screen three times and pressing RESTART, you can access the true BZ2000 game as it was meant to be! This is a very complex game including solid 3D tanks and enemies, special weapons, and numerous terrains.

I can understand why Atari felt this game was too complex to be released in its natural form. Firstly, there are 2000 levels to choose from with 14 different terrains. Most of them look alike, with only some unique sprites, backgrounds and palette changes, but all have different effects on your tank.

After choosing your terrain, you literally must build your tank from scratch. You pick the drive train, motor, weapons, and radar and actually place them in special areas located on the outer part of the screen. Thankfully, this process can be made easier by using one of the 6 pre-built tanks. I prefer to ride in the Madonna, while others might like the Borrg. (Such original names, huh?)

After the tank is built, you jump right into the battle zone. Moving around is pretty basic but picking up items can be a little tricky. You must first press OPTION 1, move the cursor over the object, then press OPTION 2. After that, you have to find a place to put it. Sometimes, you just don't have room for more stuff in your tank and have to leave it behind.

And, if that's not enough, each item must be activated! Probably the most useful item would be the scanner which is overlaid on the main screen much like the map from ALIEN vs. Predator. After I activated it, these little black dots appeared all over the screen and I thought there was something wrong with my Lynx!

Your goal in this game is the same as the original BattleZone. Destroy the tanks. (Or in this case, the eyeballs, the jumpy things, and other weird monsters.) It takes quite a while before you can find and kill all the baddies so you can move on to the next level. And that can also be hard if you run out of ammo! Thankfully, if you get bored you can always reset the Lynx. That will get you out of the level your on but keep all your found items.

One of the first things I do is turn off the music. It's annoying and repetitive. The sound effects are the exact same as the ones from BattleZone Plus (what I call the game you play without using the cheat). They're pretty basic, but the shot sound effect is very satisfying.

It will take weeks, if not months, to complete this game. Regardless of the time requirements, I would recommend it to all Lynx owners. Plus mode will please the quick-fix action seekers, and 2000 appeals to the more strategy oriented. Atari was definitely wrong thinking no one would like 2000 mode. Heck, it's automatic for me to go through that cheat each time I power up this game!! Thanks to Handmade Software, Lynx owners have another unique game to rub in the noses of our mainstream friends!

It's not an easy task to get this cheat to work with the Handy emulator. But, I did manage to figure it out and afterwards, I made it a breeze for YOU to play this game. Now, by downloading this file, you agree that you already own a copy of BattleZone 2000 for the Lynx... If you download the bz2000.lss file, unzip it and then open it with Handy, you'll be able to play this great game without all that frustration. Have fun!

You can't go wrong with a name like Battlezone.
This is BZ Plus, not 2000!
Where to begin!?
A giant blue frog with googly eyes doesn't belong in a warzone.
Battlezone 2000
System: Lynx
Publisher: Atari
Genre: Action
Graphics Score: 90%
Sound & Music Score: 80%
Gameplay Score: 85%
Control Score: 80%

Final Score: 90%



Reader Comments for Battlezone 2000

You forgot to mention by chris_lynx1989 on 2007-03-16 16:52:10
You to mention the fact that this was released in September 1995 along with Super Asteroids/Missle Command. These were the last 2 lynx games released before their closure in July 1996.These were released while Ted Hoff was in charge for some 6 months (from June 1995 to January 1996) at Atari and getting it back on track with new Lynx and Jaguar releases.He also paid off most of Atari's debts to everyone.Also,he put $54 million in profit in Atari's accounts by December 1995.Then, Jack T came!!
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