Bon Chance... and Tough Luck! Lock 'n Chase re-emerges on Atari 2600 as LUCKY Chase!

M Network was one of the underachievers among the Atari 2600's many third party developers. As a division of Mattel, the makers of the competing Intellivision, they had no reason to bring their best work to the 2600... and so they very much didn't. Games by M Network were almost certain to be vastly inferior to their Intellivision counterparts, whether it was a sorry home port of Burgertime where everything but the chef and the hot dogs were rectangles, or a conversion of Tron Deadly Discs without precision aiming and the Recognizer battles between stages.

Shown: Lock 'n Chase by M Network. Yeech.

Lock 'n Chase is no exception. The game, originally debuting in arcades as Data East's response to Pac-Man, was functional on the Atari 2600, but squeezed completely dry of its charm. The police officers became men's room signs, the lead character became a featureless hat with feet sticking out of it, and the treasures were turned into striped squares that don't look like something anyone would want to steal. What even are these? Ribbon candies? It's almost as underwhelming as the beige Pop-Tarts that would pop up in the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man. No thanks, I think I'll skip breakfast.

If you were a fan of the arcade game, the 2600 version of Lock 'n Chase will leave the same empty feeling in the pit of your stomach that Pac-Man did. Luckily, programmer C Centeno has Quantum Leapt into action, making right what once went wrong with his own port of the game, called Lucky Chase. The title is a bit of a reach (what's so lucky about being chased by cops?) but the game is outstanding. In contrast with the cold and sterile M Network version of Lock 'n Chase, Lucky Chase offers plump, friendly characters dressed in vibrant hues, and looks as much like arcade Lock 'n Chase as you could reasonably expect from the venerable (that means seriously old) Atari 2600.

Now here's C Centeno's conversion.
Okay, now that's more like it! The only way
this could be better is if it wasn't Lock 'n Chase.

It even plays better than M Network's Lock 'n Chase. I'm not big on the door play mechanics (and they didn't thrill me in Exidy's Mouse Trap, either), but when you press the fire button, Lucky drops a door right where and when you want it. Opening and closing doors is a lot twitchier and less reliable in M Network's version of the game... you're more likely to drop two doors in rapid succession or even trap yourself in front of the door, leaving you at the mercy of the cops. If any. (Yay, not so subtle social commentary!)

There may be better ways to play this game (and better maze games than Lock 'n Chase, cough), but on the Atari 2600, it doesn't get any better than Lucky Chase. Kudos to C Centeno for a brilliant port... that'll show stuffy old George Plimpton a thing or three about what this system can do when pushed to its limits!