Wanna play some ST games?

[Fletch]

When it comes to playing Atari, I tend to fire up the 800 or the 2600. I don't really have much time for playing games these days, and both of those systems have a ton of arcade games that you can fire up, play for a few minutes and then get back to real life.

 

Sitting in front of the Falcon tonight I figured I'd play one of my favorite arcade titles on the ST, Bomb Jack! Like the arcade titles on my other Atari's, this one is a jump in and play for a few minutes title that fits my life these days.

 

I figured I'll occasionally post to this thread with a screen shot and score of whatever I played that day and I encourage you to do the same.

 

This isn't a competition, but I do welcome you to post your own scores as well. Also, please include anything else you might be playing and maybe I'll be inspired to play along too.

 

I am not much of a gamer so don't laugh too hard if my scores suck. I'm just looking to use the ST a bit more and hope this helps me do just that.

 

-Pete

 

 

 

 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I forgive you for low scores considering that currently it is very warm on Northern hemisphere

[StickHead]

The ST version of Bombjack is a nice port. This game lives and dies by how well you can control the titular Jack, and it feels really responsive and quick on the ST. The only problem is that in squishing the play area to the 320x200 ratio, it makes it a little more difficult to avoid some of the enemies' attack patterns. After all, Jack's vertical movement is much quicker than his horizontal, which suits the taller resolutions of the arcade version.

 

Thanks for sharing, Fletch!

[Fletch]

The ST version of Bombjack is a nice port. This game lives and dies by how well you can control the titular Jack, and it feels really responsive and quick on the ST. The only problem is that in squishing the play area to the 320x200 ratio, it makes it a little more difficult to avoid some of the enemies' attack patterns. After all, Jack's vertical movement is much quicker than his horizontal, which suits the taller resolutions of the arcade version.

 

Thanks for sharing, Fletch!

 

The ratio is off of course, but I somehow prefer the ST version to the original. I can only remember one arcade near me that had Bomb Jack and don't recall playing all that often whilst there.

 

I suppose I am just more familiar with the ST's conversion and the aspect ratio difference never bothered me. And though I am far from good at it, I like that I routinely can make it through about 10 levels fairly consistently. Sadly though, on only a couple of the levels am I able to get the 20 bomb bonus. That is where the real points are to be had.

[Fletch]

Grabbed a random disk from the pile this afternoon and ended up playing Mach 3. The opening screen depicts a pilot standing on his ship in the background as well as a partially clad woman in the foreground . According to an advertisement I saw, you must try to rescue the woman from the evil sorcerer Sfax before it is too late.

 

You do this by flying your ship across terrain, through gates, and into tunnels. There are land mines, meteors and enemy space ships to contend with during your flight. At one point I had to shoot a disembodied head that happened upon the scene. Maybe that was Sfax, I cannot really say.

 

The graphics are nice and the game plays rather smoothly. Oddly your ship looks nothing like the one from the intro screen. Unfortunately, the action is limited to only a portion of the screen. Maybe the programmers needed to limit the size in order to maintain a playable frame rate.

 

The sounds are pretty decent and there is digitized speech which is a nice touch.

 

That being said, I quickly bored of this one. Played it twice and got the better score the first run through. I scored 68,900 that first game and 43305 the second.

 

I didn't hate Mach 3, but it is doubtful I'll revisit this one very often.

 

-Pete

Edited August 9, 2015 by Fletch

[Fletch]

I'm sure I'm boring the heck out this forum with these updates, but I'm rolling with it until I bore myself.

 

Tonight's game of choice was Snoopy and Peanuts, a 1990 title from EDGE software. If I recall, I got this one at Atarifest '90 in Reston, Virginia USA. Snoopy and Peanuts is a odd point and click adventure game with a few platform game elements tossed in.

 

You assume the role of Snoopy and during your travels you learn that Linus has lost his blanket and it is your task to find it for him. Linus lies about on a bean bag chair feeling sorry for himself whilst you do all the work.

 

You start in Charlie Brown's backyard near your dog house and food bowl. You pick things up and drop them by pushing down on the joystick. For instance you can pick up the food bowl and then carry it inside to give to Charlie Brown to fill. I did this, but don't think it had any impact on the game. Maybe I got points, but I don't know.

 

The game is a series of puzzles, some of which make sense and some which seem a bit of a stretch. Along the way you'll catch a frog in jar, knock a kite out of a tree by bouncing on an inflatable toy, shoot balloons with sling slot (which oddly yields you a bicycle pump), and many more.

 

There is a watch you can pick up which tells you the time. I think there must be a time limit, but it is unclear. If there isn't a time limit, I really have no idea why the watch exists. There is also a scoreboard and notebook that serve no real purpose other than to give you an idea of how you are scoring. I am not sure why there are points at all.

 

As for the platform game element, you have to jump on a barrel, a post, a soccer ball, and two more barrels to reach an island in a pond. Of course there is a well on said island. You know, in case you need water in the middle of the pond?!?! You toss a coin in the well and that releases the balloons with the bike pump. I was a bit mystified by that result.

 

Ultimately you end up getting a key from Charlie Brown after he falls down whilst flying a kite. You take said key to Linus's school and open his locker. His blanket falls out and you take it to Linus. You win at this point and don your Joe Cool sun glasses. Oh and you are given a final score. I got a 670, but I have no idea what that even means.

 

I don't believe I ever finished this one 25 years ago. The logic is bizarre and it moves so slowly. It's infuriatingly slow at points. That being said, it is kind of rewarding to finally finish this after all that time.

 

Here is the Atarimania link if you want to try this one : http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-snoopy-and-peanuts_11264.html

 

-Pete

Edited August 10, 2015 by Fletch

[+Zeptari]

I know this is an old thread, but I really enjoyed your mini reviews of games.

Bring them back. I'd love to play that Peanuts game with my grandson.

 

rick

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Considering Snoopy and Peanuts: I will not talk how to play it, just some my observations.

It is so similar to Garfield, from previous year (1988), same publisher Edge, that is sure that it uses same engine - in other words big parts of code.

Almost as some data disk.

I like both because graphic is nice, very cartoonish.16 colors are quite enough for this type of games. What is not good is speed. Sprites are big, and move too slow.

So, could be good candidate for some improved, blitter aided version

Checking Amiga v. on YT - slow too. More motivation

There are others using same engine

Need to say that I will not do it for sure - absolute no time in next 1 year for.

And of course there are other ways to speed it up: Playing on Falcon, TT ... Emulator set on higher CPU speed ..

Checked it - still slow. So, need to change speed control in game. Now we are at something what I can do with maybe few hours effort ....