33 replies to this topic

[gooner73]

What Atari 8 bit game gave you the most wow factor when you got it home from the shop?

My personal favourite was MR.DO!

It was and still is a first class conversion, but back then it was just amazing and even blew the c64 version away!

i always remember waiting for the 1st time load on tape ( uk-disc drives were not that common at the time over here!) and hearing the music and watching the demo-i nearly wept!

closely followed by the version of Tapper-again pure quality and a sign of what could be achieved even then, it's just a pity that there were some lazy software companies who never really made use of the hardware at the time.

anyway, merry christmas and all that, this is just a bit of fun!

[Rybags]

What a shocker of a font.

Rescue on Fractalus, although like many I saw the leaked Behind Jaggi Lines well beforehand.

Aside from Star Raiders, it's one of those few games of the 8-bit era that just saw the bar and didn't bother to raise it - just kicked it through the roof.

Kind of a pity it and Ballblazer were leaked as they were - it could well have given Lucasfilm reason to just not bother with the A8 after the 4 groundbreakers we were lucky enough to receive.

Also, despite having the polish and extra bits to complete the game, they went and changed some of the music around, probably for no reason other than to help distinguish it from the pirated one, which is another shame as the changes were kinda goofy.

[mimo]

Preppie! Was the game that clinched the deal on us getting a 400 when we were kids ( to replace a zx81)
Also, asteroids and missile command and the Rob Fullop space invaders, they were so much better to play than my mates vcs versions

[Rybags]

The Preppie games never really did much for me.

I put RoF at #1 not necessarily because of it's overall wow factor compared to A8 games of all time, but for it's stature among what else was available at the time.
Chunky graphics aside, it pretty much blew away everything else - arcades, rival machines too.  Remember of course this is before the 16-bits arrived (and even then, the first 6 months or so of 16-bit offerings were pretty ordinary).

If I was to compile a list of A8 games that really impressed - either as outstanding against everything of their time or raising the bar on the A8, I guess it would go something like:

Star Raiders, Shamus, Spelunker, MULE, Montezuma's Revenge (pre-release), 7 Cities of Gold, RoF, Eidelon, Encounter, AR (both), Elektraglide (more for graphic effect than gameplay), International Karate, Yoomp, His Dark Majesty, Space Harrier, IK+ (despite being incomplete).

Plenty more that would deserve inclusion but those are the ones that spring to mind.

[oky2000]

Rybags, on Fri Dec 9, 2011 5:46 AM, said:

Rescue on Fractalus.

+1

[Goochman]

RoF
Ultima IV
Wayout
Alternate Reality City/Dungeon
Star Raiders

[mimo]

Well preppie! Certainly wowed us in the store after suffering the zx81 for 11 months. The color and sound coming from the 800 in Mays computers in Leicester blew everything else in the store away.
I don't doubt that there are better more impressive better programmed games, but it impressed this then 14 year old

[snicklin]

Ninja Commando - The music was superb and the many shades of brown was wonderful at the time!

[olavese@online.no]

gooner73, on Fri Dec 9, 2011 5:24 AM, said:

What Atari 8 bit game gave you the most wow factor when you got it home from the shop?

My personal favourite was MR.DO!

It was and still is a first class conversion, but back then it was just amazing and even blew the c64 version away!

i always remember waiting for the 1st time load on tape ( uk-disc drives were not that common at the time over here!) and hearing the music and watching the demo-i nearly wept!

closely followed by the version of Tapper-again pure quality and a sign of what could be achieved even then, it's just a pity that there were some lazy software companies who never really made use of the hardware at the time.

anyway, merry christmas and all that, this is just a bit of fun!

I must say Star Raiders was the first wow ... Saw it in a bookstore and just had to buy the used Atari 800 with 810 drive, 410 tape recorder, 850 interface and some cassettes and carts. Paid a tiny amount (About GBP 1600) and never regretted it. Most fun I've ever had. But as someone else says, Behind Jaggi Lines was just awesome. We played with audio on a 2*100W or so, loudly, and my friend damn near pissed his pants when the alien jumped up and knocked the window. It did beat the wow of Star Raiders, but it wasn't first

[Mclaneinc]

Defender blew me away....

[Bryan]

I was really stunned by Ballblazer!



Comic Sans should be outlawed!

[Gunstar]

I was impressed with most games on the 8-bit after the 2600 and Sinclair ZX81. But, hands down, Alternate Reality and of course the Lucasfilm games blew my mind at the time, and blew the minds of my friends with other 8 AND 16-bit computers.

I had one friend in college (this was in the early 90's) who had an Apple IIGS, and although he saw me playing games and doing graphics on my 130XE, I never went out of my way to show it off to him. Then one day I was coming back to my dorm room and that friend and another were in my room waiting for me. I overheard the other friend laugh and scoff when he saw my 130XE, (saying ATARI?!? in an ironic voice) and then I heard my first friend defend it, even saying he though it blew away his own IIGS and the other guy's classic Mac. That first friend only ever saw me playing Alternate Reality and the Lucasfilm games and using Atariwriter+ for the XE and of course I did have Diamond GOS so I had a desktop similiar to those Apples..

Edited by Gunstar, Fri Dec 9, 2011 8:50 AM.

[beamer320i]

October 1982 - playing Astro Chase on my uncles 800 (over £700 from Maplins) and being amazed at the smooth scrolling, great graphics and music! Hey, even the game itself was (and still is) pretty cool - some people thought it was just a graphics showcase but I like it and still give it a blast every now and then.

[Ransom]

My path to the A8 was VCS --> 5200 --> 400 --> 1200XL, so the game I was most impressed with (Star Raiders), I encountered first on the 5200.  So by the time I had the 400 I wasn't blown away by the game.  Of course, so many of the coin-op games came out great when translated to the A8.  But none of them blew me away quite as much as Infocom's Deadline (the first Infocom game I played).  Of all the games I played first on the A8, that one was the one that most amazed me.  Not an exclusive, and it was just text, but the engine behind the game was very impressive to me at the time.

[Tickled_Pink]

Atari games were never really marketed in a blaze of glory in the UK back then. Except in PC World magazine. But the one game that did WOW me when I first loaded it was Dropzone. I know I keep repeating myself on here about it but the amount of polish that went into it and the arcadey feel that was evident even in the title screens ... well - how could I fail to be impressed? Still impresses me even now. I so much want to write a version for XBLIG.

[slyde]

i'm with Bryan.  Ballblaster really blew me and my friends away back in the day.

but i've gotta tip my hat to Alternate Reality as well....

[Irgendwer]

- Kennedy Approach: The first time I heard the speech output, I was really impressed.
- Stealth: The visuals astounded me.

[1NG]

On the old 800 (and not later A8 XL/XE) I played with my Brother and my Friends Mule a lot (with 3 or 4 players)
And Archon was a great party game too.
Of course RoF and BallBlazer where time consuming as well.
And I played Star Raiders a lot. I think I always played very much at that time
And if Turbo Basic counts as a programming game then that is also a good candidate.
If I have to choose only one: Mule!

[Goochman]

Props to Seven Cities of Gold as well

[slyde]

oh my goodness, i have to change my answer!

i totally forgot about Karateka!

When i first saw that game, it BLEW me away!

It's funny to think about it now, but i felt like the character movements were so realistic, i felt like i was watching a movie!

[emkay]

Koronis Rift.

Games like Boulder Dash were old when I got them....

[littleman jack]

Shamus seemed amazing at the time, such a huge map to explore. I still like it now. And AE had incredible graphics compared to the VCS games that I was used to playing.

[qix_maniac]

slyde, on Fri Dec 9, 2011 2:02 PM, said:

oh my goodness, i have to change my answer!

i totally forgot about Karateka!

When i first saw that game, it BLEW me away!

It's funny to think about it now, but i felt like the character movements were so realistic, i felt like i was watching a movie!

I agree Karateka impressed me as well!

[gooner73]

Karateka!!!!!

awesome and very impressive at the time, i completely forgot about that one too!

[KubaCZ]

Since I'm 15 only, it couldn't be anything than Yoomp!, really good game