Mark Wright

Do you realise this is on YouTube? It's one of my favourite videos - especially the ending :-)

Sure it was a car? http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...VERSION_ID=6833 The very first screen in the mostly-green Action Biker has you right next to a filling station.

I think we can add Robert Bonifacio's "The E Factor" by Cosmi to the list of US Atari-only games. Can't find any trace of it on other systems. I remember buying it, in a big battered box, from a market stall in 1985 for about £2 ($1) in 1984.

Talking of Avalon Hill, I always assumed that TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) was Atari-only, but having just tried the aggravatingly frustrating C64 version for the first time, I stand corrected! Always loved that simple time-waster on my 800XL but the C64 version? Ouch!

Well, I only checked Lemon and Arnold before posting my list, so forgive me! I guess the question itself - what were the best games that were Atari-only? - yields only games that either weren't good enough to be converted to other systems or simply weren't possible. As we've learned from experience, commercial pressures normally meant they'd be converted whether they were possible or not (look at the 3rd/4th generation arcade to 8-bit conversions that barely resembled their sources) but I think Preppie! is a good example of a supremely playable game that managed to remain Atari-only. I'm not seeing many others in this thread!

My personal faves, at least these the titles I spent any amount of time with: (1) Preppie (Russ Wetmore) (2) Preppie 2 (Russ Wetmore) (3) Yoomp! (4) Chop Suey (Adam Billyard/English Software) (5) Crystal Raider (Mastertronic) (6) Phantom (Tynesoft?) (7) Dimension X (Synapse?) ( Clowns & Balloons (Datasoft) (9) Leggit! (Imagine) (10) Screaming Wings (Red Rat) Some of it's junk, but I got quite adept at finding obscure Atari-only software in the UK, during the mid-80s, when the big-name conversions to the C64, Spectrum and Amstrad were what most stores stocked. Obscure import titles, budget releases, English Software compilations and discounted US Gold/Activision clearance items is what I lived on. And if it wasn't for my local Atari dealer - Intoto in Nottingham - I would have been restricted to the few titles that Boots stocked (Elite's "unique" Atari version of Airwolf was the first game I bought for my 800XL - imagine my disappointment...) Sanxion you say? Pah, have you even SEEN "Electric Starfish" ?? Elite?? Tch, bow before my "Bug Off!" cassette! Uridium? No thanks, I'm happy here playing "Fire Chief" Sabre Wulf? You've obviously never seen "Savage Pond" Nemesis??? Give me "Nuclear Nick" any day! And so on...

At last! The Atari 800XL in Retro Gamer - looking forward to it. Wish I could help but I sold the last of my Atari equipment last year. I hope you'll represent the Atari from a genuinely UK perspective and not rely on generic website anecdotage. My Atari 800XL was the first computer I ever owned, but at completely the wrong time (1985-1987), so my memories are not so rosy but still cherished. In particular: - Giddying excitement each month upon returning home from school to find the latest copy of the dour Atari User had been delivered. Truly, it was the Radio 4 of UK computer periodicals. It may have been written by your dad, but it was all we had. (Apart from Les' fine but scarce Page 6). - Trawling the computer game racks of Boots, WH Smith and John Menzies looking for new Atari games each week, but finding only second-rate Mastertronic fare, released at the rate of around one (dismal) game every three months, while virtually all my friends were snapping up the latest from Ultimate, Beyond, Gargoyle, etc. - Gaining a belated but sparkling entree into the preposterously mammoth Atari pirate scene via my best friend's father's collection of "Multiboot" disks. He had hundreds and hundreds of them, each containing between 5 and 10 games, all of which could be dubbed onto tape for my lowly 1010 (later Phonemark) datacorder! Who needed Mastertronic anymore? - Finding out that Dixons had bought the remaining stock of XL machines and peripherals when the XE was introduced, only to see my prized £300 treasured possssion on sale for just over a quarter of that amount one year on... More esoteric reminisences: - The whistling hiss at the beginning of badly mastered Atari tapes (normally Mastertronic or Code Masters - do you remember that fresh plastic-y smell?) that often required you to pause the tape for several seconds at the start before letting it play (because the leader had been cut incorrectly). - Finding Ghostbusters, Spy Hunter, Atari Smash Hits and Tapper in a Boots bargain bin, shortly after release, for just £1.99 each - but only being able to afford two of them (I believe it was Ghostbusters and Atari Smash Hits). - Absent mindedly typing "CLOAD" instead of "CSAVE" after a mammoth session of entering Page 6 listing, "Ants In Your Pants". It was too late to (literally) save the hours of typing involved. The person who'd been dictating the characters in the data statements for me understandably stormed off, never to be seen again. - The joy of discovering *SOMEONE ELSE* at school who owned an Atari, who greeted such divine happenstance with an invitation to swap games, only to discover we both already had copies of Vegas Jackpot, Kickstart, The Great Cross Country Road Race, Mercenary, Activision Decathlon, LA Swat and Dispatch Rider, so had nothing to swap. - Continuing to buy English Software's Atari Smash Hits series even though each new edition was comprised of only 33% new material. - Listening to Rob Hubbard's Jet Set Willy soundtrack forever before starting the game. Then switching the game off, close to tears, some moments later. - The man from Intoto in Nottingham allowing me to buy Artworx' Strip Poker at the age of, erm, 12 or 13, but telling me to wait until the other customers had left. - Talking of Nottingham - the Atari User Group at John Players' cigarette factory... anyone who was there would have MANY stories to tell! - Playing TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) for hours and hours on end. - Being bought Warhawk, Chickin' Chase, BMX Simulator and Thrust for Christmas, but finding the booty and swapping the tapes in the cases long before Christmas Day, knowing my parents wouldn't have checked. (I stared in awe at the Warhawk title screen for an age.) - Having several letters published in Atari User. I mean, I could go on. If you need any UK Atari input, do get in touch! (Sorry for the outpouring guys - must be the idea of the 800XL finally in Retro Gamer!)

Hey guys, Unpacked and fired up my 130XE this morning for the first time in 17 years and spent some happy hours playing Decathlon, Cosmic Tunnels, Jet Boot Jack, Pole Position and Star Raiders. It's amazing how it all comes flooding back! And even more astounding that it all still works... That said, since everything's in functioning order and good condition, I've decided to put my small Atari collection on e-bay. Maybe someone else who has more time to enjoy it would like the chance to bid. There's the 130XE unit with manual and power supply. (Working 100%) XC12 cassette deck with connecting cable. (Working 100%) 1050 disk drive with some kind of enhancement, I forget which, but it reads alpha disks and fast-loaders, etc. (Working 100%) A handful of disks, multiboot menus, original Atari 1050 disks (the Payoff, Home Filing Manager) (Tested most, Working 100%) Several carts (all tested, Working 100%) Various cassette games (tested some, Worked 100% until I got bored of load times...) http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZballysaxQQhtZ-1 Will add issues of Atari User and Page 6 if anyone's interested? Guess I played Atari today! I may go play some more before I pack it all away again. Cheers! MW