Randy California

There are a bunch of games with a 1980 copyright. I also saw some 1979 "homebrews" but have yet to see a third-party title from that year. ++ RC ++

Does anybody know what company issued the very first third-party games for the 8-bit? Adventure International? Dynacomp? I read that Sears briefly released some tapes for the 400/800 but have found no reference... ++ RC ++

What little-known game do you particularly enjoy? I really like Alien Swarm by Inhome Software. Graphics are awful and sound effects minimal but I love the game! It offers nice playability and some interesting strategy elements for a shooter. ++ RC ++

http://web29.p15138958.pureserver.info/ata...i/mapy-s-z.html ++ RC ++

The original name is Astromeda. Some stupid guy just changed the title screen... ++ RC ++

There's another very fun clone with tiny characters called Robot Battle, an Apple port by United Software of America (how's that for a company name?). ++ RC ++

Precisely ++ RC ++

There are two different programs: - WarGames by COLECO, which is a C64 / Atari "flippy" disk - Computer War by Thorn EMI, which is a cartridge game. ++ RC ++

The French version of Atari LOGO is INCREDIBLY rare. ++ RC ++

Forget Jellystone and go here: http://www.atari8bit-software.de ++ RC ++

I like shoot-em-ups but Lowca just isn't very fun. Laser Gates is stupidly simple but a far better game IMO. The power meter does decrease, albeit very slowly ++ RC ++

Sorry about the lame post. Just played the game again and it's actually far better than what I remembered. It's not great but definitely doesn't belong to any "worst games ever" list. I think your version works OK. The ship never blows up, your game ends when power reaches zero. ++ RC ++

Really? I think it's fairly well done (ripped C64 graphics though) but I find it dull as hell... Absolutely nothing happening in the game... ++ RC ++

Keystone Kapers? ++ RC ++

A box exists but for the rare disk version, C64 and Atari games on a single "flippy". ++ RC ++

The following "games" should be avoided at all costs, unless you're a real masochist: - Castle Top - Monkey Magic - Speed Zone - Springer - Green Beret - Hawkmoon - Zoltan Escape - Lowca - Xenon Raid - Piekielko - anything by ALA Software / General Masters - Castle Assault - Haunted Hill - Congo Bongo - Karmic Caverns - Enrico I / Enrico II - Space Cowboy ++ RC ++

Actually, THREE versions of Dig Dug exist: there are two different title screens for the 1982 game. ++ RC ++

Parker Brothers released international editions of some games. Q*bert comes to mind: same cartridge and label but different box (dark blue with multi-language instructions). Callipygous, do your instructions to Mr. Do!'s Castle mention to "insert cartridge" or are they for the disk version? ++ RC ++

The labels are weird: no copyright, no information apart from the title. Callipygous, did you open the cartridge case? I know Mr. Do!'s Castle was released on disk (so was Montezuma's Revenge) but this is strange. How come the cartridges only pop up in Canada? ++ RC ++

Source code from Hagar the Horrible and the newly-released Team Patrol seem to be available. Just wondering if they could be used somehow... Does anybody know how some games were converted from the C64 to the Atari? Check the following games from Mirage Software and the C64 originals: - Operation Blood => Operation Wolf - Special Forces => Operation Hanoi - Ship => Acia - Bang! Bank! => West Bank - Dark Abyss => Task III ++ RC ++

Quick and stupid question: how "easy" is it to convert C64 code to Atari? Could anything be done with C64 source code from games? ++ RC ++

I know the Atari 8-bit computers were very successful in Germany and had good support but you may know that there weren't any big software developers at the time (correct me if I'm wrong): you mainly found US imports (Rushware, Ariola) and SOME game creators (Ariola again, Europa CC) but nothing like in the UK. It took some time for the Atari 8-bit line to take off. Nothing important happened between 1979 and 1982 (apart from the Atari releases) because the software industry was in its infancy. Then Datasoft, Electronic Arts, Synapse Software, First Star Software... entered the market and created innovative games in terms of playability and programming techniques. The problem is that Atari never secured the UK or US markets and this led to enormous C64 sales and development in these countries. Agreed but this is mainly because Atari couldn't market their machines properly or because of software distribution problems. ++ RC ++

Exactly what I'm saying but if there is no user base, no software becomes available. Look at the UK market: the Atari 8-bit computers were there before the C64 but didn't sell enough at that time to attract game developers (1981-3 era). Had the Atari been successful in the UK (good distribution, affordable prices), houses like Bug-Byte, Ocean, Elite... would have developed on the Atari, not the C64. There was almost NO game development on the Atari 8-bit in the early days and all you could get was high-priced software from the US. Agreed but most of the the early successful titles on the C64 were ports from the Atari: Boulder Dash, Fort Apocalypse... People don't even know that these games were created on the Atari in the first place! You have to understand that the C64 was considered "hot" and developers quickly switched to that machine in place of the Atari. True but that's because there was a booming market. Atari was having problems at the time and there was less money to be made on the 400-800-XL-XE line. As I said, most people thought that nothing better than Alternate Reality or Rescue on Fractalus! could be written and production values stalled because of the gloomy market. Pardon me but it's an essential point. You may have the best computer in the world but what do you end up with if you don't know how to sell it? There are probably other reasons explaining the lack of innovation on the Atari but we'd probably have to go on on a country by country survey and study other points to fully understand the situation. ++ RC ++

In the end, I believe it really has to do with how many units were sold and what commercial support there was... It would've been different had Atari "locked" the US and UK markets in the first place. Read my last post in the "Games Are Crap" thread and let me know if you agree. ++ RC ++

Yes, my bad, CXL4027 is Qix and the game saw no RX release AFAIK. ++ RC ++