Maze of Agdagon...Wow.

[doctor_x]

So as much of an Atari freak (phreak) as I am, I haven't done much gaming until the past few days on emulators... I was going through a huge compilation of games I downloaded and stumbled across one doom like game in a very small window, and then only a few disks later, stumbled across Agdagon..

 

Gotta say, that had to be some pretty creative coding to make that game possible, not to mention in looks like you could do network play too?

 

I've been doing alot of comparison between Atari and C= lately for the various projects I am working on, and I had started to kind of sway over to the C= side of camp even though I've been an Atari guy ever since - oh around 1980 or so... But after seeing this game, I come back over to Atari for sure.

 

Gorgeous game for the hardware it was running on... I think if the timeframe had of been extended a little more for Atari and production games, we would have seen many more cool games that really pushed the envelope of the system - similar to Fractalas and Ballblazer, and this game...

 

Just lamenting out loud - and I see the game has been discussed a few times here, but I like to chime in when I stumble across something new to me just to see what kind of talk the topic generates.

 

Thanks for the forums - and all of the conversation that comes with them.

 

doc

[a8isa1]

So as much of an Atari freak (phreak) as I am, I haven't done much gaming until the past few days on emulators... I was going through a huge compilation of games I downloaded and stumbled across one doom like game in a very small window, and then only a few disks later, stumbled across Agdagon..

 

Gotta say, that had to be some pretty creative coding to make that game possible, not to mention in looks like you could do network play too?

 

I've been doing alot of comparison between Atari and C= lately for the various projects I am working on, and I had started to kind of sway over to the C= side of camp even though I've been an Atari guy ever since - oh around 1980 or so... But after seeing this game, I come back over to Atari for sure.

 

Gorgeous game for the hardware it was running on... I think if the timeframe had of been extended a little more for Atari and production games, we would have seen many more cool games that really pushed the envelope of the system - similar to Fractalas and Ballblazer, and this game...

 

Just lamenting out loud - and I see the game has been discussed a few times here, but I like to chime in when I stumble across something new to me just to see what kind of talk the topic generates.

 

Thanks for the forums - and all of the conversation that comes with them.

 

doc

 

If 3D games on A8s interest you take a look at Wayout, Encounter, Battlezone, Stealth/Landscape, patched Assault 3D, and the masterpiece Yoomp!.

 

Oops! ...and I shouldn't have forgotten about the classic, Star Raiders!

Edited May 29, 2010 by a8isa1

[doctor_x]

oh yes... well versed in star raiders and last starfighter.. Stealth was always an incredible game to play back when it was new, and Battlezone has always been a favorite as well. Theres actually a game for my ipad thats wireframe like Bzone and i love it.

 

Not sure about Assault 3d though.. I will check it out a long with encounter and wayout.. thanks for the reply!!!

[+therealbountybob]

If you're into gaming Doctor_x why not take part in the HSC

 

I've not played Maze of Agdagon, was going to check it out but atarimania doesn't have anything for it. Maybe someone could upload/scan this for them

[Mathy]

Hello doctor_x

 

... not to mention in looks like you could do network play too?

You can use a small network to play this game on more then one computer at the same time. The interface needed is called "GameLink II" (old name) or "MultiLink" (new game). There are more games that can be played on multiple computers at the same time. Check out the information I've collected on my Special Stuff Page (scroll down to "MultiLink", but don't confuse it with MultiJoy, which let's you play games with more then 2 (up to 16) people at the same time on one computer).

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

Edited May 29, 2010 by Mathy

[doctor_x]

Hello doctor_x

 

... not to mention in looks like you could do network play too?

You can use a small network to play this game on more then one computer at the same time. The interface needed is called "GameLink II" (old name) or "MultiLink" (new game). There are more games that can be played on multiple computers at the same time. Check out the information I've collected on my Special Stuff Page (scroll down to "MultiLink", but don't confuse it with MultiJoy, which let's you play games with more then 2 (up to 16) people at the same time on one computer).

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

Will do Mathy - will also likely throw up at least a link, if not a dedicated page about your site and this technology on 8BU as I feel its relevant.

 

Thanks!

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

while Maze of Agdagon (MOA) looks graphically very good, the playability is not that great. There is only one target you have to do here: Collect bombs and let them explode near other players to kill/eliminate them. There are no other things to collect than bombs, no extras, nothing. I played the game via network with another player (as a two-player game) and the game was extremely boring - you could walk around for 15-30 minutes without seeing or eliminating the other player. So maybe this game requires a minimum of 4 or even 8 players so that there is more action going on...

 

Luckily there are some more games for the gamelink/multilink network available, e.g.:

 

- Multi-Dash: a Boulder-Dash like game by Bewesoft/Jiri Bernasek; you also have to kill the other player(s) while avoiding several things, including computer opponents (the more players, the less computer opponentsand vice versa); when we played this game (approx. 10 times) in two-player mode we were always killed by the computer controlled opponents, so again, its better to play this one with more human players...

 

- Multi-Race: a racing game by Bewesoft/Jiri Bernasek; the game has good gfx and allows for up to 16 players (utilising split-screen and both joystick-ports on up to eight Atari computers), alas the controls are the weak part in this game - the car is more or less uncontrollable (think the intro said something that you are driving on icy roads), thus it is not a racing game but a "fight-with-the-controls" game. You are very lucky if you ever reach the finish-line, even if it takes hours to do so, since most players give up after some minutes playing this game...

 

- Multi-Worms: a snake-like game by Bewesoft/Jiri Bernasek; I never played this game in a network, so I cannot comment on this one (but with this game Jiri made not only the source-code available but also created a kind of starter-module that can be used by programmers for creating new gamelink/multilink games and he described and commented how one can write network games for the A8 and use this module in own programs)...

 

- Speed Up: a racing game by Raster/Radek Sterba

- Speed Up Gold: new+enhanced version of Speed Up by Raster/Radek Sterba

This game could be played in a 4-player network at one of the annual meetings of Abbuc, alas I do not remember anymore which of them was played there. Anyways it has very good gfx, good controls and in 4-player network mode it was a lot of fun driving around and throwing other players off the street...

 

Bewesoft also came up with a black+white schematic on how to build a) a simple two-player network-cable (simply patching a standard Atari SIO cable by exchanging wires nr. 3 and nr. 5) and b) a 2-8 player network cable. When I made a network cable, I did not want to spend much money for it and at that time there were only three games (MOA, Multi-Dash, Multi-Race) available, so I decided for the simple two-player network cable / the patched SIO-cable. Alas, in my opinion, most network games seem to be boring in two-player mode, looks like they require a minimum of four (or more) players to have some fun... -Andreas Koch.

[doctor_x]

Well,

 

while Maze of Agdagon (MOA) looks graphically very good, the playability is not that great. There is only one target you have to do here: Collect bombs and let them explode near other players to kill/eliminate them. There are no other things to collect than bombs, no extras, nothing. I played the game via network with another player (as a two-player game) and the game was extremely boring - you could walk around for 15-30 minutes without seeing or eliminating the other player. So maybe this game requires a minimum of 4 or even 8 players so that there is more action going on...

 

Luckily there are some more games for the gamelink/multilink network available, e.g.:

 

- Multi-Dash: a Boulder-Dash like game by Bewesoft/Jiri Bernasek; you also have to kill the other player(s) while avoiding several things, including computer opponents (the more players, the less computer opponentsand vice versa); when we played this game (approx. 10 times) in two-player mode we were always killed by the computer controlled opponents, so again, its better to play this one with more human players...

 

- Multi-Race: a racing game by Bewesoft/Jiri Bernasek; the game has good gfx and allows for up to 16 players (utilising split-screen and both joystick-ports on up to eight Atari computers), alas the controls are the weak part in this game - the car is more or less uncontrollable (think the intro said something that you are driving on icy roads), thus it is not a racing game but a "fight-with-the-controls" game. You are very lucky if you ever reach the finish-line, even if it takes hours to do so, since most players give up after some minutes playing this game...

 

- Multi-Worms: a snake-like game by Bewesoft/Jiri Bernasek; I never played this game in a network, so I cannot comment on this one (but with this game Jiri made not only the source-code available but also created a kind of starter-module that can be used by programmers for creating new gamelink/multilink games and he described and commented how one can write network games for the A8 and use this module in own programs)...

 

- Speed Up: a racing game by Raster/Radek Sterba

- Speed Up Gold: new+enhanced version of Speed Up by Raster/Radek Sterba

This game could be played in a 4-player network at one of the annual meetings of Abbuc, alas I do not remember anymore which of them was played there. Anyways it has very good gfx, good controls and in 4-player network mode it was a lot of fun driving around and throwing other players off the street...

 

Bewesoft also came up with a black+white schematic on how to build a) a simple two-player network-cable (simply patching a standard Atari SIO cable by exchanging wires nr. 3 and nr. 5) and b) a 2-8 player network cable. When I made a network cable, I did not want to spend much money for it and at that time there were only three games (MOA, Multi-Dash, Multi-Race) available, so I decided for the simple two-player network cable / the patched SIO-cable. Alas, in my opinion, most network games seem to be boring in two-player mode, looks like they require a minimum of four (or more) players to have some fun... -Andreas Koch.

 

 

Boulder Dash... wow... I look through all these roms and there are like 500 variations of boulder dash. I mean decent game I guess, but I dont see the need for all of the variations. I guess it must have been pretty popular, or maybe easy to hack - not sure - but there are def tons of versions of the game.

 

Thanks for the reply - multilink is pretty interesting for sure.

[+MrFish]

Boulder Dash... wow... I look through all these roms and there are like 500 variations of boulder dash. I mean decent game I guess, but I dont see the need for all of the variations. I guess it must have been pretty popular, or maybe easy to hack - not sure - but there are def tons of versions of the game.

There's a construction set. Yea, overkill on posting all of these. I guess someone cares...

[TMR]

Yea, overkill on posting all of these. I guess someone cares...

 

If you set out to catalogue every game for a machine, that really does mean every game... =-)

[doctor_x]

the construction set makes sense... and yea, i'm fine with them all being catalogued - they are easy to skip over as they're numbered.. was mainly just curious.

[a8maestro]

Hi,

 

MOA is/was a great game. I have held a few gaming rings with it. Always fun to play. I could set up 4 systems to test it when it was developed. It would have been nice to have V2. I try to keep my Gamelink pages updated.

 

Rick D.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

Everything Andreas "CharlieChaplin" mentioned can be found on my site. See the link I mentioned above.

 

sincerely

 

Mathy