+CharlieChaplin Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 My only thought was Henry's House. Great attract mode but no actual game play so I guess it doesn't meet your criteria Same with Mousetrap / Mousequest afair... (but at least one can see all levels). http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-mouse-trap_8588.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a8isa1 Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Same with Mousetrap / Mousequest afair... (but at least one can see all levels). http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-mouse-trap_8588.html I don't think I've ever seen this game! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Seems, the thread has to be re opened, as the question was about "great attract modes" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Great attract modes were easily defined by a self acting gameplay, as in Rescue on Fractalus or Encounter.... but the Miner 2049er attract mode has it's own flair .... games that show just some ingame screen without any interaction shouldn't count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Can you suggest some Atari 8-bit games with good or great attract modes? Attract mode has a more specific meaning on the coin-op side. It is often where you see the game demonstrate itself with actual gameplay (either on rails, or in a computer vs computer demonstration) in an attempt to pull in a player. Great examples: Archon, Archon II, Spy vs Spy III: Artic Antics [Actively plays Computer vs. Computer.] Good examples: Boulderdash II, Jumpman, Protector II, Pitfall II [Actual gameplay.] Poor examples: Jumpman Junior, Mail Order Monsters, MULE [Visually interesting, but no gameplay.] Bad examples: The Last V8, Zork [shows game screen, but is static.] Can you recommend a few more games with good or great attract modes? Seems, the thread has to be re opened, as the question was about "great attract modes" . I suppose you only read the headlines of newspaper articles too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 Hey I forgot about Blaster. I have demo-ed that one out at shows. Thanks for reminding me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 I suppose you only read the headlines of newspaper articles too? And you don't even read what you copy and paste? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 And you don't even read what you copy and paste? Why, are you going to ask me to "sort" another sentence? "Could you sort this sentence please?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) What ??? No One mentioned Bounty Bob Strikes Back yet ?? The high score table is the niftiest one I've ever seen. I remember being mesmerized.....how did he program the logic behind the birds moving around the characters in such a seemingly chaotic way, still ending up with the correct table ?? And of course the way of entering your name was brilliant too.... Loved it.....it seemed so pointless but touches like that were great IMHO..... OK maybe not exactly attract mode but still something happening outside of the actual game.... table per char... random pick one empty char, setup bird. let bird fly to positon, set char, loop til all set. http://boinxx.blogspot.de was my reference for that "enemy routine" and used here: http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=5685 10 years ago... Edited January 8, 2018 by Heaven/TQA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 (edited) http://atariage.com/forums/topic/60515-boinxx-work-in-progress/?p=901828 As close to da*mn near complete as you can get while yanking the hungry wolves back from that tasty meat! Good stuff, I'm sure it'll be completed... Edited January 8, 2018 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Can you suggest some Atari 8-bit games with good or great attract modes? Attract mode has a more specific meaning on the coin-op side. It is often where you see the game demonstrate itself with actual gameplay (either on rails, or in a computer vs computer demonstration) in an attempt to pull in a player. Great examples: Archon, Archon II, Spy vs Spy III: Artic Antics [Actively plays Computer vs. Computer.] Good examples: Boulderdash II, Jumpman, Protector II, Pitfall II [Actual gameplay.] Poor examples: Jumpman Junior, Mail Order Monsters, MULE [Visually interesting, but no gameplay.] Bad examples: The Last V8, Zork [shows game screen, but is static.] Can you recommend a few more games with good or great attract modes? Heh- I've never considered an attract mode for Zork- that would be funny. What, maybe it enters random phrases? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 ZOrk- eat me, auto-cannibalism is not the answer... Love it! random directions with a couple of silly requests to peak interest.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Disagree strongly about MULE, that title sequence and music is one of the best on the Atari! I'd watch it for ages, trying to figure out how they did the letter fill for the main title! As a demonstration of the game, it doesn't do much. But I think it's one of the best examples of Pokey music. Love the bassline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccorm Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 ZOrk- eat me, auto-cannibalism is not the answer... Love it! random directions with a couple of silly requests to peak interest.. Honestly, I think that Interactive Fiction might have survived to this day as a mainstream genre if they had just worked in an attract mode. Infocom was legendary for their humor and would have been in the ideal position to leverage a self-demo into convert new fans. Even if the short-term decline had continued, a multiplayer rebirth could have roared back in the 90s fueled alongside the amateur MUD scene. I believe that product development still had a good ROI (return on investment) when they killed it? I blame Activision for a lack of long-term faith in the genre. But... yeah... disk space for a larger interpreter and more things to cram on an already tight data disk (until the later years, at least). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 ...and Dig Dug come to mind. By random chance, I just found out something interesting about the attract mode for Dig Dug (1983 version): you can actually control the bicycle pump while he moves about the screen; you're able to kill enemies while doing so too. It's quite hard to do much, as he does so much random plowing. You can control his speed somewhat in the open areas by repeatedly firing the pump, and thereby avoid or kill enemies on occasion. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britishcar Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 River Raid does it's usual beautiful vertical scroll. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Just had Trains running for a while a few nights ago, its actually a nice Attract mode & drive test, as it randomly loads various areas, lets the train roll around them for 10-20 seconds, before returning to the title screen, and loading another random map and repeating. Each time loading a bit from the disk, so its a litlte intermittent load test for the drive too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) Aquatron has a damn good attract mode.. Shows off the gameplay pretty well. I've been leaving this one running in an emulator on my second monitor for a while now. Love this game. Edited February 16, 2019 by adam242 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) One that may get missed because of the memory needs for the xex or Atarimax cart is Atari Blast...Lovely demo mode..Really shows off the Atari... In fact I'd say its one of the best out there.. Music and great gfx... Edited February 16, 2019 by Mclaneinc 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 No one mentioned JOUST? What the heck is wrong with you people? (*DISCLAIMER*: JOUST was my absolute favorite cart for my 800 back in the day, though much easier than the more arcade-accurate 7800 version). And Defender! Does no one play these games but us? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Xagon is another I like to leave running as a 'screen saver'.. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam242 Posted February 19, 2019 Share Posted February 19, 2019 Beach Head, Beach Head II, and Raid Over Moscow all have excellent attract modes, too.. Sorry to keep coming back to this. Should've just made one well-thought-out post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britishcar Posted March 29, 2019 Share Posted March 29, 2019 Not sure if these have been mentioned yet. Some have limited self play, others just have cycling "arcade" attract modes and never go to the normal Atari color cycling: Atari Invaders (limited self play) Beachhead Clowns and Balloons Defender (if you manually set it to DEMO mode) Gorf Leaderboard Mr. Cool Nibbler Pharaoh's Curse Pole Position Protector II Rally Speedway Robot Battle Snake Byte Sneakers Space Eggs Space Zap Triad Twerps Vanguard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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