Best side scroller on the Atari?

[polbit]

As the title says, what is considered to be the best side scrolling arcade shooter on the Atari? Best as in graphics and smooth motion. Quick explanation - I grew up with C64 in the 80s, and switched to ST with Jack. Never had an 800 when it was sold, so I don't have any memories/connections to the games, just enjoy programming on it more than any other 8-bit. Trying my hand at doing a side-scroller, and would like a reference point as to what's possible. Thanks!

[emkay]

I guess, it doesn't fit really to your Question. But Drop Zone is an outstanding game, using side-scrolling.

 

Then there is Crownland. The game has the most complex levels. But it is no shooter.

 

Zybex could have been the best side scroller, if all game parts had working.

 

You could have a look at Atariblast , for what's possible , if every trick is used.

 

 

If you search for game like "Armalyte" or "Turrican" , such a game doesn't exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+CharlieChaplin]

Atari Blast (changes between vertical and horizontal scrolling levels)

- youtube.com/watch?v=ckQ7G7S1YW4

- youtube.com/watch?v=v5vlY4jZDxU

- youtube.com/watch?v=-5n_3jg6PlA

 

[Preppie]

3 minutes ago, emkay said:

Zybex could have been the best side scroller, if all game parts had working.

What part of the game didn't work?  I played this a lot when it came out and completed it, I can't remember any problems with it.

[+Philsan]

As already written, Atari Blast.

[emkay]

1 minute ago, Preppie said:

What part of the game didn't work?  I played this a lot when it came out and completed it, I can't remember any problems with it.

A lot elements, that should move freely, stick in the background.

[Kehvn]

My vote is Tail of Beta Lyrae. Music is awesome too!

[Kehvn]

Oh and "Shamus"... Although I guess that's not really a "Scroller".

Edited June 28, 2019 by Kehvn

[shanti77]

Kult

[emkay]

Just now, shanti77 said:

Kult

Shit, too slow. It took me a while to remember the name of the game.

 

It's really worth mentioning...

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

You have admire the scanner showing the upcoming attack pattern in that game, I always wanted to run the text through a translator and edit English into it.

[ivop]

@_The Doctor__ thanks for making me aware of that.

 

As for shooters, I always loved Caverns of Mars. But that's vertical. And Zybex.

 

[Rybags]

I'd not include platforms and shooters in the same classification.  Even forced scroll vs free roaming can be very different with shooters.

 

But my top 2 would be one from each - Dropzone, and (how could anyone omit it) the recently released Scramble.

[polbit]

Thanks everyone, lots of great stuff to look at! Really like Atariblast, Dropzone and Crownland (I know, not a shooter, but looks great). Quite impressive considering the color resolution and sprite limitations! I have my work cut out for me

[E474]

Sea Dragon is good fun.

[ivop]

Insomnia I mean Screaming Wings ✈️?️???

 

Sorry, had to add that last one as "plan*" resolved to these five emojis

 

 

Not the best player, and vertical again, but ? or

Edited June 29, 2019 by ivop

[kiwilove]

While not in the 'best' category - there is Laser Hawk - you can look at - as an example of someone's first game effort - which happens to be a side scroller shooter game.  I think he wrote 3 mini-games (simple routines) before this, that explored the use of the Atari graphics hardware.

 

Harvey

[jefffulton]

Atari Blast and X:8 are my favorites. 

[DragonGrafx-16]

On 6/28/2019 at 8:30 PM, ivop said:

Insomnia I mean Screaming Wings ✈️?️???

 

Sorry, had to add that last one as "plan*" resolved to these five emojis

 

 

Not the best player, and vertical again, but ? or

I never seen a vertically scrolling shoot em up with a wide screen ratio... unless it's just stretched in this example...

[emkay]

4 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

I never seen a vertically scrolling shoot em up with a wide screen ratio... unless it's just stretched in this example...

The Atari usually has no big borders. But you can reduce the screen to a level of a good compromise between things that have to be going on and the hardware resources.

In that game, the height is reduced, which makes it looking "widescreen" .

[Rybags]

On 6/29/2019 at 10:33 AM, E474 said:

Sea Dragon is good fun.

 

It's a great effort for a game that runs on a 16K Ram system.  But it suffers as well because of that.  If it were targetted at a bigger memory system then it could have been made with extra gameplay features and a much bigger map.

 

The obvious other game I'd mention is Zeppelin but it's a non-qualifier since it's an all way scroller.

[Mclaneinc]

This is where having something like Gamebase Atari (or possibly the gamepack), with the gamebase you can select genres ie Side scrolling shooter and it will list them all and you can then have a real blast with only you favourite styles..

 

I didn't push the gamepack that I was involved with because its a 'best of' which was voted by the group but it does not therefore contain everything and every one has a different idea as to what is a great game. So I can't but recommend getting Gamebase Atari, created initially by Mark Hardnman using the gamebase engine and updated with a tiny tiny tiny bit if help from me and a huge updates by mad and Dax lately, its a wonderful way to check out what is out there (up to around January this year). Loads and loads of extra's like maps, manuals etc etc..So much credit to Mark for his years of mega work and mad and dax for a nice tidy and update..

 

Torrents places are your best bets because of its size...The latest one has a 'Whats new' txt file mentioning mad and Dax, that is the latest version...

 

As for my faves, both mentioned, Tail and Atari Blast...Brilliant fun......Atari blast is simply amazing and Tail just is superb fun..

Edited June 30, 2019 by Mclaneinc
typo's, so many!!