Atari 8-bits Never Ceases to Amaze

[gilsaluki]

I like simple games, PacMan, Qix, etc.  Well, today I played Video 61's Animal Keeper. I ordered Putt 18 from Lance and got this instead.  Not disappointed, in fact, I LOVE the game.  Never played 2600 Zoo Keeper, so I knew nothing of it.  Man, this is a fun game, additive. I have already reached Level 20, 63000 points!  I decided to keep the game.  This Atari 8-bit never lets me down.  35 years after getting my Atari 800XL, a gift from mom (I was an adult), I still love it.  It still does not let me down.  Wonderful surprises still await.  And, by the way, I am almost 60!  Thanks Lance and crew!  Keep 'em comin'!

[Gunstar]

I did reviews for Excel for some of their games, the free-ware Secretum Labyrinth: King's Gold and the sequel, SL:The Legend on cartridge and Amokbots cartridge, a spiritual sequel to Berzerk & Frenzy. They are all very entertaining games, with classic late '70's, early '80's style arcade/computer graphics.

 

SL:TL does average about a dozen multi-plexed sprites on the screen at one time, each with multiple colors and fully animated, but there is flicker when to many sprites are on the same horizontal lines. I hadn't played any of them since I did the reviews about 2 years ago, until a few weeks ago, but I very much enjoyed them and did progress much further than I had when I did the reviews.

 

Certainly nothing ground-breaking graphics wise, but Amokbots was intentionally done in the one-color sprites like Berzerk and Frenzy. That is, actually lots of different colored sprites on screen, but each mono-colored.

 

But I dislike Video61's  cheap, barely-an-afterthought packaging and labeling and manual "sheets", only better than just a cart alone because of the protective plastic packaging. When there are so many releases in recent years that came with incredible collector's packaging and extras for the same or less money.

 

Of course the Tempest Extreem and Elite seem to be well received. I plan on buying Elite sooner or later, it supports 2600 driving controller which I already got my hands on just for it.

 I would have gotten it a lot sooner, if it came with better packaging and labels. I can do better myself for a few dollars, and have.

 

[Mclaneinc]

What I love about the old 8bits is that devs knew how much ram and other hardware restraints they had so while striving to make great looking games they for the most concentrated on making the game fun to play first and foremost. Sure there were bad games and not so good games but when the dev had the needed time and flair we got and still get some bloody amazingly great games that have playability in spades. I feel blessed if you like to have come from the start of games on computers etc, like many I've seen the advances in tech but I can still be captivated by games on a 40+ year old machine to this day and also see new games for it that are as fun now as when the machine and games were brand new and fresh.

 

That's a wonderful testament to the machine and the amazing past and present programmers....

[+MrFish]

16 hours ago, gilsaluki said:

Never played 2600 Zoo Keeper, so I knew nothing of it.

 

There was only ever a prototype for the 2600, and no real gameplay in it. Although there is currently a 2600 homebrew version being worked on by Champ Games.

 

It's an arcade game, which I'm not sure ever got any home ports (one of the reasons Pete/Video 61 wanted to produce it).