Exclusive games for 8 bit computers

[Bill Loguidice]

51 minutes ago, JamesD said:

The title doesn't specify when the exclusive games were created.
When it comes to home brews, you can find games from every decade since the 80s.
Exactly where do you cut it off date wise?
I think excluding titles is a bit arbitrary no matter how or when you do it.

The problem with exclusives is that so many games have similarities or borrowed elements from other games.
Even the CoCo which wasn't known as a gaming stronghold has over 1000 titles we have dumps of, and that doesn't include more obscure titles.
Who wants to go through a 1000+ titles to find exclusives only to have someone inform you half the list you come up with came from somewhere else?
 

So you're saying the exercise is pointless? Without constraints, I agree that it is. What's the point of a list hundreds or thousands of titles long? My opinion is that it would be easier and arguably more interesting to see what commercially released exclusive games were available during a platform's original commercial lifespan, which, for the majority of these older platforms leaves us off at the early 90s.

I also agree that something clearly derivative - let's use the CoCo as an example again - like Donkey King (Donkey Kong) or Sailor Man (Popeye) - clearly don't count as original, exclusive titles to the CoCo, even though they technically are by one definition. It seems pretty clear to me.

[JamesD]

3 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

So you're saying the exercise is pointless? Without constraints, I agree that it is. What's the point of a list hundreds or thousands of titles long? My opinion is that it would be easier and arguably more interesting to see what commercially released exclusive games were available during a platform's original commercial lifespan, which, for the majority of these older platforms leaves us off at the early 90s.

I also agree that something clearly derivative - let's use the CoCo as an example again - like Donkey King (Donkey Kong) or Sailor Man (Popeye) - clearly don't count as original, exclusive titles to the CoCo, even though they technically are by one definition. It seems pretty clear to me.

Without constraints, you have a glut of junk, but I'm not sure we'll agree what the constraints should be.

If you limit it to commercial games, any free game someone wrote, no matter how amazing, is excluded, and most of the titles I listed for the CoCo were commercial.

Perhaps commercial quality, which leaves it up to the poster to decide what games that applies to.

If you limit it to into the early 90s, you leave off some amazing titles on every platform.
Some of the best games ever to make it to the Oric, Plus/4, CoCo, Atari, etc... all come after that time. 
Not all are exclusives, or aren't knock offs, but games like Space 1999, Pets Rescue, Digger III, Yoomp!, etc... all come from later.
Gate Crasher for the CoCo 3 was from 1999.  At that time, some people were probably still using their CoCos.

I think I read the word "notable".   I'm not sure how I'd define that in terms of exclusive computer games.
Worthy of playing?

Direct knock offs of other games should be excluded for sure, because no matter what you call Donkey Kong, Pacman, etc... they are still pretty much the same.
There is some grey area where games have similarities, but clearly play differently.
When it comes to Donkey Kong Remixed, it would be a different arcade machine if it were in the arcades, so I'm not sure how I'd treat it.  It's definitely not on any other platform.

In the end, you kinda have to leave it up to the posters because different people like different games, and some of us have barely seen the top 10 games on a platform let alone hundreds of possible exclusives.

[Lost Dragon]

Dan Dare is a different (and wonderful) game on the C64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC:

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Lost Dragon

[IntelliMission]

The Amstrad CPC doesn't have too many exclusive games. I'm not a fan of the most famous one, Sorcery, so here are another 3:

 

- Roland Ahoy!

 

- Roland in Time

 

- Roland in Space

 

The first one is a tiny little nice game, but the other two are clearly inspired by Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.

 

I recently finished Roland in Time, which I had as a kid, using snapshots and I can confirm that it's a fun, multi-directional scrollling collectaton, especially for 1984.

Edited October 3, 2020 by IntelliMission

[IntelliMission]

Here's another interesting exclusive little game for the Amstrad CPC from BITD (1988) that mixes a very short horizontal 2D space shooter stage, a 2D shuttle landing with gravity stage and a longer Moon Patrol style stage with a more flexible vehicle that adapts to most bumps: Solar Warrior.

 

Moon Patrol is unexpectedly popular these days thank to the Amico, and Solar Warrior already offered different planets to visit, just like the Amico game.

 

Not the best game out there, but an exclusive one with just the right difficulty which uses the full palette of the system and 3 different game styles.

[IntelliMission]

Here's a very interesting 1985 exclusive game for the Atari 8 bit family: Schreckenstein, a split screen platformer.

[bluejay]

I haven't read every message in detail so I'm not sure this has been mentioned or not, but Dungeons of Daggorath is CoCo exclusive that only runs on Color Computers with at least 16k RAM. It's my all-time favorite video game. It's been ported by fans for the PSP and Windows PCs if memory serves, but the original 8 bit version is a CoCo exclusive.

In case you don't know, DoD is a 3D action JRPG type game where you explore a 5 level dungeon in a quest to destroy an evil wizard. It has lots of unique and interesting features and the gameplay really makes your heart beat. Addictive as hell.

[ClausB]

Was Atari Star Raiders ever ported to non-Ataris?

[BassGuitari]

I think the bulk of the games library for the Timex 1000 probably qualifies as "exclusive." Except for some of those Revival Studios games, the only cross-platform game for the TS1000/ZX81 I can even think of is Frogger.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if there was some overlap with the ZX Spectrum, though.

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

On 11/7/2020 at 7:47 PM, ClausB said:

Was Atari Star Raiders ever ported to non-Ataris?

Interesting note: according to recently-acquired documents, a Star Raiders port (or alike game) was a user survey request for the TI-99/4A back in 1981.  Check it out here.

[JamesD]

On 11/7/2020 at 5:47 PM, ClausB said:

Was Atari Star Raiders ever ported to non-Ataris?

It wasn't ported, but there were several lookalikes for other machines.

[ClausB]

1 hour ago, JamesD said:

It wasn't ported, but there were several lookalikes for other machines.

What games were those?

[Mr SQL]

The Astro Fortune Teller was such an unusual game that it inspired the Past Present and Future theme of the Princeton 9-11 Expo:

https://archive.org/details/rainbowmagazine-1988-03/page/n24/mode/1up

 

There I am signing books at the party for my friend Lonnie ? and here is the Fortune Teller with the details on how everyone should play Today:

 

[IntelliMission]

8 minutes ago, Mr SQL said:

The Astro Fortune Teller was such an unusual game that it inspired the Past Present and Future theme of the Princeton 9-11 Expo:

https://archive.org/details/rainbowmagazine-1988-03/page/n24/mode/1up

 

There I am signing books at the party for my friend Lonnie ? and here is the Fortune Teller with the details on how everyone should play Today:

 

Why aren't there any screenshots or gameplay videos of this mysterious game? I can only see pictures of the cool manual.

[Mr SQL]

3 hours ago, IntelliMission said:

Why aren't there any screenshots or gameplay videos of this mysterious game? I can only see pictures of the cool manual.

Great question! The game was locked in time encrypted for 33 years - I had long since released all my other games except this one because I couldn't remember how to get the copy protection off until just recently  

 

[JamesD]

6 hours ago, ClausB said:

What games were those?

Project Nebula for the CoCo was pretty similar, but I haven't played it.
There was a 3rd party game for the CoCo that was similar but I don't remember the name. 
 

[Mr SQL]

2 hours ago, JamesD said:

Project Nebula for the CoCo was pretty similar, but I haven't played it.
There was a 3rd party game for the CoCo that was similar but I don't remember the name. 
 

Quasar Commander?

[JamesD]

10 hours ago, Mr SQL said:

Quasar Commander?

Quasar Commander is Radio Shack not 3rd party.  It is out of the cockpit game play, but it's kinda crap.
 

[Mr SQL]

4 hours ago, JamesD said:

Quasar Commander is Radio Shack not 3rd party.  It is out of the cockpit game play, but it's kinda crap.
 

Agree Project Nebula was a better port, now I'm curious what the 3rd party version was.

 

Some of the ports were really well done on the CoCo with an added twist that made the game unique and sometimes confused players of the original port:

 

I really liked the Polaris port of Missile Command (also from RadioShack) because it fit well with the 360 degree free floating control sticks and it let you select which base should fire the missiles. I saw one review with the player trying to use the buttons to launch the missiles and concluding that the cart did not work   

 

[JamesD]

To be fair, Qasar Commander was one of the first carts for the CoCo, and it can run on a 4K machine.

[Mr SQL]

On 11/15/2020 at 12:35 PM, JamesD said:

To be fair, Qasar Commander was one of the first carts for the CoCo, and it can run on a 4K machine.

That reminds me of DinoWars - another very unique early 3D release for the 4K Computer:

 

[high voltage]

 

 

Cheating here a bit...But yes, the VCS can be a 8-bit computer

 

[IntelliMission]

Games released for one 8 bit computer only were usually not very good, but it's interesting how many good (some even great) games were released only for either the ZX Spectrum/Amstrad CPC or for the Commodore 64/Apple II.

 

After a bit of research, I have created what could be two top 10 games lists (I have merged games when they are similar):

 

Top 10 Commodore 64/Apple II games that never appeared for the ZX Spectrum/Amstrad CPC

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Project Firestart
Below the Root and Alice in Wonderland
Wasteland
Pirates!
Ultima III, IV and V
Exile
Pool of Radiance
M.U.L.E.
Mad Doctor

 

Top 10 ZX Spectrum/Amstrad CPC games that never appeared for the Commodore 64/Apple II

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Batman and Knight Lore
3D Grand Prix
Rex
All or Nothing
Deathchase
Rebelstar
Starstrike II
Chaos
Atic Atac
3D Starstrike

 

The C64/Apple II exclusives are definitely better, but there's a bit of excess for RPG for my tastes. The ZX Spectrum/Amstrad CPC exclusives feature two great isometric games and some surprises.

[youxia]

Pirates! was also released on the CPC.

 

Leaving out Atari 8-bit is a bit unfair. They had some notable games as well.

 

Also, in context for newcomers who'd like to try these games, it needs to be mentioned that many of these "exclusives" were also available for 16-bits (Amiga especially) and the PC, and are arguably experienced better there.

[IntelliMission]

By the way, did anyone her finish Alice in Wonderland? That game looks pretty good as someone who never touched a C64. It looks like a successful mixture of platforming and graphic adventure?