Atari A to Z: A series of short playthroughs of Atari 8-bit games

[pjedavison]

Good morning ladies and gents! Here's this week's Atari 8-bit game for your enjoyment -- the all-time classic Shamus. Always loved this game, and still play it regularly to this day.

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

2 hours ago, pjedavison said:

Good morning ladies and gents! Here's this week's Atari 8-bit game for your enjoyment -- the all-time classic Shamus. Always loved this game, and still play it regularly to this day.

 

 

Definitely you can see the Bezerk / Frenzy influence of this for sure.  Still, it looked like a really cool game.  I will definitely check out the GBC version of it soon.  Take care and great work as always.

[zzip]

On 12/8/2020 at 4:10 AM, pjedavison said:

Morning everyone! It's Atari time again. Well, it's always Atari time, but it's time for a new video anyway. This time around I take a look at Questron, a game I was too terrified to play back in the day because it looked complicated, but playing it now (and having a good knowledge of how RPGs work) I think I would have probably gotten along with this just fine. It's simple, it's primitive by modern standards (or even by the standards of later RPGs on the A8) and I get precisely nowhere after killing myself in the local cathedral, but I had a good time nonetheless.

 

 

I used to love this game BITD.   It was a bit unique among RPGs of the era for some towns having casino games.   I remember if you did too well at the casino, the guards would come after you.

[www.atarimania.com]

Tiny mistake there, the only other release is by Americana.

[pjedavison]

26 minutes ago, www.atarimania.com said:

Tiny mistake there, the only other release is by Americana.

Aha, thanks for the correction, I've updated the description. Shame, it would have fit right in with the other Synapse stuff that *did* get an XEGS re-release!

[pjedavison]

G'day fine folks! Here's this week's Atari 8-bit game -- an unusual one from Adventure International that I could never get working on my real Atari from our dodgy "computer club" disks back in the day, so I was curious to give it a try. It's Triad!

 

 

[pjedavison]

Greetings everyone! Hope you all had a good holiday period and that getting back to work (where applicable) hasn't been too much of a struggle!

 

Here's this week's Atari 8-bit game -- Mastertronic's Universal Hero. A game that makes me appreciate those times when adventure games are a bit more verbose!

 

A hearty thanks to everyone who has stopped by and watched some videos or subbed to my channel of late -- I've seen a noticeable increase in views and subs since I started posting things here, so I can only assume I have you lovely people to thank for that! Atari fans truly are the best  

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

4 hours ago, pjedavison said:

Greetings everyone! Hope you all had a good holiday period and that getting back to work (where applicable) hasn't been too much of a struggle!

 

Here's this week's Atari 8-bit game -- Mastertronic's Universal Hero. A game that makes me appreciate those times when adventure games are a bit more verbose!

 

A hearty thanks to everyone who has stopped by and watched some videos or subbed to my channel of late -- I've seen a noticeable increase in views and subs since I started posting things here, so I can only assume I have you lovely people to thank for that! Atari fans truly are the best  

 

 

Hope you had a good Holiday time as well.  Also, yes, it was hard getting back to work as I was staying up too late and getting up late as well.  Still, definitely it was nice to take in this video this morning while getting ready.  Moreover, congrats on seeing a rise in views and subs.  Definitely I like taking a look at the games you review as I am seemingly going into lots of them with zero to no knowledge.  Take care and keep up the great work!

[pjedavison]

Hello everyone! Been starting a new job this week so completely forgot to stop by and share this week's Atari 8-bit vid. Here it is for your delectation if you haven't already seen it! It's a really cool take on the Tetris formula that no-one seems to know much about -- would love to know more about this if anyone is familiar.

 

 

[mimo]

Good luck with the new job. I. Started a new job last week and I'm absolutely knackered by the end of the day. No time for atari ?

[Hwlngmad]

5 hours ago, pjedavison said:

Hello everyone! Been starting a new job this week so completely forgot to stop by and share this week's Atari 8-bit vid. Here it is for your delectation if you haven't already seen it! It's a really cool take on the Tetris formula that no-one seems to know much about -- would love to know more about this if anyone is familiar.

 

 

A very cool variation of the Tetris theme.  I really dug it as this is definitely something that could be brought to many other systems (both modern and old) I think.  Definitely another great video and keep up the great work.  Also, best of luck at the new job.

[+MrFish]

5 hours ago, pjedavison said:

Here it is for your delectation if you haven't already seen it! It's a really cool take on the Tetris formula that no-one seems to know much about -- would love to know more about this if anyone is familiar.

I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think the name of the game is intended to be said as "Valgus Squared".

 

[pjedavison]

I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think the name of the game is intended to be said as "Valgus Squared".
 

Yes, that also occurred to me well after I'd recorded, edited and published the vid

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

[+MrFish]

54 minutes ago, pjedavison said:

Yes, that also occurred to me well after I'd recorded, edited and published the vid

Ah, ok... kinda hard to go back and do the whole video over for small details like that.

 

[pjedavison]

Afternoon all! Think I forgot to stop by last week, so here's two videos for the price of one!

 

First up, we have Water Ski School, a type-in listing from Page 6 Magazine that was one of the few I didn't actually type in for myself back in the day. (I did type in Munchy Madness, though, and slogging through all those DATA statements remains one of my proudest childhood achievements.)

 

 

And then we have Xagon, a rather fun and polished game of somewhat unclear origin that looks like it may have been a public domain release. Anyone know anything more about this one?

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

23 minutes ago, pjedavison said:

Afternoon all! Think I forgot to stop by last week, so here's two videos for the price of one!

 

First up, we have Water Ski School, a type-in listing from Page 6 Magazine that was one of the few I didn't actually type in for myself back in the day. (I did type in Munchy Madness, though, and slogging through all those DATA statements remains one of my proudest childhood achievements.)

 

 

And then we have Xagon, a rather fun and polished game of somewhat unclear origin that looks like it may have been a public domain release. Anyone know anything more about this one?

 

 

Always intrigued by the public domain games on any system.  While I am not crazy about Water Ski School, Xagon looks to be a really fun game that does take things from Qbert for sure.  Still, Xagon looked like it was really fun and definitely an 'easy to learn, difficult to master' type of game.  Definitely looking forward to seeing what other games are in store for us in the series.  Take care and keep up the great work!

[www.atarimania.com]

31 minutes ago, pjedavison said:

And then we have Xagon, a rather fun and polished game of somewhat unclear origin that looks like it may have been a public domain release. Anyone know anything more about this one?

 

All the information you need is on our site. It was developed by David Pentecost who was a member of MACE / Melbourne Atari Computer Enthusiasts. There are two versions: one without any mention of MACE on the title screen, the other with that copyright as the club likely wanted to add the game to its PD library. You actually played a pirate edition.

 

[pjedavison]

33 minutes ago, www.atarimania.com said:

 

All the information you need is on our site. It was developed by David Pentecost who was a member of MACE / Melbourne Atari Computer Enthusiasts. There are two versions: one without any mention of MACE on the title screen, the other with that copyright as the club likely wanted to add the game to its PD library. You actually played a pirate edition.

 

I figured it was something along those lines, given that the version I played was from the Homesoft collection. Bizarre that a PD game would get "pirated"! I suspect it's not unheard of, though.