SegaSnatcher Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Looking for great examples of Atari 8 bit computer games that really pushed the hardware to its limits. I'm always interested in games that really pushed systems to their limits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndary Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Albert, Crownland... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Space Harrier, Rescue on Fractalus... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 The IK+ demo Games from back in the day: International Karate aka Would Karate Championship, Rescue on Fractalus intro, Alternate Reality Intros. Now some of these games might not be pushing the hardware all that hard, but rather had competent developers showing off what the hardware could do. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 RGB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinadan67 Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 old Games: Dropzone, Koronis Rift, The Eidolon, Electra Glide new Homebrew: Last Squadron, AtariBlast!, Bomb Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokeypy Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) Mercenary I ("Mercenary - Escape from Targ") - True miracle at the time. Edited May 17, 2021 by Pokeypy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said: Looking for great examples of Atari 8 bit computer games that really pushed the hardware to its limits. Nearly all, or almost none. What is pushing the hardware to the limits? Having e.g. no CPU cycles left for idle? Nearly all chess programs fall then into the category. Take for example "Lunar Jetman": the screen clearing is a big unrolled loop to have an appropriate frame rate, but I guess nobody would put that title into the category... Making extensive use of all (base?-)memory, any graphic hardware (modes/PMG) and all sound channels, while having no potential left to optimize? There is nearly always room for improvement. "Wayout", "Capture the Flag" makes clever use of ANTIC but is in the PMG and sound department quite dull, and now? And not to forget "M.U.L.E." which uses the full potential of the 4 joystick ports of the A800. So IMHO this categorization doesn't make much sense at all... Edited May 17, 2021 by Irgendwer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SegaSnatcher Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 1 minute ago, Irgendwer said: Nearly all, or almost none. What is pushing the hardware to the limits? Having e.g. no CPU cycles left for idle? Nearly all chess programs fall then into the category. Take for example "Lunar Jetman": the screen clearing is a big unrolled loop to have an appropriate frame rate, but I guess nobody would put that title into the category... Making extensive use of all (base?-)memory, any graphic hardware (modes/PMG) and all sound channels, while having no potential left to optimize? There is nearly always room for improvement. "Wayout", "Capture the Flag" makes clever use of ANTIC but is in the PMG and sound department quite dull, and now? And not to forget "M.U.L.E." which uses the full potential of the 4 joystick ports of the A800. So IMHO this categorization doesn't make much sense at all... It can be any category. We can take NES games for example and see that some games made use of parallax scrolling even though NES didn't have hardware based parallax scrolling. Basically games where devs made extremely clever use of the hardware that made for impressive graphics or audio which many would not have considered possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said: Basically games where devs made extremely clever use of the hardware that made for impressive graphics or audio which many would not have considered possible. "Alley Cat" for SFX "Seven Cities of Gold" for parallel loading "Stealth" for clever color cycling "221B Baker Street" for PMG and DLI enhanced graphics as well as digi sounds "Schreckenstein" for separate scrolling in all directions "Bristles" for soft sprites "Joust" for flickering sprites "Gremlins" for overall sprite count Edited May 17, 2021 by Irgendwer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irgendwer Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) And of course "Pitfall II" for the most beautiful and colorful use of a single sprite: Edited May 17, 2021 by Irgendwer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 (edited) Master of lamps for color placement. It should not be possible according to the specs to have so many different colored gongs on a single scan line in 160x192 mode and still have a multi-colored sprite on top of them! Edited May 18, 2021 by zzip 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Starrraiders. The game is totally underrated by today's "eyes". The game has been "ultimative" back in 1979. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHA Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 mediator by english software... lots of levels + gameplay variety - a smashing game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 Henry's House for colour changes 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 1 hour ago, Wrathchild said: Henry's House for colour changes Without a doubt! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drpeter Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 3 hours ago, zzip said: It should not be possible according to the specs to have so many different colored gongs on a single scan line in 160x192 mode and still have a multi-colored sprite on top of them! Presumably a screen kernel changing colour registers on-the-fly mid scanline? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 2 minutes ago, drpeter said: Presumably a screen kernel changing colour registers on-the-fly mid scanline? yes, that's exactly what it is. As a teen, learning ASM and DLIs, I wondered if it was possible to do such mid-scanline color swaps. I wrote code to try it, but I couldn't figure out how to time it precisely and stabilize it. I would stare at Master of Lamps and think "well THEY did it, it must be possible!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugarland Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 (edited) The Alternate Reality games for bitmaped 3d graphics, depth of gameplay, music, color use and state-of-the-art long loading times. Edited May 18, 2021 by Sugarland 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voxel Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 23 hours ago, SegaSnatcher said: I'm always interested in games that really pushed systems to their limits. Megablast! by Thorsten Karwoth. It pushed the hardware to where slowdown is visible during big explosions. That's pushing the hardware to its' limits, more than pulling off clever hardware tricks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beeblebrox Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 (edited) 7 hours ago, Faicuai said: Without a doubt! Yup, Henry's House is undoubtedly one of my fav Atari games - the colours enhance the whole experience so well. ? Edited May 18, 2021 by Beeblebrox 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefffulton Posted May 21, 2021 Share Posted May 21, 2021 I really like How Druid does Gauntlet better than Gauntlet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Preppie Posted May 21, 2021 Share Posted May 21, 2021 Rainbow Walker always impressed me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted May 21, 2021 Share Posted May 21, 2021 (edited) Well it's hard to say when it is pushing hardware to the limits. A few titles that do cross my mind: * Yoomp * Bosconian * Thetris/Rolltris * Stunt car racer * Bomb Jack * Prince of Persia * PacMan (the Arcade remake) -> especially because of the speed of the game, this port is amazing. * AtariBlast! * Time Pilot! From the (slightly) older games, I absolutely think of Zybex and BallBlazer, and some other titles that are already mentioned here. Edited May 21, 2021 by Marius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted May 22, 2021 Share Posted May 22, 2021 (edited) I'm not clever enough to actually say what pushing the limits actually means even though I've used the phrase myself, is a game that shows slowdown because its using the CPU to threatest extent or is it just poorly programmed...Pass. I prefer to say there are games that impressed me, was it fantastic programming or just that they were well thought out and the gameplay hooked me, again, I don't know.. Star Raiders ALWAYS impressed even though the programmer claims his 3D math skills were limited which is true as our own Avery Lee fixed a lot of the big explosion slow down but as a game its fantastic. Spelunker impressed, both inventive and had the hook.. Atariblast (like everyone else) just seems to be doing the almost impossible.. Space Harrier, who would have thought that game would hit the Atari and be THAT good.. I'm sure there's many others but I'd be listing them because I like them and not always because they impressed me.. Paul.. Edited May 22, 2021 by Mclaneinc Spalling..... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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