Most underrated game for Atari 8-bit computers

[Yautja]

Gentlemen,

As the author of the thread, and to avoid derailing it, by mentioning "underrated" I was referring to those overlooked games within the Atari 8-bit computer market. Hence I included the link to the top 100 in Atarimania in the very first post.

 

- Y -

[Faicuai]

4 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Lol...StarRaiders, one of the most revered computer games ever,

You are correct on that, to the point of having been already listed on the Top 10 MOST IMPORTANT games in history:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/arts/design/12vide.html

 

Gram-by-gram, byte-for-byte, there are very, very few titles with the stratospheric figure-of-merit that Star Raiders has. With its tiny 8KB foot-print (which takes direct control of the entire machine) and its dazzling action and 3D-effects, it makes look a lot of stuff out-there like bloatware. ONLY bested by Avery's special, high-speed math version of itself, which holds near effective 30fps during most computationally-intensive sections, thus making it a REAL pleasure to play, to this day! Couple of it with a high-power sound system and a large screen on your living room and watch your generational peers go "Holly f__k!" when they see it in pure action, soon after realizing its 1979 copyright! 8-)

 

It is also a game better suited for "type-A" personalities, that is, those that like to be on the front row, having control, making decisions, and taking risks.

 

And presumably for this reason, I would also say Emkay is also CORRECT when stating that it is underrated... Not as well wide-spread awareness as other (more recent) titles. As for the improvements, not sure how much better it could get beyond Avery's high FPS version, which is absolutely loyal to its roots, but if anyone wants to try, go ahead! 8-))

[Heaven/TQA]

3 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Lol...StarRaiders, one of the most revered computer games ever, and he thinks it's underrated..

 

 

well... to be fair... 1985 I did not seen Star Raiders as "good" game so it was underrated for me, too... if you were a 1978/79 boy of course it would be like "wow". More Wow for me was Rescue on Fractalus 1984 when watching and playing Behind Jaggie Lines leak version...

now in contex we all knew that SR was a killer app in 8kb rom and let you feel like being in a Star Wars movie and Battle Star Galactica movie...

[Heaven/TQA]

RPG like was Wizard's Crown, Eternal Dagger, Imperium Galactum. Alibaba and the 40 thieves could be "overseen", too.

Rainbow Walker always loved to play that one... anybody overseen that gem? not sure if there is an C64 version and if it was popular.

 

And me... never got into Necromancer... what is the "key" on that game?

and to be fair... now we all look into the mirror... Dan(ny) Bunten's M.U.L.E. have you got the brilliance of the game back 1984?

 

just realised how versatile Synapse's published games are... a real "1st party publisher" at that time same league as Activision and EA.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Heaven/TQA

[carlsson]

49 minutes ago, Heaven/TQA said:

Rainbow Walker always loved to play that one... anybody overseen that gem? not sure if there is an C64 version and if it was popular.

As it turns out, yes there is a C64 version but to be honest I have never seen in the wild, either as an original or cracked version. For some 25-30 years I thought Rainbow Warrior Walker was an A8 exclusive.

Edited September 21, 2021 by carlsson

[Heaven/TQA]

3 minutes ago, carlsson said:

As it turns out, yes there is a C64 version but to be honest I have never seen in the wild, either as an original or cracked version. For some 25-30 years I thought Rainbow Warrior was an A8 exclusive.

 

[Mclaneinc]

36 minutes ago, carlsson said:

As it turns out, yes there is a C64 version but to be honest I have never seen in the wild, either as an original or cracked version. For some 25-30 years I thought Rainbow Warrior was an A8 exclusive.

 

Oops, actually that was on the C64 and I think ST, possibly Amiga

 

Walker as seen was on the C64 as well and it's a bit of a poo port..

[Preppie]

C64 rainbow walker should be renamed Mud Walker

 

[carlsson]

Oops.. I meant the same game but wrote the wrong title. To be honest I never played Rainbow Warrior neither, though I've read about it. Greenpeace financed, wasn't it?

[Faicuai]

7 minutes ago, Preppie said:

should be renamed Mud Walker

Yep... the problem is the color palette... ugly-looking, in the context of this particular title (maybe not an issue on other titles).

 

Rainbow-walker is quite a show-off on the A8... plenty of horizontal scrolling combined virtual 3D-effects through palette-shifting and sprite-positioning... plus vibrant and rich colors coming out of a 1979 chipset design...

[Preppie]

1 hour ago, Heaven/TQA said:

just realised how versatile Synapse's published games are... a real "1st party publisher" at that time same league as Activision and EA.

As a kid I always rated Synapse as the #1 software house. Shamus, Zepplin, Rainbow Walker, Necromancer etc. I loved them all.

 

Talking about Synapse, Picnic Paranoia is a stone cold killer game.  I played that so much, even at 7.5 on atarimania it's under rated.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Preppie

[Heaven/TQA]

4 hours ago, Faicuai said:

Yep... the problem is the color palette... ugly-looking, in the context of this particular title (maybe not an issue on other titles).

 

Rainbow-walker is quite a show-off on the A8... plenty of horizontal scrolling combined virtual 3D-effects through palette-shifting and sprite-positioning... plus vibrant and rich colors coming out of a 1979 chipset design...

It does not use any horizontal shifting just for the records.

[Faicuai]

22 minutes ago, Heaven/TQA said:

It does not use any horizontal shifting just for the records.

?

 

For some reason I thought the horizon would scroll horizontally... but no, its the color-grid that moves from back to front!

 

(the only h-scrolling thing there is a solitary text-line before game-start...)

[Max_Chatsworth]

8 hours ago, youxia said:

Yes, this thread has definitely veered from "underrated" into "forgotten" or "ones I didn't hear much about" territory. Spelunker, Raid Over Moscow, Alley Cat, Wavy Navy, etc were all rather well known  and mostly well received back in the day.

 

And including a real design milestone like Star Raiders here is just comical

Not to mention that of every friend and school mate that had a PC at home and played games back then, not a single one of us but me is on sites like Atarimania, Atariage, or is even remotely interested in the retro computers we had.  That affects the difference between what was popular/appreciated back then by the gaming public and what people on very narrow community sites like Atarimania think about a game.

[Level42]

16 minutes ago, Max_Chatsworth said:

Not to mention that of every friend and school mate that had a PC at home and played games back then, not a single one of us but me is on sites like Atarimania, Atariage, or is even remotely interested in the retro computers we had.  That affects the difference between what was popular/appreciated back then by the gaming public and what people on very narrow community sites like Atarimania think about a game.

Well that maybe true for people like you in the US, but most certainly not for people in Europe. We didn't all switch to PC's and Macs after the first 8 bit machines. Loads of ST and Amiga users here....

 

[Level42]

8 hours ago, emkay said:

Funny point. 

Who outside the Atari world knows this game?

Also, if people had been so convinced about this game, where are the thousands of sequels?

True. But think about the fact that while we were playing black and white Space Invaders in the arcades, we could (in theory) be also playing colourful, 3D, strategy and map controlled Star Raiders at home.

To be honest: the price of an Atari 800 plus the Star Raiders cartridge and a joystick and a colour TV was not that much lower than a Space Invaders arcade machine in 1979.....

[Max_Chatsworth]

5 minutes ago, Level42 said:

Well that maybe true for people like you in the US, but most certainly not for people in Europe. We didn't all switch to PC's and Macs after the first 8 bit machines. Loads of ST and Amiga users here....

 

We didn't either..there are loads of ST users here as well...but as a percentage of the total population?  Minuscule in both the US and Europe...

[Level42]

On 9/20/2021 at 11:11 AM, marauder666 said:

 

I never quite understood this game.

[emkay]

5 minutes ago, Level42 said:

True. But think about the fact that while we were playing black and white Space Invaders in the arcades, we could (in theory) be also playing colourful, 3D, strategy and map controlled Star Raiders at home.

To be honest: the price of an Atari 800 plus the Star Raiders cartridge and a joystick and a colour TV was not that much lower than a Space Invaders arcade machine in 1979.....

 

Might be all right

 

But, if you ask people about those 8 Bit Computer games, they only remind of 1985 plus, somehow. 

[Level42]

Just now, emkay said:

 

Might be all right

 

But, if you ask people about those 8 Bit Computer games, they only remind of 1985 plus, somehow. 

You mean NES etc. 

The thing is that in the US it seems there were SO many more game console users than computer users. 
In Europe, most people switched to homecomputers after their initial console like the VCS/Intellivision/Colecovision. The main reason was: free software. Lots of it.

[Level42]

11 minutes ago, Max_Chatsworth said:

We didn't either..there are loads of ST users here as well...but as a percentage of the total population?  Minuscule in both the US and Europe...

Commodore sold between 12 and 17 million C64s. That is also a very small percentage of the total population world-wide who had one. 

Compare to PS2: 155 million units sold.

 

And still, "everybody" remembers the C64.

The times were simply different then. Computers were bought by young people like us, not afraid for them instead wanting to learn about them. My dad never was interested in it, I played an occasional game of "Countries of Europe" with my mum. My dad only got interested in computers after he got one at his desk at work...that was indeed PC time (late 80's).

Edited September 21, 2021 by Level42

[Max_Chatsworth]

3 minutes ago, Level42 said:

Commodore sold between 12 and 17 million C64s. That is also a very small percentage of the total population world-wide who had one. 

Compare to PS2: 155 million units sold.

 

And still, "everybody" remembers the C64.

The times were simply different then. Computers were bought by young people like us, not afraid for them instead wanting to learn about them. My dad never was interested in it, I played an occasional game of "Countries of Europe" with my mum. My dad only got interested in computers after he got one at his desk at work...that was indeed PC time (late 80's).

Yes..that's my point.  Everybody does indeed remember the C64 and remembers certain games arcade/home pc or otherwise. Comparatively, almost none of those "everybody" votes on sites like Atarimania...hence a disparity between what our community feels was underrated and what was truly underrated. 

[Level42]

To stay on topic:

I saw Preppie 1 and 2 being mentioned. Wouldn't call them underrated, most A8 gamers love those.

However, I am always annoyed that another fantastic (but brutal) game from Russ Wetmore is always forgotten:
 

 

Even though this game got converted from the TRS-80 version (Russes other games weren't particularly original either), the graphics and sound are relatively simple for an A8 game, it's brilliant. Freaking hard though. I still can't get very far.

Another one I found to be pretty original in concept and nicely done regarding graphics is:
 

 

[Sugarland]

Mazewar is a great multiplayer deathmatch shooter.  Far ahead of today's equivalents.  Was a free game afaik from Analog Mag.

 

 

[+davidcalgary29]

Atarimania is invaluable, but isn't its Top 100 listing best viewed as a gauge of current trends in gaming nostalgia? Perhaps people are downloading some of the games on that list to complete their collection, or are doing a deep dive into the A8 library and are looking for the exotic. Dig Dug (55) is not a better game than Mr. Do! (not in the top 100). Tetris is not a better game than Dr. Mario XE, which exceeds all superlatives (that's not a slight against the Tetris port). And then there's MIDI Maze, which has to be the ultimate achievement in NTSC programming before this past decade. The fact that it's only got 8,301 hits is stunning to me. Perhaps everyone already has copies of those games.