Atari A to Z: Time Bandit

I love it when game developers get creative. This is not an altogether unusual sight these days, of course, but back in the early to mid ’80s, it was always a real treat to see someone step outside of genre “norms”.

Such was the case with Time Bandit by Bill Dunlevy and Harry Lafnear, a top-down action adventure with elements of text adventures, role-playing games, Pac-Man and all manner of other goodness. While superficially resembling Gauntlet — which actually came out after Time Bandit was fully developed — there’s a hell of a lot of depth here, and some fiendish puzzles to unravel.

If you want a game that pretty much sums up what the Atari ST gaming experience is all about, you can do far worse than give Time Bandit the, uh, time of day.

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

2 thoughts on “Atari A to Z: Time Bandit”

  1. I remember seeing this advertised early on during the ST’s release, normally with Major Motion (a Spy Hunter clone?). Never seen it action until now. Wish I had played it back then because that mix of action and adventure game elements would have kept me occupied for a long time. 🙂

    1. It’s so good! Major Motion was all right, too, though a bit more “conventional” in its execution — it was a fairly straightforward Spy Hunter clone. Early MicroDeal/MichTron made some great games, though; a real highlight of the ST’s early years.

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