Today we take a look at one of the most influential, important games of all time: without Ultima III: Exodus, we might not have ever gotten the RPG genre in quite the form we know it today.
Of course, I’m sure there are plenty of other games out there that would have taken its place — and the Wizardry series was just as important in the grand scheme of things — but Ultima III: Exodus’ importance to the RPG genre in general cannot be understated. So it seems like a fine time to take on the Atari ST version, non?
This is it at last — the final RealSports game in Atari Flashback Classics! After this, we can move on to something else. (There are still a few more sports games ahead of us, mind you!)
In the grand scheme of things, RealSports Volleyball for Atari 2600 isn’t a bad game. It’s pretty simple and arguably a bit too ambitious for what the 2600 was really capable of, but once you get your head around how its mechanics work, there’s potential for some solid two-player fun here — or an occasional test of your skills against the computer.
Heroes in a half-shell! Turtle power! But only in a form friendly to the delicate eyes of the Great British Public, thank you very much, none of that “ninja” nonsense here.
Image Works’ Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles for Atari ST was a port of Konami’s NES game — and a title that made a fair few people mad when it first came out and wasn’t a port of Konami’s classic arcade game. Still, it’s an interesting title in its own right — even if the ST version perhaps isn’t the best way to experience it!
Gremlin Graphics was a developer who lasted a long time — from the early 8-bit days right up until the early 2000s, when the company was swallowed by Infogrames, and then folded. Today the Gremlin spirit lives on in the developer Sumo Digital.
Zone X is a classic Atari game from Gremlin Graphics I remember playing back in the day and never being able to get very far with. Turns out I still can’t get very far with it, but it’s an interesting game nonetheless!
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
We’re nearly there! We’re nearly there! We’re so nearly through the RealSports gauntlet! Just a bit of friendly Tennis action to get through, followed by some beach volleyball, and then we’re done!
RealSports Tennis for Atari 5200 is a decent tennis game that suffers a bit from an awkward control scheme — an awkward control scheme which hasn’t been emulated particularly well in Atari Flashback Classics, as it happens. Consequently, it’s best treated as more of a curiosity than something you can really spend a lot of time with — but it’s worth acknowledging, at least!
Thou art dead! Again. Yes, it’s time for Shadowgate, a fairly notorious point-and-click adventure from the “Macventures” series — rebranded, of course, to “Atariventures” for its ST release.
Like its stablemates Deja Vu and Uninvited, Shadowgate is a challenging adventure that is rather fond of killing off the player in a variety of cruel and unusual ways. The game is always fair, though; you just need to learn the rules it’s playing by in order to make a little more progress with each save you reload!
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
Classic Atari 2600 game Yars’ Revenge never got an official conversion to Atari 8-bit, sadly.
That doesn’t mean people haven’t done their best to make their own, however! Today we have one such example, where a brave AtariAge denizen decided to take on the challenge of programming their own original take on Yars’ Revenge, entirely from scratch and, in true 2600 tradition, squeezed into just 4K.
We’re closing in on the home straight of the RealSports collection in Atari Flashback Classics! Only two more to go after this one!
RealSports Tennis for Atari 2600 is a fun game for one or two players that… doesn’t really offer much of a realistic game of tennis, but does provide a rather prettier take on the Pong format, with a couple of interesting twists. It’s simple and straightforward, but it’s also speedy and fun — particularly with a friend.
It’s time for a biggie! A truly genre-defining game, at that — although its real influence perhaps wouldn’t become truly known on the mainstream side of gaming until quite some time after its original release.
I’m talking about the legendary Rogue, of course, which has an interesting story behind its original creation — and whose Atari ST version is one of the best ways to play out there. This edition, published by Epyx and put together by one of the game’s original creators, is an accessible and friendly way to enjoy some dungeon crawling — and a great way to kick off a roguelike addiction if you don’t already have one!
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.
Today’s Atari 8-bit game is a bit of a mystery! It looks as if it was originally released as a public domain title, but there are a couple of different versions floating around the Internet, both attributed to different people or groups.
Xagon itself is a fun take on the “jump on all the things” genre popularised by Q*Bert. This time around, though, you’re hopping on hexagons, and there are a number of interesting mechanics going on, such as platforms that “balance” one another out, the ability to hop on the spot and all manner of other things. It’s a very competent game that wouldn’t have looked out of place as a commercial release.
