Category Archives: Atari A to Z

Atari ST A to Z: Z-Out

Although X-Out is considered to be one of the best shoot ’em ups on the Atari ST, I didn’t rate it all that much from a modern perspective; I think console-style shoot ’em ups have spoiled me!

Its sequel Z-Out is another matter, however; despite being a pretty shameless clone of R-Type, this is a much more enjoyable horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up when played today — it even has R-Type’s iconic monstrous difficulty!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z: The Great American Cross-Country Road Race

Whew, that’s a title and a half, eh? Good job it’s memorable, because it’s attached to probably one of the best racers on the Atari 8-bit.

The Great American Cross-Country Road Race is, in some ways, a spiritual successor to Enduro on the Atari 2600, but it’s also a considerably more complex game. It was one of the first racers to incorporate some distinctly sim-like elements — and a game that made me cry on more than one occasion when I was a kid because I didn’t understand how cars worked.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: SwordQuest EarthWorld

There’s “games that haven’t aged well”, and then there’s the SwordQuest series for Atari 2600, a range of three games (out of a proposed four) that primarily existed for the purpose of running an extravagant competition.

Without the draw of the competition aspect, it’s easy to see these games for what they really are: poorly designed, needlessly obtuse, frustrating, boring messes that learned nothing from earlier attempts at top-down adventures on the platform such as Adventure and Haunted House. And there’s three of them to endure! Oh joy. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound and all that…

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari ST A to Z: Yogi’s Big Cleanup

Licensed games, as we’ve established pretty well by this point, can go either way. Sometimes they can be excellent games, bolstered by the “brand recognition” of what they’re based on. And sometimes they can be absolute pap that comes across as little more than a cheap cash-in.

Yogi’s Big Cleanup for Atari ST sits squarely in the middle. It’s not terrible — in fact its overall structure and design is quite likeable. But some unfortunately atrocious controls and collision detection make it a lot harder to enjoy than it perhaps could have been, which is a real shame.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z: Fire Bug

As we’ve seen numerous times on the Atari A to Z series to date, an important part of computing history in the 8-bit era in particular is type-in listings in magazines.

The American ANALOG magazine specialised in lengthy, technically impressive type-in machine code listings, often by Kyle Peacock and Tom Hudson. If you’d spend the time and effort required to type these in (or buy the issue’s companion disk), you’d end up with a rather good game for your troubles. And here’s just one of many examples: Fire Bug.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Swordfight

The evolution of the fighting game is interesting to observe, because it got its start a lot earlier than a lot of people might realise.

One very early example that is still surprisingly fun to play today despite its simplicity is Swordfight for Atari 2600, originally intended for release in the early ’80s, but which never ended up on store shelves for various reasons. We can enjoy it now, though, thanks to Atari Flashback Classics — and if you’ve got a friend willing to learn the ropes, it’s a good time!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari ST A to Z: X-Out

The games that people consider to be “the best of all time” vary considerably according to what platforms they’ve spent the most time with — and nowhere is that more apparent than in the shoot ’em up genre.

X-Out (pronounced “cross out”) is supposedly one of the best ever shoot ’em ups for 8- and 16-bit home computers — and for sure, it has its impressive elements. But can it stand up to the heavy hitters of the console sector? You already know the answer to that, but let’s give it a go anyway.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z: The Eidolon

First-person shooters came about with Wolfenstein 3-D, right? Wrong! Not only did they not come about with Wolfenstein 3-D’s spiritual precursors in the Catacomb series, they date right back to the ’80s and Lucasfilm’s incredible work on Atari 8-bit.

The Eidolon uses the same fractal landscape engine as the company’s classic Rescue on Fractalus, but here it’s used to create labyrinthine cave systems filled with terrifying monsters. Can you make it out alive, or will you become a dragon’s dinner? Only one way to find out!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Extra: Return of the Fungi

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve been part of a rather extraordinary story — my videos inspired the maker of some of my favourite Atari 8-bit games to revisit a series that had lain dormant for 35 years!

Best of all, you can be part of the story too for yourself by downloading and giving the new game Return of the Fungi a go for yourself — simply stop by Retrounite to read the full story behind this lovely game and download a copy of the Digger Dan Trilogy for yourself!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari ST A to Z: Wanted

Can you smell the Gun.Smoke? Infogrames certainly can in this vertically scrolling blastathon for Atari ST.

Wanted is actually a very competent shoot ’em up that does some interesting things that are a bit different from other, similar games on the ST. Perhaps most notably, it’s cowboy-themed, which was a rather unusual sight at the time — and still is today, to a certain extent.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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