Category Archives: Videos

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Sprint Master

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The term “racing game” these days is usually applied to games that unfold from a three-dimensional (or at least quasi-3D) perspective. But back in the ’80s, there were a bunch of fun top-down racers.

Sprint Master for Atari 2600 was a solid adaptation of the format that may or may not have been a conversion of Atari Games’ Super Sprint. The reason why this isn’t quite clear is because Atari Corporation (who released 2600 games) and Atari Games (who released Super Sprint) were, at this point, two separate entities with loose connections rather than simply two divisions of the same company!

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, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Flight Simulator II

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Flight Simulator II from subLOGIC was an important piece of software for our family. Not only was it a “game” that my father enjoyed (though he continues to insist to this day that it is “not a game”) but it also directly or indirectly kickstarted the writing careers of three Davisons.

Yes, indeed, after my Dad had his enthusiastic praise of both the Atari 8-bit and ST versions of Flight Simulator II published in the UK’s Page 6 magazine, both my brother and, much later, I started contributing articles to the publication. My brother is, at the time of writing, a person of considerable importance over at IGN and I, well, I get paid to write about cute anime girls. And we can trace all that back to Flight Simulator II!

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, Videos

Atari A to Z: Lode Runner

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Lode Runner is an all-time classic of gaming that is still going strong today, thanks at least in part to its popularity in Japan.

The original game has quite an interesting story behind it — and the Atari 8-bit version was part of that initial story. It’s a stark reminder of how far we’ve come in gaming when you consider that “the ability to move a pixel at a time” was considered to be a selling point for a programmer trying to pitch their game to a publisher!

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, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Space War

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Continuing a proud tradition of Atari 2600 games with the word “Space” in the title, here’s Space War from Atari Flashback Classics.

This is actually kind of noteworthy for an important reason: it’s a conversion of one of the first ever video games, albeit many years after said video game made its first appearance in the ’60s. There’s fun to be had for two players; you may want to give the single-player offering a miss, though!

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, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Elf

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Ocean Software were a funny old bunch. One minute they’d be putting out absolute tosh with the name of a big-name movie on the box, the next they’d be putting out some truly excellent original titles.

Elf for Atari ST falls firmly into the latter category, as the Will Ferrell movie of the same name was several years off at the time of its original release. Instead, what we have here is a great example of the “arcade adventure” genre that doesn’t really exist any more — a type of game that blends fast action with the kind of interactions typically associated with pure adventures. And just a touch of casual racism for good measure. Different times 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 A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Karmic Caverns

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The 8-bit home computing era played host to some great single-screen platform games: Donkey Kong, Miner 2049’er and Jumpman, to name but a few.

I hadn’t come across Karmic Caverns before. There might be a good reason that people haven’t talked about this much over the years — but it does have a few interesting ideas, most notably with how it’s more of a mobility puzzle than an action platformer.

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, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Space Attack

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We’ve got another of Mattel’s “M Network” releases today, in which the company ported some of its successful Intellivision games to Atari 2600, usually in slightly simplified form.

Space Attack is a port of a game simply called Space Battle on the Intellivision, and it’s an interesting little game that incorporates very lightweight real-time strategy elements with arcade-style blasting action. It’s woefully limited in terms of longevity and replay value, sadly, but it’s worth a blast or two at least if you’ve never tried it!

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, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Deja Vu

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The time has come once again for adventure! AtariVenture, to be exact — the Atari ST ports of Icom Simulations’ MacVentures series.

Today we’re looking at Deja Vu, a hard-boiled detective thriller in which you play Theodore “Ace” Harding, who has just woken up in a toilet with a sore arm and no memory of who he is. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

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, Videos

Atari A to Z: Jeepers Creepers

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You’re asking for trouble with a name like “Quality Software” — the stuff you put out better be top-notch otherwise you’ll be at the absolute mercy of press and public alike.

Thankfully Jeepers Creepers, probably the aforementioned software house’s most well-known release, is a good game — albeit one that takes heavy cues from Konami’s Amidar. It offers speedy, enjoyable arcade action with some nice graphics and sound — and that magical addictive quality that keeps you coming back for just one more try.

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, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Slot Racers

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Slot Racers is a game for Atari 2600 that has nothing to do with either slot cars or racing.

Instead, it’s a top-down, maze-based, vehicle-centric deathmatch game with some interesting mechanics and the bendiest cars you ever did see. It’s a fun time, though some might argue it drags on a little longer than it is welcome to.

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

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