Category Archives: Videos

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Welltris

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Tetris is a timeless classic that remains relevant today. Its various sequels and spinoffs, on the other hand, have varied somewhat in how well they’ve persisted over the years.

One such title that has been largely forgotten today is Alexey Pajitnov’s official follow-up to the original Tetris, known as Welltris. Developed in Soviet Russia, ported to a variety of platforms and published by Spectrum Holobyte and Infogrames around the world, Welltris takes Tetris into the third dimension.

It’s a solid game… but you have to approach it very differently to Pajitnov’s more enduring classic!

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

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Do Not NTR Lu Bu – Warriors Orochi #54

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Of all the things you should not do to Lu Bu — and there are many — I’d say that cuckolding him is pretty high up the list, perhaps just underneath pursuing him.

Still, Diao Chan doesn’t seem to be particularly enamoured with his attitude fighting in Orochi’s forces, and so she decides to defect to the Coalition. Naturally, Cao Pi is more than happy to welcome a new ally to the fold.

Of course, as you might expect, a betrayal of one of the most legendarily powerful warriors in existence is not something one can expect to go all that smoothly…

Videos

Atari A to Z: Callisto

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The ABBUC Software Competition is an annual contest that, since 2003, has been challenging modern Atari enthusiasts to show what they’re capable of with their favourite home micros.

We’ve already seen one previous example of a competition winner in the form of X:8; today we take a look at the title which took second place in 2012. I present to you: Callisto.

Callisto is a very solid, very challenging shoot ’em up that really shows off the Atari 8-bit at its best. It just wasn’t quite enough to win the contest that year. 2012 was a very good year, it seems!

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

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Adventure

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Hey! Listen! Do you like Zelda? If so, then take a moment to give thanks to 1979’s Adventure for Atari.

Adventure is an early example of a top-down action-adventure, and has been cited as an important influence on the development of subsequent titles such as The Legend of Zelda. While it may look primitive today, its abstract graphics, simple sound and straightforward mechanics still do a surprising amount to stir the imagination, even today.

It’s also the first ever game to feature an “Easter Egg” — and it’s all because the programmer Warren Robinett, quite reasonably, decided that he wanted to actually be credited for his hard work!

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

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: This Was A Mistake – Final Fantasy I #9

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You know how sometimes you get yourself into a situation that, before long, makes it abundantly clear that you have made a poor decision?

Well, that’s what happened in today’s episode of Final Fantasy. Fresh from their defeat of Lich, they decide to check out the newly unlocked Earthgift Shrine, because surely a newly unlocked dungeon is something you should go and check out immediately, isn’t it?

Well… nope. Let’s maybe save these bonus dungeons for the endgame, huh? You’d think I’d know that after having played this version before, but apparently not…

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Vindicators

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Driving tanks has been a proud part of video gaming culture almost since the very beginning.

With 1988’s Vindicators, Atari went back to its Combat roots and tasked up to two players with infiltrating a series of space stations in their “strategic battle tanks” and then, naturally, blowing them up from inside.

It’s probably most remembered today as one of the games Tengen released for NES that was unlicensed, making use of custom cartridge hardware to defeat the NES’ “lockout” chipset. The Atari ST port is pretty solid too, though!

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

Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Naughty Boys – Warriors Orochi #53

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The time has finally come for Cao Pi to launch his rebellion against Da Ji and Orochi’s forces!

In today’s mission, we take Xiahou Dun out for a bit of a spin. This is a character that I know quite a few people who like a lot (at least partially for the “badass with eyepatch” thing he’s got going on), but I don’t have a ton of experience with him. Turns out he’s pretty fun!

Not many more missions to go now, and then we can finally leave Warriors Orochi behind… unless I decide to try and unlock all the characters, get all the personal items, get the best possible weapons and complete everything on Chaos difficulty, that is… mwehehehehe!

Videos

Atari A to Z: Bacterion!

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One of the best things about the 8-bit age was the prolific public domain scene, with many high-quality pieces of software being published in listing format in magazines.

One US publication that was particularly prolific in this regard was ANALOG (Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games), which regularly published commercial-quality machine code programs for readers to type in, save to disk or cassette and enjoy at their leisure.

Today’s game hails from those hallowed pages. I give you Bacterion! The Plague of 2369. Nice.

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

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: 3D Tic-Tac-Toe

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One of my favourite things about working on this series is how I come across interesting bits of trivia during my research.

Did you know, for example, that today’s game, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, was the work of Carol Shaw, an immensely talented programmer perhaps best known for one of my favourite games of all time: River Raid?

It’s not really all that surprising that someone who is good at programming worked on more than one thing in their career, I guess, but, hey, I found it interesting. And 3D Tic-Tac-Toe is a lot harder than it looks!

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

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Wrath of the Lich King – Final Fantasy I #8

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In today’s episode, the Warriors of Light score their first major victory over the Four Fiends and cleanse the Cavern of Earth once and for all.

The fact that this part of the game makes you seek out the advice of an inconveniently located sage then re-run a dungeon in a different context was something pretty distinctive at the time of original release; an audience of players more accustomed to linear “straight line to the finish” games may well have found themselves surprised and baffled when they discovered what was necessary in order for them to progress.

We now know that to be the nature of RPGs, of course; but someone had to define and codify the conventions we take for granted today, didn’t they?