Tag Archives: Atari ST

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Xevious

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It’s dangerous, it’s devious… it’s Xevious! Again. This time for the Atari ST, after we’ve previously seen the Atari 8-bit and Evercade versions.

The Atari ST port of Namco’s classic, genre-defining vertical scroller was handled by Probe, a company whose output varied enormously from game to game. As it happens, their version of Xevious was a very solid port of the game… it was just a bit late. All right, a lot late. But at least it showed up eventually!

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

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Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Winter Games

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I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for multi-sport athletics games, and it’s a genre of game we don’t tend to see all that often any more. Hence, I often find myself looking back to retro games to get my fill.

One of the earliest games of this type I remember playing was Winter Games by Epyx — this may well have been the very first game I ever played on our Atari ST, in fact; it was certainly one of the first pieces of software we owned for the machine, anyway — and one of the first games my brother ever reviewed, kicking off a lifelong career in the games press and surrounding fields.

Enjoy my questionable wintry athleticism 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: Viz

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In the mood for some foul-mouthed nonsense, flatulence and big, hairy bollocks? Then I give you the official video game adaptation of Viz, courtesy of Virgin Games.

Viz is not a good game, but to be fair it does say as much on both the front cover and in the instruction manual, so you only really have yourself to blame for any frustration you might feel as a result of playing it. As an adaptation of the license, mind you, it’s very solid, with some excellent graphics and animation, some catchy music and, of course, lots of swearing courtesy of Roger Mellie, the Man on the Telly.

Strong language and offensive material abounds in the video below — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more video game funtimes!

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Videos

Atari ST A to Z: The Untouchables

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For the longest time, movie license games were a bit of a laughing stock. That’s because they were often poorly thought out affairs that didn’t really adapt their source material in any meaningful way.

Ocean’s The Untouchables is no exception to this rule, though it was reasonably well-received back in its day for its variety of different gameplay styles, solid performance even on the Atari ST, and stiff challenge.

Said stiff challenge makes it rather hard to enjoy today, sadly, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a good crack at it! Check out my experiences 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: Test Drive

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As a kid, I was always fascinated by games that attempted to simulate experiences like you were “really there” — even if they were fairly mundane.

As such, I found myself drawn to the Test Drive series by Accolade, which promised a realistic (for the time) driving experience in a variety of luxury cars. I only played Test Drive II: The Duel back in the day, so I thought it’d be interesting to go back to where this long-running series began.

Check out my experiences 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: Shufflepuck Cafe

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Hitting a thing back and forth across a playfield in an attempt to get it past your opponent is a fundamental of gaming — after all, Pong is one of the original video games!

It’s interesting to see the numerous twists that there have been on the formula over the years, though. One of the most beautifully presented is Broderbund’s Shufflepuck Café, a game that sees you descending the smoky stairs into a sci-fi cantina in the hopes of reaching a telephone. But between you and that phone are some of the meanest Shufflepuckers in the galaxy — and they want to play.

Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Rana Rama

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Rana Rama is one of those games that most ST owners probably played at some point, since it was distributed as part of the “Super Pack” bundle of software with new STs in 1988. And from there, the rampant piracy of the period meant that the disks of the Super Pack tended to find their way into other people’s hands, too!

It’s an interesting game, though, and had quite an influence on a number of subsequent developers. Notably, its use of “fog of war” to gradually reveal rooms as you enter them inspired Simon Phipps to adopt a similar approach when developing his exploration-centric platformer Switchblade for Core Design.

There’s also some very interesting mechanics going on under the hood. Watch me try and figure things out in the video below — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Quadron

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So you reckon you’re a Tetris pro, hmm? Well, how would you manage if required to play two overlapping games of Tetris at the same time?

That’s the premise behind public domain release (and game development library showcase) Quadron, a game which takes the classic falling-block action of Tetris into a whole other dimension… and perhaps in not quite the way you might have expected it to!

It’s a mind-frying challenge, to be sure, but there’s definitely fun to be had here if you want to take your puzzling to the next level. Check out 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: Pandora

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Many of the most passionate people in the gaming industry got their start in its early days.

This was most definitely the case for Shahid Ahmad who, for a number of years, was well-known as a champion of indie games on the PlayStation Vita platform. Prior to that, he put out a number of well-regarded games in the 8- and 16-bit home computer eras — with one of those being the subject of today’s video.

Pandora tasks you with exploring and solving the mystery behind a spaceship that has been missing for a very long time. See how I get on with it 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: OutRun

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Ah, OutRun. A true classic of the “vanishing point” racer genre. A fine example of Sega’s “Super Scaler” technology at work. And, apparently, recipient of an absolutely terrible Atari ST port by Probe and US Gold.

I’ve always been a believer in giving things a fair chance on their own merits, though, and I never played the ST version of OutRun back in the day. I played Turbo OutRun, which was terrible, but never the original.

Time to rectify that, then! Check out the video below to see how I got on, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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