Tag Archives: Infogrames

Atari ST A to Z: Hostages

Terrorists have taken over an embassy! Oh no! What are we to do? Send in six lightly armed operatives, several of whom are fairly incompetent at their jobs, and place them under the leadership of someone who doesn’t know what he is doing.

That’s (kind of) the premise behind Hostages, a well-regarded French game for Atari ST that demonstrates nicely what French games for 16-bit home computers were all about: gorgeous presentation coupled with often interesting and obtuse game mechanics. At least I can finish the training mission now, though, which is more than I could do in my childhood!

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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Atari ST A to Z: Alcatraz

It’s back to “A” again for the Atari ST series, and it’s another technically impressive title from Infogrames.

Alcatraz is the sequel to Hostages (or The Embassy Mission as it’s known in some territories on some platforms) and is very much a game built around two-player cooperative gameplay. So much so, in fact, that they didn’t really bother to make a proper single-player mode — when playing solo you have to take control of both “players” yourself!

It’s a cool-looking, atmospheric game… but if you’re going to give it a go for yourself I strongly recommend bringing a friend!

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

Atari ST A to Z: The Light Corridor

At any point in gaming history, it seems that there’s always one particular territory doomed to be singled out for making “weird” games.

What “weird” actually translates to in most circumstances is “interesting, unconventional, subversive and highly creative”; regrettably, while “weird” is undoubtedly a more concise description, it also carries with it somewhat pejorative connotations.

While today Japan tends to be singled out as the “weird” locale of choice, back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it was France putting out the most creative, unusual and fascinating games on the market, and Infogrames was a leading developer and publisher during this period.

Here’s The Light Corridor, Infogrames’ delightfully abstract 3D take on the traditional “bat and ball” game — an oddly hypnotic experience that, while simple to play, is extremely addictive…

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