Tag Archives: Let’s Play

Videos

Atari A to Z: The Extirpator

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Shoot ’em ups arguably didn’t really enjoy their golden age until the 16-bit home consoles, but that didn’t stop game developers for home computer platforms having a damn good crack at the genre.

The Extirpator for Atari 8-bit is an impressive example, featuring some slick parallax scrolling, some interesting enemy formations and a decent sense of structure. While there are areas that the genre refined considerably as the years went on, this is definitely a valiant effort for 1988.

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: Sea Battle

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Our exploration of Atari Flashback Classics continues with Sea Battle, a game originally intended for release on the Atari 2600 in the early ’80s, but which never saw the light of day until 2000.

Sea Battle, like many of the other M Network releases for the 2600, is a port of an Intellivision game, but by the time it was due for release the marketing people decided that a strategic game for two players only based around naval combat wasn’t the most marketable thing in the world, so they shelved 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: XOR

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The unusually named XOR from Atari promises a game with no random elements, and a focus on logical thinking rather than twitch reflexes.

One could also describe it, as someone did to me the other day, as a curious blend of Boulder Dash and heraldry, in which the main obstacles to your success will be fish and chickens. Yes, it’s a rather odd game — but if you enjoy some tricky puzzles it’s worth a look!

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 Datestones of Ryn

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While The Temple of Apshai is the most well-known of Epyx’s “Dunjonquest” games, there were actually quite a few games released under this banner.

Not all of them were massive, sprawling affairs intended to be played over the long-term, either. The Datestones of Ryn is a great example of this, offering a short, twenty-minute quest with a fixed player character and a rather arcadey focus on high scores and replayability.

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: Save Mary

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Back in the early ’90s, people were just getting to grips with falling block puzzlers such as Tetris and its numerous imitators.

Which makes it quite a shame that Save Mary, an interesting and original twist on the formula, never made it to release back in the day — because it’s a really fun puzzler. Still, at least we can enjoy it today as part of Atari Flashback Classics!

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: Wheel of Fortune

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The public domain and shareware sector of the 8- and 16-bit era was often a great place to find unofficial adaptations of popular board, card and TV game show formulae.

Today’s Atari ST game is a great example of this, providing a solid (if graphically unremarkable) adaptation of the classic game show Wheel of Fortune for two or three players — and including all the tools you need to build your own custom puzzles, too.

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: Caverns of Khafka

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We take them for granted today, but scrolling platformers were quite an unusual sight back in the early ’80s.

One fun example is Cosmi’s Caverns of Khafka, a game developed by Aztec Challenge creator Robert T. Bonifacio. While the game is by no means perfect — it has some fairly severe issues with collision detection at times! — it’s a fun treasure-huntin’ adventure that is worth a play or two.

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: Saboteur

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Howard Scott Warshaw is a legendary name in video games — not always for the reasons he might have hoped, thanks to his involvement in the notorious E.T. for Atari 2600.

One of his games that never got released was Saboteur, an interesting multi-phase game that acted as something of a spin-off to Yars’ Revenge. The reason it never got released? Atari wanted to turn it into a game based on The A-Team, then got cold feet at the last minute, so it languished in obscurity until it was recovered for collections like Atari Flashback Classics.

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: Venus the Flytrap

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Gremlin Graphics were known for putting out great games, right from the 8-bit era up until their disappearance in 2003.

Venus the Flytrap was a great title from the 16-bit era, featuring an inventive take on arcade-style shoot ’em up gameplay combined with platforming. It looked great, too, even on the Atari ST — in fact, some people even prefer the ST version to the Amiga incarnation of this game, which is a rare occurrence!

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: Beach-Head

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Access Software’s Bruce Carver definitely had a “formula” — one that he successfully refined over the years.

It’s interesting to go back to Beach-Head, one of his earlier games, and see one of the first successful examples of the minigame-centric action strategy his games became known for. Plus it’s just a fun game in its own right, too!

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

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