Tag Archives: Let’s Play

Atari ST A to Z: Neighbours

I have been reliably informed that everybody needs good neighbours, and that with a little understanding, you can find the perfect blend. Of what, I have no idea. Perhaps a nice cup of coffee.

If you were playing Atari ST games in 1990, a little understanding would also have helped you to find Impulze’s official video game adaptation of a certain popular Australian soap opera on the shelves of your local W.H. Smiths.

It was… not very good. But at least they tried something a bit different to the usual “licensed platform game” approach beloved of companies like Ocean and their ilk!

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

Atari A to Z: The Temple of Apshai

I love role-playing games… now. Back in the ’80s, I didn’t really understand what they were, how to play them or how to enjoy them.

That’s why I’ve been particularly interested to revisit Epyx’s Temple of Apshai series knowing what I know now! Now that I well and truly “get” the genre, it’s been fascinating to discover one of the earliest examples of a graphical computer-based RPG and finally make some progress in it.

Today we’re playing the later Temple of Apshai Trilogy release for Atari 8-bit with enhanced graphics, sound and speed of play — but it’s otherwise identical to the original classic from the late ’70s, and just as fascinating an experience as I’d hoped!

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

Atari A to Z Flashback: Canyon Bomber

David Crane is probably most well-known for his classic (and genre-defining) platformer for Activision, Pitfall!

But the prolific programmer worked on a bunch of things for Atari before jumping ship to a company that was more than happy to credit its developers for their hard work. One such example was the Atari 2600 version of Canyon Bomber.

To call this a port is a bit unfair; it actually offers quite a bit more than the arcade version does in terms of ways to play — including the closest we’ll get to a home port of Destroyer!

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

Final Fantasy Marathon: Finale – Final Fantasy I #26

We’re here at last! It’s the finale of the first Final Fantasy game, which means it’s time to return to the Temple of Chaos and sort this whole mess out once and for all.

If you thought later games in the Final Fantasy series got a bit confusing with time kompression and whatnot, then know that this has emphatically been A Thing in the series since the very beginning, as you’re about to see.

Still, after all our intense training in the four Soul of Chaos dungeons and the Labyrinth of Time, we’re more than ready to take on whatever awaits us… so let’s finish this!

Atari ST A to Z: Mission Elevator

Mission Elevator for Atari ST is a game I rather fondly remember; it was, I’m pretty sure, one of the first games I played on that system.

Somewhat criticised on its original release for its superficial resemblance to Taito’s Elevator Action, Mission Elevator is actually a rather interesting arcade adventure that casts you in the role of Agent Trevor (yes, really) as he attempts to dispose of a bomb that is hidden somewhere in a rather tall hotel with an incredibly inconvenient network of elevators.

The game distinguishes itself from Taito’s classic with its strong degree of interactivity and variety of amusing little touches — and still plays pretty well today. Don’t go in expecting an easy mission, though; those enemy agents mean business!

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

Warriors Wednesday: Hungry Hungry Horo – Warriors All-Stars #10

Darius is hungry, and the only cure for that is, of course, the cooking of a local village that has recently been raided by bandits.

Naturally, they want their food retrieving first, so the Warriors gladly agree to help out, secure in the knowledge that doing so will allow them to add another thousand or two kills to their respective counts… but they didn’t count on the presence of a mysterious and very hungry young woman.

Horo, of Toukiden fame, is ready for action… and dinner. Can our heroes keep up with her?

Atari A to Z: Scooter

We tend to think of the idea of established, recognisable “star developers” in gaming as something of a recent thing, but back in the ’80s there were a bunch of programmers who became pretty well-known, for better or worse!

One such developer was Frank Cohen, a prolific game maker who was quite noteworthy for the fact that his games had a certain amount of “consistency” to them. This was partly due to his fondness for reusing assets such as sprites, but they also had quite a distinctive “feel” to them.

One of Cohen’s more enjoyable games for me personally was Scooter,  a game that initially appears to be little more than an oblique perspective take on Pac-Man, but which gradually reveals itself to have a variety of interesting things going on.

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

Atari A to Z Flashback: Breakout

Bip! Boop! Bip! Boop! It’s an iconic sound of the late ’70s: a computerised simulation of some sort of bat-and-ball game. And few games of this type are more classic or influential than Breakout.

The Atari 2600 version of Breakout offers a variety of ways to play, including several multiplayer modes. This technically made the home console version a superior experience to the arcade machine… which is a phenomenon we wouldn’t really encounter again until roughly the Dreamcast era.

Anyway, Breakout for 2600 is a good time, particularly if you’ve got some friends to play with. If you’re flying solo, Super Breakout may be a better choice… but that’s a story for another day!

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

Final Fantasy Marathon: The Labyrinth of Time – Final Fantasy I #25

The end is in sight… but there’s one more endgame challenge before we can finish this thing: The Labyrinth of Time!

This dungeon was added in the PSP version of Final Fantasy, and suggests that you forget everything you thought you knew about the world. And this is good advice; you’ll be doing things in here that you don’t do anywhere else in the game!

It’s one of the most satisfying challenges in all of Final Fantasy, and while some might argue that the fact it was added in 2007 means it’s not “authentic” to the original, it’s certainly a whole lot of fun! Let’s do this.

Atari ST A to Z: Lemmings

“Let’s go!” That’s a phrase you won’t be hearing in the Atari ST port of Lemmings, sadly, since the iconic digitised speech the series was so well known for in its early days was completely absent from this version.

Despite lacking one of its most well-known features, however, Lemmings for Atari ST remains just as enjoyable and interesting as it was back in the day, gradually building in intensity until it reaches absolutely brain-melting frustration.

You’ve never played a puzzle game quite like this… and there haven’t been many since, for that matter. Unless you count the million and one ports there have been over the years, of course…!

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