Tag Archives: video games

Atari A to Z: Pitstop

Early takes on the racing game genre often seem quite primitive by today’s standards — but some of them still had some ambitious ideas.

Epyx’s Pitstop for Atari 8-bit is a good example. While its game structure is fundamentally flawed if playing solo and its racing action is nothing special, it was the first game to not only incorporate pit stops as part of a race, but also to allow you to take control of your pit crew and actually perform the pit stop yourself.

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

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Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book – Getting Into Role

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What, exactly, is an “RPG” anyway? The term covers such a broad spectrum of different game types these days that it’s fast becoming less useful than it once was — and yet it’s still understood by many people to mean a few things.

Growth in power over the duration of the story; strength, competence and other things that can grow (and shrink!) represented as numerical values; abstract mechanics that represent things which would be difficult to simulate “realistically”. All of these are pretty constant, regardless of what type of RPG you’re playing.

But the approach to story — and indeed the main “point” of the experience — varies wildly from game to game. And with Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, we see a game with a noticeably different feel to many of the titles that have come before in the Atelier series.

Continue reading Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book – Getting Into Role

Atari A to Z Flashback: Star Ship

Before Star Raiders, there was Star Ship. And it’s… umm… not quite as good.

That said, when you consider this came out in 1977 — a time when no-one really knew what a “video game” was, let alone what a “first-person perspective space combat simulator” might look like — then they didn’t do all that bad of a job considering the limitations of the hardware.

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: IK+

Despite it being one of the most legendarily enjoyable games on the Atari ST, I must admit that I never played International Karate+, better known simply as IK+, back in the day.

Well, it’s time to correct that longstanding oversight, because it’s time for “I” on Atari ST A to Z once again — and IK+ has been staring me down for several goes around the alphabet to date. Let’s fight! And don’t forget to press “T” for Trousers.

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

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Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book – First Steps in a Mysterious New World

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After how beloved the Dusk subseries of Atelier has become over the years, how could Gust possibly follow that up?

By doing what they’ve always done, of course: completely reinventing the series and kicking off a whole new set of games. Doing so doesn’t stop the Dusk series from existing, after all — and it also prevents the series from stagnating. Not that it was ever at any risk of doing that anyway, given how much we’ve seen it varies between individual installments!

In this part of the Atelier MegaFeature, we’ll be taking a high-level look at the first game in the Mysterious trilogy, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book. Where did this game come from, what was the thinking behind certain aspects of its design — and what do we have to look forward to?

Continue reading Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book – First Steps in a Mysterious New World

Atari A to Z Flashback: Star Raiders

After the relative disappointment of the Atari 2600 version of Star Raiders, it’s time to take on the proper version.

More accurately, it’s time to take on the Atari 5200 version, which tweaks a few things about the original Atari 8-bit version and adds proper analogue control, which is nice. It’s still an all-time classic, though, and if you can get your head around the controls in the Atari Flashback Classics port, there’s hours of fun ahead.

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: Hard Drivin’ II: Drive Harder…

Back in the ’80s and ’90s, it wasn’t unusual to see developers for home computers take it upon themselves to make “sequels” to arcade games.

Hard Drivin’ II: Drive Harder… for Atari ST is a good example. It takes the basic format of Atari Games’ polygonal classic Hard Drivin’ and polishes it up with a better handling model, more tracks and a rather clunky track designer, allowing you to create your own challenges.

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: Ninja Commando

Video games have always had a budget sector — and much like low-cost digital download games are often highly creative today, the same was true for the straight-to-cassette budget sector for the Atari 8-bit.

Zeppelin Games was one of the more noteworthy budget specialists, in that they consistently produced high-quality games and then released them for pocket money prices. Sure, you had to wait more than 15 minutes for them to load on the Atari 8-bit’s excruciatingly slow tape drives, but it was usually worth it!

Here’s Ninja Commando, just one example of Zeppelin’s excellent output for the platform. Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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The Music of Atelier, Vol. 12: Atelier Shallie – Alchemists of the Dusk Sea

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Yes, it’s that time again, boys and girls — the time where we celebrate the sterling work that Gust’s sound team do on their flagship series, and each installment of the series manages to have a distinct, unique sound while remaining true to the franchise’s overall atmosphere.

Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is a noteworthy installment in this regard, in that it placed Hayato Asano in a leading role on the soundtrack alongside series veterans Daisuke Achiwa and Kazuki Yanagawa. And anyone who is familiar with Asano’s other work on titles such as Nights of Azure and Blue Reflection will be immediately at home with the distinctive sound he brings to Atelier Shallie’s soundtrack.

So pump up the volume, sit back, relax and let’s have a listen to some particular highlights from Atelier Shallie’s substantial soundtrack!

Continue reading The Music of Atelier, Vol. 12: Atelier Shallie – Alchemists of the Dusk Sea

Atari A to Z Flashback: Star Raiders

Star Raiders is one of my favourite games of all time, and with good reason — it is one of the greatest games of all time. At least it is in its Atari 8-bit incarnation, where it was quickly regarded as the platform’s “killer app”, despite its early release.

Star Raiders for the Atari 2600, meanwhile… hmm. Well, they tried — though, judging by the masterpiece that is Solaris, developed by the creator of the original Star Raiders on home computers, they could have perhaps tried a bit harder. Stick to that original and best version, I’d say!

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

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