+davidcalgary29 Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 ...and (sort of) on the same topic, are there any thoughts on the best American software houses for the 8-bits? My picks: 1. Synapse 2. First Star 3. Broderbund Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 Synapse was def the best IMHO........... Broderbund was also pretty good to the 8bit community as well. MicroProse did some good stuff early on as did Avalon Hill(crappy games though ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 1. Atari 2. Lucasfilm (Rescue, Ballblazer,...) 3. EA (Seven Cities, Racing Destruction, ...) 4. Datasoft (Goonies, Alternate Realtiy, ...) 5. Origin (Ultima series...) ...Synapse... hmm... maybe number 3 (Blue Max, Rainbow Walker, Shamus, Dimension X...) who did BC's Quest for Tires???? hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 oh... i forgot Activision... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 Datasoft for sure they did both serious software and games. I like there BASIC compiler for sure... it's outdated now but sometimes it's still nice to program in BASIC and convert it to ML, nice tool for lazy programmerz... : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 MicroProse did some good stuff early on as did Avalon Hill(crappy games though) I go along with these 2... MP - many hours on Kennedy Approach AH - many many hours on Telenguard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 MicroProse did some good stuff early on as did Avalon Hill(crappy games though) I go along with these 2... MP - many hours on Kennedy Approach AH - many many hours on Telenguard Kennedy Approach was good for that time but the graphics where bad. The best games I have seen where written in Poland... One game KARATEKA from Broderbund was very good but was to slow to play. Hmm just went thru my disks and found SPY HUNTER this was also a game that I played alot... The Best ATARI CORP. game was TIGER ATTACK I think one of the ganes Atari released that was of good quality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 come on... Tiger Atack the only good Atari game??? - Centipede5200 - Crystal Castle - Pole Position - Jungle Hunt - ... and many more... hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 TXG/MNX - please share the polish great with us - I've only ever seen some ugly me-too platform games from that neck of the woods... As to the best US publishers: EA Synapse First Star Atari Lucasarts sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 I think Epyx had the most favorable quality to crap ratio. EA put out a lot of fine games but shoveled out a lot of dead dogs too. SSI had a nice string of Wargames and CRPGs in the mid 80s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 and how many have survived? - ea - challenge everything... - activison - ???? hve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t.skid Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 - Activision - EA - US Gold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 Tony, US Gold were a UK publisher... sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t.skid Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 Tony, US Gold were a UK publisher... sTeVE Ops, sorry.... Thank you for correction I really forgot it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heniek Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 The BEST polish publishers - LK AVALON - MIRAGE - ASF - StanBit If you want to find games from poland look at Mr. Bacardi's site ( http://people.freenet.de/mrbacardi/ ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 The games that held my attention for more than a few days were by Infocom - Zork Series, Enchanter Series Origin - Ultima Omnitrend - Universe WRL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 I never got a title from DataSoft I didn't like...they were the best on a consistant basis. EA was good, but only had about 10% of their software on the 8-bit Atari, so they suck. Lucasarts was cool, but only 4 titles on the 8-bit limits them in my book from being called one of the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted January 2, 2003 Share Posted January 2, 2003 The definitive list is (in no certain order) Datasoft Synapse Epyx Origin Broderbund EA turned out to be a turd later but still produced some gems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 Its amazing to think how many highly successful companies crashed and burned in the long run. Epyx had a string of hits and then got bogged down by jumping into the hardware market. Origin which had two of computer gaming's was successful series Ultima and Wing Commander eventually had to sell out to EA (I think brought on by the excess of the WC games). So many others did not survive either and that was when game development costs were very cheap compared to now. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jetboot Jack Posted January 4, 2003 Share Posted January 4, 2003 Yeah Datasoft, d'oh, how could I forget, apart from a crappy moment when they released Goonies/Zorro/Conan, they were a number one company... As to EA, 10% of their catalog at the time - I think not! Well when the 800 was a viable platform to publish on in the early 80's they sure did support the system with some of the best software it was ever graced with - MULE, Archon I & II, Age of Adventure, Seven Cities of Gold, PCS, One on One, Worms, Murder on the Zinderneuf, Realm of Impossibility, Lords of Conquest, Hard Hat Mack, Mail Order Monsters etc. I too was bummed out they didn't do Bard's tale and onwards, past 1985.... sTeVE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted January 5, 2003 Author Share Posted January 5, 2003 I noticed that someone mentioned Infocom in one of their "best" lists. I would have put that in my own, but think that Infocom was the best software house for any platform, period. I can't think of one game of theirs that wasn't worth playing...including such oddballs as "Cutthroats" and "Plundered Hearts". I just wish that Activision would revive Infocom and publish a few more text adventures for us diehards! (Windows would do) :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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