What is the ultimate A8 game you have ever played?

[+Larry]

An oldie... Wizard of Wor!

[WavyGravy]

19 hours ago, cjherr said:

I would call it a tie between Star Raiders and Shamus. The two games I always come back to. 

When I got my 130XE, I got a bunch of cartridges (20-ish?) with it. Star Raiders and Shamus were the only two I couldn't get to work. Star Raiders eventually sorted itself out and lived up to the hype, but I've never been able to get Shamus to work.
For me, I think I've had the most fun with Rescue on Fractalus, but Star Raiders is a contender. If I've got a second player, though, I think Ballblazer clinches it.

[wwdkong]

I've only been exposed to a limited selection, so there's that.  Since others are taking liberties with the number they mention, I guess I'll go there, too.  Generally, in this order.

 

-->castle wolfenstein (on the emulator, so I can throttle the wait while opening the chests, though it's a bit risky)
-->jumpman
-->defender
-->miner 2049er
-->missile command
-->donkey kong
-->star raiders (again on emulator, because keyboard convenience)

 

[adam242]

1 hour ago, WavyGravy said:

When I got my 130XE, I got a bunch of cartridges (20-ish?) with it. Star Raiders and Shamus were the only two I couldn't get to work. Star Raiders eventually sorted itself out and lived up to the hype, but I've never been able to get Shamus to work.
For me, I think I've had the most fun with Rescue on Fractalus, but Star Raiders is a contender. If I've got a second player, though, I think Ballblazer clinches it.

Shamus on cartridge only works with OS-B on the 400/ 800. It's a fun game and definitely worth seeking out a patched version.

 

Oh, and my vote also goes for Star Raiders.  Star Raiders is the defining game of the Atari 8-bit experience. So immersive, really plays to the system's hardware, endless replay value.

 

Other personal favorites are Millipede and Defender for arcade action. Yoomp! is a fun visual stunner and ADAM is Me is a fantastic unique puzzler.

[Mr SQL]

X2 on Wizard of Wor! Defender and Pacman were awesome too and Rainbow Walker took Cubert to a different dimension.

 

Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis rift made you feel like you were really flying a probe around Mars with a low-res camera.

 

Star Raiders felt like you were flying a spaceship around the Universe, these game genres had a realism factor never seen before.

 

Archon "Star Wars Chess" was incredible and slightly edged out the C64 version. 

 

[WavyGravy]

2 hours ago, adam242 said:

Shamus on cartridge only works with OS-B on the 400/ 800. It's a fun game and definitely worth seeking out a patched version.

 

Oh, and my vote also goes for Star Raiders.  Star Raiders is the defining game of the Atari 8-bit experience. So immersive, really plays to the system's hardware, endless replay value.

 

Other personal favorites are Millipede and Defender for arcade action. Yoomp! is a fun visual stunner and ADAM is Me is a fantastic unique puzzler.

Ah, that would explain it! Thank you! I'd tried everything short of putting a scope on it and just assumed the ROM had gone bad. It's good you told me that or I'd have picked up another one and had the same issue.

[Keatah]

Star Raiders is really "Atari". Porting it to the C64 wouldn't be anything more than a show of technical prowess on the part of the programmer. Especially being done on less-powerful hardware. It'd be amusing and interesting, but for my fix I'd always turn to Atari.

[Rybags]

Marbled, yes.

 

I reckon of the modern day games, that, RGB and Ridiculous Reality are the ones I just played really long sessions of until I got through them.

All have good repeat value as well.

[mutil8]

for me no question - Ultima series. played more on apple ii but some on atari.  many of the games mentioned here I have played, but max interest for an hr or so.

I could (and did) play ultima for days on end.

[Lostdragon]

For the sheer fun factor, it has to be Alley Cat. 

[Chilly Willy]

1 hour ago, Lostdragon said:

For the sheer fun factor, it has to be Alley Cat. 

All his games are fun. That one is one of my favorites, along with Necromancer. I actually got Necromancer on cassette - it took FOREVER to load. 😄

[oky2000]

19 hours ago, Keatah said:

Star Raiders is really "Atari". Porting it to the C64 wouldn't be anything more than a show of technical prowess on the part of the programmer. Especially being done on less-powerful hardware. It'd be amusing and interesting, but for my fix I'd always turn to Atari.

It would need to be ported by someone who loves the games, knows it inside out and is a top end C64 coder (i.e. Manfred Trenz quality not modem homebrew sold games type 'top end' coder). This combination doesn't really exist and it's not like in 1985 where I couldn't afford 2 different home computers so it's not essential for it to be ported, there's probably on 2 I don't own now. See I could port Rolling Thunder to the Amiga (done most of the graphics already and they look identical) in Scorpion Engine but I am not enough of a fan of the arcade to do it. I'd rather it wasn't ported if it isn't going to be the best that Manfred Trenz levels of talent could have done, what's the point?

 

If I had it on cartridge I would be playing it now. I only got to play Atari 800 games once before 1984ish, that was in early 1981 when some kid at my school invited me round to play some games. I don't know if he had Star Raiders but back then, when I thought my VCS was awesome, I would have been totally blown away by it too but it's really a game you need to have an Atari computer for an entire weekend to really appreciate it. Had I seen Star Raiders A8 in 1981 it might have forced my hand into what first home computer I chose down to an 8k Atari 400 but I chose a VIC-20 because I wanted to do programming and using the ZX81 keyboard was not good for coding I had discovered already at school's home computer club.  

 

I also hope to be playing the true sequel to Star Raiders by the original author as well in the near future when things are set up and renovations are finished to all rooms.

[Goochman]

Ultima 2/3/4

AR:City and Dungeon

Seven Cities of Gold

Pinball Construction Set

Eastern Front

MULE

WayOut

Getaway

Edited February 27, 2023 by Goochman

[zzip]

My overall pick:  MULE    not a graphics marvel but loads of fun.

 

RPG: Ultima IV

Adventure: Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Platformer: Miner 2049er

Sports: Hardball!

Martial Arts: World Karate Champ

Pinball: Pinball Construction Set

Strategy: Lords of Conquest

Wow Factor:  Alternate Reality (intros)

[patjomki]

Laser Ants.

 

The pace of the gameplay is slow enough for people of my age. Nevertheless the game is still challenging enough that it took me decades to beat the final boss.

 

And the graphics: way ahead of its time. 😈

Edited February 27, 2023 by patjomki

[Gunstar]

Alternate Reality City&Dungeon. Bottom line for me. I believe I spent as much or more time with the 2 Alternate Reality games than all other games on my 8-bit combined. The City used 48-64K of avalable ram. The Dungeon used 48-128K of available ram. I owned a 130XE originally.

Edited February 27, 2023 by Gunstar

[Britishcar]

Yes, hard to choose among so many genres but for SHEER JOY I would have to go with the 2 human player version of Ballblazer. If you get someone who is very, very close to you in skill it can really lead to tired fingers and broken joysticks as you REALLY lean into those runs down the grid and the heart pumping take it or lose it desperation shot with only fractions of a second left on the clock!

 

[oky2000]

I am kind of limited because I didn't own the machine, just had weekly access to it on weekends, so the more longterm games popping up in the list I wouldn't really have had a chance to appreciate unless I bought them for my C64 and the gameplay was the same etc.

[+bf2k+]

On 2/25/2023 at 12:25 PM, MrFish said:

Leader Board is nice; but I wish we had gotten a landlubber's version at some point.

 

Never really thought about it but there certainly is a lot of water in that game...

[Sinjinhawke]

Zone Ranger is my pick up and play game on the Atari. 

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, bf2k+ said:

Never really thought about it but there certainly is a lot of water in that game...

C64 had a Leader Board version similar to ours; but then there was a followup called World Class LeaderBoard, which is more like normal golf. It has trees, sand traps, and water hazards; but the water hazards aren't oceans, they're more like ponds and streams.

 

[Wrathchild]

8 hours ago, MrFish said:

C64 had a Leader Board version similar to ours; but then there was a followup called World Class LeaderBoard, which is more like normal golf. It has trees, sand traps, and water hazards; but the water hazards aren't oceans, they're more like ponds and streams.

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/47646-now-to-fix-that-leaky-tap/?do=findComment&comment=692135

 

Possible, course data rendering was done and @Tezz had made the golfer animation and static screens, so its more or less a case of adding the game logic whilst replacing those elements.

[+MrFish]

21 minutes ago, Wrathchild said:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/47646-now-to-fix-that-leaky-tap/?do=findComment&comment=692135

 

Possible, course data rendering was done and @Tezz had made the golfer animation and static screens, so its more or less a case of adding the game logic whilst replacing those elements.

Yeah, I'd seen your work on it before; it's great so far. I would have bugged you about it (again) in my previous post, but I know you're busy with Elite ATM. I'd love to see WCL developed further. Leader Board is a great game on the A8; I probably play it as much or more than anything else, and I know WCL is a more realistic sim; so, it'd get a lot of play time from me.

 

[ClausB]

On 2/26/2023 at 2:11 AM, Keatah said:

Star Raiders is really "Atari". Porting it to the C64 wouldn't be anything more than a show of technical prowess on the part of the programmer. Especially being done on less-powerful hardware.

Maybe that's why they haven't done a port. Plus it would destroy their fantasy that theirs was the best 8-bit.

[Lostdragon]

1 hour ago, ClausB said:

Maybe that's why they haven't done a port. Plus it would destroy their fantasy that theirs was the best 8-bit.

I always found games like:

 

Elktraglide 

Ninja 

Dropzone 

Rescue On Fractulus 

 

Lost something when brought to the C64, i wouldn't of wanted to add Star Raiders to that list personally. 

 

Ballblazer i only find works in 2-playet,human opponent mode, The Eidolon and Koronis Rift i found to be more tech demos than gripping game experiences.. 

 

 

 

This scratched my Star Raiders itch on the C64.