+Living Room Arcade Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 (edited) What's that you say? You don't have 600 bucks to buy the 6-game Zarkstars Saga for Atari 2600? Not to say the games aren't worth the price. IMO the quality seems to be very high! For information about buying the actual Zarkstars games for Atari 2600, contact @HSW3ET. Isn't that right, @HSW3ET? But if you're a little low on galactic credits these days and are wondering how to satisfy your space travelling itch on a much more modest intergalactic budget, then join me as we set course for The Poor Man's Version of the Zarkstars Saga! Edited May 27 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 (edited) Economy class space travelers, here is your mission briefing. There are six titles in the Zarkstars Saga. They are: Zarkstars 1: A Space Saga Zarkstars 2: Ground Force Zarkstars 3: Deep Space Zarkstars 4: Nebula Zarkstars 5: Stellar In this short mission, we will find free or inexpensive Atari 2600 games to serve as substitutes for each of the six parts of the Zarkstars Saga for Atari 2600. Ready? Edited May 27 by Living Room Arcade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 (edited) Zarkstars 1: A Space Saga Instructions Link Zarkstars I - instructions.pdf Screenshots and Video Spoiler Gameplay Description: Fly to the left in a cavern, shoot enemy ships and towers Closest Substitutes Vanguard (Atari, 1982) Link ROM Laser Gates (Imagic, 1983) Link ROM Screenshots and Video Spoiler Time Warp (Funvision, 1983) Link ROM Screenshots and Video Spoiler Exocet (Sancho, 1982) Link ROM Screenshots and Video Spoiler Try any of these substitutes, and, with a little imagination, I hope you can have an experience similar to Zarkstars I: A Space Saga on a budget. What do you guys think of these substitutions? Can you recommend any better ones? Post your comments, below! Edited May 27 by Living Room Arcade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 Vanguard (Atari, 1982) Link ROM Screenshots and Video Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted May 27 Author Share Posted May 27 (edited) Vanguard Black (hack) by Neotokeo2001 Link ROM Vanguard matches Zarkstars I: A Space Saga closer with the black background. Edited May 27 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted June 5 Author Share Posted June 5 (edited) Now, on to Part 2! Zarkstars 2: Ground Force Link Screenshots and video Spoiler Intro Cut Scene - This is not the game. Intro Cut Scene - This is not the game. Intro Cut Scene - This is not the game. The game begins. It's like Space Invaders. A special object appears. Touch it. Your fuel is low. Fly up and touch your mothership to refuel. A special object appears. Touch it. Basically, this game is a beautifully rendered Space Invaders clone with the following differences in gameplay: Your base gun/rocket ship has a fuel gauge across the bottom of the screen. Run out of fuel and you will lose a life. The mothership moving across the top of the screen is on your side. Don't shoot it. Instead, you can refuel your base gun/rocket ship by flying it up to the top of the screen and touching the mothership. Some enemies move horizontally across the ground Edited June 5 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted June 5 Author Share Posted June 5 (edited) ZarkStars 2: Ground Force - Substitutions Here are the closest free or low cost alternatives I found. Sky Alien (Home Vision) Link Screenshots Spoiler - has a big mothership on top of screen (although it's not yours) - colorful aliens move side to side, drop bombs straight down - similar music/sounds - there is a progress bar at bottom of screen (although it is not for fuel) You might also consider: Spacechase (Apollo) Link Threshold (Tigervision) Link Space Invaders (Atari) Link The End (homebrew) Link You might even consider: Space Cavern (Apollo) Link (You control a human, not a gun base/rocket, but otherwise, the gameplay is similar.) Space Invaders: Ground Forces (hack) Link (The gameplay is different, but you might like it.) Edited June 5 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted June 5 Author Share Posted June 5 (edited) Gamers, which Atari 2600 games would you substitute for Zarkstars 2: Ground Force if you were on a budget? Post your comments, below! Edited June 5 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomberman94 Posted June 5 Share Posted June 5 Why not publish them all in digital format and (new) for the PAL users - I would love to buy them! 🤷♂️ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roots.genoa Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 On 5/27/2024 at 5:39 PM, Living Room Arcade said: There are six titles in the Zarkstars Saga. They are: Zarkstars 1: A Space Saga Zarkstars 2: Ground Force Zarkstars 3: Deep Space Zarkstars 4: Nebula Zarkstars 5: Stellar 🤔 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 (edited) @roots.genoa Thank you for pointing out my error! Guys, correction, please! The OP should read, "What's that you say? You don't have 500 bucks to buy the 5-game Zarkstars Saga for Atari 2600?" Edited June 6 by Living Room Arcade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 (edited) Hello, @Bomberman94! If you have inquiries about buying the actual Zarkstars games, send a PM to @HSW3ET. I'm sure that they would love to hear from you! Currently, I don't think that they do digital downloads. But, hey, if enough people request it, maybe that will convince them to change their minds! Personally, I would love to have ALL of their games if I could. Here is their catalog. Don't they look great? Edited June 6 by Living Room Arcade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomberman94 Posted June 6 Share Posted June 6 Funny - they are located in Brasil and should have PAL norm for TV there but production is for NTSC only 🙁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnusfalkirk Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 (edited) @Living Room Arcade When will you be posting substitutes for the other three Zarkstars games? Edited July 7 by magnusfalkirk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 How about a cart only release by @Albertwith all the games selectble from a menu screen. This would also be a great new game offering for Atari, and the new 2600+ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted July 10 Author Share Posted July 10 On 7/8/2024 at 6:45 PM, Yurkie said: How about a cart only release by @Albertwith all the games selectble from a menu screen. This would also be a great new game offering for Atari, and the new 2600+ We're not making any carts or selling anything here in this thread. We're just discussing the Zarkstars games and which games might be similar at a lower price. On 7/7/2024 at 11:26 AM, magnusfalkirk said: @Living Room Arcade When will you be posting substitutes for the other three Zarkstars games? Let's see if we can do Part 3 right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomberman94 Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 Best will be: add the possibility of digital purchase and provide a PAL version and everybody’s happy … but I know the coder must agree and provide a version and so on 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted July 10 Author Share Posted July 10 ZarkStars 3: Deep Space Another beautifully made game by @HSW3ET! Let's break it down and see if we can match it up with any substitutes. Screenshots & Video Spoiler I found this video for the game online. Here are some screenshots I took. A beautiful radar display. This is not the game. The game begins! Alien Attack Phase I Alien Attack Phase II Dodge the meteors and collect the blue rectangles until... The enemy mothership appears! Enemy Mothership Part 1 Shoot the enemy mothership and dodge it's fire! Enemy Mothership Part 2 Avoid the brilliant balls of energy being thrown at you until... The mothership is destroyed, and we go back to Alien Attack Phase I. From the video, it appears that you must pass through the first and second waves of the alien attackers three times, then the mothership appears. The graphics are beautiful and the animations look smooth and there is good use of sound to create a sense of drama. SUBSTITUTIONS IMO you have to break this game up into pieces to substitute it well. ALIEN ATTACK PHASE 1 - Space Game by @Karl G has very similar gameplay and appearance. Spoiler ALIEN ATTACK PHASE 2 - Rescue Terra I. Play Game 1 Mission Mode. Play through the Meteors and maybe some Space Pirates, but stop before you get to the Robot Interceptors. Spoiler Just Meteors A mix of Meteors and Space Pirates MOTHERSHIP PARTS 1 & 2 - Death Trap by Avalon Hill. A gigantic, enemy spaceship has captured you in its force fields! You must avoid its plasma fireballs and destroy its power generators! Spoiler Trapped! Instructions for Playing the Substitute Games Spoiler - If you are emulating, it will be much better. Follow the suggestions below for saving and loading game states. START Play Space Game for about one minute. Save game state (slot 1). Play Rescue Terra I for about one minute. Save game state (slot 2). Load game state from slot 1. Continue playing Space Game for about one more minute. Save game state (slot 1). Load game state from slot 2. Continue playing Rescue Terra I for about one more minute. Save game state (slot 2). Load game state from slot 1. Continue playing Space Game for about one more minute. Save game state (slot 1). Load game state from slot 2. Continue playing Rescue Terra I for about one more minute. Save game state (slot 2). Now, after about six minutes of alternately playing Space Game and Rescue Terra I, play Death Trap until you take out the power generators and destroy the enemy mothership! Save game state (slot 3). Repeat the entire sequence above to play for a longer time. Just remember slot 1 = Space Game, slot 2 = Rescue Terra I and slot 3 = Death Trap. Remember to always save the current game state before changing games. If you are using Stella, I recommend using the hot keys: F10 next slot, Shift+F10 previous slot, F9 save state and F11 load state. What do you think of this Poor Man's Version of Zarkstars III: Deep Space? What other substitutions would you make? Post your comments, below! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 I have an extra copy of the first installment. I wish I would have bought the others. 😌 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Living Room Arcade Posted July 13 Author Share Posted July 13 I just received my copy of Stellar yesterday! Thanks, @HSW3ET. Looking forward to playing it. Looks great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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