Greyfox

Some great reading to be had here fella.
 
and as part of my return to doing game reviews, if it's okay with you, I'd like to share the first video produced after some 6 years lol.
 
I'm not You tube spamming with the latest content, well I am, amid I? sorry about that, I'm hoping to cover some great titles on the ST Machine and hopefully not main stream amongst other formats too like th A8 and Amiga
 
but here's the latest peace offering .
 

Now we know why Jack bought Atari.  It was a conspiracy!  It was his way of slowly destroying Atari while Commodore could live on.  
 
In all honesty, I had a C64 in 2005 that a co-worker literally gave me with a floppy drive and ton of copied floppy disks.  It was cool and all but I didn't like it all that well.  When I ordered an Atari 800 shortly after from V61 (no...it's not an advertisement trick) I was not surprised to feel the Atari 8-bit computer seem more powerful.  It also remains, in my opinion, the most supported and well documented computer for the time because of Atari making it an open system for anyone to develop for.  There are hundreds of books just on programming the Atari.  I truly believe that the APX and Atari computers were one of the best business tactics to ever come about...and something that would be nice to see again in a modern world.

Into The Eagle's Nest was probably not made for the 7800 because of a few things.  After reading programming guides for the 7800 it can appear that the system might not have been able to handle the memory requirements for the game.  Then again it could have been the timing of the 7800 as well.  It came way too late in the game to have much of a shelf-life.  By the time it came out others had moved on to other systems and the 16-bit consoles were just around the corner so why waste time on another 8-bit system?  For the most part, when looking back, the 7800's library was tired and boring when compared to what Nintendo and Sega was publishing even if it was filling in a much needed arcade-style gap.  Just a theory anyway.  
 
Then again, from what I've been told, there are a lot of things that Atari should have done but never did.  That 5200 JR model Atari Museum for example is stunning and I would have bought one.  The crash and management/owners of Atari back then I don't believe realized all the potential in the stuff they were creating.  It's a shame really and talent gone to waste.  So, the 7800 should have received Into The Eagle's Nest but missed it.  

Great stuff Fella, Have begun backing into the videos, and will be doing a series of these games as part of an Atari 8-bit Games that pushed the limits of the A8, so watch out for those. Just finished an Atari ST game today and will post about shortly in the ST section of the site.
 
Keep the scene alive pal

Great stuff Fella, Have begun backing into the videos, and will be doing a series of these games as part of an Atari 8-bit Games that pushed the limits of the A8, so watch out for those. Just finished an Atari ST game today and will post about shortly in the ST section of the site.
 
Keep the scene alive pal

Thanks! And another that pushed the POKEY chip: SAM - software automated mouth.
 
Phonetically spelled out curse words...prank call programs...oh the fun! My friends and I made a game of it.

Although not game related, I'll give you a helping hand, the demo you speak of is one called "Music Digitizer Player Demo" by Kenny Davis back in 1987,
 
Here is a video for you to help jog your memory
 
It's the last song on the demo
 

 
You can download it from here : http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3607
 
Enjoy,
 
Bring games with ya next time

Although not game related, I'll give you a helping hand, the demo you speak of is one called "Music Digitizer Player Demo" by Kenny Davis back in 1987,
 
Here is a video for you to help jog your memory
 
It's the last song on the demo
 

 
You can download it from here : http://a8.fandal.cz/detail.php?files_id=3607
 
Enjoy,
 
Bring games with ya next time

Yep, Creatures it is..very similar, thanks Lost Dragon.
 
A few more to add here.
 
Dimension X (Synapse 1984)

Steve Hales programmed and produced Dimension X for Synapse in 1984 and brought a new dimension to the Atari 8-bit, super fast scrolling, mixed with tunnel traveling, made this a great game on the Atari 8-bit machine, and one I was myself was very fond of.
 
Earth View (Antic Software 1984)

No so much a game, but wow, the entire map of the world on your Atari 8-bit, some 18 years before Google earth appeared, this software allowed you to zoom into pacific countries and get there capital cities etc. it was way ahead of its time back in 1984
 
Electrician (Synapse Software 1984)

One of my most favorite Atari 8-bit games was Electrician, You had to reconnect the lights in the house while avoiding rats biting your heels, then when you connected all the wiring, you then had to head down to the basement, with a flash light and traverse through the maze while avoiding bats/ and Crocodiles of all things? lol. this was a very polished little game.

Some amazing title listed there, I'm going try and go for some obscure ones now, or one which weren't sold in Europe, a absolute classic that comes to my mind and remember playing thanks to my fathers friend whom worked in the country's telecom services known then as P&T(Post and telegraph) who had access to free calls to the United States in which became great friend with "Yogi" from Jellystone park bbs, but I'm off off on a history road there, back on topic.
 
Yes this one
 
Trivia Quest (Royal Software 1984)

This was Trivia Pursuit with a difference, this took the Archon approach in the extend of an RPG style adventure while asking you general trivia from sports to movies, the battle sequences and arcade action extended this even further and was an amazing example of originality and darling to take one type of game and turn it into something completely else. It's super smooth and brilliantly programmed, one for those you love high adventure and quizzes all in one. Genius.
 
Cosmic Tunnels (Datamost 1983)

One of my all time favourite games on the Atari 8-bit, so much it was, I did a video review of this game on my you tube channel about 5 years and can be seen here, this was another one of those games that brought multi levelled gameplay to the table, space flight, trust style landing, and isomeric play forming action across a planet designated level select, brilliant music matched with surprisingly good graphics all running out in 48k, technically again, brilliantly programmed and is the best presentation in terms of its C64 counter part.
 
Final Legacy (Atari USA 1984)

Final Legacy from Atari was a bit of a sleeper title, when I first played this I was thinking that the Atari 8-bit was becoming a serious piece of kit with its map generation, with open ocean battleship battles with wonderful gradient skies and clouds and very recognisable battle cruisers been blasted out of the sea, followed by locking on and taking down nuclear missiles via this futuristic grid tracking system, made this a very varied and technically excellent design game that had a easy learning curve not to be unplayable for the novice player, so I'd simply like to say Kudo's to Dan Oliver and Chris Horseman for a technically brilliantly designed game.

Thanks pal appreciate the sentiment
 
The one thing you may of noticed was the years in which these games were created when in comparison to today's software houses, pales to the creativity of the talent that existed over 30 years ago, the games were daring, clever and exciting and understandably the economics of today's budgets in game development is 100 times greater, but is no excuse for the lack of innovation that we see 90% of the time and that tells you that 30 years was a better time than today IMO.
 
So I'll continue some more diamonds in the ruff that were exceptional on the Atari 8-bit, maybe a few of you will know and have played these games, some of you wont which is fantastic for you to find out how good they are.
 
First up....
 
Beer Belly Burt's Brew Biz (American Eagle Software 1985)

Anything that came from coder extroardinar Frank Cohen was always going to you many how it was done with both game design and concept, He is the man behind such great games as Cohen's tower, ghost chaser And ollie's follies, so check them out if you haven't already done so.
 
Break It (Oliver Cyranka 1986)

Showing how the Atari 8-bit was at accomplishing a near perfect arcade conversion of Tatio's Arkanoid against the poor conversion Imagine software did, no colour clashing here or sprite detection errors, so again coding talent wins the day with this port, although some of the screens are difference from the Imagine version, this version plays far superior even with a joystick.
 
The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (Activision 1985)

I think this game goes unnoticed a hell of lot of times in recent years and was what OutRun was in gameplay mechanics over a year before Sega's smash hit arrived in Arcades, you travel cross country to different part of the untied states, but what made this technically brilliant was the you had races in fog (lotus esprit 2), night time races, real time day light chances and great American land marks when you arrived at the city's destination. Fantastic game this was and I still play it today.
 
Cave IN (Sunset software 1983)

Just look at those graphics? And this is 1983!!!, this was a great testament that the Atari 8-bit computer in the right hands could deliver such high quality graphics and game play that matched and in some cases better arcade coin ops games out at that time, this is a familiar platform game nothing new there, but with big sprites and colour levels, isn't this enough to make it great? I thought so.

Some great title there guys and excellent classics too. @ Lost dragon I've check out that Crack-Up title you suggested , plays very nicely too and fluid and one I myself never heard of before, so cheers for the mentioning of it, I'm always delighted to play unnoticed classics sorta gives the revisiting of these titles a whole new balance and a refreshing recall
 
Some more titles I thought back then were really pushing the envelope, so I'll start with a title created in two different regions based on a classic 1983 computer influenced film with Matthew Broderick "War Games" the UK one been Computer War from Thorn EMI (Creative Sparks), but I'm looking at the other one, the American Version on the film.
 
War Games (Coleco 1984)

With Computer War the UK take on the film War Games predates this by a year been released in 1983, but when this bombshell dropped and been released on a rival machine that wasn't even a console, did a extremely faithful job of key elements of the film, from satellite war fare, Air Plane invasions through sections of the USA, a really varied game with some great graphics and only ever did two games the other being "Tarzan of the Apes" another quality looking title, dam shame they didn't do any more as they knew how to make the A8 shine.
 
Whistler's Brother (Brøderbund Software 1984)

Again more originality being graced on the Atari 8-bit, this was no exception, Traversing through the level of the name, you had to whistle to your brother to follow you, It was a take on the Tom & Jerry Cartoon which had Tom trying to stop a baby infant from certain death, that type of gaming mechanic and had a great title screen tune to boot, high recommend this
 
Wioczykij (LK Avalon 1993)

A late comer to the Atari 8-bit back in 1993 and with their very little companies producing Atari 8-bit games LK Avalon had free reign to produce some amazing games on the Atari, this being one of them. It reminds me of a C64 game, I can't think of the name, but they proved that they could do sprite style graphics similar to those of the Amstrad and C64 on the Atari 8-bit, and very worth checking it out.
 
Gemstone Warrior (SSi 1985)

Now I'm not one for playing RPG's , in fact I hate them, I prefer the action type tittles out there, but this is an exception, I must of played this for about 15 hours back in the day, while every one else was enjoying the Ultima series this was as far as I got, Gemstone Warrior mixes great treasure hunting and mystical creature battles. In regards to it push the Atari 8-bit? not so much, but was one hell of a good game, seek it out, if you've never played this.
 
have a good one.

Some great title there guys and excellent classics too. @ Lost dragon I've check out that Crack-Up title you suggested , plays very nicely too and fluid and one I myself never heard of before, so cheers for the mentioning of it, I'm always delighted to play unnoticed classics sorta gives the revisiting of these titles a whole new balance and a refreshing recall
 
Some more titles I thought back then were really pushing the envelope, so I'll start with a title created in two different regions based on a classic 1983 computer influenced film with Matthew Broderick "War Games" the UK one been Computer War from Thorn EMI (Creative Sparks), but I'm looking at the other one, the American Version on the film.
 
War Games (Coleco 1984)

With Computer War the UK take on the film War Games predates this by a year been released in 1983, but when this bombshell dropped and been released on a rival machine that wasn't even a console, did a extremely faithful job of key elements of the film, from satellite war fare, Air Plane invasions through sections of the USA, a really varied game with some great graphics and only ever did two games the other being "Tarzan of the Apes" another quality looking title, dam shame they didn't do any more as they knew how to make the A8 shine.
 
Whistler's Brother (Brøderbund Software 1984)

Again more originality being graced on the Atari 8-bit, this was no exception, Traversing through the level of the name, you had to whistle to your brother to follow you, It was a take on the Tom & Jerry Cartoon which had Tom trying to stop a baby infant from certain death, that type of gaming mechanic and had a great title screen tune to boot, high recommend this
 
Wioczykij (LK Avalon 1993)

A late comer to the Atari 8-bit back in 1993 and with their very little companies producing Atari 8-bit games LK Avalon had free reign to produce some amazing games on the Atari, this being one of them. It reminds me of a C64 game, I can't think of the name, but they proved that they could do sprite style graphics similar to those of the Amstrad and C64 on the Atari 8-bit, and very worth checking it out.
 
Gemstone Warrior (SSi 1985)

Now I'm not one for playing RPG's , in fact I hate them, I prefer the action type tittles out there, but this is an exception, I must of played this for about 15 hours back in the day, while every one else was enjoying the Ultima series this was as far as I got, Gemstone Warrior mixes great treasure hunting and mystical creature battles. In regards to it push the Atari 8-bit? not so much, but was one hell of a good game, seek it out, if you've never played this.
 
have a good one.

I think we're overlooking the recently-revealed Star Raiders II which would have been a masterpiece had it seen the light of day. More here: http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/1309-the-real-star-raiders-ii/?hl=%2Bstar+%2Braiders
 
 
 

Thanks pal appreciate the sentiment
 
The one thing you may of noticed was the years in which these games were created when in comparison to today's software houses, pales to the creativity of the talent that existed over 30 years ago, the games were daring, clever and exciting and understandably the economics of today's budgets in game development is 100 times greater, but is no excuse for the lack of innovation that we see 90% of the time and that tells you that 30 years was a better time than today IMO.
 
So I'll continue some more diamonds in the ruff that were exceptional on the Atari 8-bit, maybe a few of you will know and have played these games, some of you wont which is fantastic for you to find out how good they are.
 
First up....
 
Beer Belly Burt's Brew Biz (American Eagle Software 1985)

Anything that came from coder extroardinar Frank Cohen was always going to you many how it was done with both game design and concept, He is the man behind such great games as Cohen's tower, ghost chaser And ollie's follies, so check them out if you haven't already done so.
 
Break It (Oliver Cyranka 1986)

Showing how the Atari 8-bit was at accomplishing a near perfect arcade conversion of Tatio's Arkanoid against the poor conversion Imagine software did, no colour clashing here or sprite detection errors, so again coding talent wins the day with this port, although some of the screens are difference from the Imagine version, this version plays far superior even with a joystick.
 
The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (Activision 1985)

I think this game goes unnoticed a hell of lot of times in recent years and was what OutRun was in gameplay mechanics over a year before Sega's smash hit arrived in Arcades, you travel cross country to different part of the untied states, but what made this technically brilliant was the you had races in fog (lotus esprit 2), night time races, real time day light chances and great American land marks when you arrived at the city's destination. Fantastic game this was and I still play it today.
 
Cave IN (Sunset software 1983)

Just look at those graphics? And this is 1983!!!, this was a great testament that the Atari 8-bit computer in the right hands could deliver such high quality graphics and game play that matched and in some cases better arcade coin ops games out at that time, this is a familiar platform game nothing new there, but with big sprites and colour levels, isn't this enough to make it great? I thought so.

Ballblazer is another.  The Atari's smooth scrolling ability made this game just amazing to look at.  Interestingly, the C64 and NES versions are terrible, but the 7800 version is just as good as the 8-bit. 

I played the C-64 version.....but there's no question this game pushed the envelope on both systems, and for computer RPGs in general.

A review:

Some amazing title listed there, I'm going try and go for some obscure ones now, or one which weren't sold in Europe, a absolute classic that comes to my mind and remember playing thanks to my fathers friend whom worked in the country's telecom services known then as P&T(Post and telegraph) who had access to free calls to the United States in which became great friend with "Yogi" from Jellystone park bbs, but I'm off off on a history road there, back on topic.
 
Yes this one
 
Trivia Quest (Royal Software 1984)

This was Trivia Pursuit with a difference, this took the Archon approach in the extend of an RPG style adventure while asking you general trivia from sports to movies, the battle sequences and arcade action extended this even further and was an amazing example of originality and darling to take one type of game and turn it into something completely else. It's super smooth and brilliantly programmed, one for those you love high adventure and quizzes all in one. Genius.
 
Cosmic Tunnels (Datamost 1983)

One of my all time favourite games on the Atari 8-bit, so much it was, I did a video review of this game on my you tube channel about 5 years and can be seen here, this was another one of those games that brought multi levelled gameplay to the table, space flight, trust style landing, and isomeric play forming action across a planet designated level select, brilliant music matched with surprisingly good graphics all running out in 48k, technically again, brilliantly programmed and is the best presentation in terms of its C64 counter part.
 
Final Legacy (Atari USA 1984)

Final Legacy from Atari was a bit of a sleeper title, when I first played this I was thinking that the Atari 8-bit was becoming a serious piece of kit with its map generation, with open ocean battleship battles with wonderful gradient skies and clouds and very recognisable battle cruisers been blasted out of the sea, followed by locking on and taking down nuclear missiles via this futuristic grid tracking system, made this a very varied and technically excellent design game that had a easy learning curve not to be unplayable for the novice player, so I'd simply like to say Kudo's to Dan Oliver and Chris Horseman for a technically brilliantly designed game.

Some amazing title listed there, I'm going try and go for some obscure ones now, or one which weren't sold in Europe, a absolute classic that comes to my mind and remember playing thanks to my fathers friend whom worked in the country's telecom services known then as P&T(Post and telegraph) who had access to free calls to the United States in which became great friend with "Yogi" from Jellystone park bbs, but I'm off off on a history road there, back on topic.
 
Yes this one
 
Trivia Quest (Royal Software 1984)

This was Trivia Pursuit with a difference, this took the Archon approach in the extend of an RPG style adventure while asking you general trivia from sports to movies, the battle sequences and arcade action extended this even further and was an amazing example of originality and darling to take one type of game and turn it into something completely else. It's super smooth and brilliantly programmed, one for those you love high adventure and quizzes all in one. Genius.
 
Cosmic Tunnels (Datamost 1983)

One of my all time favourite games on the Atari 8-bit, so much it was, I did a video review of this game on my you tube channel about 5 years and can be seen here, this was another one of those games that brought multi levelled gameplay to the table, space flight, trust style landing, and isomeric play forming action across a planet designated level select, brilliant music matched with surprisingly good graphics all running out in 48k, technically again, brilliantly programmed and is the best presentation in terms of its C64 counter part.
 
Final Legacy (Atari USA 1984)

Final Legacy from Atari was a bit of a sleeper title, when I first played this I was thinking that the Atari 8-bit was becoming a serious piece of kit with its map generation, with open ocean battleship battles with wonderful gradient skies and clouds and very recognisable battle cruisers been blasted out of the sea, followed by locking on and taking down nuclear missiles via this futuristic grid tracking system, made this a very varied and technically excellent design game that had a easy learning curve not to be unplayable for the novice player, so I'd simply like to say Kudo's to Dan Oliver and Chris Horseman for a technically brilliantly designed game.

i was thinking of this subject the other morning in regarding my fondest Memories of the classic on the Atari 8-bit and though looking back now, what games actually pushed the Atari 8-bit machine to its near limits without additional hardware, but purely coding skill, artistic excellence and musical perfection.
 
You might be a little hard pushed to list them, but for me there was some real technical excellent Atari 8-bit and I've listed my list of games that pushed the Atari.
 
Rescue on Fractalus (Lucasfilm 1985)

David Fox and Loren Carpenter We're ground breaking in their design for fractal landscape generation and true made the Atari 8-bit step outside its own comfort zone, this was one of most amazing games on the Atari 8-bit, used thereafter on titles like Koronis Rift and the Eidolon..
 
Alley Cat (SynapsE Software 1983)

When Bill William (R.I.P.) brought this game out, it was so clever and so well executed to what it was like to be a cat, from the fantastic sleeping dogs level to the hopping through a giant Swiss cheese avoiding being tossed out the window by a possessed sweeping brush..pure genius!! , many people may have over looked Alley Cat, but technically it is superbly programmed along with so much originally and concept, IMO pushed the A8
 
The Goonies / Zorro (Datasoft 1985)

When both these Games came out in the same year I might add, was the pinnacle of exception programming and graphics bringing both a true film to video game translation along with some clever puzzle directly lifted from the film which was fantastic to play and rank the Goonies high up on the list of technical excellence.
 
Zorro which arrived in the later half of that year was again, a fantastic take of the TV show accompanied with wonderful graphics and once that tune got into your head, it was near impossible not to be humming that god dam thing while being away from the game, although the puzzles were a little cryptic and didn't really make sense in places, didn't stop people from playing and that is how technically clever it is.
 
I'll leave it there for the moment to give others a chance to showcase what technically brilliant games they though pushed the Atari 8-bit, hopefully some I've never heard off or played..
 
Let's see what you've got?

i was thinking of this subject the other morning in regarding my fondest Memories of the classic on the Atari 8-bit and though looking back now, what games actually pushed the Atari 8-bit machine to its near limits without additional hardware, but purely coding skill, artistic excellence and musical perfection.
 
You might be a little hard pushed to list them, but for me there was some real technical excellent Atari 8-bit and I've listed my list of games that pushed the Atari.
 
Rescue on Fractalus (Lucasfilm 1985)

David Fox and Loren Carpenter We're ground breaking in their design for fractal landscape generation and true made the Atari 8-bit step outside its own comfort zone, this was one of most amazing games on the Atari 8-bit, used thereafter on titles like Koronis Rift and the Eidolon..
 
Alley Cat (SynapsE Software 1983)

When Bill William (R.I.P.) brought this game out, it was so clever and so well executed to what it was like to be a cat, from the fantastic sleeping dogs level to the hopping through a giant Swiss cheese avoiding being tossed out the window by a possessed sweeping brush..pure genius!! , many people may have over looked Alley Cat, but technically it is superbly programmed along with so much originally and concept, IMO pushed the A8
 
The Goonies / Zorro (Datasoft 1985)

When both these Games came out in the same year I might add, was the pinnacle of exception programming and graphics bringing both a true film to video game translation along with some clever puzzle directly lifted from the film which was fantastic to play and rank the Goonies high up on the list of technical excellence.
 
Zorro which arrived in the later half of that year was again, a fantastic take of the TV show accompanied with wonderful graphics and once that tune got into your head, it was near impossible not to be humming that god dam thing while being away from the game, although the puzzles were a little cryptic and didn't really make sense in places, didn't stop people from playing and that is how technically clever it is.
 
I'll leave it there for the moment to give others a chance to showcase what technically brilliant games they though pushed the Atari 8-bit, hopefully some I've never heard off or played..
 
Let's see what you've got?

i was thinking of this subject the other morning in regarding my fondest Memories of the classic on the Atari 8-bit and though looking back now, what games actually pushed the Atari 8-bit machine to its near limits without additional hardware, but purely coding skill, artistic excellence and musical perfection.
 
You might be a little hard pushed to list them, but for me there was some real technical excellent Atari 8-bit and I've listed my list of games that pushed the Atari.
 
Rescue on Fractalus (Lucasfilm 1985)

David Fox and Loren Carpenter We're ground breaking in their design for fractal landscape generation and true made the Atari 8-bit step outside its own comfort zone, this was one of most amazing games on the Atari 8-bit, used thereafter on titles like Koronis Rift and the Eidolon..
 
Alley Cat (SynapsE Software 1983)

When Bill William (R.I.P.) brought this game out, it was so clever and so well executed to what it was like to be a cat, from the fantastic sleeping dogs level to the hopping through a giant Swiss cheese avoiding being tossed out the window by a possessed sweeping brush..pure genius!! , many people may have over looked Alley Cat, but technically it is superbly programmed along with so much originally and concept, IMO pushed the A8
 
The Goonies / Zorro (Datasoft 1985)

When both these Games came out in the same year I might add, was the pinnacle of exception programming and graphics bringing both a true film to video game translation along with some clever puzzle directly lifted from the film which was fantastic to play and rank the Goonies high up on the list of technical excellence.
 
Zorro which arrived in the later half of that year was again, a fantastic take of the TV show accompanied with wonderful graphics and once that tune got into your head, it was near impossible not to be humming that god dam thing while being away from the game, although the puzzles were a little cryptic and didn't really make sense in places, didn't stop people from playing and that is how technically clever it is.
 
I'll leave it there for the moment to give others a chance to showcase what technically brilliant games they though pushed the Atari 8-bit, hopefully some I've never heard off or played..
 
Let's see what you've got?

i was thinking of this subject the other morning in regarding my fondest Memories of the classic on the Atari 8-bit and though looking back now, what games actually pushed the Atari 8-bit machine to its near limits without additional hardware, but purely coding skill, artistic excellence and musical perfection.
 
You might be a little hard pushed to list them, but for me there was some real technical excellent Atari 8-bit and I've listed my list of games that pushed the Atari.
 
Rescue on Fractalus (Lucasfilm 1985)

David Fox and Loren Carpenter We're ground breaking in their design for fractal landscape generation and true made the Atari 8-bit step outside its own comfort zone, this was one of most amazing games on the Atari 8-bit, used thereafter on titles like Koronis Rift and the Eidolon..
 
Alley Cat (SynapsE Software 1983)

When Bill William (R.I.P.) brought this game out, it was so clever and so well executed to what it was like to be a cat, from the fantastic sleeping dogs level to the hopping through a giant Swiss cheese avoiding being tossed out the window by a possessed sweeping brush..pure genius!! , many people may have over looked Alley Cat, but technically it is superbly programmed along with so much originally and concept, IMO pushed the A8
 
The Goonies / Zorro (Datasoft 1985)

When both these Games came out in the same year I might add, was the pinnacle of exception programming and graphics bringing both a true film to video game translation along with some clever puzzle directly lifted from the film which was fantastic to play and rank the Goonies high up on the list of technical excellence.
 
Zorro which arrived in the later half of that year was again, a fantastic take of the TV show accompanied with wonderful graphics and once that tune got into your head, it was near impossible not to be humming that god dam thing while being away from the game, although the puzzles were a little cryptic and didn't really make sense in places, didn't stop people from playing and that is how technically clever it is.
 
I'll leave it there for the moment to give others a chance to showcase what technically brilliant games they though pushed the Atari 8-bit, hopefully some I've never heard off or played..
 
Let's see what you've got?

Hi Vlad, I'm happy to expand on this a bit more just to be sure this is clear.
 
It has absolutely nothing to do with opinion or "non-positive" comments about other sites. We advocate free speech and afford greater freedom to constructively voice an opinion, even the most unpopular, than anywhere else. People should be able to say "maybe ET wasn't the worst game ever made" without descending into Lord of the Flies.
 
This has to do with behavior. It's the positive, welcoming vibe of this community. When people think it's somehow acceptable to come into our wonderful community, drag in negative issues from other sites and immediately start complaining before they've so much as made five posts or created an avatar, it's a massive red flag.
 
If you've been here for five posts, haven't made an avatar or joined us in the chat and are demanding an "ignore topic" button then something is wrong. If that's all you have to offer, if you can't stop complaining, then you don't belong here. We're not going to discuss it and drag it out in public. We're going to delete your account and remove you from the site without incident.
 
When you show up to a friend's dinner party, do you track muddy shoes into the house, make yourself at home and complain about the food? Do you monopolize the conversation, or come into his home like Jackie Treehorn's goons, dunk his head in the toilet and micturate on the Dude's rug?
 

 
This aggression will not stand, man. This isn't like other forums and we're not going to pretend that it is. We've tried to create a little Atari Utopia. This is a special place with truly great people. It's a relaxed community with a really good vibe. People are nice here and come to share thoughtful conversation and have fun at the end of a long day. Don't come here and complain about what happens elsewhere. It's not our problem and we don't want to hear it. We came here to get away from that level of conversation and we are going to keep that bs out of these forums. 
 
 
 
 
 
Sure! By "forceful opinion" I think what MaximumRD is trying to say here is that we're not going to allow people to act like dicks. You can express an opinion, but you cannot shove that opinion down everybody's throat like a spoiled child. Here's an example:
 
Opinion: "Hey guys, I really enjoyed the NES. It's my favorite game system. The games were consistently great throughout it's run, it's fun to collect for, and it spawned epic franchises like Mario and Zelda that are still relevant today. I found it to be the greatest system of its generation."
 
Forceful Opinion: "NES is the greatest console ever. PERIOD."
 
That spoils the party for everybody. Nobody wants to be around that guy.
 
Best advice is to JOIN US as part of this amazing community. Join us in the chat, get to know us, make friends, and I would highly suggest familiarizing your self with the House Rules here: http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/5-house-rules/
 
 
 

Sticking with Atari arcade games that I've actually played in the wild, I would go with Star Wars too.
 
However since that was already called for, I will also give three others I enjoyed as a kid. 
As some of you know, I didn't play a lot of arcades until the mid to late 80's.
By then, most of the classic games were either gone or hidden in a back corner where they mostly went unnoticed.
Also, several of these games may not have aged well, but at the time I thought they were the bee's knees.
 
#3) Pit-Fighter: At the time of it's release, the big digitized characters were a sight to behold and the simple controls made it easy to get into. And who didn't like being fork lifted over a pile of cash at the end?

 
#2) Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom: The movie was a big deal among kids and the game gave us a chance to enter the same world thanks to decent graphics, digitized voices, mine car rides and off course your trusty whip.

 
#1) Hard Drivin' (Sit down version of course!): Probably the first sit down game I played and I remember it costing more, probably 50 cents per play, but it was worth it. It split off into two tracks: A speed course and stunt course. But really, it was all about stunt track with the massive loop de loop. And don't forget to hit the cow to make it moo!