Atari 800 game night

[popsicle]

Because of the recent C64 game night thread, it seemed like a good time to visit memory lane and my Atari800xl, which I just rescued from my parents damp Cleveland basement and brought home.  It still works!  The disk drive squeals something terrible, but I was able to treat myself to some nostalgia and show my kids what I had to play on when I was their age.   

Most of these games use one button and 8-way stick, so they are perfect on a 2 player cab.

* Crush Crumble and Chomp!  I had this on cassette, and it was written in Basic I believe.  Build a monster and wreak havoc on a major city.  The game moves slow, and your monster gets hungry too quickly which results in the computer taking over which was frustrating, but it's fun to grab and eat civilians and police units and aim your breath weapon at helicopters.  Uses keyboard commands.  Why hasn't this game been remade?

* Ninja.  This is a great pick up and go game.  Neat soundtrack.  Defeat the enemy ninjas, grab the idols, then make your way back down the temple.

* Alley Cat.  An incredible game for it's time.  Still just as fun.  Jump onto trashcans, then clotheslines until a window opens. Each window is a mini game - get the mice on the big cheese, knock the vases off the shelf, drink the sleeping dog's milk, dive into the fishbowl and eat all the fish, knock over the birdcage and eat the bird.  The humans are invisible but you see their brooms dancing around, frantically cleaning up your kitty footprints and knocking you around.  Cool jazzy intro music.

* Archon.  Mentioned on the C64 thread alot.  Chess with action battles.  Really fun with two players. 

* Ultima III and IV.  Who's got the time for this now, but back then these games consumed me. 

* Blue Max.  Isometric view, bomb enemy targets and shoot down enemy fighters.  I'm better at this now than I was at 11.  Easy to crash if you don't know what you're doing.

* Beachhead II. 2 players duke it out on 4 unique stages.

* One on One.  This was the Larry Bird vs. Dr. J half court bball game where you could dunk and break the glass.  My brother could beat me every time. 

* M.U.L.E.  Addicting!  This game was made for 4 humans in mind, but I have just as much fun playing the computer.

* Crossfire.  Plays in a grid and you shoot in 4 directions at the enemies that eventually pursue you.  Challenging and quick.   

There's a host of others of course, so chime in. 

[GeoMan]

* Crossfire.  Plays in a grid and you shoot in 4 directions at the enemies that eventually pursue you.

One of my favorites on my Atari800! Other games i enjoyed:

Necromancer, Preppie, Missile Command (cartridge), Jumpman Junior, Boulder Dash, Star Raiders, Shamus (difficult!)

[wp34]

* Blue Max.  Isometric view, bomb enemy targets and shoot down enemy fighters.  I'm better at this now than I was at 11.  Easy to crash if you don't know what you're doing.

* One on One.  This was the Larry Bird vs. Dr. J half court bball game where you could dunk and break the glass.  My brother could beat me every time. 

Great thread idea. 

Blue Max was awesome.  It reminded me of Zaxxon but was so much more fun.  You could shoot and drop bombs.  The worst part was landing and takeoff.  I also hated it when I would be too low when I tried to drop a bomb and would accidentally crash.

One on One might be my all-time favorite basketball game.  It was the first basketball game I remember having a 3D effect that felt like the real thing.  Being able to shoot a fade-away jumper over Larry's head was priceless.

Necromancer, Preppie, Missile Command (cartridge), Jumpman Junior, Boulder Dash, Star Raiders, Shamus (difficult!)

Those were all great.  I played the crap out of Star Raiders.  It was awesome because you actually used the keyboard to control functions on your ship.  That made it so much more than any game you could play on a console at the time. 

[Ravenger]

An Atari 800 night wouldn't be complete without BallBlazer. 

[deadmoney5]

you guys were the rich kids with the Atari 800

[pbj]

you guys were the rich kids with the Atari 800

Beat me to it.  We weren't all bourgie in the 80s.

[GeoMan]

you guys were the rich kids with the Atari 800

As a teenager i had to work all summer at a factory producing plastic pipes and then sell books from door to door for another 4 months, to earn the money to buy my Atari800...

[pbj]

you guys were the rich kids with the Atari 800

As a teenager i had to work all summer at a factory producing plastic pipes and then sell books from door to door for another 4 months, to earn the money to buy my Atari800...

Did you wear an onion on your belt?

[wp34]

you guys were the rich kids with the Atari 800

Believe me it was a big expense for my family.  I still have the receipt because I can't believe my dad spent that kind of money.  I taught myself to program on it and turned programming into a career.

[unkpinball]

Boy just hearing those names brings back waves of nostalgia, played virtually all of them. My first computer was a Rat Shack Color Computer, but within a month or so the 800 came out and watching the Star Raiders screen sold me. Can't believe they cost so much back then. And then even more with the upgrades and hard disk drive.

Loading Scott Adams adventures for the first few weeks on the tape drive, pure bliss. Then bought the first advertised machine language game on disk, can't remember the name of it but you tried to fly up through an asteroid field, completely shallow but so cool. I think I bought every game that came out for a good while, read every magazine hoping for an Atari article and tidbit. Being older and employed helped a bunch.

Sure was fun for a while, kept going Atari through the Mega ST, then finally succumbed to the PC when Castle Wolfenstien and Doom came out. End of an era.

Guess I need to investigate one of those emulators and see if some of these games can be played again.

[Ravenger]

I used to work in a computer shop that specialised in Atari computers.

So I got to play on a lot of really excellent games - Star Raiders, Rescue on Fractalus, Drelbs, Fort Apocalypse, Encounter, Necromancer, plus of course the excellent arcade conversions - Pengo, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc.

In the UK Atari's weren't that popular as they were insanely expensive - we tended to go for the cheaper ZX Spectrum and C64, but generally the Atari's outclassed them (though the C64 did have better sprites).

Bitter were the home computer wars of those days. 

[RandyT]

I had a 400.  Had to paint roadside billboards with my dad for a whole summer to buy it.  We didn't need no stinkin' safety harnesses.  In retrospect, it probably wasn't worth the risk, but it sure seemed like it was at the time 

The drawback of the 400/800 was the elongated pixels.  Not sure if that was a design decision to allow for more colors, but it wasn't the best one they could have made.  The C-64 was at the same or lower price point as the 400, and had a real keyboard.  Hard to fathom that something we take for granted, and is so cheap today, made such a difference back then, but it did.  The C-64's built-in BASIC interpreter was also major selling point.  The 400 had only one cartridge slot, compared to the 800's two, so the 400 wasn't a full-time "real" home computer.

The arcade conversions were all great.  Pacman, Galaxian, Centipede and Missile Command were my favorites.  Played Shamus and Star Raiders for hours on end as well.  Star Raiders is particularly noteworthy, as it was one of the first to demonstrate what a keyboard could do to add greater dimension to the gameplay.

[Vigo]

Loading Scott Adams adventures for the first few weeks on the tape drive, pure bliss.

+ Rep for Mentioning Scott Adams. The dude was a text adventure king.

[popsicle]

Wow, I didn't even realize that the Atari was so expensive compared to the C64.  I had the 800xl (which was a Christmas present from my uncle).  It's hard to imagine at that point the prices were as outrageous or he wouldn't have bothered.   A few years later he brought me like 30 games on cassette and cartridge he found in some big warehouse-type place in Chicago that he bought for a few bucks each. 

The 800xl had a real keyboard, not a chiclet style one like the 400, and had built in basic that you had to bypass when you turned the computer on by holding 'option'.  I used the cassette drive for a good two years before getting a floppy drive.  Then, I met some 9th grade kid who had *loads* of pirated disk compilations that he threw me.  My grades suffered.

Anybody else spend hours typing in Compute! programs only to miss a  space or turn a $ into an S and spend just as many hours proofreading only to find the game was lame?   

[eds1275]

I'm just gonna drop my $0.02! If you are playing with children I find running old console stuff on emulators works best because in my experience they get frustrated with the olde controls, but if you give them something they are more familiar with such as an xbox 360 controller then they hold interest longer. Also, if you are doing anything with load times...

[popsicle]

Ok, son.  Put down your tablet for a minute, I want to show you how to run this Atari game.  Plug in all the components, then rewind the tape to the beginning.  Press 'Play' and 'Pause' on the tape deck.  Now, hold down 'option'  and 'start' on the computer, and turn it on.  the computer should make a fuzzy beeeeep noise.  hit 'return' on the keyboard and then un pause the tape drive.  Now, wait for 5 and 1/2 minutes for the game to load while you listen to hypnotic beepy fuzzy noises.  When it's done, you'll see a 'ready' prompt.  Type 'run' and hit 'enter'.  Now, memorize these keyboard commands.

There's just no way.

That said, xbox controllers have like 32 ---goshdarn--- buttons.

[wp34]

Anybody else spend hours typing in Compute! programs only to miss a  space or turn a $ into an S and spend just as many hours proofreading only to find the game was lame?   

Yes!  Or even worse there would be a typo with a "correction" printed the next issue.  Good times.   

Ok, son.  Put down your tablet for a minute, I want to show you how to run this Atari game.  Plug in all the components, then rewind the tape to the beginning.  Press 'Play' and 'Pause' on the tape deck.  Now, hold down 'option'  and 'start' on the computer, and turn it on.  the computer should make a fuzzy beeeeep noise.  hit 'return' on the keyboard and then un pause the tape drive.  Now, wait for 5 and 1/2 minutes for the game to load while you listen to hypnotic beepy fuzzy noises.  When it's done, you'll see a 'ready' prompt.  Type 'run' and hit 'enter'.  Now, memorize these keyboard commands.

Even worse I remember waiting 20 minutes (it seemed like hours) for a game to load only to find it wouldn't run and I had to start over. 

[GeoMan]

http://www.commodore.ca/gallery/magazines/compute/compute-magazine-1-43.htm

[wp34]

Has anybody picked up one of these flash cartridges for the Atari 400/800?

http://www.atarimax.com/flashcart/documentation/index.html

It is a little pricey but kinda cool.  Every time I get mine out I wonder if this will be the time the floppy discs stop loading.

[ark_ader]

I had the 600XL and took it back to Laskeys and got an Electron.  The 600XL was pure kak.  Now the 1200XL was a different story with a built in modem.

Star Raiders was the best game I ever played on the Atari, even now after all these years, and having the complete collection, nothing beats a bash at Star Raiders. 

[EssexMame]

I have absolutely no recollection of the Atari computers at all. Absolutely no-one I knew had one. It was all BBC/Electron/C64/Spectrum for me, pehaps a Vic20 or a Dragon for the weirdos. I'm in the UK, were these Atari computers predominantly/only US? The console (VCS/2600) I have vague/younger memories of but Atari computers? Nope

[ark_ader]

I have absolutely no recollection of the Atari computers at all. Absolutely no-one I knew had one. It was all BBC/Electron/C64/Spectrum for me, pehaps a Vic20 or a Dragon for the weirdos. I'm in the UK, were these Atari computers predominantly/only US? The console (VCS/2600) I have vague/younger memories of but Atari computers? Nope

Yes.  I only got one in the UK, as I had to sell my 400 before moving as it was ntsc and not pal.  All my mates told me to return it and get an electron, as we had bbc b computers at school.  Nobody at school where I was at in the UK had an atari xl.

lol Dragon 32, the tantung einstein, atom, and the cpc.  Remember the oric?

[Ravenger]

The Atari tape drives were very slow and unreliable. They were actually stereo with one channel for the data, and the other channel for audio, so music or speech could be played while the tape loaded. Of course this made them way more susceptible to tape alignment problems than the mono systems used by the C64 and other home computers.

The floppy disk drives were very fast compared to the C64 drives, and very popular in the US.  Many of the best games only came on floppy.

In the UK there was more of a tape culture (due to the expense of disk drives) but owning a floppy drive was essential for dedicated Atari fans.

 

[wp34]

The Atari tape drives were very slow and unreliable. They were actually stereo with one channel for the data, and the other channel for audio, so music or speech could be played while the tape loaded. Of course this made them way more susceptible to tape alignment problems than the mono systems used by the C64 and other home computers.

Interesting.  I did not know that. 

[eds1275]

When is your atari game night? I'm working a graveyard shift tonight, gonna sleep into the afternoon so I can stay up late tonight which is my c64 night. For my birthday this year someone's girlfriend gave me a c64 joystick... unfortunately I don't have a way to interface it to my computer but I might wire it up for next time.

[PL1]

Based on the pinouts for the C64 joystick, it looks like you should be able to use a KADE/Minimus AVR as a digital joystick interface or an ATmega32u4 (KADESTICK) board/firmware as an analog joystick interface -- not sure which type of C64 stick you have.   

LMK if you'd like one (or both) of those configurations tested with a particular emulator.   


Scott

[eds1275]

Actually I was thinking of making a modular box where I can plug in many types of joysticks, perhaps having the ends all db15s or something so they make for easy connection. If I get around to it I will of course make a project announcement.

[PL1]

Before you put too much effort into planning that, a little heads up from the KADE forums:

Anyone successfully attached a retro pad to the Kade yet?

We have another KADE in the works that is an updated version of Bruno's retrocade adapter with more i/o options.  Stay tuned!
http://www.brunofreitas.com/?q=node/41

Scott

[matt4949]

No one from my neighborhood had an ATARI. Maybe 1 C-64 up at the school.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Didn't play this system much, but I do remember going to my friend's house and playing Miner 2049'er and really liking it.

To this day I play other versions of it on my machine.

DeLuSioNaL29

[popsicle]

[epetti]

Because of the recent C64 game night thread, it seemed like a good time to visit memory lane and my Atari800xl, which I just rescued from my parents damp Cleveland basement and brought home.  It still works!  The disk drive squeals something terrible, but I was able to treat myself to some nostalgia and show my kids what I had to play on when I was their age.   

Ha! My parents also have my old Atari 800XL stuck in their basement in Cleveland. Along with several TI-99/4As and ZX-81/Timex Sinclair 1000s. They keep asking to get rid of them and I keep promising I'll take them off their hands at some point. Most of my Atari games were just arcade ports other than Star Raiders. Donkey Kong, Asteroids, etc. I spent much more of my time on TI games.