• Tag Archives 800XL

  • Star Wars: The Arcade Game

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Star Wars: The Arcade Game was how most of the home ports of the Star Wars arcade game were titled. Seems a bit redundant but there’s marketing for you. The original arcade game was an impressive looking (even today I think it looks impressive) vector graphics based space flight combat game. You pilot an X-Wing on approach to the Death Star and then take part in the trench run to destroy the Death Star. The original arcade game was released in 1983 with a large number of home ports to follow later in 1983, 1984 and beyond.

    Initially, Star Wars was ported by Parker Brothers to the Atari 8-bit, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Commodore 64 and ColecoVision. Later in 1987 and 1988 it was ported to the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS based PCs among others. In addition, it was ported again to the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit so there are multiple versions of this game out there for those platforms.

    Today, there’s not really any reason to track down these home versions. Quality varies among the different ports but the arcade original is much better. You’ll have to resort to emulation to play it though as there has been no official release of an arcade perfect home version as far as I know.

    The images above are from a commercial for the original 1983/84 home ports. The version of the game shown is the Atari 5200 version. Except for perhaps the game graphics I think this commercial probably would have been more likely to reduce sales than increase them.

    Star Wars (Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ColecoVision)





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  • Antic (December 1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    antic_vol_4-08_1985-12_shoppers_guide_page_0001

    Source: Antic – December 1985

    Antic was one of two popular magazines in the U.S. dedicated to the Atari 8-bit line of computers (the other being ANALOG). Antic also had some coverage of the Atari ST at various times. The December 1985 issue includes the following:

    Features

    • Video Star Atari – This article covers software and hardware to digitize images from video cameras or other anaglog sources. The emphasis is on Computereyes though other products are mentioned.
    • Behind the Scenes at Lucasfilm – Antic goes behind the scenes at Lucasfilm Games to, among other things, get previews of The Eidolon and Koronis Rift.
    • DiskIO Plus – A type-in utility program that provides keyboard shortcuts for almost all DOS functions and works with most software.
    • 4th Annual Shoppers Guide – A holiday shopping guide for those interested in Atari hardare and software. Products include the Atari 130XE, Atari 800XL, Atari 520ST, Atari 1050 disk drive, Indus GT disk drive, various printers, the Commodore 1702 monitor, Atari 850 interface module (mostly for printers), Atari 1030 modem, Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus, M.U.L.E., Spy vs. Spy, Great Cross Country Road Race, F-15 Strike Eagle, Wiztype, Halley Patrol, Homepak, BBS Construction Set, BASIC XE, Mac/65 Assembler Editor, Paper Clip, and much more.
    • Proburner Review – Antic calls this EPROM burner from Thompson Electronics the best one on the market.
    • Antic Catalog Goes to U.K. – Antic makes the magazine and their catalog of softare available to U.K. users.

    ST Section

    • 1st Annual ST Shoppers Guide – Another holiday shopping guide, this one specific to the Atari ST. Items listed include the Atari CD-ROM drive, SF354 Single-side disk drive, SF314 Double-sided disk drive, the SM124 Monochrome Monitor, the SC1224 RGB Color Monitor, 4xForth Programming Language, Easy-Draw, VIP Professional, Chat (terminal program), A Mind Forever Voyaging, and much more.
    • 4XForth Review – A review of this FORTH programming language implementation for the Atari ST.
    • Introducing 520ST Assembly Language – Primarily this means 68000 assembly language. I never programmed much in assembly but I did do a little 68000 assembly in college.
    • ST Logo Exploration – Logo was the only programming language initially included with the Atari ST. This type-in program and tutorial hepls you to map memory.

    Departments

    • BBS Crashbuster – This type-in program helps to prevent BBS crashes by stripping out non-standard ATASCII characters from input strings. In other words, it prevents users from crashing your BBS with bad input.
    • Build Your Own EPROM Burner – Parts list and instructions for buildin an EPROM burner for $30.
    • Box-In – In this type-in strategy/arcade game, you must move boxes around to trap the monster before he gets you.
    • I/O Board – Letters from readers about Atari 800 problems, BBS lists, Trip Hawkins and Atari, Blue Max and the 130XE, Print Shop, and more.
    • Help – Help with downloading large files with ProTerm, Supra contact info, and a correction for ST Sound, a previous type-in program for the Atari ST.
    • Antic Online – Not on the web but on Compuserve.

    …and more!


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