• Tag Archives Atari 8-bit

  • Picnic Paranoia (Atari 8-bit)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Picnic Paranoia (1982) by Synapse Software for the Atari 800XL.

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/163646883929/notablegamebox-picnic-paranoia-1982-by-synapse

    Picnic Paranoia was a game developed by Synapse and released for the Atari 8-bit line in 1982. The following year it was also ported to the TI-99/4A.

    Like most Synapse games, this is a high quality, fun (though simple) arcade type game with excellent graphics and sound for the time. This is the type of game that the Atari 8-bits excelled at. The goal of this game is to prevent insects from taking your food off the table. You have to swat the insects to kill them as well as move food back to the table. If a round finishes without any food on the table then the game is over. I don’t think this game is quite as good as some of Synapse’s other games (Shamus, Blue Max, Pharaoh’s Curse, etc.) but it isn’t bad.

    Picnic Paranoia was available on cassette and disk for the Atari and required only 16K to run so it should work on any Atari 8-bit. The TI-99/4A version was available on cartridge. Apparently it was also released for the Apple II at some point though that version seems more rare for some reason.


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  • Arcade Pro Football / Night Rally (Atari 400/800)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Arcade Plus, in a league above the rest with Arcade Pro Football and Night Rally.

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/163210988119/oldgamemags-arcade-plus-in-a-league-above-the

    This is a relatively old ad (1982) for a couple of games for the Atari 400/800 by a company called Arcade Plus. The first is Arcade Pro Football and as the name would suggest, it is a football game. The other is called Night Rally and seems to be more or less a clone of the arcade game Night Driver.

    I had trouble finding much information on these games, particularly Arcade Pro Football. I think the reason why is because sometime in 1982 (the same year of this add and presumably when these games were to be published), Gamestar bought Arcade Plus. They then re-released these games with some slight changes and under different names. Arcade Pro Football became Starbowl Football and Night Rally became Baja Buggies. It’s not clear to me that the original Arcade Plus versions were released. The dump I found of Night Rally indicated it was a prototype and I didn’t find one at all for Arcade Pro Football so if you have originals, they might be pretty rare.





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  • Star Wars The Arcade Game (Atari 400/800)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Star Wars arcade game was an impressive looking game with bright, colorful vector graphics and good game play to go along with it. The original arcade version was released in 1983 and there were two rounds of home ports. The first round started not long after the arcade game was introduced with a number of ports being released between 1983 and 1984. Among these was the Atari 8-bit computer version.

    Given the fact that the arcade version was vector based, they did a pretty good job with the port, at least as far as the graphics are concerned. Although they won’t be mistaken for a true vector display, they are still pretty faithful to the arcade original. Where this game falls down a little is on the game play. While it is still mostly the same, the sense of movement is lessened by the fact that you are moving a cursor to target ships vs. moving the guns/ship itself. Some features have also been left out (e.g. voice synthesis). Nevertheless, it beats the Atari 2600 version and is worth at least trying if you are a Star Wars fan.

     

    Along with the Atari 8-bit version, the first round of conversions included ports for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, ColecoVision and Commodore 64. There was another round of ports in 1987-1988 that added the Amiga, Atari ST and a new versions for the Commodore 64 among others.

    Star Wars: The Arcade Game for Atari 400/800 by Parker Brothers – 1983

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/163216213999/egeekdad-star-wars-the-arcade-game-for-atari





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