• Tag Archives Picnic Paranoia

  • 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.


    📂This entry was posted in Atari 8-bit Computer Arcana Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Protector II, Shamus, Picnic Paranoia (TRS-80 Color Computer)

    Posted on by Azrael 1 Comment

    Advertisement for Protector II, Shamus and Picnic Paranoia for the TRS-80 Color Computer from the October 1983 issue of Color Computer Magazine.

    Color Computer Magazine Issue 08-043

    Source: Color Computer Magazine – Issue Number 8 – October 1983

    Radio Shack’s Color Computer never seemed to have as much third party support as the other major 8-bit computers of the day. I’m not sure exactly why since Radio Shack supported it for a very long time. I suspect that most CoCo owners tended to get their software through Radio Shack so if it wasn’t sold there it probably didn’t sell nearly as well.

    However, there was some third party support, particularly in the early days. This ad from the October 1983 issue of Color Computer Magazine shows three popular games at the time from Synapse. Synapse was primarily an Atari 8-bit developer, later moving on the the Commodore 64 and other systems. Protector II, Shamus and Picnic Paranoia were all available on other 8-bit computers as well. I’m not sure how the CoCo versions compared but the screen shots seem to indicate that they are on par with other versions, at least graphically.

    For more on Shamus, see here and for more on Picnic Paranoia, see here.



    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana TRS-80 📎and tagged