Category Archives: Atari 8-bit

Orc Attack, Atari 8-bit

The classic Orc Attack was originally developed by Dean Lock for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and published by Thorn EMI in 1983.

You play a guy defending a castle rampart from attacking orcs that are trying to climb up using ladders. The orcs plant the base of the ladder on the ground then bring in sections to raise it up, taking just three connected sections to reach the top. You must run and grab rocks, placed at either side of the battlement, to throw down at the attackers. If the attackers reach the top of the rampart the stones temporarily turn into swords, which you must grab to hack down the invaders that are threatening your castle. When a round is complete you can throw burning oil onto them to torch the remainder.

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Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Atari 8-bit

This Atari 8-bit conversion of David Crane‘s classic Atari 2600 platform game is subtitled the “Adventurer’s Edition” because it contains a whole new second level that becomes available after you complete the first.

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Ace of Aces, Atari 8-bit

Ace of Aces is a WWII-based air combat action game developed by Canada-based Artech Digital Entertainment and published by US Gold in the UK and Accolade in the USA. It first came out on the Commodore 64 in 1986 and was later released for other systems, including for the Atari 8-bit machines in 1987. The Atari version was developed by another Canadian company called Distinctive Software.

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Gauntlet, Atari 8-Bit

Developed by Gremlin Graphics and published by US Gold in 1987, this Atari 8-bit conversion of the classic Gauntlet arcade game plays okay and doesn’t look too bad, even if it does lack colour and seems a little sluggish.

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The Great American Cross Country Road Race, Atari 8-bit

This simple but playable road racing game was written by Alex DeMeo for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and was first published by Activision in 1985.

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Panther, Atari 8-bit

This Mastertronic Atari 8-bit budget release from 1987 feels like a budget game – and I don’t mean that as a compliment. It feels like an unfinished, un-polished game.

Panther is an isometric shoot ’em up in the style of Zaxxon, but with very little going on in the game itself.

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Zybex, Atari 8-bit

Zybex is a 1988 shoot ’em up from British developer/publisher Zeppelin Games. It’s a horizontally-scrolling progressive weapons blaster with a main character that looks a bit like the jetpack guy from Dropzone.

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Pentagram, Atari 8-Bit

Created by Jose Pereira, Miker, and Mariuszw in 2016, this Atari -8-bit homebrew conversion of Ultimate‘s Pentagram is not a bad effort overall. It seems to run slightly faster than the ZX Spectrum original, although it’s probably fair to say that it also inherits its shortcomings.

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Gunfright, Atari 8-Bit

One of the better Atari 8-bit homebrew Ultimate conversions, Gunfright was ported by Mariusz, Jose Pereira, Emkay and Saul Cross in 2017. It plays pretty much the same as the ZX Spectrum original and looks similar to the Commodore 64 homebrew release of 2017. In fact there may be a connection between them since one of the people who worked on the C64 port also worked on this.

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