Category Archives: Atari 8-bit

Cavernia, Atari 8-bit

A British platform game that came quite late in the life of the Atari 8-bit computers (released by Zeppelin Games in 1990), Cavernia is a fairly simple left to right run-and-jump-a-thon but with nice presentation and decent controls.

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Summer Games, Atari 8-bit

Epyx‘s classic multi-event sports sim, Summer Games, first came out on the Commodore 64, and this Atari 8-bit conversion came later.

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Dark Chambers, Atari 8-bit

Dark Chambers is an overhead maze shooter in the style of Gauntlet. That said: it is actually a direct descendent of Dandy – another overhead maze game written by John Howard Palevich and also an influence on the design of Gauntlet.

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Dandy, Atari 8-bit

Dandy is an overhead maze shooter for up to four players, created by John Palevich for the Atari Program Exchange in 1983. It is the precursor to Gauntlet, Dark Chambers, and a whole host of other games.

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Montezuma’s Revenge, Atari 8-bit

Montezuma’s Revenge is a classic platform game originally released for Atari 8-bit computers by Utopia Software in 1983, and later re-released by Parker Brothers in 1984.

The game was written by a then 16 year-old Robert Jaeger, who made two versions of the game for Atari home computers.

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Ballblazer, Atari 8-bit

Another Lucasfilm Games‘ classic that originated on the 8-bit Atari, Ballblazer is a one-on-one, futuristic ball game played out on a giant checkerboard, with players inside floating hovercraft.

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Spelunker, Atari 8-bit

This 1983 scrolling platform game was quite influential when it was first released. A lot of people tried to copy it, but very few got anywhere near as good. This Atari 8-bit version is the original.

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Star Raiders II, Atari 8-bit

Released by Atari in 1986, Star Raiders II was initially designed as a video game based on the film The Last Starfighter. When that idea was eventually dropped the game was re-modelled into Star Raiders II.

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Rainbow Walker, Atari 8-bit

Steve Coleman‘s Rainbow Walker was first published by Synapse Software in 1983.

It is an unusual, pseudo 3D platform game with a curved track of grey tiles, each of which you (a small, blobby character called Cedrick) have to step on in order to turn into coloured tiles. The aim being: to turn the entire track into a rainbow, by standing on every tile.

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Bruce Lee, Atari 8-bit

Ron J. Fortier‘s and Kelly Day‘s classic Bruce Lee is part platform game, part beat ’em up.

In it you assume the role of Bruce, fighting his way through a number of simple puzzles. The basic aim is to collect the lanterns so that they open up new exits.

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