When Mr. Ee! was released way back in 1984 the games industry was a bit like the Wild West – everybody cloned everyone else’s games and no one gave a sh*t. It wasn’t until later that official licenses and lawsuits for similarities became a thing.
Which is why Mr. Ee! is an almost perfect clone of the arcade game Mr. Do! and was marketed as such back in 1984. Because they could get away with it…
The classic Elite originated on the BBC Micro. David Braben and Ian Bell‘s classic space combat/trading game was first released by Acornsoft in 1984.
Zombie Zombie is the spiritual successor to Ant Attack, in that: it was created by Sandy White, the guy who made Ant Attack, and it also uses the same kind of isometric graphics style and the same boy/girl sprites.
Epyx‘s classic multi-event sports sim, Summer Games, first came out on the Commodore 64, and this Atari 8-bit conversion came later.
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.
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.
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.
Peter Liepa and Chris Gray‘s classic Boulder Dash was first released for the Atari 8-bit in 1984 (the Commodore 64 version came later).
Boulder Dash is one of those games that is very simple, but also very clever. Not to mention: extremely devious. In some levels, if you put a foot wrong, you’re toast and must re-start.
Archer MacLean‘s Dropzone was initially released on the Atari 8-bit machines in 1984, before it later appeared on the Commodore 64 and became a smash hit.
David Lubar‘s 1984 classic, Pastfinder, originated on Atari 8-bit home computers.
It’s a strange, vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up with strategic overtones.
The King of Grabs 