Randy Glover‘s classic platform game, Jumpman, was originally developed for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and first published by Epyx in 1983.
The original game features 30 different levels (ten each on Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced skill settings), with the aim being to run and jump your way through the maze of platforms, ropes, and ladders, and to defuse all the bombs by touching them.
The Atari 800 version of Rescue On Fractalus was released in 1984 and was the first version available. It was a critical success and drew quite a lot of attention to Atari 8-bit home computers (jealous Commodore 64 owners had to wait almost a year before they got a conversion).
The sequel to Miner 2049er, Bounty Bob Strikes Back, again features the jumping cowboy trying to walk on every piece of platform surface, although this game is much more subtle and challenging than the first one.
The original Miner 2049er fitted into just 16K of RAM, so would run on an Atari 400 (as well as any other Atari 8-bit home computer). It is a very early platform game, written by Bill Hogue in 1982, and featuring the character ‘Bounty Bob’.
Mysteries of the Sith is the 1998 sequel to Dark Forces II. It uses the same 3D engine (with some enhancements) and follows the same style of gameplay as its predecessor, but contains considerably more features and detail.
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II – as the title says – is a direct sequel to the Star Wars-based shooter, Dark Forces. It was published by LucasArts in 1997.
Dark Forces is LucasArts‘ attempt at Doom, with a Star Wars make-over. It was first released in 1995 for MS-DOS PCs.
Looking at it now: it hasn’t aged too well, although it’s still fun to play if you get the controls set up correctly.
A controversial release from Gametek in 1996, this complex space sim is notorious for having a long and troubled development history.
Lucasfilm Games’ brilliant futuristic sports sim, Ballblazer, was converted to the Atari 7800 in late 1984.
As a ‘no-nonsense’, one-on-one ball game there is little better, in terms of video games, and this Atari 7800 version is one of the fastest and smoothest around.
Monolith‘s 1997 shooter – Blood – is a first-person satire of every horror movie you ever saw, and also a few that you probably didn’t.
