Tag Archives: Atari

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Atari 2600

This notorious 1982 release for the Atari 2600 was – at the time – the most expensive movie license ever acquired by a video game company ($35 million dollars it apparently cost), and it also undoubtedly hastened the demise of Atari Inc. (as it was back then), and was also a major contributing factor to the video game market crash of 1983.

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Desert Falcon, Atari 7800

Desert Falcon is an obscure isometric shooter with an Egyptian theme, released exclusively for the Atari 7800 in 1987.

You play as a falcon, flying diagonally over the landscape, shooting stuff as you go, in a way similar to that seen in Sega‘s classic coin-op, Zaxxon.

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Gauntlet II, Arcade

Gauntlet II is the 1986 sequel to the classic four-player arcade game, Gauntlet. It was made by pretty much the same Atari Games team that made the first game, so retains a lot of its qualities. Which is great, because the first Gauntlet was brilliant and fans wanted more of the same – only with enhancements. Which is exactly what they got.

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Spy Hunter, Atari 2600

You’d expect the Atari 2600 version of Spy Hunter to be the runt of the litter, and… it’s actually not too bad.

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Vindicators, Arcade

Vindicators is a one or two-player futuristic tank combat game released into arcades by Atari Games in 1988.

The simultaneous two-player co-op mode is arguably the most fun you can have with Vindicators, although the single-player game is also challenging.

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Super Sprint, Arcade

Released into arcades in 1986, Atari‘s Super Sprint was remarkable because the cabinet had three steering wheels, thus could accommodate up to three people playing simultaneously.

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Zany Golf, Atari ST

Zany Golf was released by Electronic Arts in 1988. It originated on the Apple IIgs but was quickly ported to 16-bit computers, including this fine Atari ST version.

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Klax, Arcade

It says “copyright 1989” on the title screen, but Klax actually made it into arcades in June 1990Klax is a real-time puzzle game – for one or two players – with falling tiles that you must catch, then drop, into a small trough at the bottom of the screen.

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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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