Tag Archives: shoot em up

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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Dropzone, Atari 8-bit

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.

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Mercenary, Atari 8-bit

The Atari 8-Bit version of the classic Mercenary is the original, published by Novagen in 1985.

From the opening sequence onwards you know that you are in for a special ride with Mercenary, and exploring the wireframe world of Targ (the name of the planet you’re trapped on) is a video-gaming joy – especially with the easy-to-use controls.

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Fort Apocalypse, Atari 8-bit

Steve Hales‘ superb Fort Apocalypse is a classic American video game that originated on Atari 8-bit home computers in 1982.

The game is a multi-directional, scrolling shooter where you control a helicopter flying around a series of underground caverns looking for men to rescue.

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Koronis Rift, Atari 8-bit

A number of classic Lucasfilm Games‘ titles originated on Atari 8-bit home computers and Koronis Rift is one of them, first released in 1985.

You play a scavenger hunting for lootable scrap on the surface of hostile alien planets.

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Rescue On Fractalus, Atari 8-bit

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).

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Cybernoid, NES

This console conversion of Raffaele Cecco‘s Cybernoid was released by Acclaim Entertainment in 1989.

It is just as difficult and frustrating as the original, if not more so.

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