Posted on July 16, 2023
Atari 8-Bit Computers Commercials from the 1980s
The Atari 8-bit lineup of home computers – the Atari 400/800. Atari 600XL and 800XL, and Atari 65XE and 130XE – were all heavily promoted on network television during the 1980s.
The ad spots usually promoted the educational, productivity, and gaming capabilities of the 8-bit powerhouses.
M*A*S*H star Alan Alda starred in many of the XL commercials.
Posted on June 18, 2023
Old Fart Tells Dad Jokes
A special video for Father’s Day. Something no one demanded to see! The Old Fart tells Dad Jokes while playing Pole Position. https://youtube.com/shorts/dJ_nRP7EV8g?feature=share
Posted on May 21, 2023
Star Raiders for Atari 8-Bit: Blow Up Your Own Starbase
Occasionally, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed and about to lose a star war(s). That’s when you might as well go rogue and blow up your own starbases!
Star Raiders is a first-person space combat simulator for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. It was written by Doug Neubauer, an Atari employee, and released as a cartridge by Atari in March 1980. The game is considered the platform’s killer app. It was later ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari ST.
The game simulates 3D space combat between the player’s ship and an invading fleet of alien “Zylon” vessels. Star Raiders was distinctive for its graphics, which, in addition to various map and long-range scan views, provided forward and aft first-person views, with movement conveyed by a streaming 3D starfield as the player engaged enemy spacecraft.
Posted on May 21, 2023
PokerSAM – The Talking Poker Opponent for the Atari 400/800/XL/XE
PokerSAM is a one-player poker game for the 8-bit Atari.
The player competes against a single-voiced opponent, Sam, in a two-player game of five-card stud poker. The game uses the Software Automatic Mouth, or S.A.M. speech synthesis program developed by Mark Barton and sold by Don’t Ask Software.
S.A.M. was released for the Atari eight-bit family, Apple II, and Commodore 64. Released in 1982, it was one of the first commercial all-software voice-synthesis programs.
Speech synthesizers in the eighties were expensive and usually required expensive hardware. However, the Atari version of S.A.M. made use of the Atari’s embedded POKEY audio chip. Speech playback on the Atari normally disabled interrupt requests and shut down the ANTIC chip during vocal output. While speech could be generated without blanking the screen, the resulting speech was of lower quality.
The Apple version used an included expansion card that contained an eight-bit digital to analog converter. The Commodore 64 version used the 64’s embedded SID audio chip’s four-bit volume digital to analog converter.
S.A.M. was later used as the basis for the original MacInTalk, as well as the Narrator device in AmigaOS on the Commodore Amiga.
While PokerSAM may sound prehistoric when compared to today’s speech synthesizer, the effect was quite impressive in the nineteen eighties. Speech synthesis has come a long way since the eighties. Believe it or not, this video’s narration was generated by a speech synthesizer called Speechelo.
Posted on May 21, 2023
Donut Dodo – YouTube Short of a Popular New Retro Platformer
Check out my latest YouTube Short: Donut Dodo. A full review of the game is on the way!
Donut Dodo is a light-hearted arcade game, reminiscent of the beloved classics from the early 80’s that we still cherish to this very day. You play as Baker Billy Burns, who has to run, jump, and climb to outwit Donut Dodo and his bunch of clueless minions. Your goal is to collect all donuts in each level, in the best possible time! (Via pixel.games website)
Posted on May 21, 2023
Mappy for the Atari 2600 – YouTube Short
Here’s a “short” little peek of Mappy for the Atari 2600. It’s an excellent game, pushing the Atari 2600 to its limits. I’ll be reviewing Mappy in the near future.
Posted on May 21, 2023
Jawbreaker for 8-Bit Machines – YouTube Short
Here’s a preview of Jawbreaker, which was an early Pac-Man clone that got On-Line Systems in a bit of legal hot water from Atari. I have a full review of the game on the way soon!
Posted on May 21, 2023
Canyon Climber on the Atari 400/800/XL/XE
Canyon Climber is a video game designed for the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1982. The game was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, the Apple II, and PC-6001.
Canyon Climber is a three-screen platform game with an American Southwest theme. The game appears to be a tribute to Donkey Kong.
The object of CANYON CLIMBER is to climb up three levels of the Grand Canyon and reach the top. To score points you must set explosive charges, push a plunger to blow them up, avoid arrows, leap over charging sheep, jump over gorges and avoid birds dropping bricks. You get three chances to reach the top.
Level 1 – Lay your explosives at each end of a bridge by running over it. Jump over all sheep. When you go to press the plunger, hide on the ladder below to avoid sheep entering from the right side of the screen.
Use your joystick to climb ladders and move your man up the canyon. Press the red button to jump over sheep, arrows, and gorges. Press the button again to start a new game.
Level 2 – Time your jumps carefully to avoid arrows. If one hits your foot it won’t hurt you. Arrows will change speed and throw off your timing. Use shields to block arrows for extra points. Press the red button when you are under a shield to grab it. Shields only last between 3 and 12 seconds. When an arrow approaches, press the jump button, just in case your shield disappears. You can not climb a ladder or jump with a shield.
Big Horn Sheep Place a Charge Jump a Gorge Jump an Arrow Block an Arrow Complete a Level
Level 3 – Keep moving! One bird has an excellent aim. Don’t wait on ladders or you could be knocked off. Watch your feet as you jump so you don’t fall off an ^ edge. Birds drop bricks in a pattern. 3 Watch so you know when to jump and when to climb. By the way, you can’t go back down!
Canyon Climber is available here.
Posted on May 21, 2023
Beef Drop (Burgertime Clone) for Atari 400/800/XL/XE, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800
Late AtariAge user Ken “Kenfused” Siders ported the popular arcade game Burgertime to the Atari 8-bit computers, giving it the name Beef Drop. This version of Burgertime began life as a 2004 April Fool’s joke in the AtariAge Atari 5200 Forum and soon took on a life of its own, quickly turning into an actual homebrew development effort!
The original arcade version of Burgertime proved to be popular with players and was ported to many home game consoles and computer systems, including the Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 2600, and Nintendo Entertainment System. However, a truly faithful port had not found its way to Atari 8-bit computers before Mr. Siders created his masterpiece. While a disk-based version of Burgertime was released for the Atari 8-bit computers, Ken’s version was written from scratch to be more accurate to the arcade version than the older 8-bit port.
Unlike the arcade version and most home versions of Burgertime that I’ve seen, Beef Drop has multiple skill levels available, including “Child,” “Easy,” “Normal,” “Hard,” and “Expert.” This allows players of all ages and skill levels to enjoy the game while keeping player frustration to a minimum.
As you can see in this Atari 8-bit gameplay, Beef Drop’s play is nearly identical to the original Burgertime, as the player controls Chef Pete, guiding him around the screen to build burgers and hotdog creations, while avoiding multiple “adversaries,” including Mr. Yolk, Frank, and Mr. Dill.
Players begin the game with 5 lives, as well as 5 to 10 “pepper shakers” which can be sprinkled on the adversaries, temporarily freezing them, allowing Chef Pete to pass safely past them. Every so often, an item will appear on screen for a short period of time. If Chef Pete can grab the item before it disappears, he gains another pepper shaker for use on his opponents. The game can be played by 1 or 2 players and 2 players can either share a joystick or use separate controllers. Bonus Chef Petes are earned for every 10,000 points.
Players can score points for completing sandwiches while scoring bonus points for dropping ingredients either on top of adversaries or by dropping ingredients with the bad guys sitting on the ingredients. The more bad guys that are along for the ride, the more levels the ingredients will fall, completing the sandwiches faster.
Beef Drop was originally released for the Atari 5200, and Ken Siders then updated the game to work with Atari 8-bit computers. An Atari 7800 version is also available. Cartridge versions are available for the Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800 at the AtariAge website. Links to each version can be found below in the description.
I hope you’ve found this video informative and enjoyable, and I strongly suggest you visit AtariAge for more information about Beef Drop, and support AtariAge by purchasing a cartridge for the Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, or Atari 7800. You’ll be glad you did.
Purchase Beef Drop for Atari 400/800/XL/XE
Purchase Beef Drop for Atari 5200
Posted on May 21, 2023
Pacific Coast Highway for Atari 8-Bit Computers
Pacific Coast Highway is a 1982 video game written by Ron Rosen and published by Datasoft for the Atari family of 8-bit computers. The game is a Frogger clone, but it differs a bit, due to the road and water portions of the game being separated into two different screens.
In the game, the player controls a rabbit (in two-player games, the second player controls a tortoise.) The object of the game is to get your character from the bottom of the screen, up to the top of the screen.
Each player starts at the bottom of the screen and the goal is to reach the top. Player one is a rabbit and player two, if present, is a tortoise. The difference between the two is entirely visual, and the tortoise and hare theme is not present elsewhere.
The first screen is the highway from the title, with eight lanes of traffic to avoid, divided in the center by a median strip (called a “rolling sidewalk” in the manual).[5] The second screen is water-themed, and players must hop on the boats and rafts to reach the top. The median strip equivalent for the water is a row of connected life preservers. In later levels, the median strip and life preservers move, first in one direction only, then randomly switching. Getting hit by a vehicle results in an ambulance taking the character away (or a rescue boat for the water sequence).
To download Pacific Coast Highway and its manual, visit the Atarimania website.