any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

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vacuumnoise
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any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by vacuumnoise »

any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

def need some recommendations as what I am coming across is pretty dire...
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by Never_Scurred »

Defender, Space Invaders, River Raid (I think that what its called) was my favorite.
That's all that I can think of off the top of the dome right now.
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by stryc9 »

vacuumnoise wrote:any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

def need some recommendations as what I am coming across is pretty dire...
Do you mean the consoles or their computer line?
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vacuumnoise
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by vacuumnoise »

8-bit computer family
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by Herr Schatten »

Dropzone.
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TMR
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by TMR »

Zybex, Laser Gates and Moon Patrol are both solid horizontal blasters and i quite like Humanoid and Matta Blatta even though they're pretty cheap and cheerful. Warhawk, Tiger Attack and Fire Fleet are decent vertical scrollers and for bi-directional there's the aforementioned Dropzone, Jeff Minter's Attack of the Mutant Camels and there's a solid conversion of Vanguard which was released for the Atari 5200 and converted.

i also have a perverse love for Transmuter but that really is just me. =-)
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vacuumnoise
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by vacuumnoise »

awesome, I had never heard of Matta Blatta, Fire Fleet, or Tiger Attack, they all look awesome and obscure! It was hard to even find info on Fire Fleet...
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by TMR »

vacuumnoise wrote:awesome, I had never heard of Matta Blatta, Fire Fleet, or Tiger Attack, they all look awesome and obscure! It was hard to even find info on Fire Fleet...
Atarimania is a good source for most A8 stuff. =-)

At some point i'll get around to buying an SIO2SD for my 800XL (simulates disk loading from images on an SD card) to play most of the games i listed on real hardware again (and test my own code, i've been wanting to write a scrolling shoot 'em up for years now!) but at the moment it's just got a Moon Patrol cartridge sticking out of it...
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by vacuumnoise »

TMR wrote:
vacuumnoise wrote:awesome, I had never heard of Matta Blatta, Fire Fleet, or Tiger Attack, they all look awesome and obscure! It was hard to even find info on Fire Fleet...
Atarimania is a good source for most A8 stuff. =-)

At some point i'll get around to buying an SIO2SD for my 800XL (simulates disk loading from images on an SD card) to play most of the games i listed on real hardware again (and test my own code, i've been wanting to write a scrolling shoot 'em up for years now!) but at the moment it's just got a Moon Patrol cartridge sticking out of it...
cool
yeh I know of Atarimania, just figured Id ask the experts for their recommendations....

Im actually in the works of getting a SIO2SD for my XEGS, I already got all the .atr's sorted out! :)


That's awesome about making your own shmup game, me and my friend want to make one for either NES or Atari 8-bit because we really enjoy simplified graphics...
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by R-Gray 1 »

I just remember
River Raid
space invaders
defender


thats i remember ....i have played them when i was 5-6-7 years old....damn im too old :?
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by ShmupSamurai »

Vanguard, Gravitor, and my personal favorite- Yar's Revenge.
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by TMR »

vacuumnoise wrote:That's awesome about making your own shmup game, me and my friend want to make one for either NES or Atari 8-bit because we really enjoy simplified graphics...
Oh, if it's simplified you want then the Atari 8-bit is your machine... as long as you're a masochist, because getting anything half decent out of the bloody thing is painful! i've written more sprite engines for the A8 than any other 8-bit i've played with, possibly more than all the others put together now i think about it!
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vacuumnoise
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by vacuumnoise »

hey if u have any .atr of the game, send it my way because I have a sio2usb so i can play it via the actual hardware... :D
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by brentsg »

Blue Max!

Defender on Atari 8 bit is pretty much essential.

If you get tired of shmups, check out the Miner 2049er games.

Going way back, one of the Atari mags (A.N.A.L.O.G.) would list the machine language for games from time to time. One of these was a Tempest clone that was damn good. I spent hours, if not days doing this and it was worthwhile.

Edit: The game was called Livewire.

Livewire binary: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-40 ... _3011.html
Livewire2 binary: http://gury.atari8.info/details_games/1330.htm
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by TonK »

Phoenix
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by The Coop »

Some shmups (and shmupish) stuff I can think of...

Defender
Stargate (proto)
Moon Patrol
Galaxian
Space Invaders
Thunderfox
Zone Rangers
Dreadnaught Factor
Gorf
Blue Max
Zaxxon
Super Zaxxon
Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by Casey120 »

Really liked Demon Attack on the 2600 and Tail of Beta Lyrae on the 800 back then .
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by system11 »

Sea Dragon and Fort Apocalypse although they're not pure shmups.
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Re: any good shmups on Atari 8-bit???

Post by dave4shmups »

I have an Atari 800XL, and would am very interested in Thunderfox. Is it any good? I found this short review quote on Atarimania:

"It's a decent shooter, but certain parts of the background will kill you if you ram into them and it's also annoying to use the keyboard to switch between your lasers and bombs. Other than those issues, it's a solid game."

I don't think I'd mind using the keyboard to switch between weapons. In Defender, for example, you have to hit the space bar to launch a bomb.
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