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What is good to play on the Atari 800?
The best thing about the Atari XE/XL range is that they are made by Atari. With all those classic arcade titles under their belt, Atari were a prolific publisher for the format, and you’ll find that their best renditions of arcade classics are on this series of machines. For example, Pac Man and Space Invaders, while adequate on the Atari VCS, pale into insignificance compared to the Atari 800 versions. Thanks to hi-res colour, multi-channel sound and dedicated sprites, the XL versions are far closer to their arcade couterparts than any other versions of the time. Other classic to look out for on the Atari label include Moon Patrol, Missile Command, Defender and Dig Dug. If you already own the VCS carts of these, i’m afraid you would never boot them up again if you owned the XL versions. Of course, it’s not just Atari who made good games on the format. Thanks to success in the US, many American classics are well worth getting hold of. Miner 2049er, the top rated platform game, and Wizards of Wor, the frantic two player maze game, are notable titles on cartridge. Sierra, SSI, Origin and Infocom released a rewarding range of role playing and adventure games for the system too. Parker also brought their range of classic arcade games, like the StarWars series, QBert and Frogger, all improved significantly over their VCS counterparts. One of the games which really excels in its original Atari 800 guise is Boulderdash, as fluid and instinctive as the game has ever been. There are plenty of UK releases too, Level 9 adventure titles all appeared on the format, English Software chose the Atari 800 to release their eclectic range of titles, like the classic racer, Electraglide. Some of the most collectible titles are those from Sega, who converted most of their current catalogue to the format. Tapper, Congo Bongo, Mikie, Up n Down, Zaxxon, all classics. In later years the 800 became a hot bed of conversions from other formats. You can find arcade games like Gauntlet, Chuckie Egg, Jet Set Willy and Thrust, all just as compelling as the original games for the format.
We ask Jason Moore, editor of Retrogames what his favourite Atari XL/XE game is..
My all time favourite XL/XE game, well, it’s a pretty basic title, i’m that kind of guy. My favourite is Galaxian, which I used to sit and play for hours when I was a kid. It is a simple conversion, bright colourful graphics, and excellent swoopy sound effects. It seems to be the balance between the speed of your space ship and the movement of the aliens, so finely balanced, which makes it so addictive. It’s not particularly fast overall, but again, seems to play at perfect pace. I’ve played all the later versions of Galaxian, indeed, I love Galaga ‘88 on the PC Engine, but this version retains so much simple playability, that i’d usually opt to play this out of the two.
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