The Gamer's Quarter

[friedchicken]

So the pixel art thread got me looking for some reason for older Atari 400/800 games, and it made me realize that many many of my favorites from my early 80's Atari home computer days were by Synapse Software.

I can't imagine that that's an unfamiliar name to most of you that read here regularly, but if it is, here is a great place to start. It's short on descriptions of the games, but this individual even has the box art for much of the collection-- which for some reason is even more nostalgic for me than the games themsleves.

Maybe it's because the 8-bit Atari stuff has been relatively neglected when compared to the 2600 and the C64, but this stuff is really the essence of nostalgia for me. I don't know if that's the case with anyone else, but if so I'd love to start a discussion of the Atari 8-bit home computers, with a focus not just on Synapse, but also on other third-party software companies, like Brøderbund, Epyx, and Sierra On-Line.

I'd also like to talk about 8-bit Atari emulation. I haven't even looked for an emulator lately, but I'm about to, and if anyone has a particular one that they can recommend, I'd love to hear about it.

[kirkjerk]

My first computer was an Atari 800XL.
It was a good machine, and looking back, its BASIC (and later Logo) was a lot better in terms of simple A/V than the C=64 I coveted, plus there were are those "ActionBASIC"-y things I never got around to trying out, but still, in the long run in couldn't keep up with the game piracy of the Commodore.

Neat Synapse link. "Blue Max" was the one I remember most, but Picnic Paranoia and Encounter were both super cool. I need to fire up an emulator and check out Encounter especially, and see if its 3D hide and seek is anywhere near as cool as I remember...

[friedchicken]

The 800XL was my second computer-- the first was the 400, with its weirdo membrane keyboard. I didn't do much actual computing with them-- maybe I should have and it might have changed my future career path, but I was mostly attracted to how much nicer the games were compared to the 2600.

Nautilus, Necromancer, Picnic Paranoia, and Shamus were my favorites. I'm going to dig for an emulator this weekend, so hopefully by Monday I'll have some more posting material.

[wourme]

Two of my favorite games are by Synapse Software: Survivor and Pharaoh's Curse. I always sort of hated Pharaoh's Curse in a way because I found it so difficult. But then, I played it a lot and still think about it sometimes with nostalgia.

I've considered trying a Pharaoh's Curse remake for the Retro Remakes contest one year.

[Lackey]

I tried out Necromancer and I find it wonderfully strange and confusing. The treeman sprite is excellent.
edit: here he is!


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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[friedchicken]

The tree spirit is hands down the best part-- I'm glad you feel the same way. I can remember the sidescrolling second level with the hands that drop down and try to grab you or the trees. And the sound-- the sound is so odd too.

I may have to either do some updated sprites or at least some Necromancer fan art. But I don't know if it would keep the basic weirdness without the limitations of an 8-bit environment.

[Lackey]

It's actually eerily similar to a game I once dreamed about. I've been wanting to make something similar.

You grow a forest, I guess to earn tree spirits for the levels to come? It's very strange. The game play is logical cause and effect stuff, but not at all obvious. I'm glad I don't have a manual. I highly recommend the arcade game 4-D Warriors for a similar sense of mystery mixed with brokenness.

Talk to me about fan art, I want to know more.

(for the wary the mysterious zip file above is just a little non-game I made once upon a time)
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[friedchicken]

[Lackey]

The cover for Necromancer on the Synapse site is great. They were pretty literal in trying to translate the sprites but still got something completely different.

And yeah, there's no functionality in the game at all. I just had the idea of an infinitely looping forest and wanted to see how it would look. The aesthetic was my primary concern. I still haven't decided what to make of it- but Necromancer sort of struck me because it was familiar.

Oh yeah, 4-D Warriors has all sorts of weird alternate world stuff and randomness that needs to be figured out as you play. It's pretty cool in that aspect.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[ApM]

In terms of emulation, I particularly like Atari800DC for the Dreamcast. Mostly because it allows the use of all four joystick ports for M.U.L.E. Atari800win is decent too. Also note that any Atari 8-bit emulator worth its salt will do 5200 emulation as well.

PROTIP: If you have a lot of disk images, split them up alphabetically into their own directories to massively reduce directory listing times. There's some bug in the directory listing code that makes it take an exponentially long time based on the number of files in a given directory, and splitting them up makes the pause almost unnoticable, rather than so long that you'll never wait for it.

[kirkjerk]