StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Some of the recent threads here have managed to put me in a retro mood, so I went and downloaded an Atari 2600 emulator. I also snagged the ROM for a gem of a game from the system's waning days. Released in 1988, a full eleven years after the console debuted, Solaris was the one 2600 game that could stand toe-to-toe with the NES. It was easily the best game ever developed for the Atari, itself one of the greatest consoles of all-time.



The graphics are quite stunning for a system that first came out when Pong was in it's heyday, and look better when seen in motion. (The way your ship leaps out to the horizon when leaving a planet is rather cool.) The audio is adequate, with decent engine and explosion sounds, as well as some noise from the enemies. Your fighter's guns make a satisfying "Thoom!" when fired.

What's really surprising about this game, though, is the depth.



The game is made up of a 4x4 grid of quadrants, each of which contains 8x6 sectors as seen on the map. Enemies bear an unusually strong resemblance to Klingon cruisers, Cylon base-stars, and TIE fighters, and each symbol on the map represents a squadron. These squadrons aren't passive, either, and will slowly move across the map to besiege that quadrant's colony. At that point, you'll have to destroy the invaders or risk losing one of your relatively few places to refuel.

There's a nice variety of enemies, the occasional ground-attack mission to change things up, stranded prisoners you can rescue, and the occasional bit of weirdness like a "corridor" or a wormhole. The game is fucking HARD, too. The first few squadrons of "Cylons" you wade through may not be any big deal, but you have a LOT of ground to cover, and it only gets harder.

If Atari had managed to get a post-2600 console off the ground, and supported it with games of this quality, things might have gone much differently.

Solaris was pretty much the largest game made for the 2600, although it was actually made in 1986, not '88.

Oh, and it's still not really that good of an idea to advertise your pirating activities.

I'd say the great adventure games of years past are "the best".

Nowadays there are almost no adventure games, and none on the level of the Monkey Island, Dot Tentacle, the last express, or even the convulted Woodruff.

Two words...

"Star Tropics"

The game says "Copyright 1986" while Wikipedia says it was published in 1988. I wonder if it sat in limbo for a couple years.

EDIT: Also, I don't think emulating ancient abandonware is exactly something to worry about in terms of piracy.

rogue/nethack

yosemite bear uses wand troll takes 300 pnts of damage, lord shitstain is dead

If that's some sort of shot at me, I'll direct you to the board's vendetta policy and tell you to go fuck yourself, Bear.

Yeah, you're right, it's 1988: says so in the manual.

Master of Orion 2. Quite possibly the best space empire-building game that runs on my crappy old computer.

Boo! Not old enough!

Save Mary!!

Tetris for teh win!

Missile Command for the motherfucking win.

I'm rather fond of Nomad for PC. For 1980s console gaming, I find Balloon Fight and Outlaw have some good charm.

There's a fan-edited ROM of Demon Attack for the 2600 out there, titled Custer's Revenge 2. Unlike it's much-reviled predecessor, CR2 has nothing to do with rape. Instead, it has to do with Custer avoiding the fury of everyone pissed off about the first game. As the creator put it:

"In this game, everybody is mad. The Atari fans are mad, the Native American rights activists are mad, the historians are mad, and the parents are mad. You play General Custer trying to defend yourself against angry mobs of people in this edit of Demon Attack!"

Demon Attack basically sucked, but this gets points for concept alone.

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Two words...

"Star Tropics"

There's actually a rumour that Nintendo are resurrecting this IP for Revolution...

Times of Lore for the Commodore 64.

Everytime I look at that game, I'm still amazed that they were able to fit an entire kingdom, with quests and characters to talk to, and with that level of graphical quality, in 64K of RAM! The graphics are approx SNES level, and it was made in 1988. Such a beautiful game, and I've still never beaten it.

ELITE!

No contest and anyone saying anything else is wrong!

The original Contra games for the NES and SNES.

I cant tell you how many man-hours of my life i have spent playing those games. And damn it if i could find my old carts (lost somewhere in the cavernous depths of my basement) i'd play them now.

The new Contra games like Shatter Soldier and Neo-Contra are cool and have way better graphics but, its not the same for some reason. Contra III for the SNES was the best of the bunch.

Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight

Nice and simple, but also addictive. I still fire it up using dosbox every now and again.

http://www.phantasy-star.net/ PHANTASY STAR!

Sensible Soccer on the old Amiga. I used to play that for hours.

M.U.L.E. was the lord and master of all multiplayer games back in the day, and is still fun as hell even if you drag it out today.

Gauntlet and Treasure Island for the Spectrum, While for the Amiga I'd say the Monkey Island games, and a game called Epic. A complete rip of the story line for Battlestar Gallactica; you fought against what looks like Klingon Cruisers and Vipers, two battlestars are your base ships, there are colony ships to protect, and even a mission where you must destroy a giant laser in a mountain before it blows yoour fleet to shit.

They ought to do with the NES what they're doing with the Atari Flashback. I'm sure some attempt has been made, but they really need to push it. Give me a cheap little system that can play Mario, Zelda, Contra, Megaman, Metroid, and all that stuff, without any cartridges to blow into and wiggle around. Those would sell by the metric shitload.