Best AtariXL Games


Michoko

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Hi,


Going on the trend of "Best of" threads for every system, I thought I could contribute with some lovely Atari XL titles. It was my first real computer, after playing for a while on my great Colecovision console.


Here are some games I remember playing:


- Ultima IV: Certainly one of the best RPGs I've played in my life, mainly because it is oriented on personal growth and virtues. In today games, you just bash hordes of animals and humans without any moral problem, just to get more powerful. In Ultima, you had to watch your behaviour and go for more noble goals.


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- Alternate Reality: A fantastic first person RPG, insanely hard (at least it was from my child point of view). I spent hours watching the intro again and again.


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- The Eidolon: using the Lucasfilm's fractals engine, explore tunnels and find treasures. On the same model, there was Rescue on Fractalus, where you had to rescue lost pilots on a hostile planet (quite scary when you had to wait for a pilot to climb the ladder of your ship, and discover it was an alien instead!)


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- Ninja: Cool side-scrolling game, and nice tune by Rob Hubbard.


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- Boulderdash: dig your way through various caves without being crushed by rocks. Quite fun!


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- Montezuma's Revenge: Explore an ancient pyramid, find keys and avoid monsters. Hard but fun.


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- Archon: I love this game! You play on a chess board, by choosing either the light or dark forces. When two pieces of the opposite factions are on the same case, there is a realtime fight. Each piece has its strengths and weaknesses, some shoot projectiles, some run faster, some have zone effects... Really brilliant concept.


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In fact there were so many great games on this system, I could spend all the day trying to make an exhaustive listing. You can look at this page for a good selection of games: http://www.atarimania.com/top-atari-atari-400-800-xl-xe-_G_8_7.html


I can't wait for my Pandora, in order to be able to revive all those great memories (there were many adventure games too, that's why the Pandora keyboard seemed so attractive to me)


Have fun!
 
Ee, I just got into the Atari 8-bit family myself, a few days ago - good timing.
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Lode Runner - Platformer - Avoid and eliminate the foot-soldiers of the evil Bungeling Empire, whilst searching for hidden gold in a fortress. You can't jump, but you can climb ladders, use monkey-bars, and dig holes that can either trap and kill your enemies or give you a quick escape route when you're higher up in a level. Fast-paced, and very addictive.


Miner 2049er - Platformer - The mountie, Bounty Bob, is searching for the outlaw Yukon Yohan, who's hiding in the abandoned mines that once belonged to a guy called Nuclear Ned. You have to claim the ground in each mine by walking over it, but you also have to avoid the highly radioactive beasties that roam the mines, which will kill you if you touch them (however, picking up items that were left behind by previous visitors to the mines will allow you to collect the monsters for points, almost in a Pac-Man sort of style). You climb ladders and you can also jump, but if you fall too far it will kill you. Apparently this game was an inspiration for the Miner Willy series, for various other 8-bit home-computers.
 
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- Archon: I love this game!
WHEEE! I love you!


I spent years trying to remember what this game was called and had finally given up hope! Then one day Penny Arcade mentioned it in their blog post (which I seldom read, so double coincidence) and I was happy to have found it again! :)


Then I forgot it and couldn't remember which blog post it was and was sad :(


But now you've reminded me and I am happy again :)
 
WHEEE! I love you!


I spent years trying to remember what this game was called and had finally given up hope! Then one day Penny Arcade mentioned it in their blog post (which I seldom read, so double coincidence) and I was happy to have found it again! :)


Then I forgot it and couldn't remember which blog post it was and was sad :(


But now you've reminded me and I am happy again :)
That looks quite good. Kind of like the chess game in Star Wars?
 
Ultima 1-3 I loved played on my 8-bit Atari. I also loved BallBlazer,


One on One, Rescue on Fractalus, Castle Wolfenstein.... Geeze, I could


go on and on. The 8-bit days had to be the best every for computers. I had


so much fun. Things are different now. Wish we all could go back...
 
H.E.R.O. should be in everyone's collection, apart from the great games already mentioned.


The Great American Cross Country Road Race was nice as well.


Ah, wonder if I can get my TAC-2 and StellAdapter running on the Pandora. Will have to check that...
 
I have a great fondness for a lot of the games released by English Software (indeed my avatar is from Jet Boot Jack!) as my cousin won a competition to get all their released games for a year! Also I still love Aztec Challenge 2 (completely different game to that on other systems)
 
That Panther music is great!! It`s also on the same C64 game.. pretty good rendition as it goes!!

I listened to it, and what really surprised me is that it's very close to one of the tunes found in the famous Amiga demo "Hardwired" by the Silents. I never realized that Jesper Kyd may have composed this tune by being inspired from this original cool track. Judge by yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rbUgbhBoiI4?feature=oembed

(check especially at time 5:00 and beyond ;) )
 
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Oh that's definately a tribute to Whittaker. Nice find. I'll watch it again on my real Amiga until my Pandora arrives one day.
 
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