Atari XEGS Reviews F-L

Now this one brings back some memories. I was very much into the Atari computer scene of the mid-80's, and F-15 Strike Eagle was a critically acclaimed jet fighter simulator. I generally steered away from realistic military games, but Strike Eagle had a certain arcade flair that won me over. Most simulations of the time featured abstract visuals, but F-15 renders everything on the screen with brilliant colors and bold black lines. The bottom of the screen displays a map of targets, a radar screen, and a diagram of your plane and its missile supply. A more realistic game would force you to painstakingly hunt down your first target, but in Strike Eagle, a wire-frame enemy plane appears right in front of you from the start! Shooting it down causes a chaotic pattern of blacks lines to appear. Bombing triangle-shaped ground installations is also straightforward, with a hit resulting in a bright flash and a satisfying "boom!" The joystick makes it easy to maneuver your plane and fire weapons, but the game has a sophisticated side as well. The entire keyboard is used for a myriad of functions, like adjusting your speed, arming missiles, and discharging chaff to neutralize incoming missiles. The game has remarkable depth and is far more satisfying than most games of its kind. The manual contains a series of diagrams illustrating how your plane will react to the laws of physics. There are seven challenging missions to choose from, and a score is displayed after each game. The cockpit view was impressive in its time, but now its wire-frame terrain and triangular planes look pretty rough. The ultra low frame-rate doesn't help matters, resulting in choppy animation and less-than-crisp controls. It may not be the prize it once was, but for gamers with some patience and imagination, F-15 Strike Eagle still has the "right stuff". © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

Originally released for the Atari 8-bit computers by SubLogic in 1984, this was one of the three pack-in games for the Atari XE game system. It's understandable why Flight Simulator II (FS2) was selected; it utilized the keyboard and made the package look more sophisticated as a whole. When first released in 1984, this program was certainly impressive. The physics and aircraft control are extremely realistic, and you can fly over four real areas of the United States. Taking off is easier than one would expect. You basically just set your flaps and apply throttle, and the plane takes off automatically. But once you reach the proper altitude, you begin to notice just how incredibly boring this whole affair is. There's really not much to see besides a few lines on the ground. If you're lucky, you'll fly over some wireframe buildings, but there aren't many of these. There's not a whole lot to do either. While there's an impressive array of gauges and controls, you won't even need most of them. Besides using most of the keyboard, FS2 uses the joystick which is terribly unresponsive. The plane's movements lag far beyond your joystick commands, making you prone to oversteering. FS2 comes with two 90-page highly technical manuals. The Operations Manual contains plenty of good information but is poorly organized. The second book contains all kinds of crazy flight physics information and diagrams which you'll never need to know. Certain games do not age well, and I think flight simulators fall into that category. I bet few people who bought the XE game system ever completed an entire flight. Even the WWI flying ace variation is sleep inducing. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Avalon Hill is an old gaming company originally based in Baltimore. It still remains an enduring - and endearing - name in board game circles. I was thrilled to obtain a brand new copy of an Avalon Hill video game, even if it's just a so-so title like Flying Ace. Just look at that gorgeous box art for crying out loud! You control a blocky biplane flying over a side-scrolling screen with generic trees and perfectly-rounded mountains. On the road below is a procession of trucks, jeeps, and artillery units. Blasting these requires good timing, because once you begin your dive (to aim your guns) there's little room between you and the ground. After hitting your target (or missing) you need to pull up immediately. Complicating matters is a black biplane hot on your tail. Eventually the road ends and you need to land on a short runway. The directions for landing are unintentionally hilarious [view here]. Flying Ace isn't bad but it's not good either. I like the fact that you can evade the black plane and sometimes shoot him down. The thing is, once you get into a rhythm each stage is just the same thing over and over. Though hardly a paragon of programming prowess, my friends seem to have a soft spot for Flying Ace. In my school days, my buddy Eric F. would have a ball playing this. And recently my friends were quick to defend it, telling me not to be so harsh. There's not much to Flying Ace, but I guess there's a certain charm in its innocent graphics and simple premise. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

It's time to bring the old-school back! Destiny (Playstation 4, 2014) has nothing on an old-school powerhouse like Fort Apocalypse! The title screen emanates a siren that just keeps escalating in intensity. Alarmed? You should be, because this intense rapid-fire shooter delivers non-stop, white-knuckle thrills. You control a wireframe helicopter on a screen that scrolls in all directions. You're almost immediately thrust into a chaotic warzone with floating mines, mobile cannons, heat-seeking missiles, and attack helicopters. Explosions light up the sky and aircraft disintegrate under heavy fire. It's freakin' awesome, but the controls take some getting used to. As in Choplifter (Atari 5200, 1984), you fire shots at a downward angle allowing you to strafe the surface. If you stop and rotate 90 degrees you can fire straight downward. Your challenge is to infiltrate a multi-level fortress, rescue prisoners, blow up the core, and escape. Its caverns are narrow so expect a lot of combat in tight spaces while blasting away at walls and dodging laser beams. Certain sections have rotating blocks which you need to follow closely. The problem is, the blocks are so large it's hard to tell which direction they are cycling. Another tricky element is the laser beams. Some teleport you to a different area (good) but some incinerate you (less good). Is it unfair? Probably, but this is an apocalypse for crying out loud! Hey - you have ten lives so stop crying! The blue helicopter is your constant nemesis, often appearing unexpectedly (and scaring the hell out of you) - like Jason from Friday the 13th. Mobile missile launchers unleash heat-seeking missiles that get a "second wind" just when you think you've eluded them. Sometimes the missile will drop on its own launcher, which is awesome. The main flaw of the game is its brevity. After two gangbuster stages the game is over, prompting my friend Scott to ask, "that's it?" It brings the grade down, but the fact that Fort Apocalypse leaves you pining for more says a lot. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

There's a reason why I shy away from realistic military simulations, and that's because they are so freakin' tedious. Back in high school there was always a certain type of nerd who would savor the subtle details of a submarine simulation like Gato. Is it pronounced "gat-o" or "gate-o"? Either way, the game is 99% boring. In fairness, I'm sure that life aboard an actual submarine is pretty dull most of the time too. The game has a nice tutorial, followed by a series of lengthy missions, most of which involve sinking enemy ships with torpedoes. It doesn't take long to figure out how to navigate, and the keyboard is used to view charts, radar, damage reports, captain's logs, and various periscope views. The problem is, your targets are usually halfway across the Pacific Ocean, and it takes forever to reach them. It's particularly painful when you need to navigate around islands. The developers clearly put realism ahead of fun. Not only are ships named after actual WWII vessels, but your mission instructions are transmitted via Morse code! Unfortunately, Gato's sub-par graphics provide minimal pay-off. Once a wire-frame boat appears in view, it's only rendered from the side, even when it's speeding away from you. When your torpedoes hit their mark you'll see a splash and bright flash, followed by a pathetic sinking animation (the ship goes down horizontally). Considering all the work involved to hunt down a single ship, that's pretty lame! Repairing damage requires you to rendezvous with another friendly ship, but that just prolongs the agony, and Gato is one game experience you'll prefer to end sooner than later. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

I 've received many requests to review this game over the years but could never find a copy on Ebay. It turns out Getaway was a homebrew published by something called the Atari Program Exchange (APX). The game itself is quite a revelation. Programmer Mark Reid first made his mark with Downhill (Atari XE, 1981) but this was his tour-de-force. Ambitious in scope, Getaway might be considered the 1982 version of Grand Theft Auto (Playstation, 1997). It incorporates so many advanced concepts I can only assume Mark traveled forward in time to gather ideas before returning to 1982. The fact that you play as a bad guy on the run was a radical idea in of itself. You drive a car freely around an expansive, scrolling, maze-like town with all sorts of neighborhoods and distinctive landmarks. There's a school, church, factory, airport, and even a golf course. There are telephone poles, different types of trees, and sailboats on the water. As if that's not enough, the time of day changes! As you cruise around you'll need to avoid the police while collecting dollar signs, diamonds, and other loot. Adversaries are marked by a "radar" cursor that slides around the edge of the screen. Keep an eye on your fuel because you'll need to stop at a gas station when it gets low. Knocking off a white armored van will advance you to the next stage where you'll face more aggressive cops. The boys in blue tend to stick to your tail but you can take temporary shelter at your hideout location. Your score is the amount of loot you stash. Getaway won the $25,000 Atari Star Award and deserved every penny. This was decades ahead of its time. Note: This disc would not work on my Atari 800XL but it did run on my Atari XEGS. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

Time has not been kind to homegrown, garage-programmed games like Journey to the Planets. It's been a long time since I've programmed an Atari 8-bit computer, yet I can still recognize the rudimentary techniques used to create the game's simple visual effects. You move a funny-looking character with wiggly legs across a sparse landscape with a few colorful buildings and signs. Although the ground appears to drop off on the left and right sides of the screen, there are actually other contiguous screens you can move to. Anticipating the confusion, the manual assures you that "you can't fall off the edge of the world". After locating your gun (which can be aimed at several angles), you climb into your space ship (which is half as big as you are) and take off. While flying around non-scrolling screens of black "space", a handy intergalactic map indicates your position and the location of planets. Your goal is to collect a "prize" from planet. After entering the atmosphere of a new planet, you'll navigate around barriers in order to reach the landing pad (a la Gravitar). On the planet surface, your character will manipulate abstract objects in not-so-obvious ways to obtain inexplicable prizes like a "snake plant" or "magical fountain". In the early 80's, this game had a lot going for it. Not only could you freely explore outer space, but each planet was like its own mini game! Unfortunately, the puzzles are really, really abstract, requiring a lot of trial and error to solve. Journey to the Planet's brain-teasing gameplay is still mildly interesting, but attention spans aren't as long as they used to be. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

Before the NES unleashed a deluge of ninja games on us, there was Karateka, a stylish title that treated martial arts with the reverence it deserves. I remember watching the kids in high school play this on the Apple II in the computer lab and not letting me have a chance (may those heartless bastards burn in hell!). With mind-blowing graphics and a cinematic flair, Karateka was far ahead of its time. There's an opening text crawl, an elaborate introduction, and several cut-scenes intertwined with the action. In the epic story, you must rescue princess Mariko who is being held in the palace of the evil Akuma. In order to infiltrate the palace, you'll have to defeat a series of guards, one by one, before eventually facing Akuma himself. The fighters are large and fluidly animated, although admittedly slow by today's standards. Each guard has his own unique headgear and fighting style, and in general they get tougher as you progress. The keyboard controls let you punch or kick high, medium, and low. You can run but be sure to stop before you reach a guard or he'll knock you out with one punch. The keyboard control could be more responsive - your fighter lags behind your commands somewhat. The fights require patience and skill, and can be lengthy because fighters recover health as time passes. While Karateka is basically just a series of one-on-one battles, there a few surprises thrown in, such as Akuma's attacking hawk. And the ending(s) are truly classic. All in all, Karateka is a stellar achievement that stands as a showcase game for the Atari 8-bit system. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

I learned to program on an Atari 1200XL, so watching the 8-bit line of Atari computers die a slow death during the late 80's was painful to endure. The magazines kept getting thinner and new software reduced to a trickle. One late release of note was the critically-acclaimed golf title Leader Board. From a technical perspective the game is fascinating. Before each shot the course is rendered with brown wireframes and then filled in with green "grass". The process takes about five or six seconds which might be annoying if it weren't so mesmerizing. The game is certainly challenging due to holes that consist of islands in water! With one behind-the-back viewing angle it's hard to tell where the land ends and the water begins! The manual offers hole diagrams but I prefer to wing it. Fortunately the game doesn't charge a penalty stroke when you hit it in the drink. There's no concept of fairways, roughs, or even greens. The game just puts you in putting mode when you're close enough to the hole. The swing meter is ingenious but unforgiving, divided into two halves: power and snap. For power you just hold the button down until the meter is full - no problem. Then the snap meter kicks in, which lets you set your accuracy with a very small margin of error. A little late on the trigger you'll watch your ball veer way, way out of bounds. You can consult the manual to see how far each club hits, but after a round or two you'll get a feel for it. I finished my first nine holes 24 over. During the second nine however I was only five over. That said, I still don't fully understand the slope indicator, which looks like a line with a shadow. And I definitely don't get that wind indicator, which is a single pixelated line! The putting could be more forgiving, as the ball tends to "pop out" of the cup if you hit it a bit too hard. Still, I love the raw simplicity and steady pacing of this game. You can play 18 holes in 30 minutes! The swing and ball animation are silky smooth, and it's so satisfying to watch you shot land softly next to the pin in the far distance. Everytime I play Leader Board I want to bump up the grade by another letter. It's easy to dismiss an archaic sports title like this, but you may be surprised just how fun it can be. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

I have some fond memories of Lode Runner from my 8-bit computer days. Platform games were abundant in the early 80's, but most only offered a handful of screens. Lode Runner on the other hand boasts 151 (!) levels of strategic, thought-provoking gameplay. Each level is a maze-like construction of ladders, brick platforms, and hand-over-hand bars. The object is to collect a number of "chests" while avoiding pursuing guards. You can drop down from any distance without sustaining injury, but this also applies to your adversaries. It's easy to become surrounded, but you have one special ability that can bail you out of almost any situation: the ability to drill holes. Guards will blindly fall into these, allowing you to run right over them. You can also drill holes to create escape routes. A typical game of Lode Runner has a lot of close calls that require quick thinking. It's pretty exhilarating to scurry up a ladder or drop through a hole just as guards are converging from all sides. Some stages will have you scratching your head trying to figure out how to reach buried chests. In terms of graphics, the characters are very small, but their animation is remarkably lifelike. I also like the game's unusual color scheme. Lode Runner is a quality title, but it tends to drag on for too long. Not only do you begin with five lives, but you receive extra lives on a regular basis. This is also one of the quietest games I've ever played, with no music and sparse sound effects. There are no passwords, but there is a level select. It may not look like much, if you're looking for a thinking man's platform game, Lode Runner will deliver the goods. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.