The Greatest Atari 8-bit Games Of All-Time
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- In this video I countdown the 20 greatest Atari 8-bit games of all-time as voted for by my viewers and the retro gaming community at large.
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#Atari #RetroGaming #Atari8bit - Ігри
I was so sad to hear of Archer McLean's passing. He programmed the games of my youth. So many great games in such a short time much respect and love to Archer and his family.
Such a lovely guy too, met him numerous times over the years and had some great chats with him.
I didn't know he passed away. This is very very sad news. He was a major part of my gaming on the Atari when I was young. R.I.P Archer, and his family.
I also loved and grew up with Archer’s games. IK+ was my absolute favourite to play with my cousin, incredible fun in 2-player mode. RIP Mr. Maclean, thank you for the memories.
It's amazing how well the Atari 800 held up against the C64, considering it was 1979 technology. Only towards the end did it struggle, but that was mostly because of a lot of lackluster ports.
And it still best c64 in a number of late ports, AND can do some incredible games that are totally impossible on c64)eg. Roinbow walker, the lucasfilm games etc
Petty amazing architecture by miner!
Great video, thank You. I had Atari when I was a kid. Some great memories. I would add: The Last Starfighter, Zorro, Road Race, Agent USA, Fred, Ultima III, Silent Service, Who Dares Wins 2, Blue Max, Super Cobra, Hacker, Qix and unforgettable Keystone Kappers.
Montezuma's Revenge recently had a Kickstarter project by the original programmer to make an NES port. Digital copies have already been distributed, while Physical copies are supposed to be shipping very soon. I love seeing that game get around so much.
I never knew that! Could do an interesting video comparing the NES, Master System, 5200 and ColecoVision versons.
Can't really argue with the list, i had an Atari 800XL in my teens and bought one from ebay a few years ago. Loved International Karate and Rescue on Fractulus. Awesome video!
I would totally buy a computer from Alan Alda. 👍
I recall the one where Alan is talking to a kid. I don't recall if he had a name, so I'll just call him "Sheldon", because he kept spouting all of the Atari's technical attributes about the ram, graphics, sound, etc, as reasons to ask his parents for one. Alan would respond to each claim, telling Sheldon to instead say how the computer would help him do better at school, write documents, make music, and so on. It's rather a great commercial.
Alan Alda has nothing on Capt Kirk!🖖
Glad you made this video :)
When talking about Atari and especially the 8-bit line of their home computers, a "The Many Great Games" video would be the one I'd go for - from the top of my head, I'd add Joust, Druid, Star Raiders II, Berzerk, Frogger I & II, Eidolon, Koronis Rift, Centipede, Hacker, Agent USA, Air Support, Oil's Well, Battle Ships, Tagalon, Beach Head I & II, BMX Simulator, Captain Beeble, Atari Rogue, Caverns of Mars, Caverns of Khafka, Crystal Castles, Dig Dug, Saboteur, Diamonds, Dan Strikes Back, Donkey Kong Junior, Ghost Chaser, E.T. Phone Home, Gauntlet, Jumpman & Jumpman Junior, Karateka, Maze War, Mr.Robot, Planetary Defense, Nadral, Zorro, Spy vs Spy I, II & III, Joe Blade I & II, Feud, Lode Runner, MIDI Maze, Pengo, Pitstop I & II, Pole Position, Spelunker, Ms.Pac-Man, The Jewels of Darkness, Ghostbusters, H.E.R.O., Zenji, Space Shuttle, The Great American Cross-Country Road Race, Seven Cities of Gold, Colossus Chess, Amaurote, Crystal Raider, Spellbound, Universal Hero, Solo Flight, Mig Alley Ace, F-15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, Kennedy Approach, Capture the Flag, Alley Cat, Quasimodo, Darts, New York City..
Thumbs up 🙂
Shout out to Crystal Raider. A very good and often overlooked game. I chose Henry's House when thinking of platform games, but also used to spend hours playing Crystal Raider
I love Air Support on Atari :)
Yes to all of the above. There will never be another platform as awesome as the Atari 8-bit line.
No Ultima 3 or 4?
@@CRAZYHORSE19682003 Hmm, I never had them or seen them or even knew about them, frankly.. 🙂
What a great video! Brings back some memories... I only missing some games I would add on this list (but then it actually is not a top 20 anymore..😆): Starquake, Spelunker, alley Cat, B.C's Quest for Tires, Robin Hood, Zybex, Super Pac-Man, Gyruss, Centipede, Fort Apocalypse, Lode Runner, Spelunker, Crossfire, Caverns of Khafka, Dynamite Dan, Desmond's Dungeon, Drol, Feud, etc. etc...
That time there were too many great games. I think it's easy to get a top 100 ...
I second Gyruss and Lode Runner!
This list brings back a lot of memories. Necromancer, Archon, Bruce Lee, and Ninja were favorites of mine as a kid while being the only one I know who had an Atari instead of a C64.
User groups trading games were a lifesaver at a time when the retail presence in the US was nil due to the ST, Amiga, and C64 later in the 80s. Trying to figure out how to play a lot of these games without instructions was an experience and it meant we would get surprised by things that weren’t straight-forward such as the level design in Necromancer and the various mechanics behind the spells and squares in Archon.
Synapse Software (Necromancer, Blue Max, Shamus) is a particular favorite developer of mine to this day and I have been advocating that their output end up on any Atari 8 bit collection by, say, Blaze Entertainment (Evercade)
Shamus. Made a map of rooms 😀
C64 was cheaper and way more popular, however commodore cut lots of corners, the atari are better build
Wonderful video as always! You got my top 4 included, so I'm happy! Especially with Star Raiders at #1! One of the best days of my life was when I got it along with Missle Command in the Entertainer pack, BASIC in the Programmer pack and of course the original Atari 800 back when I was 13.
Alley Cat, Pastfinder, Shamus Case II...
Draconus, Black Lamp, Zybex, Henry's House...
I wish someone would come up with a modern Archon shooter/strategy game. I loved that one.
Interesting thing about *M.U.L.E* is that the sprites for the titular robot look similar to the AT-AT sprites used in Parker Brothers' *The Empire Strikes Back* video game.
I especially liked the music of M.U.L.E
@@sevelos I can always hear it in my head, if I think of that intro screen. :-)
I did have a few purchased games- Karateka and Pitstop, but lets not forget, that back then, you had this divide, those that were stealing games, those that were not and doing without commercial games, and some wealthy people that bought whatever, but those people were probably on a more expensive platform. We always forget about the huge swath of people that didn't buy or pirate games. They didn't own commercial games - or just a few,. They were playing magazine type ins. And magazine types were huge. These reviews are cool - but to review how things really were - especially for those of you that were on the piracy path even if you lived through the same age you may not even know about this other world -someday a review of magazine type ins would be aweseome. :)
Yeah I think my ZX Spectrum library was about 75% originals and the rest copies but I knew people who had like 90% copies and they didn't really care, whereas I preferred to have the original games with the box art etc. I guess I was a collector back then too!
I used to type-in games from magazines too, but I can't actually recall any that were good!
@@TheLairdsLair I recall one or two typed in games being sort of ok. I vaguely recall one game I typed in from a magazine where I spent more time playing than typing, it was a two player turn based game where you could either move, or cast a spell at your enemy, and was actually quite playable. But, the main thing I remember about typing in stuff from UK magazines, was fixing numerous bugs, truncated and omitted code that were frequently present in the publications!
I also remember seeing quite a number of magazine articles on Pokey's volume only mode, with type in demos usually written in basic! None of which, not even machine code ones, actually set volume only mode on the pokey and played samples as claimed, but just used its normal modes and played regular tones. Cheap way to pad out the magazine though.
Great video, lots of cool games here!
I owned an 800 in ‘82 as did Kim Libreri, from Leyland, he went on to do the FX and win an Oscar for The Matrix films… now he’s in charge of Unreal
This video makes me cry. I did not know that paul woakes, the guy that made Damocles and Mercenary died in 2017. This game was the game that affected me the most, I made a game inspired by his work in early 2000. Sad, but we are all going there ourselves.
Defender was my favorite of the original carts we got in 1982. I also had Pacman, Donkey Kong, Star Raiders, Robotron, Galaxian. I wanted Galaga and Stargate, but was never on 8-bits. It was so much fun. These were part of the 1st party games I got from my uncle.
I tried to pay for all my games to keep more games made, but seemed to be useless since Apple or Commodore got credit for those flippy disks.
I had never been that good at defender in the arcades until after I played the Atari cartridge version of Defender at a computer show for rather too long a while, long enough to get the hang of it on the easy mode, and then on the hardest! Only reason I didn't buy it was I also had a quick go at Dropzone, which had just come out, at another stand , and with Atari games being so expensive I couldn't justify buying two versions of the same game.
Another great video by this great channel!
Glad you enjoyed it!
You have to love the algorithm. I just scheduled the release of my Rescue On Fractulus video and then YT recommended this video and channel. So happy to find your content! Liked and Subscribed :)
That is awesome!
I'm glad Defender made that list. The sound effect played every ten thousand points is 8 bit perfection.
I honestly haven't seen a lot of videos on the online community with the Atari. We had a modem, and it was an amazing experience to connect with others.
15:18 I have been trying to find this tune for over 40 years. I remember hearing this whenever passing by Atari computers in stores.
It's a classical piece... Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. There are performances of it here on UA-cam. :-)
Dandy. Multiplayer with serious cooperation needed.
It's amazing how these pictures and sounds pop up in my brain even though I last played these games 35+ years ago )) Some of them I already expected to see in this video and some I've just remebered now )
I think about half of these games were voted for nostalgic reasons rather than them being the best games, but I'm ok with that. Other games I really liked were Druid, Zybex, Shamus, Picnic Paranoia, Zeppelin etc. I could probably list 100-200 before I started to struggle.
Yes!!! I loved Picnic Paranoia, it was so fun. I loved Biff Drop, it's not well known, it was one of those games you programmed out of Antic magazine. Those were the days.
I agree, some of them are just very known games, but not necessarily best games. Like Defender or Drop Zone.
Love that trackball control on missile command. Lol he couldn't stop last one
I would have included Deluxe Invaders by Roklan Corporation because it is a very good version of Space Invaders for the Atari 8-bit computers. In fact Deluxe Invaders was made so well that it surpasses in quality over Atari's own version of Space Invaders for the Atari 8-bit computers.
A few people did vote for that, but not enough for it to make the top 20.
Makes you wonder if Alan Alda still has his Atari 8 bit computers. lol
Not surprised to see Star Raiders at the first place at all. I confess that, with this game, I need to feel more in-depth than the usual. But I can tell that it has a great presentation. I'm sure I'm going to experience why it's so well-regarded.
Great to see the LucasFilm Games here: Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus. Not surprised to see that my beloved The Eidolon wasn't included, though. I wish it could.
Good list, but I would definitely add Alternate Reality at least on the second place, this is the original and definitive version of the game, and a showcase what the back then already aging platform was capable of!
@@werpu12Alternate Reality has an unforgettable music, by the way. The best on the Atari 8-bit!
While many of the arcade games were great, the main reason I opted for the Atari from my Speccy, was strategy and war gaming with the earlier days of SSI mainly being on the Atari, limited availability in the UK so used to order them direct from SSI in the states. I think the wargaming and strategy theme would make for a good sequel to this. One that was available in the UK on cartridge direct from Atari was Eastern Front, Atari at first didn’t understand a war game could be so popular but after finding it popular on tape from the from their users brand, they upgraded it on a ROM cartridge.
I had Ninja on C64. Great game. Still play it
Looks like panther had choplifter in it too
Encounter! is one of my favorites
I had all the games in your list. I was surprised you included all those 3D games in the top 20. I never bothered with those.
I would add perhaps Snokie, BC Quest for tiers, Jumpman, Karateka.
That's what people voted for!
I think Eastern Front '41 deserves to be in the top 20.
Nice one buddy Quite A few In there I hadn't heard of. 👍
Mash Alan Alda doing Atari adverts triple A
I guess a 130XE with a SID build-in would be the ultimate 8bit computer.
Finally anything from synaptic was excellent. Rainbow Walker dimension X.
Lode Runner and Championship Load Runner.
Also, Load Runner's Rescue...
You damn right, Alan Alda!!!!
Defender box cover has more playability for pre teen than actual game. LMAO
Alley Cat from Synapse is one of the 5 best games for the Atari 8-bits. Hilarious, original mini-games and amazing cat animations for an 8-bit computer. The music and sound are wonderful as well. Here's some sample gameplay as well as a great look at the title screen and music: ua-cam.com/video/1SowfiitllQ/v-deo.html
Good list. A couple of ones I was surprised didn't make it were Spelunker and King of the Mountain, both large level platformers. I also spent many hundreds of hours playing Ultima IV. True story, Miner 2049er was the first game I ever played where I had the "Wait, is that the sun coming up?" experience.
Spelunker got quite a few votes, but not enough to make the final list.
i really love amaurote and drol - almost because of the music and graphics
So Sad the best OP Atari um "Game" never made the list- While powering up an XL, You hold down the "option" button! Fun and "Games" for all Ages! Alan Alda approved! 😉😆
(*Wizard's Crown / Ultima series definitively ate up a lot of my youth, but Archon was so AMAZING! and anyone remember Mail Order Monsters? dang that was something else)
I would take Blue Max over River raid any day. How F-15 Strike Eagle 2 didn't make this list is beyond me,
It didn't make the list because nobody voted for it!!!!
@@TheLairdsLair LOL Good reason I guess. Everyone has their own individual tastes. I am surprised Ultima three or four didn't make it. They were AWESOME RPG's.
Ultima IV just missed out on the Top 20, but made the Top 40.
One of my favorite games on the system was called Reforger 88. It was a war game dealing with a hypothetical Soviet invasion of West Germany through the Fulda Gap. Many an hour I spent devising strategies to defeat the Soviets.
So many good choices. Others I could throw in are the likes of Activisions Megamania, a simple but fast passed and well executed shooter where the enemy includes burgers! Zybex fits into that as well (less the burgers). Feud was very much a cross platform game but the Atari version is damned good. Also the Tyne Soft game Phantom, visually impressive if a bit sluggish if like me you played Gauntlet/Alien Breed before playing it.
I also like Bombastic (I'm ranked 15th on Antstream Arcade), Batty Builders, and Caverns of Mars (I have the Homebrew port to the 2600 called Conquest of Mars). River Raid is a classic.
Definitely brings back memories. I had an Atari XEGS and a 7800 back in 88. Loved the games that I had with the exception of Karateka, I hated that game.
Karateka was one of the worst video games made for any system. It’s not just your sense of things!
My uncle had a c64 and a atari 400. I remember he had a game based on being a oil tycoon. I would love to know the name of it.
Was it this? - www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-oil-wells_3771.html
Id put Yoomp, Gremlins, Kangaroo, Jr Pac Man, and Pole Position in the top 20.
Was Alternate Reality really so unknown that nobody even mentions it? The original Atari 8 bit version was in many ways ahead of its time and made quite some use of the Atari's sound and graphics. Of course only two parts of six or seven were ever released, but even in its forever incomplete form Alternate Reality stands out. It took ten years and far better computers than just an 8 bit processor to come up with a better RPG.
It was 24th, only just missed out on the main top 20.
@@TheLairdsLair Good to hear. 8 bit computers were capable of much more than simple arcade imitations or platformers, but by that time the hardware evolved faster than the software. It was far easier to throw a faster processor and more hardware at any problem than clever programming. An art that will come back when the advances in hardware become more glacial again.
Some great games there, my favourites were Ollies Follies (great theme tune) and Shamus 😊
I know you don’t like the idea of the 400 mini but I’m here watching and I’m still thinking it’s a Yes. Especially once I found out the NES uses enhancement chips to actually look and play well.
I very much like the idea of an Atari 8-bit mini, but the implementation of the 400 Mini is really poor.
@@TheLairdsLair are you more so wanting a reproduction of a full sized computer? I’ve never experienced anything other than the 2600 and the “kiddish” consoles of the 90s and early 00s. It’ll be an option for me to either have my mind blown (not expecting that) or to be disappointed (maybe likely).
That would be nice, a full size 800XL with HDMI etc. but I think they should have done 2 models, like they did with TheC64 (same company behind it) a mini and a full size. One for the true Atari 8-bit enthusiast and one for the general consumer.
Both should have been based on the 800XL as that's the most highly regarded and by far the best selling model in the range so would be the most recognised too. But when I was working with Retro Games Limited I suggested the idea of a XEGS Mini and even drew up a whole concept design and proposal for it, they told me it was really good but they didn't think an Atari 8-bit Mini would "sell enough units to make it viable." So it was quite galling to see them come up with this version afterwards. I actually posted the whole proposal on Facebook where people agreed it was much better than what's being offered.
The 800XL (or XEGS) Mini should have had at least 50 games, or 64 games the same as the TheC64 did with a USB port in the cartridge slot to add more games. Retro Games Limited used the excuse of licensing for tiny amount of games but this is total rubbish, as just including Atari's own games they could have easily hit the 50 (which would obviously require no licensing at all) and once you include I.P. owned by Retro Games Limited and their sister company Pixel Games, this number could be double that.
Whilst the amount of games doesn't matter too much to the tech nerd who knows how to side load, perform mods and collects all these things it does to the general consumer. If you walked into a branch of Menkind or Game wanting a cheap plug and play console for a nostalgia hit are you going to buy a system with just 25 games or one with 64? RGL stated that there would be a full size in the future if this was a success, but their decisions seem to be setting it up to fail.
For the price they are charging, which is actually MORE expensive than the 2600+ which plays real games, I expected a lot more. Plus the name is AWFUL - it should have been The Atari 8-bit, for brand recognition alone.
@@TheLairdsLair thanks for your reply. I appreciate it. Very informative indeed.
No problem, I just expanded it a bit further to clarify some of my points.
Pastfinder from Activision certainly merits a mention - one of the finest vertical scrollers ever made. Surreal landscape and hypnotic jumping motions. A real challenge to play with unique elements not seen in other games from the genre. Sample video of the gameplay here: ua-cam.com/video/T7L7vlnlIsM/v-deo.html
Alley Cat and Pathfinder both got quite a few votes, just not enough to make the top 20.
Are you going to do one of these for the BBC Micro or Amiga?
Eventually yes!
Return of Heracles was one of the first RPGs released for the Atari 8-bits. Graphically it's pretty primitive, but the gameplay itself is fantastic and often hilarious. A complete runthru of a game is recorded here: ua-cam.com/video/KeALMWzT0gA/v-deo.html
Sorry, for my stupidity here. I assume that the 130 XE would play all 8 bit range of games. For example on a PICO cart to have 400, 800, XL and XE. I'm trying to learn as much as i can on the 8 bit line as i only grew up with the 1040 STE. I blame the Mini for making me fall in love with the 8 bit line.
There are some games that won't play on a XL or XE but not many and there are hacked versions of all those that will work.
@@TheLairdsLair thank you 🥰
Never had the computers, just owning consoles. In hindsight perhaps I should have. PS I liked the Alan Alda ads, which brought back memories of the TV show MASH.
The 8-bit is the only major Atari system I don't own (as you know) but it looks like I am missing out somewhat and certainly wouldn't have objected had I got one of these instead of my trusty old rubber key Speccy.
Could never get past the odd colour choices of Donkey Kong on the 8-bit Atari. Although only 16 colours were available on screen, the Atari had a fairly extensive colour palette for the time, with gradients available for each colour (still to a maximum of 16 without trickery). There was no excuse for brown and blue flame critters and the over-all muddy appearance. Athough the TI version has missing features/cut scenes and single channel music, I'd rather play that one because it looks so much better than the Atari (and also includes all 4 levels including the concrete factory (pie level)). Definitely wouldn't have considered it a system best for the Atari. It looks better on nearly every other system - and some were Atarisoft ports!. A top-20 best title on the Colecovision/Adam, but not on the Atari computer.
The ones I was most surprised not to see were Jumpman/Jumpman Jr and LodeRunner, my two favourite games of the era, each of which had their penultimate version(s) on the 400/800. Until Valve released Portal, they were the best platformers you could play at home.
They are conspicuously absent.
(We had Jumpman on tape, and it would notoriously miss-load (usually after about 20 minutes), but we would just rewind and try again. Even if it took an hour to get a successful load, we always felt it was worth the effort. Still do. It is just that good a game.
I had forgotten about Miner 2049er. That was a great game. A few that didn't get mentioned that I really loved; Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, Omnitrend's Universe, and of course, Ultima III (though it was cross platform).
The uk publishers back then did not really port to the Atari very often. It basically was a neglected system by them! Jet Set Willy for instance never made it to the Atari, neither did any of the Ocean games. I always envied the C64 users for all those games.
It was somewhat neglected yes, but you're wrong about Jet Set Willy, that was ported by TyneSoft and is pretty well-known for its incredible music by Rob Hubbard.
Ocean did a small selection of games for the Atari like Green Beret, Hunchback, Head Over Heels and Arkanoid but never supported it properly.
@@TheLairdsLair Thanks for the clarification, yes I was partially wrong as it seems. Thanks a lot!
Dropzone was in my top 5 Atari 8-bit games of all time. I hated Defender because the controls sucked and I was never very good at it. Dropzone was one of a batch of four games I'd ordered in anticipation of receiving my Atari for Christmas '85. It was so beautifully crafted compared to so many Atari games of the time and it was so much more accessible than Defender. Hard to imagine it was Archer Maclean's first game. Played it to death that first week and was soon into the million point range. Pretty sure International Karate was one of his and another game I played a lot. Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker on the ST was the first truly enjoyable snooker game as well. The guy was a genius at turning the mundane into brilliant and will be sorely missed by those of us who loved his games.
Yeah, really sad loss, Archer was an awesome guy who I always loved chatting with.
Ok, so..... here's my list - I'm sure it will be controversial but I'll chuck it in anyway...... In my opinion stuff from Microprose , Lucasfilm, English Software, Paul Woakes and Datasoft were the better offerings - preferably disc based if you could get it..... I know my list is a bit RPG and simulation heavy but in terms of grown up games before deciding to get an ST or Amiga - this was the cream of the crop. I felt that platforms, horizontal and vertical shooters along with naff maze games were so plentiful and mostly garbage....... that this list reflects the best of the Atari 8 bit by sorting wheat from chaff......of all time, on all continents and all formats:
1 Alternate reality - dungeon
2 Alternate reality - city
3 Mercenary
4 Encounter
5 Silent Service
5 Ninja
6 Zybex
7 Elektraglide
8 Ballblazer
9 Jeff Minters Attack of Mutant Camels 1
10 Alley Cat
11 International Karate
12 Eastern Front
13 Tomahawk
14 Solo Flight
15 Hacker
16 Magnetic Scrolls - Pawn or Guild of Thieves
17 Spy Vs Spy 2 (island caper)
18 Ghostbusters
19 Leaderboard Golf
20 Eidolon
If you literally could only have X number of game..... take X and work down that list and have those........
+ Karateka, Zorro, Pengo, Goonies, Road Race, Silent Service, Draconus.
Agree 100% with all of those choices.
Were any of these games 🎮🕹 re-released on the Atari 50 collection?
Missile Command, Miner 2049er and Star Raiders are all on there.
Atari For Ever!
Some of my favorites not in this list - Infiltrator, Racing Destruction Set, Eidolon, Beach Head, and Ultima IV.
My favorite atari 2600 games are pheonix, jungle hunt, cosmic ark, vanguard, and berzerk.
Cool. This video isn't about the 2600 though, it's looking at Atari 8-bit games (400/800/XL/XE)
Suprised to see Necromancer but not Alley Cat! Donkey Kong but not Jumpman?
Be good to see a list of just Atari 2600 top 20 games.
I'm sure I'll do a similar video for the Atari 2600 in the near future.
Pinball Construction Set
In some alternate universe there is an Atari 800 with a SID :-D
I prefer the sound of POKEY, but I know I'm in the minority on that.
Never had an Atari 8-bit. I almost bought a 130xe + disk drive, in 1988. But instead, I bought an Amiga A500. Never regretted it. The Amiga was such an amazing machine at that time.
great video, but Fort Apocalypse is way better than any of the titles ranked 11 to 20, this is a serious miss, imho.
It didn't even make the Top 40 surprisingly, I was expecting it to rank quite high.
Nothing from the Ultima series, MicroLeague Baseball, Spy vs. Spy, Alley Cat, or Lords of Conquest?
There were votes for several Ultima games and Alley Cat, but not enough to make the top 20.
You can tell it's a poll thanks to the lack of modern day homebrews. Yoomp, RGB, Ridiculous Reality, Scramble, Time Pilot and Bosconian are just a few candidates of which some should be there. Archon II is way better than Archon. Rescue on Fractalus is by far the best of the Lucasfilm games. Caverns of Mars... just no. Alley Cat should be there. Check the Atarimania top 20, it also lacks games that should be there and contains some non-deserving ones but I would rate it as more accurate.
Very few homebrews were voted for sadly, Yoomp got a few votes, as did Castle Crisis, but no other got more than a single vote. Nostalgia always seems to take over with things like this.
A big factor is that a lot of us played Atari 8-bit games back in the day, but either moved on or never had an Atari of our own. So we have little or no exposure to the modern day scene.
Now, I KNOW that TheLairdsLair's followers include an eff-ton of C64 fanatics. Just look at any 4-play poll where the C64 version is just pathetic (like that slot machine game) ... C64 version still gets lots of votes.
Well, like it or not, C64 folks are more familiar with Atari games from the Atari/Apple port era.
I agree, some later software is better than what is on the list, but nostalgia for commercial games seems to win a popularity contest. Not to bring up old divides to hurt, but historically the market in the 80's was divided. Obviously some people owned this software, but I dare say - the vast majority did not. So what is there to be nostalgic over? Well - as it turns out there was a way to bypass purchases, called piracy. so what wins a popularity contest today - old pirated software. Still the reality is, people bought these computers of all ages, even people that would never have pirated a thing. Even older people who aren't around today any longer. So no perfect way to gauge what is truly iconic of the time. A poll today, has to be tilted towards people who were of the younger crowd in th e80's. That's just reality, the people not alive today, cannot vote. And I dare say, age is linked to piracy, the younger crowd adopted it more freely. But the truth of what it was like for real, in the 80's, is the market had a large number of folks that neither purchased many commercial titles, and also didn't play them. They were on the free software path. Specifically I mean magazine type ins were huge. I really played Worm of Bemer, for example...for that month anyway (April 1984, compute magazine - if curious)....and the like. I even typed in games for other platforms - quick ports of text based games from the 70's - I'd just fill out the month with quick ports from old creative computing magazines I checked out from the library.
Atari 8-bit - it's not field surgery
Cavernia anyone?
The last star fighters is way better than star raiders but it was a leaked version
It became Star Raiders II, which did make the Top 40. I prefer to the original too.
Where was Zybex?!
Getaway, you missed the original 8 - bit GTA. So yeah.
I didn't miss it - nobody voted for it!
Sorry for being so long-winded!
I always massively appreciate your contributions and the thought that you put into making them!
Star Raiders 1979 not 1980.
What is wrong with Atari 8-bitters??? Not a single role playing and/or point and click adventure game???
Decent list otherwise... ;-)
Masters of Time? Agent USA? I've a soft spot for Fraction Fever, too...
0:0 wellcome WHO ?
STUN Runner
@@TheLairdsLair Oh, thank you :)
That has been haunting me for years now, for some reason I was hearing "done runner"
He doesn't mention any EA games and I can tell you right now, every single one of them games were better than the ones he listed. Yes they required a disk, but they are still listed as the best.
1. Nearly 500 people voted on this poll, so it wasn't my list, it was the choices of the retro gaming community.
2. There were *TWO* EA games in the top 20 - M.U.L.E in 5th place and Archon in 3rd place. Did you even watch the whole video?
3. Most of these games were available on disk.
Lol
Way too many votes from non-8-bit owners. Donkey Kong? Defender? Missile Command? Ugh. Where the heck is Jumpman? Among so many others....
Well Alternate Reality definitely belongs there, it was one of the best games of all 8 bit systems and a little bit of a Swan Song to it. It really showed what the system is capable of, no other 8 bit port surpassed the original on the Atari!
X E G S is not a word.
Archon is pronounced as spelled.
It is a word though, because I said it, and so do lots of other people.
And I said it as its spelled.
I seriously don't know why you come here, 99% of your comments on this channel are pathetic attempts to pick on spelling and grammar. I suggest you go find a new place to hang out, because you clearly don't enjoy being here.
@@TheLairdsLair Don't feed the troll!
Greatest....? This card again ?
If you don't like it, don't comment. We've had this discussion ad-infinitum.
@@TheLairdsLair "not liking" a claim isn't a reason not to comment. It's only a reason to disagree . Disagreement is what fuels discussions.If we agreed and pet each other's back it would make this conversation corny. Calling something "the greatest" goes beyond subjective preference. What you need is objective criteria that could turn subjective opinions in to objective evaluations. So a game can be great for many reasons.. Popularity, technically advanced, addictive gameplay, historical value etc etc etc. In order for a game to be the greatest of all time, it needs to check more than the box of personal nostalgia. I hope you understand my arguments.
You presented it in terrible way. This monitor and text that often covers almost entire presentation of game at times.
Zuviel Gelaber und zu kleines Spiel
Talk about missing the point . . . . .