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======SB Recommends Atari 800 Games=====

=====Recommended=====
  * **//Abracadabra//**
    * Mr. Apol: i really like this game. it's set in a maze that constantly morphs and changes, and has enemies that run around and create more enemies. you have to find the key to exit without time running out, and it can get really hectic. another game i'd love to see updated.

  * **//Alley Cat//**
    * Mr. Apol: a classic. was on a ton of platforms, so you've probably played this. the 800 version had really nice graphics and smooth gameplay. tons of different mini-games and levels, so the game is extremely varied. i played this game a ton when i was younger, and then got a version for my pc later on. still holds up to this day.

  * **//Alternate Reality//**

  * **//Archon//**
    * Mr. Apol:  totally awesome action game where you had a set of fantasy creatures you'd fight with on a chess board. really deep gameplay, with spells you could cast and dozens of different creatures to use.

  * **//Ballblaster//**
    * Mr. Apol: really awesome lucas arts game with pretty advanced 3d. think soccer, but awesome. you have to grab a floating ball, run to the other players goal and LAUNCH it at them. the goal moves horizontally and changes in size. the two-player in this was fucking great. i'd love to see an update for this on the wii or something.

  * **//BC's Quest for Tires//**
    * Mr. Apol: started a thread about this one a while back, but it's based on the BC series of comic strips. fun gameplay, and some really weird imagery. check it out if you can find it, it's worth playing through once.

  * **//Behind Jaggi Lines//**
    * Mr. Apol: really cool game by lucas arts. fairly advanced 3d flight simulator set on an alien planet. you would periodically have to fight enemies, and every now and then you'd find friendlys on the ground that you'd have to pick up by landing, turning off your engines, and opening the airlock. it was complicated, but fun too. check this one out.

  * **//Berzerk//**
    * Mr. Apol: basically pn 03 before pn 03 existed. if you don't believe me, play it. this game still holds up today, even if it looks dated.

  * **//Blue Max//**
    * Mr. Apol: probably the best isometric shooter ever made. had great music, and really intense gameplay. god i love this game. blue max is what got me into shmups.

  * **//Boulder Dash//**
    * Mr. Apol: the one and only. still one of my favorite games.
    * wpham: Boulder Dash haunts my dreams.
    * wourme: This is easily the one video game I've spent more time with than any other. (Assuming all the sequels count as a single game, and I think they do.)

  * **//Bruce Lee//**
    * Mr. Apol: fucking great game. the concept is just fantastic: the yakuza have precious lanterns that bruce lee wants. to obtain said lanterns, bruce lee must traverse a horrible nightmare castle and repeatedly kick sumo wrestlers and ninjas RIGHT IN THE FACE. highly recommended.

  * **//Canyon Climber//**
    * Mr. Apol: an awesome little game where you tried to scale this mountain without getting booted the fuck off by mountain goats. when you got to the top you blew it to pieces. see you in hell, you fucking goats.

  * **//Captain Cosmo//**
    * Mr. Apol: a fun little game where you play as a superhero that puts monsters in a zoo. gets pretty hectic. has pretty nice graphics and solid gameplay. 

  * **//Caverns of Mars//**
    * Mr. Apol:  really difficult game where you have to descend into a cavern, picking up fuel and stuff on the way down, until you get to the bottom and blast back out. fun fact: donkey kong country 3 had several levels that i'm 95% sure were a homage to this game.

  * **//C'est la Vie//**
    * Mr. Apol: weird little maze game where you walked around and collected money, but had weird finance aspects. if you walked into a wall by accident, or got hit by an enemy, you had to pay the hospital to cover the hospital bills. you could borrow money from a loan shark, but had to pay him back quickly or he'd send thugs out to break your legs. there was a bank that had interest rates and all sorts of crazy shit. my mom really liked this game.

  * **//Dandy Dungeon//**
    * Mr. Apol: a more intelligent gauntlet before gauntlet existed. really fun, and had a ton of levels. included a level editor too! this game still has a small cult following, and i highly suggest picking it up. it even includes simultaneous four-player action, something kind of rare for early gaming.

  * **//Dreadnaught Factor//**
    * Mr. Apol: this game rocks. it's sort of like a cross between xevious and raiden, except the whole game consists of you wrecking the fuck out of these huge star destroyer ripoffs. really fun.

  * **//Drelbs//**
    * Mr. Apol: really strange game where you run through this maze of flipping doors trying to avoid and trap the angry faces. this game is seriously bizarre. try it out if you can find it.

  * **//Eliminator//**
    * Mr. Apol: really strange defender clone where there's this large area of static that keeps encroaching on the screen, eventually consuming everything and killing you. fun times.

  * **//Facemaker//**
    * Mr. Apol:  really bizarre game where you... made faces. i got a kick out of this as a kid though, because you could make the faces scrunch up or stick their tongue out. 

  * **//Fort Apocalypse//**
    * Mr. Apol: another dark [[company:synapse_software|synapse]] game. a lot of fun, and a lot better than nautilus. pretty big game, i don't think i ever beat it. sort of a weird choplifter like concept, but focused on exploration. think metroid meets mr. heli. 

  * **//Ghost Busters//**
    * Mr. Apol: there were several versions of this. really fun, and had a great digitized version of the theme playing the whole game. the [[pattern:title_screen|title screen]] even had a little karaoke type subtitle so you could sing along. 

  * **//Gorf//**
    * Mr. Apol: kind of like space invaders, galaxian, tempest and gradius all piled into one. fun trivia: gorf was one of the first games to have a "boss" in the most accepted sense.

  * **//Gridrunner//**

  * **//Hard Hat Mack//**
    * Mr. Apol: hard hat mack. sort of like jumpman jr., but has a construction theme. the basic idea is to complete the structure while avoiding enemies. actually sort of inventive.

  * **//Journey to the Planets//**
    * Mr. Apol: really awesome exploration game that takes place over multiple planets. i'd really like to see an update to this one. "anchors aweigh" plays when you get in your ship, and that song still gives me chills to this day. definitely a must-try. 

  * **//Jumpman Junior//**
    * Mr. Apol: a sequel to jumpman, pretty much the same graphics and gameplay. pretty fun platforming action, with a ton of levels to play through. was one of my regulars. 

  * **//Jungle Hunt//**
    * Jeff Garneau: it has pretty much anything you could ever ask for in a game: vine swinging; croc punching; boulder jumping; from savages maiden rescuing. there's really something about the underwater segments that's completely desperate and just makes you go, "YEAH FUCK YOU CROC I GOT YOU THIS TIME"

  * **//K'razy Shootout//**
    * Mr. Apol: berserk clone that i played more than berserk. was very well made, and a bit more fast paced than the original.

  * **//Keystone Kappers//**
    * Mr. Apol: really fun activision game. oozes style and has really nice graphics and music. shouldn't be that obscure

  * **//Landscape//**
    * Mr. Apol:  hands down some of the best graphics on the 800. really amazing, solid gameplay that's reminiscient of afterburner. please try to hunt this one down, it fucking rocks. 

  * **//Laser Gates//**
    * Mr. Apol: this one baffles me a bit, because on one hand it's a LOT like gradius, even down to the level design and multiple planets. really solid gameplay too. i think this came out in '83 or '84 (most of the games i had were from around those years), so i'm trying to figure out if [[company:konami]] was somehow influenced by this game when making the first gradius game (wiki says it came out in '85). it is a mystery to everyone. 

  * **//Lost Tomb//**
    * Mr. Apol: really cool and lenghty dungeon exploration game. it can get really fucking hectic later on, with tons of enemies and not enough bullets to kill them all. early survival horror, maybe? never actually beat this, but would love to try it out again.

  * **//Miner 2049er//**
    * Mr. Apol: another one of my favorites (and still has a cult following to this day!). nice graphics, really inventive puzzle design, and a ton of levels to play through. highly recommended.

  * **//Moon Patrol//**
    * Mr. Apol: pretty impressive game by williams. had music, nice graphics, and pretty solid gameplay. i played this one a lot (i even built a lego machine that looked like the ship in the game). one of my favorites.

  * **//M.U.L.E.//**

  * **//Mr. Robot and his Robot Factory//**
    * Mr. Apol: by far one of my favorites. had awesome music, really solid jumping gameplay, great graphics, and to top it all off: a level editor. i spent a huge amount of time with this. i wouldn't mind seeing a remake or something, even. i'd hope it'd be better than the next gen archon though. pick this one up if you can.

  * **//Necromancer//**
    * Mr. Apol: weird shooter where you create trees (why it's called necromancer, i have no idea) and then fight off enemies and weird little creatures that try to eat your trees. nice concept, actually.

  * **//Neptune's Daughter//**
    * Mr. Apol: one of my favorites. really well made shooter where you played a diver trying to get with some totally hot mermaid girl. pretty hard, but any game with a giant octopus with a huge glowing eye is okay with me. had good music too. try this one out if you can find it.

  * **//Oil's Well//**
    * Mr. Apol: the basic idea is that you shoot your little claw deep into the ground and try to eat all the dots. if a creature touches your pipe line, it kills you. it gets pretty frantic, and is a ton of fun. the soundtrack and visuals are really oppressive, and it used to creep me the hell out.

  * **//Peanut Butter Panic//**
    * Cossix: I loved loved loved making one guy really fat and one guy really skinny and then launching the skinny guy off the screen, resulting in the stars that you were collecting flying by at an insane rate. I guess because it didn't have to calculate/draw the position of one of the sprites? Who knows. It may be the first instance of unskippable cutscenes in a video game! 

  * **//Pengo//**
    * Mr. Apol: port of the early sega game. awfully adorable, and a lot of fun. you push the cubes of ice to squash the enemies. sort of like pirate ship higemaru (i wouldn't be surprised if it were [[company:sega]]'s answer to [[company:capcom]]).

  * **//Pharoah's Curse//**
    * Mr. Apol: really fucking creepy game that starts with you falling down a huge shaft into this tomb. i never really got what you were supposed to do, so i spent most of the time trying to somehow get back up through that shaft. nice side-scrolling action with some inventive screens. if you can find it, pick this one up.

  * **//Pitfall//**

  * **//Pitfall 2//**

  * **//Planetary Defense//**
    * Mr. Apol: sort of like missile command, but you've got to protect the center orb from attackers. the orb gets eaten away by attacks, and if something hits the core, it's game over. i'd like to see a flash version of this or something, i always got a kick out of it.

  * **//Pogoman//**
    * Mr. Apol: i love the night setting of this. it had really great music that played during the entire game. highly recommended, if for nothing but the soundtrack. 

  * **//Pole Position//**
    * Mr. Apol:  i'm sure most everyone's played this. out of all the racing games i had as a kid, this was my favorite. i played the arcade version at the local wal-mart as much as i could. still one of my favorite games ever. PREPARE TO QUALIFY.

  * **//Preppie II//**
    * Mr. Apol: actually a huge step up from preppie I, which is just a frogger clone. preppie II has great graphics, and the basic idea is that you fill up the area by walking through it, and you try to not get run over by frogs! played this one a lot. good music, as well. oh yeah, your guy with the polo shirt with the alligator on it has a cloaking device for some goddamned reason.

  * **//Quasimodo//**
    * Mr. Apol: one of my absolute favorites. completely obtuse and by [[company:synapse_software|synapse]], one of my favorite 8bit companies. this game was horrifyingly oppressive, but tons of fun. the side scrolling parts were actually pretty damn good for an atari age game. highly recommended if you can find it - legally or otherwise. 

  * **//Tricky Tracks//**
    * Mr. Apol: it's sort of a weird take on pipe dream type games, but instead of you having it fill up you get this little worm that runs around the track, letting you edit it on the fly. the basic idea is to keep it squirming as long as possible. fun music too! 

  * **//Tumblebugs//**
    * Mr. Apol: a really bizarre pacman inspired game that was impressive because whenever you'd get caught, the bugs on each side would spasm and scream "WE GOTCHA!!" in this absolutely terrifying digitized voice. horrifying. 

  * **//Tutankham//**
    * Mr. Apol: my first introduction to what egypt was really like. this game always struck a chord with me, and is probably why i like exploring drain systems these days. it had good music! 

=====External Links=====
  * [[http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?p=94850|Atari 8bit appreciation thread]]