Atari XEGS + 1050 FDD and old floppies = Lots of fun !!

[atarimania]

F.I.: Attack of the Mutant Camels. Rocks on A8, completely sucks on C64
Rescue on Fractalus: Rocks on A8, sucks on C64
Donkey Kong: Rocks on A8, sucks on C64

You're definitively my friend  Let's start another C64 / A8 WAR!!!!! 

[caincan]

...in France  we had "Amstrad" leading the market  ,    it's english.... (and it sold pretty well in england too)

there was no internet, no really good press on the "alternatives" !! .   we couldnt trust that c64 owners were massive over the world.  because the market was blinded here !!!

people were like driven to Amstrad with massive publicity...     but from the pics, c64 was a superior choice to amstrad for sure.   atari 8bits were older at this time (1985 !!)   it's the reality.

is there a Commando on atari8bits with ron hubbard stylish music ?!
is there some  International karate+ ?
is there some Firestart project
are there impressive shooting games on atari8bits ?...

i'm just fair and objective (but sure i was, that someone would react ,  it's been war and it continues each generation  (except now, it's common to buy the 2 opposite systems which are confronted...)

[DarthNuno]

LOL...regarding the 8bit computer era... I didn't have a C64 ... I didn't have an Atari... but I was a proud owner of a Amstrad Schneider CPC464 computer 
This was the best one for me... BUT I have to admit this : No hardware sprite and no scrooling routine, so it wasn't easy to code fast & smooth action games... but some company did the job well 
The musics on C64 were absolutely fabulous 

[level42]

International Karate+ ?

HA, another game which had BETTER sound than the c64 on the A8:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwfgP7OtQG4

Firestart Project ? No. Looks like Karateka graphics ?

Impressive shooting games...where to begin ?
....well Gyruss of course !!! Another superb arcade conversion...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA1PERH9i8Q

(and yet another game that has better sound on the Atari than on the C64 (ignore the hiss on the video, that's not on the game))

And of course
Caverns of Mars (looks simple but is LOADS of fun, you have to enter AND exit the same tunnel_
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwGSVzqLCg4&feature=related

Blue Max of course.
Zaxxon was VERT smooth too, esp. compared to the Colecovision version.
Pooyan was great
Moon Patrol, great conversion !

And of course River Raid and my favorite 2600 shooter Demon Attack was also available on the A8 (almost identical, but never improve a brilliant product !)

Dropzone ! A great "Defender" like game, also much better on the A8...(compare the side to side scrolling on both versions...)


My favorite shooter would be Fort Apocalypse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i67O3FkSGck

And if only they would ever finish this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmEFFp0lLzo&feature=related


Well, it's not my goal to get into another "war" but I just want to show that the A8 was a much underrated system which was extremely powerful, so much that it could compete with a machine that was released 4 years later (and in those days, the leaps in technology were MEGA, compare Space Invaders (1978) to Star Wars (1983).....some period of time !!!!

The bottom line: the C64 had a better sound chip (but I didn't like it's USUAL tones(but some programmers got GREAT stuff from it !!!), and it only had 3 channels, compared to A8's 4 channels)
The sprites were also better on the C64.

But that's all. Everything else was less....

Atarimania: did you get your stuff ?!?!?!?

And also, can you help me remind me of a shooter on the A8 that was like Pleiads a lot, where the aliens would "capture" things from the bottom of the screen, and I seem to remember thee were some Apples in there for some strange reason. It had great sound and a lot of humor. I think I had to load the Translator to play it.

Some other brilliant games (not shooters) that jumped to mind:
Flip&Flop (if you like Q-bert, you're gonna love that !)
Drol !!!!
Mr.Robot !
Ollies Follies

[Q*ris]

This war never happened for me (so please don't mention it  ).
I went for the C64 when I was 12 only because I knew a lot of friends who had one and we could easily trade/copy games (Yes, I only used C64 for gaming and Yes, I had told my parents that I would use C64 mainly for school).
Also it was the first big expense I made with my "own" money.
I had a blast with it and played it to death and even now it's vividely part of my best gaming memories (launching a game then going for a walk+fixing my bicycle+watching a cartoon or 2 and then coming back to the C64 only to find out the game had a "load error") .

As I was living in a small village, going for the A8 would have changed my life completely: instead of being the half god of the playground because I knew a guy who made me a copy of all the boulderdash games on an official duran duran tape, I would end up being the boring guy with the 3 same games and that weird computer...
  this frustration would have probaly made me buy a V2000 later and I would systematically bore my visitors by explaining how it is superior to VHS and I would cry when they leave because I could'nt rent any of the cool movies (like porky's or drunken master to name a few)
  I might probably have ended up a serial killer or a matchboxes collector because of that.

If I could jump into a Delorean and chose between a C64 and an A8 in 1985, I would still go for the C64...
I don't care about greater sounds or greater graphics, I want to play the same cheap sucky gameplay Kung-Fu Master port... just like I want to see slightly blurry graphics and scanlines in my arcade cabs!
I don't care for "better", I care for the "same". It's called nostalgia!... and no argument can be stronger than that so resistance is futile, war is over!

[level42]

Yep and that's why the c64 (and today windows) is such a big succes: My neighbor has it, so I must have it too.

I admit that when I started with the A8 I didn't have a lot of friends with one and that I didn't have a lot of games.

There was one VERY positive thing about that: Instead of just wildly copying thousands of games (of which the majority plain simply sucked in quality) I actually LEARNED how to program the system, how it worked internally. For me it was a computer, not just a games console.
The very first program I used to copy (trade) games with I wrote myself in basic (it could copy bootloading cassette tapes, there was nothing available that could at the time !).

Even today I benefit from the knowledge that I gained from that early period.
However, very quickly there was a large user-group here in Holland called SAG which I joined. I gained lots of contacts from that, and through that had contacts in the US, Europe and Australia and had all the software I ever wanted.

I always have more respect for people who make their own choice instead of simply brainlessly going with the masses.
That's why I had an Atari 600XL, and a 130XE later
That's why I used my ST system well into the 90's
That's why I have a Mac today.

And I can (and could) do anything that I need and want with those systems.  I don't give a shit about what other people think (or thought) about it.

And o, we had a Betamax back then. Plenty of stuff to rent and watch, and yes vastly superior over VHS.

[flip971]

A little O.T.

My personal (and not complete) experience with computers:

In the beginning of the 80's, I have the opportunity to  go to a presentation of Atari and watched and used various computer of XL series:
 never seen a computer with a tablet graphic, a trackball and a printer (didn't remember if use color or not).
It was amazing!!!
I'm asked to My father to buy an Atari computer, but not possible at the time...
Several years after I buy a C64: a world of gaming!
After a wile, I buy a Spectrum 48K +: discovered the world of basic programming!!!
On the end of 80's I buy My first Amiga 500 (used): discovered the 2d world with Deluxe Paint II/III and the 3D with Zeotrope and Imagine.
Tried an Atari ST, but not have the same feeling like Amiga.
I used My A1200 PPC & My A4000 PPC with internet untill  couple of years ago, then I pass to the PegasosII and started to use a PC more regulary (browser issue)
Recently, I got a couple of Mac: a MDD and a Quicksilver.
I start this days, changing the hd in the MDD, adding the max memory for the system and installing the 10.5.
I'll make the MDD My new computer for daily usage.

And o, we had a Betamax back then. Plenty of stuff to rent and watch, and yes vastly superior over VHS.

Sony make the betamax "the" professional reference system called Betacam. 
The VHS is garbage!!!!

O.T. Close

I know Atari XEGS is a little monster, but didn't have one under My finger to "take a look".
Another little monster is the MSX2 with genlock and tablet graphic to make home video editing.

[caincan]

i have both  (and i admit prefer the RGB+gray metal  colors of Atari boxes  )    but c64 even now, looks for me not so old than the atari800xl    (i still have some Sio2ide  to solder on the atari )

my favorites "8bits" period were :   Vectrex, msx2.

 

[level42]

Of course, not everything was great on those 8 bit machines.....

This is the reason why I never thought much of Star Wars (the arcade game) when I hadn't played the original cab yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jcTndGguoE

Parker did a number of great games on the 2600 and Atari 8bit machines (Popeye was excellent f.i.) but this......it's just not what it could have been.
Yes of course the home computers didn't have 4 pokeys, 3 processors and all the other hardware of the original machines, but I'm pretty sure it could have been done much better.

Of course they had the problem of trying to "emulate" the SW yoke with a joystick. They figured that they should make the cursor move up by pushing the joystick down and vice versa ! It sucked !!!

I remember that the ST version was already a lot better with the mouse control.

Also: why on earth was this game licensed to Parker brothers while it was an original Atari game ?!?!?

[level42]

For those who think only arcade cabs can be hacked in an AWEFUL way:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-VINTAGE-ATARI-800-WOOD-COMPUTER-1978-1979_W0QQitemZ170582093011QQcategoryZ82631QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D2%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5885223334982885116#ht_500wt_1025

YUGH !!!