What is your favorite era of Atari and why ?
Most people will probably answer that their favorite version of Atari is the one they grew up with and in that regard I'm no different.
My favorite iteration of the company was Infogrames Atari ( 2001-2013 ) .
This version of the company ( during it's prime from 2001 to 2008 ) was simply unmatched, it had everything you could ever want and more :
They published some of the biggest triple A games of the 6th generation of consoles ( Dragon Ball Budokai 3, Enter the Matrix , Driver 3, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 etc ) ;
They developed and published many awesome AA games ( V Rally 3, the Beyblade games on GBA, Test Drive Overdrive, Alone in the Dark New Nightmare, Superman Shadow of Apokolips etc );
They also did a great job introducing old school Atari stuff to a new generation ( the Atari Anthology on PS2 and the Atari Flashback 2 were great products ).
So yeah this is overall my favorite iteration of the company, modern Atari under Wade Rosen's leadership ( 2021- present day ) being a close second and Atari Corporation ( 1984-1996 ) coming in at third place.
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u/Polyxeno 4d ago
I grew up with four different generations of Atari: 2600, 5200, 8-bit computers, and ST computers.
My favorite are the 8-bit computers. They had the ability to have significantly more involved games than on any of the consoles, and even with the more basic of their games, I think they tended to have the best gameplay overall. At any rate, most of my favorite games are for the Atari 8-bit. And of course, you could program them, and the most accessible languages are for the Atari 8-bit. I had Basic, Basic XL, Basic XE, and a Basic compiler for them.
The Atari ST computers are my second-favorite, as they had some superior abilities, and if you put in more effort, you could program even more interesting things with them because of that. I have the Megamax/Laser C compiler for it, and started some interesting game projects with it. It also has some cool games that you couldn't do on the 8-bits.
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u/flame_saint 4d ago
Ooh I’m waiting on a disk emulator for my 800xl. What are some games you recommend?
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u/Polyxeno 4d ago
Well, my favorite games for the Atari 8-bit include: Necromancer, Star Raiders, Encounter, Return of Heracles, Seven Cities of Gold, Bruce Lee, Joust, Castle Wolfenstein, Broadsides, and "Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!"
Great if you have multiple players: Archon (and Archon II), Asteroids, M.U.L.E., Ballblazer, Chop Suey
Other favorites that are strategic and might be more niche or less enjoyable now include some strategic games: Omnitrend's Universe, War In Russia, Computer Ambush.
Also very good: Choplifter, Pharaoh's Curse, Robotron, K-Razy Shoot-Out, Rescue on Fractalus, Eidolon, Jumpman & Jumpman Junior, Blue Max, Sea Dragon, Fort Apocalypse, Defender, Wizard of Wor, Pole Position, Koronis Rift, Galaxian, Zeppelin, all the Infocom text adventures, various SSI games.
If you want a crazy long adventure game: Questron
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u/flame_saint 4d ago
Thank you! There are so many games - it's great to have somewhere to start. I grew up using BBC Micros and Commodore Amigas so I've got a lot of Atari stuff to catch up on.
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u/Polyxeno 4d ago
Yes, you do! The gameplay on many of these is really quite good, from being so immediate and focused on action. I think the better ones have a quality that most modern games tend to lack, and that's different from most of the Amiga & Atari ST games, too. Also they were mostly pretty original ideas and designs, compared to the trends of later designers following patterns of other games.
I'd still happily play most of the games I mentioned above.
Something about the old joysticks helps, too, I think.
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u/flame_saint 4d ago
Yes much of 80s game design has been forgotten by contemporary game makers! Some real interesting stuff went down. Can't wait to dig in to these, thanks again!
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u/steve_mobileappdev 4d ago
I grew up in the 70's, so it was the very first era of Atari - the original 2600. Love all those games.
On a secondary note:
Question for you or for anyone:
Is there a recommended non-Atari console, such as a Nintendo console that accepts cartridges with ported Atari games? I'm thinking of getting the 7800plus, but now considering other consoles that might let me play additional stuff like Street Fighter or games I used to play at the Arcade. But I need the original atari games for sure.
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u/thelastspike 4d ago
I had a bunch of 7800 cartridges already, so I got the 7800+, but if I didn’t I would have strongly considered a NES clone, as many of the games I love on Atari were ported to NES, and were arguably improved in the process.
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u/Hawthm_the_Coward 14h ago
Sadly the true originals, like Joust and Asteroids, largely stopped getting new ports once the 16-bit era came about.
I personally use a 5200 with a VCS adapter to play 2600 games. Games which are on both systems I pick up on 5200, because those versions are really mind-blowingly better, but the cool exclusives like Haunted House, I go for the true classic.
When in doubt, PS2 has everything, so you could get anthologies and whatnot (Activision Classics, Namco Museum and Taito Legends come to mind) there and play all sorts of stuff. Not quite the same, though.
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u/ThePenultimateNinja 4d ago
I like the Tramiel years best, because that gave us the ST line of computers.
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u/Spelunka13 4d ago
The Atari 400/800 era first and foremost the best games I ever played. Second would be the 2600 era. Nostalgia and plenty of games I played and loved too.
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u/Educational-Milk5099 4d ago
For me, it was the late 70s to late 80s. The great arcade games, the 2600 (my bestie next door had one), and the 800 (that I had, Which. I. Loved.). I got a 1040ST, but I don’t remember as much about it as I do the 800. Even though “Atari” is not today what it was then, I’m still oddly excited to see what it’s doing now — I got the need VCS and turned it into a nice retro-emulation system, and I loved the nostalgia of Atari 50… and bought a couple t-shirts and a hat. I regularly make a swing through the oldies when I fire up the emulators. Those were good days.
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u/Which_Information590 4d ago
The 70s. I went round my cousins I was probably aged 4 and 1979 and they were playing space invaders. I was mesmerised. It was only fairly recently that I got a VCS of my own and the 2600 plus
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u/cakebinge 3d ago
I’d have to say the 800xl/130xe era. The original 800 was great but quickly became outdated. Some programs that ran on the 800 were written exclusively for the 800 and would not run on later systems. I remember upgrading my 800xl to 128k. Ah, those were the days!
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u/namelessghoul77 3d ago
1980-1984 (and kind of continued on through the 90s because we (me, brother) left our 2600 at our grandparents' place where we'd visit in the summers and have nostalgia sessions.
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u/Illustrious-Cloud-59 4d ago
Atari never really existed for me after the 2600. Except for maybe Roadblasters. That felt like the last remaining 25c game at the local arcade until it closed.
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u/Shadoecat150 4d ago
For me it is both the 2600 era due to having one as a kid, as well as the 8 bit era. A couple years before we got an NES, we had an XEGS, which was just a repackaged Atari 800 era computer.
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u/jsmith3701AA 4d ago
Late 70s and early 80s When the 400/800 were about three years ahead on graphics and sound and much cheaper than the competition. 400 was the ultimate game machine from about 1980 to 1982.
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u/Impulst24 3d ago
In my humble opinion, Atari was at their peak in the 90s, when they released the Jaguar. Such an underrated system with a lot of fun games to play like Alien vs Predator, Iron Soldier, Cybermorph/Battlemorph, Super Burnout, Ultra Vortek, Hover Strike, Missile Command 3D, 2000 games, Atari Karts, Power Drive Rally, to name a few.
Don’t really care much for other Atari systems, however.
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u/Shaydu 4d ago
Yep, era I grew up in. 1979 to 1983, the Atari 8-bit computer era. My Atari 800 is still my favorite computer of all time