In 1982, the Atari 5200 SuperSystem was released as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. The 5200 was created to compete with the Intellivision, but ended up competing with
the ColecoVision shortly after its release. The 5200 was based largely on the 400 and 800 models but without a keyboard, that played cartridge games only. One excellent feature of the Atari 8-bit line was that Atari built the systems to accept standard Atari 2600 joysticks. Most of the games released for the Atari 5200 were also offered on the 8-bit computers, except that the 8-bit computer line kept expanding it's library of games for some time. Many excellent ports of arcade and computer games were released for both types of systems. Following is a list of my top 10 favorite Atari 5200 and 8-bit computer games, all in cartridge format...
Developed by Broderbund Software in 1984, Choplifter! is a side-scrolling action/arcade game that puts you at the controls of an attack helicopter. Your mission involves going behind enemy lines to rescue 64 hostages. Tanks and enemy jets try to destroy your chopper, and they won't stop firing at you while you are rescuing the hostages! Tight controls and fun arcade gameplay makes this game very addicting. Choplifter! was originally released for the Apple II home computers and was later ported to most home video game consoles and computers.
The player controls Pengo, a red penguin that resides in the Antarctic. The game takes place in an overhead maze made of ice blocks, where Pengo fights the patrolling and dangerous Sno-Bees. The objective of the game is for Pengo to eliminate all Sno-Bees by pushing ice blocks to crush them or survive until the end of each round (there is a time limit to make it more difficult for Pengo). You can also eliminate Sno-Bees by pushing against the walls of the maze, thereby creating a vibration that briefly stuns any adjacent Sno-Bees and then walking over them.
Based on the smash arcade hit by Williams, Defender puts players in charge of a ship sent to protect a humanoid race from wave after wave of attacking aliens. Your Defender ship is armed with lasers, "smart bombs", and the ability to use hyperspace to move around the planet. The ship must defeat Bombers, Pods, Swarmers, Baiters, and Landers; Landers that can capture the humanoids and transform them into lethal Mutants. If you fail to save all the humanoids, the planet is destroyed and you must fight the aliens in deep space. Defender is considered one of the most popular and addictive space shooters of the early 1980's.
You're in control of an interstellar starship. Your mission: destroy all of the Krylon fighters which are closing in on your starbases! There are three different types of enemy fighters roaming the galaxy: cruisers, fighters, and basestars. Using your galactic map, you find the sectors of the galaxy where these fighters are located and then warp there to destroy them. After you destroy all of the fighters in a sector, you can warp to a new sector for the next battle. Watch your energy level and when warping to new sectors. Taking hits by enemy fire or colliding with asteroids will drain your energy. If you run out of energy, your starship will be destroyed, but you can warp back to a starbase to refuel at any time. Returning to a starbase will also repair other types of damage inflicted on your starship (engine damage, loss of shields, and faulty photon torpedoes). When all of the Krylon ships on your galactic map have been destroyed, you win the round and can advance in rank (or even be demoted if you performed poorly on a mission). The games difficulty gradually increases as you rise in rank from ships cook up to captain.
This excellent port of the arcade game features all four screens (construction zone, cement factory, elevator level, and removing rivets from girders), intermissions, and addictive and challenging gameplay that will keep you glued to the edge of your seat! You control Mario and you must scale the four different industrial-themed levels in order to save the damsel in distress, Pauline, from the big ape before the timer runs out. Once the rivets are removed from the final level, Donkey Kong falls, and the two lovers are reunited. From there, the levels start over at a higher difficulty. During his mission, Mario must dodge a constant stream of barrels, "living" fireballs, and spring-weights. Mario can also use a hammer which allows him to destroy the barrels and fireballs for a short while. Also, Mario can collect Pauline's hat, purse and umbrella for additional bonus points. How high can you get?
Realsports Baseball for the Atari 5200 is one of the most fun Baseball games ever. It's just classic 8-bit baseball that keeps the game simple, offers nice detailed graphics, and smooth gameplay. Play alone against the computer or against a buddy, the game allows you to bunt the ball, swing for a homerun, steal bases, and throw a variety of pitches from fast balls to curve balls. Game options allow you to select whether the home or visiting team is at bat first, and whether or not a player can swing only at pitches that are a strike, or they can swing at any pitch. A nice addition is the voice synthesis which was exciting and rare in the realm of 8-bit games. Many classic gaming sports fans will take this game over any 16-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bit sports game any day!
Code Name: River of No Return. Carol Shaw's River Raid is a fast-action vertical shooter that was offered for most classic video gaming consoles and computers in 1982 and 1983. Fly your jet up a river and attack the trigger-happy choppers, lethal land tanks, helicopters, and hot air balloons. Destroying bridges (sometimes taking with them tanks in the process of crossing!) is your primary goal. Other than avoiding collision with the aforementioned enemies, you must replenish your fuel supply by flying over fuel depots - or else you crash! Great graphics and sound effects keep you addicted and the adrenaline flowing!
Space Dungeon may have been overlooked in the days of the video game arcades but it was perfect for home translation, and no other system could have played it better than the Atari 5200 (in fact this was the only home system that it was translated for). Using the dual-joystick coupler that came with Atari 5200 Space Dungeon (just like Robotron 2084) that allows for independent movement of your spaceship with one controller (left) and the firing of your ship's laser beams with the other (right), you move from room to room destroying all alien ships while collecting treasure. A section on top of the playfield displays the treasures you've collected and another section shows a map of where you are, where you've been, and what rooms visited so far still have alien ships in them. Great fun, great graphics, and great gameplay make this a classic must-have!
Rescue On Fractalus! is a 1984 computer game created by Lucasfilm Games. It was originally released for the Atari 8-bit family and the Atari 5200 game console and then released for other computer platforms. The game utilized fractal technology (revolutionary in the early-mid 1980's) to create the craggy mountains of an alien planet, where the visilibility was drastically reduced by a gaseous atmosphere. The player controls a "Valkyrie" space fighter from a first-person perspective in both flying and rescue sequences. Your mission is to rescue downed Ethercorps pilots on the planet of Fractalus while navigating mountains and canyons and destroying enemy gun emplacements and dodging suicide saucers. You'll need to hurry, though, because the downed pilots won't last long in the poisonous cyanitric acid atmosphere on Fractalus. You'll be flying during the day as well as night, where you'll have to rely solely on your instrument panel readings! This is a fantastic flight/rescue simulation that has retained it's replay value throughout the decades!
Released on many 8-bit computer platforms in the early 1980's, Archon: The Light and the Dark is a strategic board game with action scenes. For one or two players, one side controls the light side and the other the dark side. Each side consists of 18 pieces on a board divided into squares (9 X 9). You win the game by either positioning one of your units on each of the five powerpoint squares or by eliminating all opposing pieces from the board. Unlike chess, the two sides are not identical. Both sides consist of mythological creatures (the light side has among others, unicorns, valkyries and a djinni while the dark side features basilisks, banshees and manticores). Two special pieces are the light wizard & the dark sorceress, and both cast magical spells such as: imprison a unit on the board, shift the flow of time (change day/night cycle to your advantage), bring one unit back from the dead, etc. The different pieces have their own movement restrictions regarding the number of squares they can travel on the board and whether or not they can jump over other units (like the knight in chess). Units also behave different in combat; some units are faster than others, some resort to physical attacks while others fire projectiles. Archon is a classic from when computer games were simple, fun, and original.
