Atari 50 (PS5) Vector Games
0πΌ More Atari 50 βΊ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEXiKm54CARSytFCemMsD5apj5l_fpCj3
π Digital Eclipses' 'Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration' seems like it's the greatest historical game collection ever made. Over 100 games, documentary material, and a nice frontend.
In 1979, Atari released the arcade game 'Lunar Landar', where you must carefully guide a landing module to the lunar surface. This was Atari's first vector game, and was a graphical version of a type of game that was quite common in the 1970s, with various text-based mainframe and home computer games having been written all the way back to 1969. It was the predecessor of a lot of real-time space games with gravity, such as Gravitar (Arcade 1982), Zarathrusta (Amiga 1991), and Sub-Terrania (Genesis 1993).
The Lunar Lander arcade hardware was reused for 'Asteroids', which was released a couple of months later. Asteroids is a multi-directional shooters with Space War-inspired thrust controls, enemy UFOs, and of course asteroids that divides into halves when shot, slowly making the screen more and more dangerous to traverse. The screen wraps around both horizontally and vertically, enabling asteroids, bullets, and even the player ship to exit one side and enter the other. A hyperspace jump button enables rapid escapes from bad situations to a random location on screen. The vector screen of the original arcade machine has intense contrast, and looks quite stunning.
'Asteroids Deluxe' from 1981 is the sequel to Asteroids. It moves faster, the shield makes more sense than the hyperspace jump, and the Killer Satellites are a cool addition. Also, this game has a multi-layered backdrop that creates a cool 3D parallax effect.
'Tempest' from 1981 is an interesting vector game where you use a spinner to control movement on the edge of a tunnel and shoot enemies that emerge from the far end of the screen.
'Space Duel' is yet another Asteroids sequel, this time with a simultaneous two-player mode.
'Gravitar' is a cool gravity-based vector shooter with zooming camera.
'Quantum' from 1982 is a trackball arcade game where you encircle atomic particles with curves drawn using the trackball. In the hiscore entry, you can draw your own signature (or a dirty drawing, whatever feels right).
'Black Widow' from 1983 is an interesting multidirectional vector shooter with bugs.
'VCTR-SCTR' is a cool new game developed for the Atari 50 package that mixes Asteroids Deluxe, Lunar Lander, Tempest, and Star Wars into a fun action-packed sequence.
#syltefar_atari #syltefar_arcade #syltefar
00:00 Lunar Lander (1979)
03:41 Asteroids (1979)
08:54 Asteroids Deluxe (1981)
14:01 Tempest (1981)
18:18 Space Duel (1982)
20:39 Gravitar (1982)
23:59 Quantum (1982)
26:55 Black Widow (1983)
31:04 VCTR-SCTR (2022)