Sorry, I couldn't think of anything cornier as a thread title, lads. Slapdash lazy content here. Some disks recently came rattling through the postbox and thought I'd share a few images with yous, see if you recall any, 1-2 might bring back some precious 8bit memories and there's a copying utility in there somewhere - maybe you used this to backup your disks and flogged a few 100 down the local market/in your playground?! I cannot be held responsible for any court cases leading from this brief bollox!! I had Movie Maker back in the day - blocky animations were possible...only limited by your imagination and creativity but think of it as Teletext brought to life. I think Ariolasoft also did a Music Maker disk too? You'll know. Anyone get into the Level 9 adventures? This later Rainbird compilation release featured the all-time classic COLOSSAL ADVENTURE, DUNGEON ADVENTURE & ADVENTURE QUEST - updated to include graphics by the looks of things as the originals were text only, yes, fellas? Haven't tried any of these yet so no idea if they boot-up - i'll save that for an Atari adventure in itself, another day. Which one would you start with, if these were in your collection, and why? Maybe the exciting-looking SIDEWINDER? Anyone ever play that before? Is it a Scramble clone? Let's check the vid...
Sidewinder I know VERY well, reviewed it for Atari User, met the team behind it (John Sosta, Noel Daniel and Paul Carr). Also cracked it for Multiboot and with a map mad person, released a version called Raid Over Libya withh all new levels, recoded to load the new levels straight away (was quite proud of that) Movie Maker is just one of those titles that makes the phrase "Canadian Broadcorping Castration" and the character, Gigantic Gerry, come to mind. Great bit of software, had the original. The Rainbird tile I knew about but the other one does not ring bells.. And yes, Sidweinder is a scramble clone..
Well, Paul, that's really interesting hearing of how you were so involved with the SIDEWINDER reviews and also cracking it and adapting it - wonderful recollections and getting your teeth really into this software and being familiar with the coding team etc. I'm about to start re-reading my Antics, Analogs, Monitor and Page 6 / Atari Users this coming autumn and winter so I'll also be keeping an eye out for some of your articles and reviews in the latter and as I know how bloody modest you are, if you don't mind, I might just feature 1-2 of your past published pieces of work on these here pages as someone needs to shine a light on your contributions to this community and give you a wee slap on the back, me ol muckah! Cheers, Paul - sincerely, always value your feedback as it's always 100% bang on target and features many an interesting anecdote with the original guys who were there right in the thick of the Atari action... long may they continue, buddy.
As a sidenote, John Sosta, the main programmer, now (well as 2yrs ago) runs / ran a paintballing place, Paul I lost tack of, and Noel , moved to America when he got married..Nice guy
I know it seems I know everyone, but, back then the scene was much smaller than some would think, put me in the reviewing place, and it opened some doors, plus my internal contacts from Maplin and the warez community meant I got to know loads of people. Back then, it wasn't the mega number of people in a team and in a huge number of countries...
Those days were certainly the golden years of our youth AND the home computer market, Paul, weren't they, not to forget also the fashion, the music, the going out on the lash and the falling in and out of love with gals, footy teams and your 8bit micro!! No wonder many of us keep harking back as it was when it was ALL happening for us - yep, our ruddy glory days and we did have circles of friends who we tended to gravitate towards and you definitely were in the right place at the right time as regards really influential folks who programmed, did the artwork and promoted the companies which became household names back then - keep em coming, Paul! Hey, I nearly forgot to show you this which arrived t'other day - I've always fancied this but never got me mitts on it - has anyone ever given this futuristic title a go? AUTODUEL - the scary thing is, fellas, the apocalyptic future it forsees happens in... 2030!!! Erm, how long we got?! Don't you just lurve the "stuff" you get with it - map, brochures, catalogues, original ORIGIN disks etc not to mention the box cover art... C'mon, Atarians - what do we know about this one and have you ever played / known anyone who has... and am I right thinking Steve Jackson or is that Roadwars / Deathrace 2000 he's best known for?
Nice post Andy. I remember playing a couple of the Level 9 games and getting nowhere in them. Did try all the swear words I could think of however! Sidewinder I do remember. Graphics were amazing but I wasn't very good at the game. Seeing it again though, think I'll load it up for a play later. Interesting hearing about Paul's forays into literature I'll need to keep my eyes open when I'm flicking through my old Atari mags and see If I spot his name in the byline. I loved Atari User, as software up here was a bit scarce for the 8bit it was great getting to read the reviews and see all the adverts. I also picked up the odd Page 6 magazine (Les Ellingham was the owner and editor, is that right?) until they took over Atari User and became Page 6 New Atari User. I have a couple of physical issues somewhere, will need to look them out. Have you got much of a physical software collection for the A8 Andy? I remember a while back you posting about the Thorn EMI releases.
You'll see me in there, first one is under the name Pete Irvin..Completely buggered up my name, apologies, posted in next issue.. It was fun but short-lived, was too busy to keep it going. Did write for trade papers after that.. Last thing was the much annoying try at getting me to write a book about Atari, the approach was made by Darren Doyle of Retro Gamer. My payment, a free copy of the book..At the time me and Cindy were going through hell with poor Serena and I had to pass but was annoyed at the offer. Boiled over in a thread on AA where Darren made an apology to me for the insensitive nature. To be honest I'm glad it never happened, I've got a lot of knowledge of inside the industry but not directly of Atari Inc bar the workings of Atari Slough, which I had a lot of info.
Great to get your feedback, Al... thank you.... have I got much in the way of physical Atari classic s'ware? Mate, i'd lurve to get it all out but for sures two things would happen - I would get the most severe kick in the ass from her who must be obeyed for completely cluttering up back bedroom AND it would only hurt your eyes!! Bud, at a rough count I must have 40-50 original disks/boxes; 200-300 copied multimenu 5.25" disks and then... christ, 100-150 original cassettes? Summat like that, mate. I've built that collection from approx half a dozen titles from Dixons in 1986 so I'm proud of my A8 bits - they are much much more than 8bit to me and rival my collection of Oric pieces in terms of vying for the numero uno place in my retro heart I did do a little focus on Thorn EMI s'ware at one point and thought about trying to "catch them all" but many of the titles are pretty naff - there's a range of obscure jigsaw puzzles etc arent there? - and I'd just end up spending another £50-100 on s'ware I'd never bother to boot so swerved that idea but I do really like Sub and Tank Commander and Bev's dad used to work for Thorns up in Sunderland making colour tellies so you could say that the company are dear to us in terms of fond memories in this household. Yeah, Paul's knowledge of the great action arcade game Sidewinder is really in-depth and comprehensive. Paul's literary reviews and published work over the years is impressive, I'm gonna track some down, and you are right about ex-editor Les Ellingham's huge role too in getting Page 6/Atari User off the ground and to run so successfully here in the UK for a good 12-15 years? Bless him, he was always a dear committed knowledgeable and very enthusiastic Atari guy - just like you fellas on here, so a like-minded soul. Loved your recollections of the good ol days too, mate, as you touch upon the problem which dogged Atari in UK throughout... getting our mitts on good quality software which often was NOT available in the shops and we had to dig deep searching through the mags/ads and sending off our P.O.s to mail order companies who had stacks of tempting s'ware lists the likes of which say Paul was reviewing, and we wanted... but it was often frustratingly out of reach to us Atari home users who popped down the high street stores on a weekend wtih our high hopes often dashed... gRRR! Finally, like you say, L9 and other companies who produced text adventures of that ilk back then did make them fiendishly tough and those of us with a limited amount of patience / wanting to get on with some action, often did resort to GO FEKING SOUTH YOU PIECE OF SHIT ELSE I WILL SWITCH YOU OFF... I am sorry but would you rephrase that instruction as I cannot go feking south in this third carriage of ours.... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH etc
That's a right good colleciton you have then Andy. I've got a shelf or two of my favourite A8 titles and that's it. Although i did pick up 3 tapes yesterday on a cross border raid - Action Biker, Kikstart and Steve Davis Snooker
Nice method, Al. The last title I didn't give much time to, unfortunately, as snooker sims either grabbed me or didn't - my fave was one by Acornsoft and they all had their different control methods didn't they? Some felt intuitive and others were plain crazy bizarre and incomprehensible (OK, the Oric ones anyhow!) The other titles I played on for MONTHS with me mates Carmy, Aidy and the lads at Wid Computer Club - Action Biker and Kickstart were so addictive, challenging and had that "just one more go" appeal as well as being graphically quite impressive for the time, too. I am sure you did well there, Al, and those are all sweet additions to your 2 shelves - which is a decent amount by anyone's standards. PS. I am not sure why I am seeing my last post going right off the screen to the right this end - is anyone else seeing this? Never seen this before - have I gone and crashed the text adventure parser or what?! GO FEKING SOUTH indeed... ;-)
Yep, it goes right off the screen for me as well Andy. I thought you might have been using the 132 column mode of the Oric Atmos to post....
Darn, the secret's out, Al - shush!! They'll ALL want one!! Think I've gone and dented the website. Do you think Tim will notice?!?
