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Comment by evo_9 | Hacker News Reader

For my 55th Birthday last summer, I pulled my original Atari 800 out of storage and played Star Raiders and MULE non-stop for a weekend. Great fun. The most challenging part of getting the 800 running was finding an old enough TV that I could connect the game box too.

I also couldn't get my 810 disk drive working, so I found a copy of MULE on eBay burned on a ROM, so that was a nice find.

Great old machine, I think I'll buy one of these, the addition of HDMI and USB alone are worth it. Plus it'll be fun to write a game on that thing, something I dabbled in as a kid and was my start as a programmer so so long ago now.

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I have such good memories of both of those games, and the first Archon with the overpowered unicorn. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32pAGs9AiCo)

Oh, also Behind Jaggi Lines and BallBlazer. (One or both of those they renamed somewhere between beta and production, but I had, let's say, "not quite commercial" versions of them.)

Archon might be my favorite game of all time...But what's this with the overpowered unicorn? Was it way more powerful than the dark side equivalent (basilisk?)? Did they release another 8-bit version or something?

The unicorn was the fastest. The Basilisk was fast but not quite as, and could withstand more hits. (Or maybe I'm mixing it up with the bigger Serpent thing which was slow but very powerful?)

The best is finding a unicorn on a dark square and attacking it with a 'pawn' and charging it all zigzag-like. A lucky club swing could kill the unicorn, result in a real-world punch, and temporarily end a friendship. Stakes were high in that game.

It could easily outmaneuver basically anything. It didn't hit hard, but if it never got hit, it didn't need to.

BallBlazer was excellent. I could never figure out what was the point of Jaggi Lines (actually Rescue at Fractalus, I believe).

BallBlazer/Blaster was an unreleased LucasFilms game, if I remember correctly. It was leaked and so wildly pirated that they didn’t bother releasing it.

Ballblazer received several releases across multiple platforms, including cartridges for 7800 and Famicom.

The prototype "Ballblaster" was widely pirated, though, as well as "Behind Jaggi Lines" (Rescue on Fractalus) - I had both as a kid. Key differences between the prototype and the final release are the addition of the company logo in the intro, more developed opponent AI, and the "endless solo" in the music(my recollection is that the prototype only has the bassline and chords).

I'm a bit younger than you, but I was visiting my mom a few weeks back, and found my old NES in some boxes she had saved for me (along with a few of the better games). Thanks to the composite connector, I managed to plug it into a modern HDTV and it worked just fine. My old copy of Zelda somehow even had a working save battery.

My mom made an offhand comment like "someone isn't sleeping much tonight."

The new games are more complex and realistic, but there is still plenty of joy in those old systems and games, especially for those of us who grew up with them.

I started Zelda: BotW a couple of years back but the open world nature and sheer number of side quests make me think it will take another few years before I finish the main quest. I find there is little to draw me back except the joy of exploration. The sheer freedom kinda puts me off.

It's not a criticism, just a different type of game to Zelda: A Link betwen Worlds which I adored and had that more linear old-skool structure.

get yourself an online map of BOTW. That will sooth your need for structure.

The only problem with MULE is that the theme song gets stuck in your head for a week!

It just got stuck in my head for a week at the mere mention of the game.

Years ago, I ported the emulator Atari800 to Macintosh. I used MULE's title screen to test the sound emulation.

FWIW Retrotink[1] makes boxes that can take old analog inputs and outputs HDMI

1: https://www.retrotink.com/

Maybe also take a look at the Mister project if you haven't already. Same idea of using FPGA to reproduce old hardware but broad support for many home computers, game consoles, and arcade boards

Interesting, thanks for mentioning this.

Pretty cool idea/project:https://www.theverge.com/22323002/mister-fpga-project-retro-...

Amazing how much emotion a physical retrocomputing experience to our youthful days can be. Emulators are neat but they don’t trigger the physical sensation of the keyboard, the sounds, hell the smells. Like nibbling a madeleine for some of us….

Star Raiders is a great game, but Gauntlet(Gauntletak) was hands down my favorite. I still fire up an emulator every now and then for a play through.

I had the 2600 and Star Raiders with the complete accessories keypad joystick and love every minute of it. I always dream of owning the Atari 800.

Are you a galactic cook or a garbage scow captain?

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