Under appreciated games?

[PeyloW]

Lets dig up the games that usually do not end up on top X lists (Anything the joy of Sticks top 50 would be disqualified ), but are the under appreciated gems from your game library.

I'll start:

1. Bombuzal - A great little puzzle game.
2. Ishar - A beautiful party "dungeon" RPG.
3. Dragon's Breath - A weird combo of dragon breeding, strategy and tame shoot 'em up.

[aag]

Here's my top 3 not in that top 50 list

Mega-lo-mania - https://www.atarilegend.com/games/mega-lo-mania
Super hangon - https://www.atarilegend.com/games/super-hang-on
Loopz - https://www.atarilegend.com/games/loopz

[Atari030]

Easy list. I could add a ton more.

Thunderhawk - https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 10609.html
Monopoly - https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 10016.html
Sherman M4 - https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 25514.html

[Eero Tamminen]

Let's make this slightly harder. Pick a letter, and list underappreciated games starting with that one...

Captive (RPG): https://www.atarilegend.com/games/captive
Cinko (Renju boardgame): https://www.atarilegend.com/games/cinko
Conqueror (3D): https://www.atarilegend.com/games/conqueror

[Ragstaff]

• I always liked Nova.
  A small PD shmup that was on a magazine cover disk. It had a high frame rate (50fps? At least for players ship), very responsive and precise controls, pixel perfect collision detection, which all made it feel like a fair game and if you died it was your own fault. It was very simple but there was something compelling about it and for a while me and my father traded high scores, until I got obsessed and left him behind Doing well just involved memorising each wave and doing better "next go". This was a classic "Just one more go" game
  screenshot-7092.png
• Starball. Late in the ST's life, another PD magazine cover disk. I spent a lot of time on this one! Innovate with the 3-level pinball table, and a few subgames.
  screenshot-7527.png

[Eero Tamminen]

• I always liked Nova.
  A small PD shmup that was on a magazine cover disk. It had a high frame rate (50fps? At least for players ship), very responsive and precise controls, pixel perfect collision detection, which all made it feel like a fair game and if you died it was your own fault. It was very simple but there was something compelling about it and for a while me and my father traded high scores, until I got obsessed and left him behind Doing well just involved memorising each wave and doing better "next go". This was a classic "Just one more go" game

I had similar favorite in Bellum: https://www.atarilegend.com/games/bellum

The thing differentiating it from the others was how the ship got smaller & damaged looking when it took hits, and could be "repaired" with bonuses.

Other unappreciated favorites, with letter B were:
Ballerburg (2 player): https://www.atarilegend.com/games/ballerburg
(Tower of) Babel (3D puzzle): https://www.atarilegend.com/games/tower-of-babel

(And the already mentioned Bombuzal.)

[smoore]

Lets dig up the games that usually do not end up on top X lists (Anything the joy of Sticks top 50 would be disqualified ), but are the under appreciated gems from your game library.

I'll start:

1. Bombuzal - A great little puzzle game.
2. Ishar - A beautiful party "dungeon" RPG.
3. Dragon's Breath - A weird combo of dragon breeding, strategy and tame shoot 'em up.

I remember Dragons Breath - and I think I enjoyed it.

Does anybody know if this has been adapted to run from a hard disk?

Many thanks,

Simon

[elliot]

I seem to remember Time Bandits was fun.

[Ragstaff]

Monopoly - https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 10016.html

We played this a lot as a family. It was the first game I ever hacked with a hex editor, aged 9! I changed all the NPC names (I remember Andy became Wank), and I changed the winning message to something like "We changed our mind, you still lost"
I thought nothing more until a few days later my mother and sister angrily demanded I "change it back" because they should have won a game but still lost! I couldn't believe they would care what text message at the end of the game said

[Ragstaff]

I had similar favorite in Bellum: https://www.atarilegend.com/games/bellum

I have to be honest, I never played it. However it does look smooth as you say, I'll have to give it a try. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcjF1vQg62Q

[DarkLord]

• I always liked Nova.

I'd throw "Holocaust" in with Nova. I enjoy both.

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... _9569.html

[Atari030]

Nova was Atari User and Starball ST Format IIRC? I quite liked both. Oh, and Holocaust too.

[Ragstaff]

Starball was definitely ST Format, yeah. I can't remember which mag Nova came from, you're probably right.

[CiH]

Andes Attack, one of Jeff Minters lesser known games, got a fair bit of play time from me.

[PeyloW]

This thread has kept me quite entertained. Thanks for some good tips!

[ThomasI]

Dont forget the brilliant games that came out in recent years. They are hardly talked about:
- Escape 2042
- Old Towers
- R0X Zero
- Icebox Plus...

And maybe include even my games... Ranomazer, FROGS, ...

[metalages]

Bubble ghost. It is so simple but i have spent much time on it.

[keops]

I enjoyed Metrocross a lot back then. Really smooth scrolling for its time, simple gameplay but really fun.

[wietze]

Plutos!

[AtariCrypt]

This is a great idea and something I'm trying to do on my lil website... https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/p/must-plays.html
It's a WIP but I kinda feel the same way.

There are so many ST games that are possibly forgotten. Especially as we see the same games promoted over and over.

So, I'll add these:

Zaptastic https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 20696.html
Rumbo https://www.atarilegend.com/games/rumbo
Donkey Island https://www.atariuptodate.de/en/3042/donkey-island

[Eero Tamminen]

Dont forget the brilliant games that came out in recent years. They are hardly talked about:

While many of those are brilliant, I understood "underappreciated" in the subject to refer to the "heyday" of Atari 16/32-bit gaming; general public's appreciation of games of that time, game reviews in mainstream computer magazines, and how well those games sold according to worldwide charts.

(E.g. many free/shareware ones can fall to that category, as back then there was no Internet to spread the "good word". Even good ones were by definition "underappreciated", as they had no exposure to public, except for for PD reviews in some magazines.)

Also, games that we spent lot of time on, stick better to mind, than more recent ones. Especially ones from time when games were scarce and new to us. We do not spend hours, days, even weeks with simpler games any more, even if they're brilliant, like we did in our youths...

[8bitguy1]

Insectroid

https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-s ... 31185.html

I still load it up and blast away from time to time.

[Lyverbe]

Captive (RPG): https://www.atarilegend.com/games/captive

Captive is one of the most popular game on the ST. Even in the link you provided, it has a score of 4.58/5. I don't think it's under appreciated!

[PeyloW]

Captive is one of the most popular game on the ST. Even in the link you provided, it has a score of 4.58/5. I don't think it's under appreciated!

My intention for this thread is games that are not talked about that much, the games more people need to know that they exists. These games may still be 10/10 games for the few people that know and love them.

[mikro]

Does BLAT count? I spent countless of hours beating records between me and a few folks around the Czech Narsil diskmag, loved it to the last bit.