Best Games on the Atari 8-bits

For the purposes of my computer game commentary I refer to the Atari 8 bit 400 and 800 as Western computer game machines.

The Atari 400 and 800 microcomputers are also referred to as the Atari 8 Bit Family or the Atari 8-bits; I myself prefer to refer to them as the Atari 8-bits.

cf. Atari ST 16 bit micro.

The Atari 8-bits are powered by 8-bit MOS Tech 6502s clocked at 1.77-1.79 MHz.

Masterminded by Jay Miner the Atari 8-bits employ custom chips known as ANTIC, C/GTIA and POKEY. CTIA and ANTIC are the successors to Jay Miner's TIA of the Atari VCS of 1977 (the Atari 2600 video game console).

Jay Miner is also The Father of the Commodore Amiga: the origin of the Amiga's custom chipset lies in the Atari 8-bits, not the Commodore 64.

This makes Jay Miner one of the greatest LSI and VLSI architects in home-computer history; even Chuck Peddle acknowledged Jay Miner's 8-bit custom chipset -- and Chuck Peddle engineered the PET and was involved in the design of the 6502, 6800 and the VIC, all of which were incalculably influential.

The Atari 8-bits are legendary microcomputers. The Atari 8-bits were the first to feature hardware-accelerated line-draws, flood-fills, scrolling and sprites. Even the sound chip was rock-solid. There were graphics-coding routines executable by Atari 8-bits that NO other micros could execute until the advent of the Amiga, six years later. The Atari 8-bits were basically 8-bit Amigas.

By the mid-80s Atari 8-bit audiovisuals were (in most cases) eclipsed by the Commodore 64's SID and VIC-II, but for several years the Atari 8-bits were numero uno; certainly, they were the only micros that could evoke "arcade-quality" in their games-catalogue. But the Atari 8-bits were not just for arcade games, they innovated as well.

In my estimation the best Atari 8-bit game is First Star's Boulder Dash of 1984, which also came out first on the Atari 8-bits. To this day, this is THE greatest version of Boulder Dash; it is better than ALL subsequent ports and versions. This is GREATNESS IN GAMEPLAY, right here. And Boulder Dash is also a technical marvel.