Every third Sunday of each month, the Amiga Users Group gets together to showcase, demonstrate, play games and most importantly, chat with other like minded passionate enthusiasts and collectors.
On this occasion, the club meet was hijacked to pit two 8-bit home computers, the Atari XEGS and the Commodore 64 in a tussle to find which reigned supreme in the 1-byte realm. There was a SX-64 thrown in for good measure, but that never factored in the Atari versus Commodore war.
The Team Atari versus Team Commodore battle royale was the brainchild of Weird and Retro’s Aleks Svetislav (Serby). In his usual selfless way, Serby brought monitors, computers, joysticks and a shed load of games for everyone to enjoy and for the battle to take place. My attention went straight to the obscure games that Serby had in his swag, like Jars’ Revenge for the C64. But there was no time to admire the stash, there was a war waging on the tables!
The two 8-bit systems had battles with each playing their respective versions of Wizard of Wor and Assembloids. Let me say, Assembloids is one heck of an addictive game. Serby warned me about it’s addictiveness – it is fantastic! Before I get sidetracked, my impression of Wizard of Wor was that it looked, sounded and played better on the C64 (sorry Serby!). In regards to Assembloids, it was a dead heat – it looked and played great on both the Atari XEGS and the Commodore 64. The other games played were Missile Command and River Raid. Both of these games were made for the little Atari – they were awesome on the XEGS.
There were no arms or legs lost in this battle, only a few sore thumbs. So, who won this battle of the 8-bit home computers? I’d say it was dead even. Whichever side you were on, you couldn’t lose. Long live the Atari and Commodore!
Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Vectrex shenanigans on the C64
Jars’ Revenge – a homage to Yars’?
Gauntlet – Some 8-Bit Magic
No Hacking Allowed!
