Stats Man

Apparently, Clark Kent played basketball in the late 80s. Meet Jim Rowinski, probably the most jacked player in NBA history. Pistons got away with a six-on-five here. Jim Rowinski's arms alone might have needed a jersey number.

@exQUIZitely Game devs of the 80s were more artists than devs. They bend the systems to their will. In a way they had to, simply to get things done that have never been done before.

An average picture that you save on your phone or PC has a size of around 800 kilobytes. It doesn't do anything, it's just a static image. Now take a game like Elite which had a size of 22 kilobytes on the BBC Micro, or 82 kilobytes on the C64 - and now think about what Braben and Bell turned those 22 kilobytes (or 82 kilobytes) into. A universe with eight galaxies, each containing 256 star systems (for a total of 2,048 planets/systems). Each system also featured unique details: government type, economy, technology level, population, commodity prices, and even descriptive text (e.g., a planet known for "carnivorous arts graduates" or similar quirky combinations). If you still need a bit more help to contextualize that, try this: Elite was smaller than many modern text files or desktop icons, yet it contained (and let you freely explore!) a multi-galaxy-spanning universe that felt vast and limitless. By the way - for thos who will argue "but the universe and stars were created randomly, so that's easy" - I think you wil find that the word is procedurally (with structure), which is not random... and anything but easy. Oh, and by the way, the game also rendered 3D wireframe ships, stations, and planets in real time on processors with 2 MHz. Impressed yet? This is no slight on today's game designers. They work with what they have, and that's okay. But when you think about the worlds that some programmers created with the tools they were given, it sometimes breaks my brain trying to understand how they did it. Elite is a true masterpiece on so many levels. I played the C64 version back in the day, and even 40+ years later it still feels like one of the most incredible programming wonders ever.

@Matthew06230436 @exQUIZitely Scanners!

From the 80s that are tech related? Erm Blade Runner, Terminator, Blue Thunder, 2010, Altered States, Transformers The Movie, Death Watch, Final Countdown, Hangar 18, Heavy Metal, Malevil, Scanners, Outland, Orion Loop, Airplane 2, Aliens, Buckaroo Banzai, Predator, The Blob, Reanimator, Strange Behaviour, Fly 1&2, Flash Gordon, Lifeforce, Robocop, Alien Nation, Weird Science, my science project, Somewhere in Time. The 80s had the best movies

Long before Skynet and AI were a thing... War Games (1983) Greetings Professor Falken! Shall we play a game? What other movies were emblematic of the 80s and that stood out?

@Matthew06230436 @exQUIZitely What an epic list, that's so much greatness right there holy shit man!

@exQUIZitely Much more innocent times. I miss them.

@AtariCrypt @exQUIZitely Haha do true I had it on the Speccy too! Good times :)

@exQUIZitely One of my favourite #AtariST games that. Got it free with the Super Pack in 1988. What a jaw dropping moment seeing that after owning the Speccy!

Any fans of this classic? Ikari Warriors was released 40 years ago in 1986. You could play it in single- or two-player mode. Commandos Ralf and Clark (or Paul and Vince in the North American version) mowed down enemy soldiers, tanks, and helicopters while blasting their way through jungles and rivers to rescue a captive officer. It featured rotary joysticks for 360-degree aiming, limited ammo, power-ups, and those super-cool drivable tanks. Graphics were excellent for its time, sound effects were solid, and the music added to the frenzic vibe. I played it later on my C64, but the arcade version remains the benchmark. One of the best two-player co-op games of the 80s - always a blast with my brother. I don't remember how many quarters it took, but maybe that's for the best.

@orcdev @exQUIZitely Like all vertical shooters/fighting games?

@exQUIZitely I was never a big fan of this genre :)

@exQUIZitely Played it back at the arcades. Can’t believe it’s been 40 years holy crap man 🙈

@Roobet @stevewilldoit Society at its best. We’re cooked.

.@stevewilldoit hit for $100,000 on Crazy Ex Girlfriend

@exQUIZitely I rank this 2nd best right after Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. A worth sequel to Maniac Mansion!

"I couldn't stop Purple, and he's going to go out and conquer the world." Who was a fan of Day of the Tentacle (1993, LucasArts) a hilarious point-and-click adventure that was pure chaos in the best way? Dr. Fred's mutant purple tentacle drinks toxic sludge, goes full supervillain (muahaha!), and plans to conquer the world. You control three friends - mega nerd Bernard, slacker Hoagie, and tree-hugging Laverne - who get scattered across time thanks to a broken time machine. You gotta puzzle your way through the American Revolution, the future, the present, and fixing history to stop the tentacle takeover. One of the best sequels ever, a massive step (leap!) forward from the already brilliant Maniac Mansion.

@exQUIZitely I rank this 2nd best after Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis. DotT was excellent for its time!

@exQUIZitely Good old Atari OS ❤️

Do you remember your very first operating system? I started with the GEOS on the C64, followed by Amiga OS. My first PC with Win 3.11 came much later. What was your journey?

@RetroDan75 @exQUIZitely ST version had 16 colors right?

@exQUIZitely Much better than the ST version of Shadow of the Beast

King Luther needs your help to slay the Demon! Wrath of the Demon (1991) by Abstrax/ReadySoft was released two years after the immensely popular Shadow of the Beast. I always thought the two games were quite similar - not just in gameplay and graphics, but if you listen closely, you'll even notice the similarity in the sound effects and music. And lo and behold, it’s the legendary David Whittaker who composed the score for both titles. Maybe it’s just me, but can you hear the resemblance to the Shadow of the Beast music too? Wrath of the Demon was another entry in the long line of hack 'n slash games that didn't have much (or any) depth, but relied mostly on great visuals and atmospheric sound and music. If you were a fan of the genre, it was definitely worth playing. Though it came two years after Shadow of the Beast, I still feel it never quite reached the same level or reputation.

@warpdesign_ @exQUIZitely Shadow of the Beast always felt a bit like a tech demo to showcase what the Amiga could do. As a game it lacked depth.

@exQUIZitely Liked it, but it was really too hard! I still am amazed by its graphics/music today but I wouldn't play it again for sure. Unlike some other Amiga games.

@exQUIZitely I am surprised there was no backlash from Psygnosis for this...?

As much as I am not a fan of OKC, you have to give them credit where it's due. Of the original 16 playoff teams, they rank 13th in FTAs/Game and 1st in FT efficiency. Of the currently remaining teams, OKC has the LOWEST FTAs/Game and the HIGHEST FT efficiency.

@exQUIZitely Loom, hands down. Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Nominating Turrican II: The Final Fight (1991) as the Amiga game with the best soundtrack. Let's see how many candidates we can get. If you remember one from your Amiga days, let us know in the comments!

@exQUIZitely One of the best sound clips and digitised speech snippets of its era, really awesome!

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998) was a brilliant game by Pyro Studios, set in World War II. You command elite Allied soldiers, like a Green Beret, a sniper, or a spy on stealth missions behind Nazi lines. The game allows you to use unique skills for sabotage, assassinations, and escapes while you have to keep in mind the line of sight of enemy forces and patrols. It sold over 1 million copies and had several sequels. According to Wiki this is also the most successful game series ever made by a Spanish team, even up to this day 28 years later. It is rather slow paced (which I like), highly tactical and also featuring extremely beautiful graphics with an incredible love and attention to detail. And while most non-German games that include digitized German speech sound like Monty Python parodies (think Wolfenstein 3D), this one had very realistic sound-bits. Commandoes was one of the games we played in our late 90s LAN sessions, and - unlike a real commando - there were a lot of loud debates on the next (correct) move, some friendly banter, and the occassional "oh shit" moments.

@SancastleAir @exQUIZitely Oids — what a name for a game holy crap :)

@exQUIZitely Oids was a perfect homage to this on the ST

Happy birthday to Thrust! Exactly 40 years ago today (May 11, 1986) this masterpiece was released. And if you thought getting out of the hangar in Raid over Moscow was a piece of cake, you gotta try Thrust! You pilot a spaceship with realistic (!) inertia and gravity physics. Your mission is straight forward, yet anything but simple: infiltrate hostile planets, descend into underground caverns, and use a tractor beam to lift pods from the bottom. You then have to fly them safely back to space while battling gravity, cave walls, limited fuel, and enemy gun turrets. Precise thrust and rotation control are absolutely essential - the pod swings like a heavy pendulum on a stiff beam, making navigation tricky and giving the spaceship different handling and control compared to no payload. Later levels add doors, complex mazes, and even tougher challenges. Takes a crap ton of practice but it's also extremely addictive once you get the hang of it.

@exQUIZitely Reminds me of Exile! ❤️