Ten games with isometric graphics on the Atari ST
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2024
- I take a look at ten games with isometric graphics on the Atari ST.
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MUSIC
Blazar Shift & From Desert to Forest : Yerzmyey (www.yerzmyey.i-demo.pl)
Chirpy : Naoki ( / naokisaito )
Gears of Games Intro : Zymondee (www.soundcloud.com/zymondeeV)
0:00 Start
0:15 Introduction to isometric graphics
2:20 Airball
4:52 Crystal Castles
7:40 Cadaver
9:25 Treasure Trap
11:13 Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters
13:08 Head over Heels
15:28 Voodoo Nightmare
17:41 Populous
19:44 Where Time Stood Still
21:49 Never Mind
23:36 Outro
#atarist #retrocomputing #retrogaming #isometricview - เกม
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I didn't expect a full blown mini documentary, well done.
Thanks! I prefer doing some digging, but it was tricky coming up with something interesting to talk about in this video. Spent a lot of time digging around, coming up with mostly nothing! :)
Head over heels was my best zx spectrum game ever! Absolutely loved it! I never got bored of it when i had a spectrum back in the day! 👍
I don't think I ever played it back in the day. But I was absolutely amazed by Batman by Ritman/Drummond. Never got anywhere in it, but man, those amazing graphics. It was also impressive how well both of these games ran, compared to Ultimate's efforts...
Great video, btw. Really good deep dive. I always enjoy how you bring the history together on your videos, especially for the ST, which took a distant back seat with Amiga youtubers. You and Rees as well.
Wow, I came across Airball when I was making my Dragon32 video, even as an ST fan I had no idea it was released on the ST! Looks like it's just as annoying as the Dragon version 😄
Never played the Dragon version, but I think I will wager a; yes, it probably is! 😁
I loved your presentation of the games-it was nice to have the covers and game info next to the gameplay as you discussed each game. Excellent job, and thank you for sharing this list as someone who’s never used an ST!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed Chrilz!
Thank you for the memories...I think I have first played Airball around 1988, and I was engrossed in the magical and eerie atmosphere. Voodo Nightmare and Tresure Trap were quite fun to play also they were not my favourite. Cadaver is a game of legend, I wonder what the Bitmap Brother are up to these days...
Glad you enjoyed! Yeah, there is a special atmosphere in Airball, thanks to Lyons excellent graphics. I think Mike Montgomery has been involved with some modern re-releases of their old games. Not sure what the others are up to these days...
It’s very nice that you included short info about authors.
Always had an interest in the people behind the games so try and include anything interesting about them that I can dig up. 😄
@@gearsofgames It’s my addiction to check who worked on some games, movies, music etc.
What a beautiful video. I enjoyed it very much. You are such a great narrator and reviewer. A joy to listen to. One of my all time favorite games and the favorite from this list is Crystal Castles. I love it....
Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed da vid! :) Was a big fan of Crystal Castles too, but man those super sensitive controls prevented me ever getting that far in it. But still loved it!
@@gearsofgames been thinking about this great video some more. You probably covered the game already (you have done so many!) but D-Generation is also a really good iso game. And also the Indy games were iso (maybe nog temple of doom, but definitely Fate of Atlantis?). Bad games, but big names...
D-Generation was on the list, but ended up not being included in the video. I still haven't covered the game, but it does look really interesting and fun!
Yeah Fate of Atlantis was isometric, not sure if there were any other isometric Indy games though? Fate of Atlantis looks nice, but have heard bad things about it, so decided to no mess with that one for this video! 😁
@@gearsofgames I think you will love D-Generation. Never really played Indy myself...graphics do look decent...but disappointed at the time for not getting the adventure was too big ;)
Fantastic video. I'm pretty sure my mate had Cadaver on his Atari ST. I used to love isometric games on my ZX Spectrum but the "you're one pixel off and you die" was such a pain in the ass.
Huge fan of Where Time Stood Still (but not the Steam version!) :)
Yeah, same here, loved isometric game. But often they were a bit of a pain to play. But I would still persevere and go exploring! 😁
Is the pathfinding in the Spectrum version of WTSS as bad as on the ST version? 😱
@@gearsofgames Yes it is. If you let them, they'll surround you in the swamp so you can't move and you'll drown. Then they'll drown too!
Oh man! 😁 So it's not really a bad thing that they often wander off by themselves and are nowhere near you! 😁😁
Production quality ++
Well done!
Thank you, Robert! Glad you enjoyed!
Wasn't expecting such a quality video. Great detail about the developers and in particular the graphic artists involved. For once a video that is better than the title suggests!
Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed it! I put in a lot of time into these, trying to make them well paced and informative. There's more of this type of video coming, but there's a bit of a wait between releases.
Really good video. Very enjoyable. Played a fes isometric games on my spectrum back in the day. I remember knight lore, rentakill rita and head over heels. Escape from the planet of the robot monsters got a good speccy port to.
Thanks Mark! So many isometric games on the Speccy! Alien 8 was one of my favourites. Shame we didn't get more of them on the 16-bit systems, they were more capable handling the 3D without too much slowdown.
Very nice video, kudos!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed! 😄
Good selection of isometric games! Some of them I did not even knew. 😉
Another good isometric game I recently stumbled on is D/Generation by Mindscape.
Oh yeah, D/Generation looks very interesting. It was on the list for this video, but ended up not including it.
No mention of The Adventures of Robin Hood. That game was awesome.
It was actually on the list of potential games to include. But it seemed a bit more involved, would have taken longer to capture footage from. But I want to make a part II of this, so we will see... 😄
I don't know how I found this video but I'm glad I did. Super well made.
Thanks Julius, glad you enjoyed!
Played Airball on my 520ST when it came out. Was really impressed! Very different game and innovative. Didn't seem to make much of a splash, unfortunately.
Cadaver looks amazing! Would have been up my alley but somehow I missed that one. Bitmap bros were something else.
Airball looked amazing for such an early game. But gameplay was a bit lacking, sadly. Only ever played the demo of Cadaver myself, would probably have gotten into the full game. Even though the puzzles and UI would probably have driven me bonkers! 😁
@@gearsofgames If I recall correctly, airball needed puzzles to be engaging for the player, but it was more like a "roll around and check out the visuals." Or maybe some elements of marble madness in some rooms. Mouse Trap board game in another? Guess that was all meant for Airball 2.
By the way, Airball is on steam in its original state. The game description is really weak: roll up stairs, avoid spikes. Lol
I can see the inventory management being ridiculous in cadaver. Will have to fire them up and let you know my thoughts.
Airball is mostly about exploration and fighting the super sensitive controls! Interestingly the game also has a fast mode, when you press the fire button, that makes navigating around even harder! 😁 I think it might allow you to jump farther though.
Yeah, inventory management and item usage in Cadaver is rather wonky. I did get more used to it as I played, but it remained a bit of a pain...
An amazingly well done video! I've always had a soft spot for isometric graphics, thought I must admit that gameplay is often frustrating. I had a physical copy of Treasure Trap and rather liked it back then. Perhaps mainly due to the cute graphics and joy of exploring, but some rooms were just too tricky for me to solve. Many of these games I didn't know existed, at least not on the ST 🙂
Yeah, many isometric games were a bit of pain to play! The isometric perspective makes it tricky to see where you are and often the games would slow down significantly, even on the 16-bit systems.
Fantastic video, thanks!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it PFJONGMA! 😁
Great video my friend! Escape From The Planet… was one of the 1st games I played on my ST, it was an addictive fun game with that retro sci-fi comic atmosphere, but as you say the flipping scroll is very annoying. Maybe you can take in account new stuff like Randomazer for Ten games with isometric graphics part II 😉
Thanks Joan! I remember I was close to buying EFTPRM back in the day, looked really cool. But never did, don't remember why. I might make a part II of this one, but this video took forever to finish. So might take some time before that happens...
a lot of memories with these isometric games...did not see spidertronic nor wreckers ! love these games:)
Wreckers was on the list of games to potentially include in this video. Spidertronic however, was not. Maybe I will include them in a sequel video...
@@gearsofgames Wreckers was more like action adventure ans spidertronic more like platform puzzle, very simple but quite addictive ! and it has a level editor ! at the time was quite advanced:) Anyway waiting for your next video :)
Wreckers looks really nice and it also has one of the coolest looking title screens on the ST! Need to read the manual and try it out. Not played Spidertronic at all..
@@gearsofgames waiting for your gameplay ! spidertronic looks like jumping jack son on the gameplay section.Simple and addictive:)
Should probably do a Quick Look on Spidertronic...
Another isometric game that looked really nice was The Immortal. I never did get the hang of not ... uhh ... dying, so obviously the title did not refer to me.
Same with Airball - looked so cool, but just the constant dying ...
Oh yeah, I remember I was close to buying The Immortal! Got some really good reviews back in the day, I am glad I didn't though! That game is CRUEL! 😁
Played Immortal on my PC long ago. It was the Dark Souls of early 90s gaming. :) I remember there was a major bug that ruined my game and I couldn't continue.
I am not surprised, they probably reckoned that no one would ever experience the bug. Given how difficult and unfair the game was! 😁
Wow, I never heard of half of these! I was pleasantly surprised by the monochrome/greyscale games. It does give a cool vintage feel.
I associate isomorphic with the speccy since speccy users were playing games like "The Great Escape" when I traveled to Europe.
Isometric games were BIG on the 8-bit systems, especially the Spectrum. Unfortunately they also suffered from similar problems as the 16-bit ones. 😄 But still loved exploring them.
Oh jeez. Played on an Atari ST back in 1988 or so when I was only 2 years old. I remember the games Moon Patrol and Xor, but there was one I could remember what it looked like but I could never remember the name. Crystal Castles. Boom. Recognized it instantly. Funny how I enjoy the musician by the same name so many years later. Thanks!
(Now if only I could remember the name of some paint / pixel art type program that there was .. I remember it had some picture of a house in it. But that's all I rememeber!)
Glad to help! 😁 The visuals of Crystal Castles (the game) are really rememberable!
Paint program you say; hmmm, what about Degas Elite, Neochrome or Art Studio? There was plenty of others of course, but they popped into my mind first...
@@gearsofgames A little searching around .. Neochrome looks kinda familiar .. but not enough content around to review. Thanks again tho!
Such a great list ........... I'm a massive fan of Head Over Heels, although I played it more on the Amstrad CPC back in the day.
It's really a brilliant little game.
FYI in (I think it was) ST Format, there is an DIY assembler tutorial of a unicycle controlled in isometric written by The Bitmap Brother, not long after Cadaver was released - also I believe you missed (an honourable mention of) Q-Bert (in "the early days").
@paulwratt Don't remember seeing that tutorial, not that I was into coding at that point. But I would definitely have glanced through it regardless.
Is there an official Q-Bert conversion for the ST, not entirely sure? Maybe I should make a video about isometric arcade games, but I have a bunch of other video projects I need to finish before that happens! 😃
The first ST isometric game I played was Indy IV. I was playing the adventure on my friend's 286 and I was really happy to find an ST version. Needless to say I was very disappointed. Getting stuck in the casino didn't help either. It took a few decades but now there is an ST version of the adventure. Anyway I saw a walkthrough on TH-cam of the action game so I might finish it someday..
It's difficult to create a good control scheme for isometric games, I for example try to do diagonal motions to go straight. But it was a good way to do a '3d' game with good graphics.
Also, I like this mini review fornat and list. You should consider doing more.
Is that the isometric Indiana Jones game? Never played it, looks nice, but have heard some bad things about it :). Yeah, controls can be a pain, especially when its hard to see where you are in relation to other objects.
I would like to make more, but these take a long time to make. Research and playing the games takes a lot of time. I have some other things I want to do too, but we will see what happens. It's really up to how other things are going...
Nice. I'd never seen Airball nor Treasure Trap. Going to have to try them
Give them a stab! Treasure Trap is probably the better one gameplay wise. But Airball does look really pretty and has a somewhat creepy atmosphere!
If you feel like making a Part2 for this I'd recommend Get Dexter 2 - one of the most surreal and funny games for the ST, filled with those classic isometric moments of "throw a chair on a guy's head so you can reach the next level up" and "see how many objects you can stack up and push around"😆
I had it on my list for this video, but it was a long list. Will definitely include it in a potential sequel 😃 ...
Good set of games.
Top video. Played Cadaver but never finished it. Also played The Payoff ..... and didn't finish that either.They could be a bit tricky as you pointed out. I should really finish them.
Thanks Robert! Yeah, some of the later puzzles seems horrifically convoluted! 😁 But I had fun when recording the game for this video. I was using a walk-through, in the interest of not getting stuck for ever and ever! So maybe give it a play-through with a walk-through next to you...
I love this games !! Marble madness was crazy hard
Yeah and pretty much all of the Marbe Madness clones were just about as infuriatingly hard ! 😄
Thanks for your reply... vindicators was good and alot easier !!
Never tried that one, thanks for reminding me! 😀
@@gearsofgames happy gaming..
I'd no idea so many isometric games existed for the ST!
There's a bunch for sure, but not quite as many as on the 8-bit systems 😄
Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters is pure gold. Of the selection presented (all of which, surprisingly, I have played) it (and Populous) were the one's that I lost the most hours - nay days/weeks - on.
Always wished the ST would have had Diablo II, which was my favourite game on the Mac, and is easily the finest isometric game ever created.
I remember I wanted to buy Planet of the Robot Monsters really badly back in the day, because it just looked awesome But sadly it never happened!
haven't watched yet...but PLANET OF THE ROBOT MONSTERS....GOTTA be in there...GOTTA be in there..
Let me reassure you; it is! 😁
YEEES YEES! It's on there...great work...great work...
I always thought that the isometric games were the "open world" genre equivalent of the 80s and early 90s. Really great for adventure and exploration.
That was the aspect I enjoyed the most; exploring and finding new rooms. The visuals really helped to keep up my interest 😁
Immortal was a great isometric game. I had it for DOS with no manual or instructions, in the days of no internet. Took me forever to figure out how to finish it. But it was a great adventure. The random death factor was annoying though. Very difficult game.
@TheVanillatech I was very close to buying it for my ST back in the day, but that never happened. Looked awesome! But after watching other people play it over the years, I wonder what the game would have done with my sanity, had I bought it. 😀 Seems a bit unfair and frustrating, but also looked like it would have been fun to explore.
@@gearsofgames Yeah you just randomly die from holes that you can't exactly see. You just have to know where they are. It's the kind of mean that Rick Dangerous pulls, where you literally have to die a thousand times to learn whats coming. But it had bags of atmosphere and some nice surprises. For such a tiny memory footprint, there was a lot of game.
@@TheVanillatech Yeah, the atmosphere is there for sure! I must have a look at it soon! Been meaning to for years!
@@gearsofgames Try not to pull your hair out! XD
@@TheVanillatech That might be hard not to do! 😁 But thank you!
Ah ! This 3D isometric's games, for me was more the 8bit times, like Knight Lore, from Ultimate :)
(..never played " Populous ".. the floppy did not work in my Atari STe :( )
Yeah, isometric graphics were definitely bigger on the 8-bit. A bit of a shame really, given how gorgeous games like Cadaver and Voodoo Nightmare look. But of course, controls and gameplay tended to be a bit clunky in isometric games and everyone was very keen to explore "real" 3D instead. 😄
No Bactron crafton & Xunk (aka get dexter), M.G.T , Movies etc...?
Get Dexter was on the fairly long list of isometric games to include in this video, but ended up not being included, maybe in the next video. Not sure what M.G.T is short for? Movies? Are you maybe thinking of the 8-bit game Movie published by Imagine?
@@gearsofgames Nope it is Magnetic Tank by Loriciels (french publisher). And Movies was first released for the 8bit that is correct.
Ah OK, Magnetic Tank was on the list too actually. Is Movie available for the ST?
@@gearsofgames my apologies Movie from ocean software was never ported to st i played it in zx emulator on my st....fuzzy memory:-)
@@gearsofgames i have to rewatch carefully then ! nice to havevit included :-)
Is it known how many games were released for the ST, and how long will it take you to cover all of them? 🙂
There's about 8000 registered on Atarimania, including PD & Shareware games and I am pretty sure there are more! So I should probably quite my day job! 😄
What about MGT ?
MGT was on my list of potential games to included. It was a fairly long list, so had to cut some out. But might make a part 2 of this vid... 😀
I really feel like you need a part 2 on this one. No BRAT, D-Generation, Hero Quest, Space Crusade, Shadowworlds, Shadowlands? And others i'm sure i'm forgetting! 😂
There's enough isometric games for a part 3 too! 😁 I found way more isometric games than expected for the ST. Not as many as there were on the 8-bit systems, of course, but still more than expected!
@@gearsofgames I think it's just because d-generation was one of my top 5 games on the system altogether it feels criminal it's not in there 😂
Now that I think about it zany golf was probably another!!!
And super off road racer another top game 😂 going down a rabbit hole here....
@barryrojack BRAT, D-Generation, Hero Quest, Shadowworlds and Shadowlands were all on my loooong list of potential games. But Space Crusade, Zany Golf and Super off road weren't! I might have to add even more games to the list! 😁
Never was very much into this type of games. Played Treasure Trap and Escape. Cadaver I played only very little and never liked Populous that much.
Sadly the older isometric games often shared the same problems. Like the difficulty to see where you actually are in a room and worse problems. This often killed the fun to an extent, so I often settled with exploring these games and just enjoy the visuals. Cadaver is fun though, once you get into it. But it does get crazy hard at places...
Did you have a stroke that selectively erased Spindizzy Worlds from your memory?
You will be shocked to know that I have not suffered a Spindizzy induced stroke and I have not forgotten about the game. Please don't suffer an aneurysm when I tell you that the game was actually on the list of potential games to include in this video! A rather long list I am afraid, had to pick only ten, so many didn't make it. But who knows, might make a part two of this ...
From what I remember, the only isometric type game I've played is Megaman Battle Network on the GBA?
Also your voice sounds weird in this video
That one looks really neat, don't remember seeing too many isometric games on the GBA or GB.
My voice still wasn't 100% after that super head cold I had...
Populous was probably the only isometric game I could tolerate on the ST. Most others annoyed me.
Sadly, many isometric games were a bit of a pain to play! But I still persevered with some of them, just to explore them and marvel at the graphics. But solving those "3D" puzzles could be so painful!
I think it was because the game forced you to move on the diagonals of an 8-way joystick which could be torture in games that were frenetic or required precision. Similar to playing a pac-man style game on the Intellivision. Ugh.
21:00 that game 😤, the survivors just died and died hahahha,
Oh yeah, the AI is awful!! 😁
chaos engine
It seems to share the same colour palette as Cadaver. But yeah ..... one of the best. Shame about the follow up. Even more of a shame about the 2013 Steam release.
Wouldn't have thought of Chaos Engine as an isometric game, but given that my definition is pretty lax in the video anyway. 😁 It can definitely compete with the Cadaver visuals! Both are truly gorgeous games!
@@gearsofgames yes chaos engine is not real isometric. Maybe Syndicate is better example. :)
@Michal Smutny It might be considered isometric, with a sub definition. Not entirely sure about how all that maths works 😁 Never played Syndicate on the 16 bit systems, did play it a bit PC though. Remember it looking rather nice!
@@gearsofgames its long time when i had as a kid Atari ST FM, but i think i played this game on the Atari. It was a bit hard. But, yes it was nice looking game.
Where Robin Hood??
Can't play with games like that. Up is right, down is left. No sorry, I can't. Too bad, some games like Cadaver seem to be really good.
I know what you mean, the controls for isometric games were often tricky and judging distance was hopeless, even with applied shadows. But I still loved exploring them to just try and get to the next room, even though the game kept murdering me in often rather unfair ways! 😁
Yea, AMIGA 4 EVER! Muhahahaah 😁!
Damn, we have a stray Amiga user here! Who left the door open? 😁 To be completely honest; I am an Amiga user too! Used them for animation (and games of course when the boss wasn't looking!) at work... and loved it! Great machines for creativity!
@@gearsofgames Amiga users are the coolest, they even know what fun is!
rip that dude