Review Episode 1

The Atari XEGS Cart by Cart Podcast

In our first review episode, we review EA’s Archon to find out if the game is good or evil. Then we set our sights on the XEGS packaged light gun game, Bug Hunt. We also have user submision from Shinto, the host of the The Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast and Kieran Hawkin introduces his new UK Budget Games segment. This time he reviews Fruit Machine Simulator and puts in his two pence on our two featured games.

Show Notes

Archon: The Dark and the Light

Other reviews & references:

• ANTIC interview with Jon Freeman, Free Fall Associates
• Free Fall Associates interview with Jon Freeman & Anne Westfall
• The Digital Antiquarian: Free Fall, Part 1: Archon
• Grognardia: Interview with Paul Reiche III
• Game Manual
• Wikipedia articles:
  Archon
  Free Fall Associates
• Atarimania entries:
  XEGS cart (1987)
  XL disk (1983)
• 8bit Rocket (Jeff Fulton):
  The 8-bit Game: Digesting Archon - An article on game design using Atari 8-bit Archon as the model

Other ports:

• Archon was ported to the Apple II, Commodore 64, Amiga, IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, NES, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and PC-88
• Archon II: Adept - 1984 sequel for Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. Unfortunately, was never released on cartridge
• Archon Ultra - 1994 remake for MSDOS, by Free Fall Assoc (published by SSI)
• The Unholy War - 1998 spiritual successor by Paul Reiche III for PlayStation, by Toys for Bob (published by Crystal Dynamics)
• Kombat Chess - mini-game (similar to Archon) within 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception for PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PSP
• Archon: Conquest - 2009 iPhone remake, by React Games. Licensed by Free Fall. Available today, via App Store!
• Archon: Classic - 2010 Windows remake, by React Games. Available today, via Steam!

Where to buy:

• Best Electronics - USD $34.95 (XE Cart)
• B&C Computer Visions - USD $29.95 (XE Cart)
• Ebay
• Cartrige - $59.95 buy it now (from B&C), plus various sales in Europe (EUR 18.90 (~$21) to EUR 38.00 (~$42)) (2016-01-16)
• Disk - ~$75 loose, ~$128 sealed, up to ~$200 sealed (2016-01-16)

Information Sources:

• ANTIC interview with Jon Freeman, Free Fall Associates

Bug Hunt

Other reviews & references:

• ANTIC interview with Alan Murphy
• Retro Gaming Roundup interview with Rob Zdybel (& others)
• Atarimania entry
• Game Manual

Where to buy:

• BEST Electronics - USD $12.00 (no box, cart + manual)
• B&C Computer Visions - USD $20.00 (cart only)
• Ebay - USD $39.00, cart + light gun, $2.99 to $29.95 (mostly cart only) (2015-01-16)
• Ebay - Light gun only - $24.99, $26.50, $30.00, and $35.00 (2015-01-16)

Contributor Segments

• Shinto (host of The Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast)
• Budget Games featuring Kieren Hawkin - Review's Fruit Machine Simulator, Archon, & Bug Hunt