Pole Position Atari 8-bit sprite hack by AtariAge member TIX

During the late 80's Namco released a brilliant arcade racing game called Pole Position, which was designed by Tōru Iwatani, designer of Pac-Man, ending up as one of the most popular arcade racing games of 1982-3. Well if you remember this game AND you played it on one of the many systems this game came on such as the Atari 8-bit, you'll be pleased to know John Shawler has contacted us to tell you a hack of the game has been released giving a slight improvement to the graphics.

Alternate Reality Intro Music Recreation Last Half - A euphoric melody remake of a 1980's RPG

Through all the years of playing games, what stands out the most isn't always the gameplay, but that soundtrack that plays in the background to set the tone of the game being played. The creepyness of Silent Hill, the upbeat tempo of Arkanoid on the C64, or even the melody of Zelda still playing in our minds to this day. So why am I mentioning this now? Well Jace Hall has found his musical love, as he has done a recreation of the melody of Alternate Reality - The City, an RPG type game released by the American company Datasoft in 1985-88 for a multitude of computers.

Time Pilot - 1980's Arcade perfect port released for the Atari XL/XE

The Atari 8-bit homebrew scene has really gone all out this week, especially with TRAIN, Minotaur 16k and HeliCommander. But now it looks as if a new top dog has appeared to push them aside, as earlier today we were informed by both Jarosław Padula and Zbigniew 'Saberman' Zielinski of the release of an Arcade perfect port of Time Pilot, which according to the team behind the port is one of the best arcade games of all time.

Stunt Car Racer - The best stunt game comes to the Atari 8-bit!

Of all the games to appear on the Amiga, this in my opinion was one of the best stunt style racers, it had some of the craziest tracks and the ultimate track the "Ski Jump". What made it so good was not just the feeling of speed, but the thrill of accelerating into the sky and coming back down with an almighty crack. It was one of Geoff Crammonds finest games, and now thanks to a team on the AtariAge forums this fantastic game has now appeared on the Atari 8-bit as a port from the C64!

Jack The Nipper - 1980's Gremlin Graphics game appears on the Atari 8bit

The Atari 8-Bit has certainly seen some love through 2017, what with the release of Skool Daze, Pac-Mad, The Way of the Exploding Fist and even Mario Bros XE. But fast forward to today for 2018 and Mariusz Wojcieszek with the help of Terrence Derby, has released the 1986 retro gaming port of Gremlin Graphics classic Jack The Nipper for the Atari 8-bit. Which was originally released for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and MSX!

Mario Bros XE - Mario Bros XE is the BEST Atari 8-bit hack home conversion

In 1983 Nintendo released the classic game ' Mario Bros ' for the Arcades, with a number of ports released by other publishers in 1988 for systems such as the Atari 8bit. This very famous game created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, featured two plumbers Mario and Luigi, that needed to wipe out all the enemies appearing in the sewers of New York. Now thanks to darryl1970 as a huge fan of Mario Bros, he has released the Mario Bros XE hack, which according to him is the BEST Atari 8-bit home conversion yet.

Skool Daze - Childhood retro gaming classic coming to the Atari 8-bit

Skool Daze was released in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum and C64, created by David Reidy and Helen Reidy with the ZX Spectrum version voted the 4th best game of all time in a special issue of Your Sinclair magazine in 2004. It was the only game of its time that gave you the true 8-bit experience of being at school, with all the lines and detention that came with the bad side of being a naughty kid. Now for the first time ever, after already appearing on the ZX, C64, Amstrad(Port), PC(Remake) and Mobile, this classic game is going to appear on the Atari 8-bit with development by Mariusz Wojcieszek and José Pereira!

Gunfright - An Ultimate Play the Game Atari 8-bit port is complete!

These last two weeks have been incredible for our site for the latest news as after yesterdays previous announcement of Ultimate Play the Game's classic 'Gunfright' being ported to the C64, C128 and Plus4, we now have the Atari 8-bit port to experience, released by Mariusz, Jose Pereira and Saul Cross. As mentioned before, this game was first released way back in 1985 and appeared on the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX, but with a more recent C64/128 port which is actually based on this excellent Z80 to 6502 conversion.

A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year from Indie Retro News [UPDATE]

Here we are again with another Christmas and what a year it has been, full of incredible indie games, new homebrews, and lots of lost and found retro specials that have amazed even our own writers thanks to Genesis Project, Hokuto Force or Laxity. From C64 games such as Charlie Chaplin, Red Baron 3000, Donkey Kong + (X2016 Version), Locators Synd, Hessian, Alien 8 and Pentagram, to the incredible Amiga specials such as the SEGA CD exclusive Heart of the Alien ported over to the Amiga, Another World lost levels, OnEscapee and Giana Sisters: Special Edition by PixelGlass Studios. But that's not all we've had to enjoy, as we've had month after month of Amiga CD32 conversions thanks to Earok(+team) and more so this year Amiga Jay with Psygnosis : The Complete Amiga Works, The Bitmap Brothers Collection and even the Overhead Racer Collection! [25/12/16 Christmas Update]

Donkey Kong - Atari 8-bit Arcade HACK & Atari 5200 conversion updated!

Not long ago we mentioned Darryl1970's Atari 8-bit Arcade hack and Atari 5200 conversion of Nintendo's 1981 original classic ' Donkey Kong ', in which you played as Mario that must avoid obstacles across a number of platforms, with sometimes a hammer in hand to save a damsel in distress from a giant ape called Donkey Kong. Both versions were tweaked and enhanced including colour changes of the original classic. But just last month Darryl released the latest 7.4 version with even more improvements.

Donkey Kong Jr - Atari 8-bit Arcade HACK update v8

Just days ago (link) we mentioned Darryl1970's Atari 8-bit hack of that classic game ' Donkey Kong Junior ', which was originally released in 1982 for Arcades and later released for home systems such as the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit , ColecoVision, Coleco Adam, Intellivision, NES and BBC Micro, with a C64 overhauled version released by Mr Sid at the end of last year. Well that same hack has just been updated again this week with new colour changes, a redraw of Mario's step, edits to Donkey Kong, spring redraw, bird tweaks and the redraw of all of Juniors frames compared to the arcade.

Popeye - Atari 5200 arcade improvement and an 8-bit port!

Now here's a blast from the past and no it's not the Amstrad version of Popeye, but an arcade Atari 5200 improvement and 8-bit conversion to the original Atari 5200 arcade port of a Nintendo platformer by Parker Bros, released way back in 1983. In a similar vein to Donkey Kong albeit not as good, you play as Popeye and must collect hearts, musical notes and the letters H-E-L-P that the lovable character Olive drops from the top of the screen. But be warned, just like the cartoon, Brutus will get in your way with the help of the bad Sea Hag!

Alley Cat - Atari/DOS cat classic coming to the ZX Spectrum

Probably one of the oldest games on our website is Bill Williams and published by Synapse Softwares 'Alley Cat' for the Atari 8bit in 1983 and MS-DOS in 1984. Playing as Freddy the Cat, your objective was to perform challenges such as catching mice in a persons home in order to reach his Cat love, Felicia. For what was a very odd game indeed with Cheese the size of an entire room, and a humorous cat falling behind the fence, Alley Cat is now being ported over to the ZX Spectrum by Destr and aims to be just as fun as the original.

Lunar Blitz RX - Remixed arcade classic for the C64

Bit of a quiet news day today, so it was nice to see that Lunar Blitz RX was released for the C64 by Cosine, which is a remixed version of the original Atari 8-bit arcade game. Lunar Blitz RX was coded from disassembly and upgraded to match the Atari 8-bit version first released in the start of 2012.

Games I remember, with a remake - Green Beret

Over the next few months I'll be doing articles on the games that I remember and I'm sure many of you will do as well. They will take us back to the time of squealing tapes, or slow loading floppies, a time that many of us enjoyed and when developers put so much gameplay into such small data sizes. You'll be able to play the remakes and relive those times as if they were just released today. Well today it's time to look at Green Beret, an action, arcade platformer from way back in the mid 1980's.