Jeremy Parish

NES Works Gaiden #23: Atari 7800 - Ballblazer & Winter Games (Patreon)

Published:

2021-05-19 13:00:01

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

atari 7800 nes works gaiden video

Content

Looks like Atari needs a little love, eh? It's been too long since we last looked in on the Atari 7800... though basically that's down to the fact that the Atari 7800 was kind of a wasteland for the first half of 1988. The system will finally begin to see some new material in 1989, but for now, there's... this. As it happens, however, "this" includes Ballblazer, a game with enough history and substance that this ended up being the first 7800 retrospective episode to feature only two games rather than four.

A few notes on this episode: I'm experimenting with a different kind of tech for the hosting segments, which didn't quite work here. I'll be refining it over time, of course.

I also elided over some of the particulars of the Atari 8-bit family here, but there's an episode of Retronauts come up soon that's dedicated to the subject to put things right.

Files

Ballblazer & Winter Games retrospective: ’88 dawns for the 78 (hundred) | NES Works Gaiden #023

Before we continue with the Sega and Nintendo stuff, Atari deserves a brief stopover to see what the 7800 was up to for the first half of 1988. As it turns out, the answer is "not a whole heck of a lot." Happily, the one game to ship during this period—Lucasfilm Games' Ballblazer—has more than enough history and content behind it to support most of this episode before we jump into summer ’88 and, ironically, Winter Games from Epyx. You'll notice a change in the hosting segments here, as I've begun recording them on period-appropriate media (VHS tape) for authenticity, or something. Clearly I need to iron out some bugs and get my playback head cleaned, but I'm working on it... And yes, I made some generalizations about the relationship between Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computers, but I'll be going into more detail on that one of these days, when I tackle the XEGS (which technically counts as a console that debuted post-crash, sort of, making it arguably eligible for inclusion in Video Works). Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut!