KEITH FEINSTEIN'S TOP TEN ATARI CONSOLE AND COMPUTER GAMES keithf@videotopia.com Ok, here's my top 10... and I'll refrain from naming coin-ops although you GOTTA know how hard that is for ME. But I may mention the coin-op as an aside to a console game. 10. Dark Chambers (7800/Atari) I don't know why I liked this one, but it's the only 7800 game I spent more than an hour with at any one sitting. I know Lenny Herman says its better on the VCS, but I don't have that version. Maybe its because I felt it was "Gauntlet, without quite being Gauntlet". Play it with a Sega Master System joypad, I'm not a fan of the 7800 Prolines... although Lenny likes those too. What up with that Len? I think those controllers must have been designed for his hands personally. 9. Rampart (Lynx/Atari) I liked this game in the arcades, I liked it while playing it during biochemistry in grad school, and I like it now. Still haven't linked the damn thing though. But the arcade game is a great multiplayer contest. Arcade buying tip... this one is REALLY cheap these days and its a great "den" game, and with other players, you'll rarely get tired of it. 8. Pitfall! (VCS/Activision) It was Pitfall, a grand adventure AND you didn't have to be a block and carry around an arrow while fending off giant ducks. 7. Missile Command (5200/Atari) When this game came out in the arcades I was intrigued. Not only did I have a total paranoia of nuclear war, but I just thought the trak-ball flourish used by "master" M.C. players was so cool, the wall of "x's" they'd line up onto the screen as their missiles streaked upwards to defend the cities...COOL! When the 5200 version came available, with the option of that excellent trak-ball controller. I had to have it. I didn't have a 5200 at the time, but I bought the game, I bought the trak-ball, and I went over to my friends house and hooked it up to his 5200. Come to think of it, I think that may be the reason I was friends with him. (kidding) 6. Laser Blast (VCS/Activision) Okay, okay... its the same thing over and over and over, BUT it has one glorious feature that made the game for me. As a last desperate act, you can guide your doomed saucer down onto the head of the slimeball that mortally wounded you. Hey, if that aint good karma,... I don't know what is. 5. Asteroids (VCS/Atari) I bought this game with change. I'm serious. I walked to the store in the next town with a massive, clanging pocket full of quarters, dimes, and nickels, and I spread that $35 in silver out on the countertop and got Asteroids. It doesn't have the haunting luminescence of the coin-op's vector lines, but it's still a great game. I own the coin-op, and I STILL fire this one up in the 'ole VCS every so often. 4. Slot Racers (VCS/Atari) My brother and I would play this game as long as possible, before we finally became too angry at each other and attacked each other in frustration. 3. Space Invaders (VCS, 5200/Atari) Hey, it's Space Invaders, the game that sold VCS's by the truckload, the first game I bought for myself, the first game my mother took away from me so that she could play it herself. The 5200 version is pretty neat, I think, love those psychedelic invaders. 2. Adventure (VCS/Atari) This is the game that woke me up to the possibilities of worlds inside these boxes. Just great. 1. Warlords (VCS/Atari) Gimme a break, the greatest multiplayer game of all time, you guys gotta play the arcade version. The 2 player upright is gorgeous, and the 4 player table is a blast. I got both in Videotopia, you gotta know I love this game.