STEVE WICOFF'S TOP TEN ATARI CONSOLE AND COMPUTER GAMES Steve Wicoff's Top 10 Atari games, in no order whatsoever. I think these games are so good that I could never put one ahead of another. Basically, my favorite game is the one i'm playing at that millisecond. Midnight Mutants (7800/Atari) A real role-playing game on the Atari 7800! I was so amazed by it. I just had to keep playing it over and over. If you look at it objectively, it's just a graphically pleasing version of Adventure. The same gameplay is involved, but a much bigger map. The better graphics make you feel more involved with the story and characters. This is probably the closest to #1 in my Atari console collection. Adventure (2600/Atari) What can I say about this one that hasn't been said by everyone else in this list? An RPG that will just take 10 or 15 minutes to complete. Then you'll hit reset and play again. And again. On a pathetic note, I only found the easter egg a few years ago after reading about it. But in my defense, I loaned my copy of the game out and never got it back, so it was the early 90's before I bought another one. I lost a lot of microdot searching time. Fatal Run (7800/Atari) I love car combat games. And after driving through rush hour traffic, I REALLY love car combat games. I'd hope that I could make it to the next town without a bumper or windshield, and just as I approached a city, some idiot would slam into me head-on. Boom. And I found the intro music kinda catchy. Strange considering the music actually becomes grating after 5 minutes. Battlemorph (Jaguar CD/Atari) This is one shooter that I always come back to. I loved the control scheme, I loved the new and larger maps, but most of all I really loved the music! Especially the way it would keep up with you depending what environment you were in. Going underwater, with the wavy effects, was so cool. This is one I wish would get updated. Attention to Detail have just signed on to develop for the Nuon (the closest thing we have to a new Atari console), so maybe we should flood them with e-mails. . . . . Warbirds (Lynx/Atari) I would take my two Lynxes into work, and a friend of mine who was an out of work pilot would play Warbirds comlynxed. Swivelling in my chair like a hyperactive chimp, machine guns blazing, hearing him screaming "Where the hell are you? Get off my tail!" as he tried in vain to shake me off, and hearing the sound of his plane fall out of the sky on both machines at the same time. . . . Multiplayer heaven. Escape From The Mindmaster (2600/Starpath) Sometime in 1984 I managed to pick up an Arcadia (or later versions labelled Starpath) Supercharger and a couple games for it. Communist Mutants from Space got old after a while, but MindMaster hypnotized me for hours. Picking up pegs and hunting for the right pegholes, roaming around the maze in 3-D perspective, ducking past shields, and trying to avoid the mini-games to keep from breaking my concentration. And the ever-increasing tone that told you the creature is right behind you. . . . And off I go to receive the MindMaster's verdict. This is another game that should be updated for the new millenium. Aliens Vs. Predator (Jaguar/Atari) Here's another game that most people already have on their top 10 lists. There's a reason for that. My favorite memory was playing it at 3am with the lights off, feeling a little sleepy, and then my first Facehugger jumped out at me. It scared the crap out of me. I died, and I shut the game off to recover from the shock. Any game that you have to recover from is a good one. Ballblazer (XEGS/Atari) I like this version better than the 7800 version, because the AI seems a lot harder. Plus I remember seeing the programmer's initials hidden in the grid at the end of the game, and feeling like I accomplished something. Alien Brigade (7800/Atari) A little too short, but a great shoot-em-up. I have to use a joystick because my 2 lightguns don't seem to work anymore, but then they weren't all that accurate with this game. Just shooting the aliens and watching them melt was fun. A lot of stuff going on on-screen, and it takes twitchy reflexes to deal with it all. One I always have to play when I fire up the 7800. I had a lot of runner-ups. It's hard to pick just 10, because there are so many deserving games in my collection. But close behind were: Battlezone (2600/Atari) - Amazing translation of my all-time favorite tank game. Dark Cavern (2600/M-Network) - I spent hours on this one; I also got it free when I bought 2 other M-Network games! Asteroids (2600/Atari) - Very addictive, but after rolling the counter 3 times, a little repetetive . . . Ninja Golf (7800/Atari) - You have to fight ninjas, sharks, snakes, and fire-breathing dragons on this course-let's see Tiger Woods do that! Basketbrawl (7800/Atari) - I like a basketball game where you can beat the crap out of your opponent. Scrapyard Dog (7800/Atari) - I fought like crazy to get to the end of the game, and the final boss was instead one of those stupid sliding-tile puzzles that I hate. . . . That ticked me off. Secret Quest (2600/Atari) - Another RPG for the 2600! Too bad it's so tough. Phazer Patrol (2600/Starpath) - IMHO, the best space shoot-em-up: much better than Star Raiders. A real sense of depth helps immensely. I-War (Jaguar/Atari) - Very Tron-like. Great graphics. Extremely Tron-like. Great shading. Fantastically Tron-like. Iron Soldier (Jaguar/Atari) - Stomping on tanks with a 50-foot robot never looked so good. Or played so well.