
S5:E5: The Computer Lab and The Horrors of Junior High
Explicit content warning
09/07/22 • 79 min
This episode is about the early 1980's Junior High computer lab. A wonderous place where Bank Street Writer and Sands of Egypt were loaded from 5 1/4 inch floppy disks, LOGO and BASIC were viable programming options, and where kids like us could find a place of our own. The story this time is about the computer lab, and also about how sometimes you don't understand the affect teachers have on your life until decades later.
All music, video production. writing and game play by Jeff Fulton with help from Steve Fulton unless otherwise noted.
Music : Everything Has Energy - Tony Longworth : support Tony's Patreon music https://www.patreon.com/tonylongworth
Theme by Brian TravisTitle: Into The Vertical Blank theme Words & music by Brian Travis (c)(p)2021 Taste This Moment Music ASCAP http://www.briantravisband.com/
Find us here:
http://intotheverticalblank.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/intotheverticalblank
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Atari_VB_Pod
This episode is about the early 1980's Junior High computer lab. A wonderous place where Bank Street Writer and Sands of Egypt were loaded from 5 1/4 inch floppy disks, LOGO and BASIC were viable programming options, and where kids like us could find a place of our own. The story this time is about the computer lab, and also about how sometimes you don't understand the affect teachers have on your life until decades later.
All music, video production. writing and game play by Jeff Fulton with help from Steve Fulton unless otherwise noted.
Music : Everything Has Energy - Tony Longworth : support Tony's Patreon music https://www.patreon.com/tonylongworth
Theme by Brian TravisTitle: Into The Vertical Blank theme Words & music by Brian Travis (c)(p)2021 Taste This Moment Music ASCAP http://www.briantravisband.com/
Find us here:
http://intotheverticalblank.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/intotheverticalblank
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Atari_VB_Pod
Previous Episode

S5:E4: Atari ST Halcyon Days of 1989 Part 2: Fun Imported From Europe
In this episode Steve and Jeff turn calendar to 1989 and discuss what it was like gaming on the Atari ST back then. They list and discuss close to 50 games that they purchased and played that year. for the Atari ST Computer.
Games Mentioned in this Episode:
- Action Fighter (Firebird) - Sega Arcade Port
- Airborne Ranger (Microprose) - Military Sim
- Axel’s Magic Hammer (Gremlin) - Multi Screen Platformer
- BAAL (Psyclapse) - Arcade Platformer / Shooter
- Bad Company (Logotron) 3D first person fly / drive and shoot
- Ballastix (Psyclapse) - Sports Marble game
- BattleHawks 1942 (Lucasfilm) - Battle / Air sim
- Blasteroids (Mirrowsoft/Imageworks) - Atari Coin-op Conversion
- Blood Money (Psygnosis) - Hor / Vert Scroll and blast
- Bloodwych (Mirrowsoft/Imageworks) - RPG 3D
- Breach (Omnirend) - Squad Strategy . Combat
- Captain blood (Mindscape) - Adventure /Arcade 2D
- Commando (Elite) - Capcom Arcade Conversion
- Darius + (Edge / Softek) - Horizontal Shooter - Arcade conversion
- Demon’s Winter (SSI / EA) - RPG 2D
- Double Dragon II (Virgin) - Arcade Scrolling Beat-em-up
- Dragon Spirit (Domark) - Namco Vertical Scroller Conversion
- Fighter Bomber (Activision) - Air Combat Sim
- Forgotten Worlds (ARC / US Gold) - Capcom Horizontal Scroller shooter
- US GOLD Giants - 1943 The Battle of Midway, Gauntlet II, Out Run, Street Fighter.
- Hard Drivin’ (Domark) - Atari Arcade Conversion
- Hostages (Infogrames) - Police Simulation
- Hound of Shadow (EA) - Graphic Adventure
- License to Kill (Domark) Shoot’em Up Misc
- Lost Dutchman Mine (Magnetic Images / Innerphase) - Adventure Arcade 2D
- Macadam Bumper (Pocksoft / Infogrames) - Pinball . Pinball Construction
- Microprose Soccer (Microprose) - Soccer with indoor soccer
- North and South (Infogrames) - Various Historical Arcade Game
- Pirates (Microprose) - Adventure / Arcade 2D
- Populous (EA) - World creation and destruction Sim
- Power Drift (Activision) - Sega Arcade Conversion - driving / racing
- Precious metal Ocean Compilation - Arkanoid, Captain Blood, Super Hang-on, Xenon.
- Rick Dangerous (Microplay / Firebird) - Arcade platformer / Multi screen
- Robocop (Ocean) - Horizontal scrolling blaster . beat em up
- Roller coaster Rumbler (Tynesoft) - Shoot em up 3D
- Sidewinder II (Masertronic) - Horizontal Shooter
- Sim City (Maxis) - Simulation
- Sleeping Gods Lie (Empire) - RPG 3D
- Strider (Psyclapse) - Capcom Arcade Port - Horizontal and Vertical scroll and fight
- Stunt Car Racer (Microprose) - 3D racing
- Super Wonderboy in Monsterland (Activision) - Sega Port Arcade Platformer / Scrolling / adventure
- Switchblade (Gremlin) - Arcade Adventure Platformer Multi Screen
- Thunder Blade (US Gold) - Sega Coin Op Conversion
- Toobin (Diomark) - Atari Coinop conversion
- Vincators (Domark) - Atari Coin op conversion
- Xenon II Megablast (Imageworks) - Vertical shooter
All music, video production. writing and game play by Jeff Fulton with help from Steve Fulton unless otherwise noted.
Music : Dust and Ashes - Tony Longworth : support Tony's Patreon music https://www.patreon.com/tonylongworth
Theme by Brian TravisTitle: Into The Vertical Blank theme Words & music by Brian Travis (c)(p)2021 Taste This Moment Music ASCAP http://www.briantravisband.com/
Find us here:
http://intotheverticalblank.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/intotheverticalblank
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Atari_VB_Pod
Next Episode

S5:E6: Atari ST Halcyon Days of 1989 Part 3: Atari ST Gaming Gems
S5:e6 Atari ST Halcyon Days of 1989 Part 3: Atari ST Gaming Gems
Our favorite 1989 Console Style Games for the ST
We had an ST when most of the other kids near us had various consoles. We knew our machine could play superior RPGs, Simulations, and Adventure titles, but how did it hold up against the 8 and 16 bit console games of the day? Some ST console-like games were as good, some were not. We've chosen 20 console style games from 1989 for the ST to highlight and talk a little about, but before we get to those we’d like to highlight, let's first look at a list of the top 10 games in all genres from 1989, based on our ratings.
To make these lists we played every single game that has a 1989 release date in Atari Mania’s database, and ranked them based on Sound, Graphics, Game Play and Addictiveness, usings scores of 1-10, then averaged those scores to come up with a rating.
The following list is how the numbers worked out for a top 10. It’s all subjective + math, but we did play all of the games from the year to be certain we were ranking them against their contemporary competition.
Videos for this Podcast:Atari ST Gaming Gems #6 1989 Top 10https://youtu.be/dCBzOatNAng
Atari ST / STE Gaming Gems: Vol 7 - Top Console Style Games from 1989 https://youtu.be/rZ0qsS42av0
Games discussed in this episode:
- Interphase
- RVF Honda
- Gauntlet 2
- Midwinter
- Seven Gates of Jambala (The)
- Ultima V - Warriors of Destiny
- Kick off Extra Time
- SimCity .
- Xenon 2 .
- Stunt Car Racer
- New Zealand Story
- Super Wonderboy
- Pipe Dream/Pipe Mania
- Robocop
- Blood Money
- R-Type II
- Rick Dangerous
- Strider
- Ivanhoe
- Batman The Movie
- Baal
- Atomic Robo-Kid
- JUG
- Onslaught
- Switchblade
- Commando
- Hawkeye
- Skweek
All music, video production. writing and game play by Jeff Fulton with help from Steve Fulton unless otherwise noted.
Music : Past Present Future - Tony Longworth : support Tony's Patreon music https://www.patreon.com/tonylongworth
Theme by Brian TravisTitle: Into The Vertical Blank theme Words & music by Brian Travis (c)(p)2021 Taste This Moment Music ASCAP http://www.briantravisband.com/
Find us here:
http://intotheverticalblank.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/intotheverticalblank
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Atari_VB_Pod
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