Q: What do you call a dragon with no wings?
A: Draggin
I dunno what it is, whether its ninja's playing golf, crazed gunmen throwing eggs at Roosters, hayseeds shooting Gramps in the damn brainz, or what... but the Atari 7800's line up of games is a quirky, loveable mess. So, in the years 2020-2021... it would make sense that a trilogy of Dragon games would appear over the horizon from out of nowhere, looking to Burn-a-nate our villages and our wallets.
Atari Age user, Revontuli (who, of course has a dragon as his profile pic) is the purveyor of this madness. I guess that three games about dragons isn't an necessarily odd thing, but the fact that these three dragon titles are in three completely different genres makes this development so intriguing. One was actually released this week, and two more are a work in progress. Save your gold, fellow Atarian, because all three titles look like winners so far.
Dragon's Cache
The first game that has been released at the www.AtariAge.com store is maybe the most surprising. It is a heads up puzzle game (of the "stuff is falling" ilk) that is extremely reminiscent of the Sega game Columns. After watching videos of it, there are definite gameplay wrinkles that differentiate Columns from Dragon's Cache. I also heard that DC utilizes the Atarivox peripheral, and I was hoping the Dragon would have an Irish accent, but I was told later that the peripheral is only used in saving high scores. Rats. But there is good news in the audio department: I am impressed with the TIA music. It's good! PUZZLE GAMES MUST HAVE GOOD MUSIC.
Dragon's Descent
The next game that will probably be released is a top down action/ adventure called Dragon's Descent. It looks similar to the 2D Legend of Zelda's dungeons, Dark Chambers, or Hearty Manslapper. It's all about avoiding or killing weird enemies (one looks like a rotating loaf of bread), finding your way through the mazes and gathering power ups and treasure. There are boss battles, gameplay wrinkles, darkness, etc and things seem to get hairier as the quest drags on. This will probably be one of my most anticipated homebrews since Failsafe. (Dragon's Descent is reworking of the author's 2600 Homebrew of the same name)
Dragon's Havoc
Why not? Let's have add in a SHMUP, shall we? This title features a new sprite for the dragon, and the colorful skies and other backgrounds in this game look really good. Some of these levels look like Scramble... and that's a great thing. This title is very much in utero, so I hope Revontuli doesn't get burnt out and find another hobby like fly fishing or porn before these last two are completed.
These Atari 7800 games look fantastic, and a dragon trilogy is a welcomed addition to the underdog Atari 7800 system. I hope this Dragon Saga has a better ending than Daenerys losing her shit, murdering a million people and getting stabbed by her nephew/ lover. Still trying to recoup on that one.
These games will be/are available at www.AtariAge.com. Thanks to Trebor's Stuff Youtube Page,
Todd Furmanski, and Revontuli for the gameplay footage.
