Atari 8-bit - Tail of Beta Lyrae gameplay

Here's me playing a somewhat poor game of Tail of Beta Lyrae for Atari 8-bit. This emulator has a couple graphical glitches, but plays the audio more accurately than Atari800Win Plus. This game was written by Philip Price, with music by Gary Gilbertson. It was one of the best examples of complex in-game music and sound effects for Atari, as many games of the era tended to be not much more than basic bleeps and bloops with a simple, if any, sound track.

Unlike most games of the era (and even now), it would actually "evolve" over time and add gameplay elements. Thus you might run into something completely new on the first level that you've played over and over. Perhaps most notorious was a "gravity ball" that would yank your ship around erratically, more often than not right into an obstacle. As it was it could be incredibly difficult, especially in the cavern levels. Several seconds of straight, unimpeded flight would suddenly be met by a narrow mountain. In addition, each shot would take 10 points from your score, so it was worthwhile to save your shots for when they counted rather than hold down the fire button. You would also blow up even if you hit the exploding/collapsing remains of the enemy installations, so you had to make sure to give yourself room to stay clear. All in all a great game for its time and it's still an entertaining side-scrolling shooter.

The color turned out a little funny on this, not sure why. It's not normally that pink.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Tail
• of
• Beta
• Lyrae
• Atari
• 8-bit
• Philip
• Price
• Gary
• Gilbertson

[richardhutnik]

This game did some randomization of levels I believe. Wikipedia says it did, and I remember seeing this way back when.

[Scoth3]

The levels were randomized completely within the "theme" of the level (first level being the mountains, second the cave, etc). I remember the gameplay changes over time from back in the day, but I was a little young to really get a grasp of it. I'd love to see a more in-depth look at how it worked, but I'm not good enough with ASM to figure it out :)

[R2daE01]

this is a `scramble` clone... but pretty well done.

[gamesDAMNED]

This was just about my favorite game on the Atari 800XL. I'm glad I've got a copy on my PC all these years later. These computer games were sensational to us kids back in the early '80s. Compare these games to the Atari 2600, and you'll see the real reason why the console videogames scene crashed. Thanks for uploading!

[TheRyk]

@nv1962 I think you confuse this one with C64 Skramble where you dropped bombs while shooting. I cannot remember bombs either.

[donkeybasketball]

The animations in this are pretty nice. I've never seen towers crumble in a shooter.

[nv1962]

It's been so long, I'm not sure - but I think it was the "x" key. Those cherry-shaped thingies shown to the right of "Subsector" indicate how many bombs you have left to use, that I do vividly remember.

[Scoth3]

Hmm, I don't think I know about the bombs. At least, I never used them growing up and don't know how to drop them now. What's the method?

[nv1962]

Wait a sec... It just hit me that you didn't use the bombs! That's how to rake up points in the caves and the "skyscraper" section, where the targets are hidden in those pits... Ah - sweet memories.

[nv1962]

Totally awesome! Thanks so much for digging up this long lost gem.

[chrisinmainz]

Great game, great sound and music, but, was it really that fast?