Atari Emulator -> Incoming!!

Mushca Disk 45.  A variation on Air-Sea Battle, but without submarines.  I actually kinda like a game like this, like Alien Swarm (disk 62), where your score depends on how many bullets you shoot.  Or Tail of Beta Lyrae, for a better, messier example.  Here, in INCOMING!!, however, the cost of bullets is far too high.  Sure, you can guide them to your targets and what not, but five or six shots to bring down a helicopter?  That's... that's quite a helicopter!  Either the helicopters are really strong, or your bullets are really weak.  Could be both, actually!  So, helicopters brought down are worth 50 points, and your bullets are worth 10.  Good luck scoring more than 100 points.

Atari Emulator -> Starion

From the programmer of Vorrak comes... Starion.  For those of you who thought to yourselves, well... I like Vorrak and Zardon, but I don't like having to use the Basic cartridge to play it.  Isn't there a version entirely in machine language?  Welp, your prayers have been answered.  But man cannot live on the same game alone, so Starion is like a combination of Vorrak/Zardon and, say, Defender.  Or maybe, Mike Potter's much hated (by me) Protector series.  It's much like Vorrak, but you have a different, faster ship.  And you can actually move backwards!  To a fault, that is.  You cannot go past the current level backwards to the last "level."  Forward, always forward.  Also, you must rescue "castaways" with your beam.  Don't worry if you bite it by hitting something that's not blue; the castaways will be fine.  Warning: you can only carry four castaways at a time, and you can only drop them off in one place.  And once you finish depositing all the castaways, well... can someone help me out here?  Are you doomed to wander in Starion land forever and ever amen?

Official Atarimania home of Starion

Official Mushca home of Starion

Starion Energy web site - no relation...

Atari Emulator -> Matterhorn

While we're waiting for the new Words with Friends challenge to begin... bastards... here's a question for you.  Ever wonder why you're not making it anywhere in life?  Well, first of all, it's probably networking.  You're just not kissing the right ass, probably.  And second, it's all about patience.  And Tigervision's Matterhorn is the kind of patience test that I simply cannot pass.
First of all, take the first level.  Admittedly, I'm the kind of gamer that doesn't like to waste time with the instruction manual, so I just figured out that you can take the vertical white lines and use them as ammo against the laser-shooting birds above.  It's the old fisherman patience test, for one: fish or cut bait?  Do you keep running, or do you stop and shoot at the laser-firing birds?  Well, seeing as how many times they killed my weak ass, I had to blast me some birds for a while.  And, just like the one the Mortals refer to as 'Rimrock Lobster,' I too had to use the Atari emulator's save function just to get ahead.  Oh, the game's just that worth it, people.  And I do appreciate how tough it is for an Atari to do special effects.  When you die, mainly by the bird's laser, the screen shuts like an eyelid, thereby straining the 6502's capabilities.
Second level: it's like that part of Jungle Hunt, or B.C. Quest for Tires to a lesser extent, but without the bouncing boulders.  The birds still come at you, slightly fiercer even.  You're able to climb up tiny outcroppings of rock, but so far it seems to suit no purpose other than wasting time.
Third level: it's like that part of Jungle Hunt, but now there are bouncing boulders, and it's steeper. And no birds, thank God.
Fourth level: ...ah, sweet insanity.  This is what it's all about right here.  The word 'matterhorn' seems to imply mountain climbing, doesn't it?  Well, on levels 4 and up, you lose your ability to jump, probably due to the lack of oxygen at alti(tude) 41.  There's two sides of a chasm that you have to ascend.  The only way across are these teeny cyan platforms that move horizontally across the chasm.  And should you not intimately know the rhythm of these platforms, you fall to your immediate death... you know, mountain climbing.  Also, there's dragons that you have to shoot.  You have horizontally flying bullets for this purpose.
Fifth level: Much like the fourth, but there's a red gem you have to get to.  Your reward?  Back to level one to start all over.  Oh, if only coming down the mountain were so simple.  Would that it twere...

Official Atarimania home for Tigervision's Matterhorn