«Adventure Ponies» comes to Atari 8-bit computers

September 18, 2019 • Updated: Mar 12, 2025 - 05:10 PM

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"Crush your enemies with the magic of friendship" is the premise of «Adventure Ponies», a unique platform game for Atari 8-bit computers.

The project dates back to late April this year, when Dan "Gibstov" Blevins (USA) shared the first version of the program, port of the Flash game published by Hub Network -where the animated series My Little Pony was originally broadcast.

"The idea began from this TV commercial"When it first aired, I thought it was a fun, silly commercial, and that it would be great if there was an actual Adventure Ponies game," Blevins told Atariteca.

Just like in the commercial, the user can choose between Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy to go through different levels, in which they must collect different items and defeat an enemy at the end of each stage. Each character has unique abilities and the scenarios change to put them to the test. So, for example, Applejack cannot fly, but she can climb stairs.

"After playing it in Flash, I started to think I could port the game to the Atari XL/XE series computers (...) However, a Flash update in the summer of 2016 caused the game to stop working. Which was really frustrating for me, as this was the game I needed to reference in order to port it to the Atari."

Despite the setback, the programmer decided to go ahead and complete his project. "It took me a while, working part-time and learning to code in assembly language; but slowly everything came together. I also had to create all the graphics, levels, sound and music for the game," explained "Gibstov."

"Adventure Ponies" requires 64k of RAM. On real hardware, you have to press the OPTION key to disable BASIC. If running on an emulator, the author recommends using NTSC mode.

The game is currently in its 0.85 update, which allows you to turn the music on and off on the character selection screen. Blevins said that the only thing left to complete the game is to add a title screen provided by Krzysztof A. Ziembik "KAZ" and he hopes to release a version for PAL video, since the music and sound effects play slowly on that system.

"But that will come later. I've also considered making a version that can run from a cartridge, but again I'm not too sure at this point," he said.

Adventure Ponies for Atari computers

Download | 43 Kb

Interested parties can Check out the original walkthrough at this link. In our opinion, «Adventure Ponies» not only reflects the spirit of the series, but is also entertaining and practically ideal for the 8-bit format.

Enable the other ponies
• At the "Select Pony" screen, hold the HELP key (F6 on Altirra) and press up (forward) on the joystick - this should unlock Rainbow Dash. Release the HELP key. Move to the next pony and press the HELP key again. Without releasing, push the lever - this should unlock Applejack, etc.