Atari: Meet the thirteen games competing at ABBUC 2022 (part 2)

September 20, 2022 • Updated: Mar 17, 2025 - 12:29 AM

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We complete this special on the thirteen games that will participate this year in the twentieth edition of the Atari Bit Byter User Club (ABBUC) 2022 retro contest.

We present the programs in the order of registration made by Holger "Holgibo" Bommer (Germany):

Arcadia

AtariAge forum user Amarok surprises us with his first game for Atari 8-bit computers, inspired by the classic shooter title "Zuma" (PopCap Games, 2003). You must eliminate all the marble segments before they reach the temple at the end of the path. Otherwise, the temple is destroyed and the player loses a life.

There are power-ups that affect the movement of the segments, such as slowing down, pausing, or reversing. Other power-ups paint the marbles a certain color, remove all marbles of a certain color, destroy a vertical group of marbles with a lightning bolt, remove marbles with a shield, or arrange the marbles in the oldest segment.

Destroying a group of at least 5 marbles will earn you a heart power-up. Every ten hearts captured will give you a new life. After every three consecutive levels, a bonus round will appear.

There are 4 difficulty levels in Arcadia: easy, normal, hard and crazy, which are differentiated by the speed, number and length of the segments to be destroyed. In addition, the game offers a hall of fame with the five best scores. It is worth recalling that in 2020, Amarok released the Gr9Lab tool, the Photoshop for Atari computers; and last year it published SortViz, an application that allows us to visualize a variety of sorting algorithms on an Atari 8-bit computer.

Break it! reloaded 2022

After creating nearly ten games in the mid-eighties, Oliver Cyranka (Germany) reappears on the Atarian scene with this unique clone of Arkanoid (Taito, 1986). The game was originally programmed in 1988 and stands out for its graphics.

dye - Heritage Edition

Christian "Irgendwer" Krüger (Germany) brings us this sequel to his puzzle-like logic game, where the player must tint different areas of each screen until they obtain a monochrome surface.

Unlike the artistic theme of the original - which took a creditable second place at the ABBUC 2016 - "dye HE" features 40 levels about world heritage sites.

Additionally, this new version is compatible with the SNES Atari Controller Kit (SNACK) adapter and has support for the A800 operating system.

Bunny Hop

Based on the board game "JumpIN" (SmartGames, 2017) where the participant must put the rabbits in their holes. It was programmed by Frantisek "Fandal" Houra (Czech Republic); and features graphics and music by Zdeněk "PG" Eisenhammer.

Due to the amount of graphics and animations, the minimum hardware configuration is an Atari with 128Kbytes of RAM (130 XE) and a storage device capable of loading XEX files. There are separate binaries for PAL and NTSC systems, with music speed and color palette adjusted.

The authors note that when creating Bunny Hop they had in mind an Atari game aimed specifically at children between 4 and 6 years old. However, they warn that while the first 20 levels are fairly easy, the last few are quite challenging.

The game features 60 stages. Also involved were Vin "VinsCool" Samuel (Canada) with the audio driver; and Leopold with the concept and ideas for the project.

Trax

Winner of the 2021 and 2020 ABBUC awards with “Gacek” and “Last Squadron” respectively, Janusz “Shanti77” Chabowski hopes to do it again with this top-down shooter.

While fighting the inhabitants of a hostile planet, the player must unlock petrified machines that will open the exit of each level. Coins are available to buy weapons and lives; in addition, you can use hidden passages, keys and elixir bottles.

The game requires 64KB of RAM and is optimized for PAL. Character design by Jarosław "Odyn1ec" Wyszyński (Poland). Other graphics, code, maps and sounds by "Shanti77".

Let us remember that Chabowski has in his repertoire the showy port of «Commando» (Capcom, 1985) from the Commodore 64 version; as well as the conversions for Atari 8-bits of the multidirectional shoot 'em up «Bosconian» (Namco, 1981) and the isometric game «Highway Encounter» (Vortex Software, 1985).

Dark Keep

Vladimir "Popmilo" Jankovic (Serbia) is competing with a simple game where you must collect treasures and find your way out of the dreaded Dark Fortress tower. A piece of cake, if it weren't for the fearsome Gorgon beast lurking in the dungeons and corridors of the keep.

Let us recall that Jankovic placed fourth in the ABBUC 2021 with his logic game «Blokz». Similarly, his adventure game «The Monk» took third place in the Atari Bit Byter User Club - ABBUC 2016 retro contest.

Binary Parasite

Game by Slovak programmer Martin “Matosimi” Šimecek, in which you control quantum particles on a printed circuit board.

To open the door to the next level, you need to activate the right combination of electrical contacts, pushing and pulling the charged blue particles towards the numbers.

Šimecek is known in the Atarian scene for several games. His most recent creation is “Fallen Kingdom”, a logic game that won him second place at the ABBUC 2021. In addition,

Bommer told Atariteca that the German club's voting will open in the next few days. Each ABBUC member can give 0 to 10 points for each program in the contest.

The winners will be announced at ABBUC's annual meeting on 29 October in Herten, Germany. The prize money for this year amounts to 2,850 euros.

You can check the first part of this article where we give details about the first six contestants of ABBUC 2022.

With information from Saberman and AtariAge.