C64 vs. Atari 800XL - 5 games Starting with Letter B - Part I

It's time for another episode of C64 vs. Atari 800XL - 5 games Starting with Letter B. - Part I - This will be a 3-part series.
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I am looking at 5 games that start with the letter B for the Commodore 64 and the Atari 800XL. In this video, I am showing them running on both machines, so you can see how different or similar they are.
Thanks for watching, and let me know in the comments section which system you think is the best? Which system did you own? Commodore or Atari or Both?
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#commodore64 #atari800
00:00 Introduction
00:17 Ballblazer for Atari 800XL and Commodore 64
01:31 Bandits for Atari 800XL and Commodore 64
04:01 Battle Zone for Atari 800XL and Commodore 64
06:33 BC''s Quest for Tires for Atari 800XL and Commodore 64
08:38 Beach-Head for Atari 800XL and Commodore 64

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

Bandits on the Atari is pretty much a 100% code port from the Apple II to the A8. Even the sounds mimic the speaker "twitter" of the Apple. The C64 got a cool unique version.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Bandits is great on the C64. One of my favorites to play!

[@VIC-20]

The Vic-20 version is also excellent.

[@Generation_X_Computers]

I’ve always been a Commodore 64 guy, but the tank video I thought was amazing on the Atari 800 XL. I actually recently purchased one after looking at your videos because I sometimes enjoy games more on there than the Commodore. I figure out a way to enjoy games on both systems.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Agree, it's great having both systems!

[@PG-gs5vb]

There are two versions of Battlezone for the Atari, the one you picked is ported from the 5200. The other one has the green scheme like the C64, akin to the arcade original.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Atari seems to have multiple versions of a lot of games. Thanks for sharing

[@adroharv9213]

I remember how impressed I was of Beach Head on the C64. A very accomplished game. Not so much on the Atari but then that often outperformed the C64 as well. One of my absolute faves for both systems is Solo Flight which plays great on both and on the Atari even has some lovely ground and sky colouring for added atmosphere. I still play Solo Flight loads

[@FloppyDeepDive]

I haven’t played Solo Flight in a long time. I will have to load it up! Thanks for watching!

[@mondo8bit]

Love the Bruce Lee shirt 🙂. BTW, I think that this time is a tie between C64 and Atari; Both version are really good. Keep up this good work Tom, you always make great videos 😊 👍👍

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thanks so much! I'll keep making it if you keep watching! I need to get myself some more retro T-shirts.

[@RacerX-]

Great showcase. My Picks: Ballblazer: Atari (better color) Bandits: C64, Better color and cleaner graphics. Battlezone: C64 is closer to color of arcade but Atari seems to play better. For me I prefer the C64. BC: C64, cleaner graphics and better sound. Beach Head: C64, Again better use of colors and sound. Although you really can't go wrong whichever platform you play these games on as they are great. Keep up the good work!

[@WriteBros26]

Love it. Beachhead on the 64 looks awesome. Both are amazing computers.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

They are! I enjoy playing both of them! Thanks for watching! New video comes out tomorrow.

[@toby01019]

Like the Shirt too! Bandits look so good. I have also to play it again! Beach Head was the reason I nearly felt down in 7th class. It is hard to make a decision witch is better C64 or 800XL. I was owner of a C64. More common in Germany. Thanks for your Videos.👍🏻All best Toby

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thanks Toby!! They are both great systems but I bleed Commodore. 🤣

[@IsaacKuo]

10:49 - you can really see the narrower pixel aspect ratio of the NTSC C64 compared to the NTSC Atari 8-bit. The C64 pixels are 7/8ths the width of Atari pixels (as well as Apple ][, IBM CGA, TI-99, CoCo, and many others). At the time I didn't understand the technical reasons why the VIC-20 and C64 lacked color fringe effects, while other systems had them. Having the chroma phase flip 180 degrees each field was the trick. However, early C64s were built with bad VIC-II chips - they had an even number of cycles per field rather than the intended odd number of cycles per field. This didn't affect sales at all, but they fixed it anyway soon enough. Anyway, these games are all from the early Atari/Apple port era, and for the most part they're just as fun on the C64 as the Atari 8-bit.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Always good insight Isaac!

[@ZxSpectrumplus]

I still don't understand why the Atari aspect ratio is wider and have less border than the C64...

[@IsaacKuo]

@@ZxSpectrumplus The technical reason is that the pixel clock on the C64 is a bit faster than the pixel clock on the Atari. So, the pixels are a bit narrower. Both systems have a screen width of 320 pixels, so this makes the C64 screen width narrower. As for the reasons why the hardware designers made the decisions they did ... eh, that's more complicated and I'm not sure. On the one hand, I've read that a VIC-II chip designer tried out the same pixel clock that everyone else used, but that didn't show all 40 columns on the monitor they were using. On the other hand, the pixel clock is basically the same used by the PET and VIC-20, so it would make sense to keep it. (Also, the VIC-20 had a wider screen - the equivalent of 44 columns rather than just 40, so ... ???)

[@JustMe99999]

I have no skin in the game here (my parents bought the original IBM PC in 1981, and I grew up a DOS gamer) but I suspect that most of these games were not taking advantage of the 800xl's advanced features in order to maintain compatibility with the 400.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Most likely. Thanks for Watching!

[@charlene2400]

I have both, of sorts. C64c, and highly modded A400. I often find that the same game, is just more fun on the Atari, while c64 has many more.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

I do enjoy playing the Atari versions, just wish they didn’t stop making games for the system so soon.

[@mjp29]

If you listen to the piano playing, the music for Ballblazer goes to Atari, hands down.... I'd like to see a video comparing Karateka and the Prince of Persia - I think the Atari's faster processor really shows in those type of games...

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Hey Michael! I do have a Karateka video out there comparing all systems. Good to hear from you!

[@Hounddoggy33]

50th LIKE! Love your vids, Keep 'em coming!

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thank you, sir! Appreciate the support!

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

I played Bandits on my C64 and I have to say that the animation of the sprites is equally good . The jerky switch while grabbing the fruits is what fooled my first impression. On the other hand the Atari image in this video is overexposed resulting to a grey background instead of black and washed out colors in all 5 games. So its not an NTSC issue but image settings for the XL machine. Also we can see the artifacts caused by composite signal(XL) while they are absent on the C64 video.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Yep! My Atari just doesn’t record as well as my C64 unfortunately. I’ll keep trying.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

@@FloppyDeepDive Maybe its a cap issue or a revision with a known problem that needs a mod.

[@rockerteen8300]

Always commodore, unless you're talking about an Atari with midi and software for music, in that case Atari.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Never heard the midi for Atari.

[@Foebane72]

Ballblazer originated on the Atari, so of course it is the superior version. Same for Blue Max, Bruce Lee, Boulder Dash, and many others.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Those are some of my favorites! Thanks for watching!

[@earthlydescent]

Something is up with the C64 sound on Ballblazer. It doesn't sound like that on my hardware. Great video though.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thanks, I’ll have to check it on my other C64’s and see if I can notice anything different. Thanks for watching!

[@chris-do]

In this case, as a commodore guy, i would prefer the atari versions except beach head. b.c quest are both fine for me

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

1st unbiased comment!

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thanks for your input!

[@dennyhaynes3]

Except for Ballblazer I'd say the C64 wins all the others.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Hey Denny!! Appreciate the comment. Thanks for watching.

[@erebos007]

XL video output is more blurry than the C64, But Graphics are better here, except for Beach-Head (and sound ofc)

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

Since XL machines already have SVIDEO output...something went wrong with the recording process.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Composite of the Atari feed right into screen capture.

[@ArttuTheCat]

B.C.'S QUEST FOR TIRE may look cool on the Atari 800XL, but i would choose the Commodore 64 version of this game 😺👍🕹️.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Hey Ari! They are fun on both!

[@blueroadsroll]

The C64 always has better graphics and sound in my opinion. It was cool seeing Battle Zone, I love playing that game!

[@erebos007]

Battle Zone is way prettier on the XL and Ballblazer on the C64 has a smaller window.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

Not true especially when comparing PAL versions of the games and SFX. Both systems have good and bad examples.

[@adroharv9213]

@@mortimore4030 well that's really down to what is preferred. I love the Atari and often prefer games on it but it's not so simple to say it had better graphics. Better capabilities in some cases but then the C64 did stuff not possible as well on the Atari. The pokey sound is flippin awesome but then the Sid also is very capable. That's not to say we can't prefer something over another but objectively speaking it's not so clear cut. Looking at the very best examples of each machine's capabilities does at least allow us to gauge this and I don't see a clear advantage overall for either of them. A game like Sam's Journey for example wont look quite as good on the Atari and the likes of Rescue on Fractulas etc clearly show an advantage there for Atari

[@pablo_p_art]

Ballblaze looks like 1985 Rocket League. Battlezone looks better on Atari, BC Quest very similar, different colour palette, Beach-Head, I would say on par...

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Can’t argue with this assessment! Thanks for watching!

[@robertmiles9942]

Ballblazer: Atari! Even though there's actually nothing wrong with the c64 version. The Atari version had a great intro too. All the rest: C64. (sorry, atari.)

[@FloppyDeepDive]

I can't argue with this assessment!

[@buckeyechad1]

Beach-Head on C-64 killed the Atari (imo) graphics and sound. BC's QfT, the same. Other games...can't tell. Never played them on 800. You ever done a comparison of Star League Baseball? Sorry, new subscriber. Just don't know. Played that on both, but as 2 player, mostly 800 Atari friends. I only had C64

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Star League Baseball is one of my favorite baseball games. I haven't had it in a video yet, but I will. Thanks for checking out and watching the videos! Glad you are enjoying it.

[@jkeelsnc]

Both are comparable systems. Ballblazer is better on Atari. I always did like the 8 bit ataris even though I had a C64.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thanks for watching!

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

I've come to appreciate the Atari 8 bit games more in recent years, but Battlezone looks way better on the C-64. The frame-rate on the Atari is super choppy and no doubt makes the game less playable. The green coloring on the C-64 better matches the arcade game. You'd think the Atari brand games would generally be better on an Atari. I had both systems back in the early 80s. C-64, Atari 1200XL, Apple ][+ and TI 99/4a. Amiga 1000 in the mid 80s when it first came out (1985).

[@erkl797]

There is no better...there both awesome!! Just what the hell is going on in Ball Blazer?? Never played it,..Dont think I ever will...

[@donaldqcurtis]

It's a bit like soccer, except you "carry" the ball (magnetized?) on a little hovercraft that zips around on a giant chessboard with opposing goal posts on each end of the board. On the Atari I played it as a kid and it blew me away-- a first person flight experience that was smooth and fast. Very exciting!

[@FloppyDeepDive]

It takes a little while to get use to BB. They are both awesome!!

[@smila007]

All pretty much the same on both apart from battle zone which looks more like the arcade on the c64.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

pseudo 3d games do not perform that well on the C64. The Atari 8bit machine is really strong and outperforms most 8bit machines of the era on this specific type of games(fps and controls) .(Yoomp,Total eclipse, Stunt Car Racer, Ball blazer,Battle zone etc). Strangely enough the atari machine displays smoother sprite scrolling in "bandits" maybe because its an early game . Bc Quest and beach head look weird on your Atari NTSC machine. Colors appear washed out . Pal versions have far more vibrant colors. I prefer the gameplay of Beach Head on the C64.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Good stuff, Nickolas. I love the insight. I would love to see the PAL versions. Maybe you could record some video for me from your PAL system and send it over for me to check out! Thanks for watching!

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

@@FloppyDeepDive a great source of PAL systems being compared can be found in Chinnyvision's channel" under playlist Atari." From what I understand NTSC C64 machines had a better palette while the PAL variant displayed washed out colors. The opposite was true for Atari 8bit mainly because most games were created on PAL machines and the conversation was not "kind" on NTSC machines. I have some videos on my channel with sound emulation on both machines plus an interesting game which was published on both machines but with different titles. Btw it's great to include the Atari line in your channel. Many people only now are starting to learn about the history and the capabilities of this machine and your videos are an excellent source

[@RandomBitzzz]

I'm a big time Commodore fan, but this round goes to Atari (except for Beachhead). One ding for Atari was that some of sound effects (epically on Bandits) sounded like they were coming from a ZX Spectrum. But overall, the gameplay looked way better on Atari. A platform cannot win on sound alone.

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Yep, Bandits was good on the Atari, but the sound was lacking. Thanks for watching, as always, RB! Good to hear from you.

[@aussie_retro_dude9253]

Imo the C64 nearly blows everything else away.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

I have both systems...that's definitely not the case. Atari Ballblazer: Larger action windows, higher fps and smoother animation. Bandits smoother sprite scrolling. Beach head, I prefer the C64 version, Bc Quest equally good

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

The video grabbing of the Atari image is either bad or NTSC just sucks

[@z80cpu]

@@nickolasgaspar9660 The Atari has a larger play area because its pixels are larger.

[@b213videoz]

Atari wins 😊

[@FloppyDeepDive]

Thanks for watching!