Saturday, November 12, 2011

Requiem For Atari Force

Back in the 80s when the Atari 2600 was king, DC comics produced
"Atari Force" is a set of comics following a single story arc that was set at a later date than the five smaller Atari force issues that were included with various 2600 games.
I can hear the detractors out there on the internet. They had to be awful, terrible, horrible. Because everything in the 80s was simply too awful.
Wrong
Wait, so Mike Baron wrote for it and José Luis García-López penciled some amazingly fluid art!?
From Wikipedia:
Atari Force was the name of multiple comic books published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1986. It was loosely based on trademarks ofAtari, Inc.


Atari Force #06, p17 Comic Art


Atari Force #03. Fact File 6: Morphea Comic Art


Atari Force #03. Fact File 5: Babe Comic Art

Atari Force #02. Fact File 2: Pakrat Comic Art
Atari Force #02. Fact File 3: Tempest Comic Art
Atari Force #02. Fact File 1: Champion Comic Art

Atari Force #18 Comic Art
Atari Force AD Comic Art


Atari Force Double Page ?? Comic Art
Atari Force #13 Comic Art

 Want To know more?  The best site for Atari Force
 The basic plot went something like :
The original Atari Force was a group of five individuals from around Old Earth brought together to explore the Multiverse inScanner One, the first spaceship with the newly invented multiverse drive. As all inhabitants of New Earth know, they were successful. The second Atari Force was led by the leader of the original group, Martin Champion. He, along with two children of the original team plus an eclectic mix of aliens, prevented the Dark Destroyer from destroying New Earth before returning to Old Earth. Sadly, they have not been heard from since.
If  you want to read the original issues of the comics that preceded this one you can find those right Here
 ATARI FORCE & THE OSR 

Atari Force has alot to offer the OSR dungeon master, the art is gorgeous & there are several unique characters who would make kill ass npcs for your party to encounter!
 It probably informs a lot of how I run outer space settings.  Some stuff right off the top of my head about this series include: 
  • Plane traveling & a neat little variant on the wagon train across the stars. 
  • Lots of aliens that can be "borrowed" & exploited 
  • Some cool gadgets that you can use for your game 
  • A chaos god that isn't in the mold of 40k or it might be an Outer God 
  •  How to use the thief class effectively in a science fiction setting that isn't annoying or simply there for comic relief. See Pack rat for details 
  • How to use the assassin in a science fiction setting & retain a neutral good alignment 

Yeah the just don't make em' like this anymore.  I'd say that a dungeon master could do much worse then to use this series as a starting point. 

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I remember this series and quite enjoyed it, although I only had a few of the issues.

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  2. Glad you enjoyed the blog entry! A very underrated series in my humble opinion Bill! We've got more to come! Stay tuned & thanks for the comment!

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  3. Excellent! Quick note, the link to the fan site isn't working for me.

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  4. Link corrected & set. Thanks for the heads up Bill we've got more to come

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  5. Good post. I remember the Atari Force fondly. After Micronauts, it's probably my favorite "comics original" space opera.

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  6. Thanks Trey! I did love this series! What happened to the writer of the series is however tragic though. Thanks for the comment! There's more to come!

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