Ultar’s Lair (2024)
a COMMERCIAL game by ‘Oniric Factor’ for Atari VCS
Written for BrewOtaku #003 by Usman A. Khan
If you thought rogue-like mechanics are a thing of the past, think again. Their imprints can be found even on many modern games, with ‘Dark Souls’ and ‘Dead Cells’ just two such examples. The rogue-like we’re discussing is a 32Kb gem called ‘Ultar’s Lair,’ designed to run on the original Atari VCS (of course!).
SMELLS LIKE 32KB SPIRIT!
To put it in perspective, some images in this magazine are larger in size than the entire game. Talk about making every kilobyte count! The mastermind behind it, ‘Jorge Romero’, utilized ‘batari Basic’ and a couple of Assembler mini kernels for the multi-score and bitmap screens. Romero says it’s ‘powerful and simple enough to make great games,’ and we couldn’t agree more. The game plunges you into the darkened land of ‘Ekeanor’, where a curse has turned its people to stone. A young druid is the only hope. Armed with a handy dagger, our brave hero ventures into the abyss to face nasty demons and break the curse. I could imagine myself playing this while blasting some Teutonic power metal à la ‘Blind Guardian’ or ‘Helloween’ to get the blood pumping.
In each dungeon, your goal is to locate the key to open the exit and descend further into the depths. Along the way, you’ll find items that ramp up hit points, improve weapons, and boost movement speed. As you delve deeper into Ultar’s Lair, watch out for new enemies that will appear, each more potent than the last. You can write the ROM to a cartridge and play it on an original machine, or load it onto a PC using your favourite VCS emulator.
Ultar’s Lair is a delightful surprise, with a fine aesthetic and a cute, Nintendo-like bounce to our hero. It’s wild that even after its 1977 release, the Atari VCS maintains an active homebrew community and offers modern-day programming tools. Yippie!
