The best of Dave Munsie VOLUME 1 :)

A lucky find!

I'm always on the scrounge for Atari ST goodies, especially floppies - who knows what gold is still out there waiting to be rediscovered? I see many tempting auctions of Atari ST disks, but most are silly prices! Or the disks have degraded due to poor storage - I went through a box recently, and only two floppies worked!

Today, I took delivery of a slim envelope containing 7 disks by PD Library, Goodmans. I loved that company and remember buying tons from them over the years. However, there was a disk in their collection that I had previously never heard of - "Dave Munsie Game Collection Volume 1". Thankfully, it still worked 100%, so I quickly made an image, because I noticed a carbon copy didn't appear to exist online.

On it are a staggering nine excellent Munsie games: Bugs, Kid GP, Evader, Kaboom!, Frogger!, ST Invaders, Dark Pearl, Kid Kong, and Bobble. That's some hefty gameplay just waiting for you to boot up.

Let's check 'em out...

• Bugs - Think Centipede/Millipede, and you get the idea for this cracker!
• Kid GP - Rainbow Islands meets Bubble Bobble for kiddies. Well, I know I loved it :)
• Evader - this is kinda like a weird mash of Galaxians, Phoenix, and Space Invaders. Great fun.
• Kaboom! - I remember playing this on a mate's 2600 as a kid. Infuriatingly frantic action!
• Frogger! - It's good, but possibly the weakest of the bunch, especially compared to Black's version.
• Invaders - Once again, Dave messes with the original to produce something new and exciting.
• Dark Pearl - I'm not really a fan of this type of game, but this is well-programmed!
• Kid Kong - Another game I'm not too keen on, but it's fun - for the Kong fans!
• Bobble - It's Tetris, kinda interesting for those who enjoy that. I guess?

This long-lost floppy disk is now safely stored within the archives of Atarimania, so grab yourself a copy. It's impressive how many games are on it, plus they're all by Mr. Munsie (sounds creepy, doesn't it). He certainly knew his stuff, and this disk proves just how much fun he must have had making games.

There are more Munsie games for the ST, with several already on AtariCrypt - Asteroidia, Frantick, and Berzerk. Before rushing off to download this disk, here are photos and screenshots to gawk over...

This is the disk! The photo makes the disk look nicer than it is - thanks to Instagram for that lol.

Did the world ever get to see Volume II?

I wasn't too impressed with this Centipede clone at first, but it's excellent!

Plain, blocky, but with tons of colour and cute sprites. It's still a ripoff, but a great one at that!

Framerate could be better, but this is a superb shoot 'em up of mixed genres.

Oh yeah!! This takes me back to playing the old Atari 2600 game. Simple yet fantastic fun!

2016 saw the definitive Frogger, but this older version from 1993 is a great release!

Another game of Dave's that I wasn't umm totally sure about, but is yet another exciting blaster!

Ugh, it's not you, it's me (that line, eh). You guys might like it, but it's not a game I personally enjoy.

Donkey Kong fans are gonna love this one, but is it better than Crash Time Plumber? :o

One for fans of the Tetris genre. Not for me, I'm sorry to say!