Worst game on 7800..

[+Mitch]

 

And I have the paperwork that has the signoff! Someone named B. Quach approved it.

 

I also have a later "fixed" NTSC version that Atari commissioned that fixed the original bug but added a new one. That one was also signed off but apparently never made it into production.

 

Mitch

 

Mitch, if you have a scanned copy of that, could you email it to me, or PM a link to it, or somehow figure out another way of getting it to me?

 

I'd really appreciate it.

 

I already did a "diff" between the "fixed" version and the original release, so I have an idea of what was wrong.

 

I can try. It's actually stapled in a binder and that particular page is in the very back. I may try taking a picture and see how it turns out.

 

Mitch

[+Mitch]

 

Mitch, if you have a scanned copy of that, could you email it to me, or PM a link to it, or somehow figure out another way of getting it to me?

 

I'd really appreciate it.

 

I already did a "diff" between the "fixed" version and the original release, so I have an idea of what was wrong.

 

Here's a few pics:

http://www.atari7800.org/museum/impossiblemission/IMPage1.jpg

http://www.atari7800.org/museum/impossiblemission/IMPage2.jpg

http://www.atari7800.org/museum/impossiblemission/IMEPROMS.jpg

 

Mitch

[krewat]

Thanks Mitch ... That came out perfect

[Armonigann]

O.K. new worst game...TOUCHDOWN FOOTBALL!! HORRIBLE!! Controls, looks, everything..The only thing good about the game is that you can take it the hell out of the system!

[Place Logo Here]

I am still pretty far from owning the complete 7800 library, and only acquired Jinks, Asteroids and Planet Smashers today.

 

First, Planet Smashers is OK but Plutos is vastly superior and makes me wonder why it was the former that wss released.

 

But Jinks--wow, that game is deeply reprehensible. For some reason, the 7800 seems to have an unusually high percentage of lackluster titles, but Jinks seems to be designed to be as grating as possible. I rarely outright hate a game but this is one of them. I was determined to play one game to conclusion, but had such difficulty bringing the game to a natural conclusion that it felt like it was flipping me the bird the entire time. When it was finally over, I said, "Good. Now I will never have to play that again."

[Trebor]

For some reason, the 7800 seems to have an unusually high percentage of lackluster titles...

 

Not sure if the above is the case more for the 7800 than most other platforms, rather than, the lackluster titles may seem to stand out more because the library is so very small.

 

There are at least 20, if not more, titles from the original catalog that are great on the system - roughly 1/3 of the system's library.

 

Granted, it leaves approximately 40 “lackluster” titles; however, compare that ratio to any other platform and similar results will be found.

 

Of course, perspective and (game) preference is highly subjective too.

 

...Jinks seems to be designed to be as grating as possible.

 

Yeah, Jinks...It's pretty horrendous to me..."grating" is a perfect adjective for it.

[Cousin Vinnie]

Man, this is a tough thread because there are at least 10 7800 games that need to be eradicated from our memory and eliminated from the planet. This is my favorite system too... but these games never should be opened:

 

Touchdown Football,

Realsports Baseball,

Tomcat F-14,

Jinx,

Barnyard Blaster (OH SH*T! YOU SHOT GRAMPS!!!)

F-18 Hornet,

Title Match,

Mat Mania,

Karateka,

Super Huey,

Tank Command,

Water Ski,

Mat Mania,

Double Dragon.

 

I would say the worst is Jinks... because it is total crap. Makes no sense... hard to control... what's the point... who cares... and I hate it. Any flight simulator on a video game system this old sucks. Scratch that... any flight simulator sucks. The wrestling games are hard to stomach, and besides Basketbrawl the 7800 sports games are embarrassing.... with Realsports Baseball being MUCH WORSE than the 5200 version. And lets not forget the horde of bad and inaccurate light gun games.

 

That's... more.... than 10. But then you have a next group of games that suck but at least they are playable... like Cracked and Hat Trick and Dark Chambers and Fight Night and Choplifter! and crap like that.

 

But dammit, I love Tower Toppler, Ninja Golf, Basketbrawl, Midnight Mutants, Beef Drop, Ikari Warriors, Fail Safe, Pac-Man Collection, Alien Brigade, POSSIBLE Mission, Bonq, Dig Dug, One on One Basketball, Ballblazer, Xevious, Crazy Brix, Rip-Off, Frenzy, and weirdly enough... Fatal Run. Those games and a few others make this system's line-up one of the strangest in video game history.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Cousin Vinnie

[Classic Pac]

Fight Night is the worse. It suffers from bad programming, everything from the action on the screen as well as the controls are all terrible

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Worst game on the Atari 7800?

 

I own roughly close to 2/3 of the original copies but have all the roms on emulation. This is a tough one to decide just one particular game, I mentioned the least playable games on the system.

 

Karateka: An obvious choice due to the game having horrendous controls. It seemed like the game was meant to be used using a keyboard rather than implementing a joystick to be fully functional. A total flaw nonetheless and would have enjoyed it using a joystick.

 

Barnyard Blaster: It would have been nice to have a difficulty selection option. This game is way too easy and repetitive. Just flat out boring and no challenge.

 

Double Dragon: A shame that one of my favorite beat em ups for the NES didn't quite deliver for the Atari 7800. It showed promise but the unresponsive controls, no barrels to throw, dreadful music, and have to constantly do flying kicks to defeat enemies.

 

Fight Night: Nothing but a disappointing button masher. The hit and collision detection is very poor and the health meters replenish so fast there is no way to get ahead. This pales in comparison to the superior Punch-Out!!

 

Hat Trick: Awful controls, choppy animation, and nothing but a weak Air Hockey game in my honest opinion.

 

Jinks: A game that made no idea or sense whatsoever. It's a confusing Breakout meets Arkanoid only to be mixed with frustrating controllers to plague the game. An innovative idea that turned out to be disatrous.

 

Super Huey: Way too confusing with horrible unresponsive controllers. I have no idea how to play this game as it takes frustration to a whole new level.

 

Tomcat F-14: Way too tedious for my liking. It is tough to shoot accuratley and it seems like there is a glitch. The crosshairs feel like they move randomly to the edges of the screen. Also you have to use the buttons on the console to navigate the computer menu.

 

Touchdown Football: The most single handedly pathetic football video game I have ever played. The running game is always non existent, pass playsvare dink and dunk and hardly throw deep passes, slow and choppy animation which makes it unplayable. This game is torture!

[phoenixdownita]

Man, this is a tough thread because there are at least 10 7800 games that need to be eradicated from our memory and eliminated from the planet. This is my favorite system too... but these games never should be opened:

 

Touchdown Football,

Realsports Baseball,

Tomcat F-14,

Jinx,

Barnyard Blaster (OH SH*T! YOU SHOT GRAMPS!!!)

F-18 Hornet,

Title Match,

Mat Mania,

Karateka,

Super Huey,

Tank Command,

Water Ski,

Mat Mania,

Double Dragon.

...

You said Mat Mania twice, I venture it left a deep scar on you

[DracIsBack]

A few hates for Double Dragon. I consider it a huge disappointment, but still find it fun. Not quite in the company of some of the others on this list.

 

For that matter, i don't quite get the Jinx hate either. not a good game, but I'd take it any day of the week over any of these:

 

Touchdown Football,

Realsports Baseball,

Tomcat F-14

Barnyard Blaster

F-18 Hornet,

Title Match,

Mat Mania,

Karateka,

Super Huey,

Mat Mania,

Fight Night

Ace Of Aces

[7800fan]

No mention of that impossible game? Due to a bug, the original version could never be finished, thus making it literal impossible. Or was it fun enough to excuse the bug?

[Cousin Vinnie]

No mention of that impossible game? Due to a bug, the original version could never be finished, thus making it literal impossible. Or was it fun enough to excuse the bug?

That's a fair point, but The game itself is great. The game is so hard I doubt many people would have beaten it anyway. I have a copy of "Possible Mission" and its the bees knees.

[Cousin Vinnie]

You said Mat Mania twice, I venture it left a deep scar on you

I am a professional wrestler, so it must have!

[BydoEmpire]

I'm going with Karateka - I never liked the game much on computers to begin with, and I really don't like it on the 7800. I do enjoy some of the other games listed like Hat Trick.

[+save2600]

I remember really liking Karateka on the Apple and C64 BITD. When I tried to play it years later on the 7800, I was like WTF? Plays terrible comparatively. Slow as molasses too.

[DracIsBack]

I remember really liking Karateka on the Apple and C64 BITD. When I tried to play it years later on the 7800, I was like WTF? Plays terrible comparatively. Slow as molasses too.

 

It's really marred by horrible controls. Tap the joystick. Count "one mississippi". Player kicks.

 

Plus the graphics are really simple, elements of the game are missing etc. You just go through six players and done.

 

I thought the XE cart was much better. Broderbund source code instead of cheap ass Ibid inc conversion.

[BassGuitari]

Karateka, Hat Trick, Touchdown Football, Realsports Baseball, and Fight Night are my least-favorite 7800 games.

I fire them up every so often to see if there was something interesting about them I missed the last time I tried them, looking for something to improve my opinion of them. But I never find anything.

It's like movie Predator 2: every so often I'll watch it to see if it's as bad as I remember...except it's always worse.

[+frankodragon]

Realsports Baseball: You never get to win against the computer. And when you're beat, you get this:

 

[+save2600]

 

It's really marred by horrible controls. Tap the joystick. Count "one mississippi". Player kicks.

 

Plus the graphics are really simple, elements of the game are missing etc. You just go through six players and done.

 

I thought the XE cart was much better. Broderbund source code instead of cheap ass Ibid inc conversion.

 

Exactly. They managed to strip a relatively simply computer game down even further, which resulted in pure and utter crap. For shame!!

 

Absolutely mind boggling to think that such shit made it past any sort of quality control. And made it all the way past marketing. Goofy, goofy stuff to be sure. Brought to us on a shit stained platter, spitting in the face of what was a decent game on every other system.

[Jinks]

 

Exactly. They managed to strip a relatively simply computer game down even further, which resulted in pure and utter crap. For shame!!

 

Absolutely mind boggling to think that such shit made it past any sort of quality control. And made it all the way past marketing. Goofy, goofy stuff to be sure. Brought to us on a shit stained platter, spitting in the face of what was a decent game on every other system.

Tell us how you really feel..

[+save2600]

Tell us how you really feel..

 

Careful what you wish for.

 

No seriously, this game is a total turd. And it would be so typical in this day and age that the programmer of the game (or someone in their camp) would bother to defend it by saying they were under such and such a crunch. Poor work conditions, poor pay, deadlines, whatever. Perfect example of what "we" (as gamers/paying customers) don't want to hear and no matter how people try to rationalize it, the game is junk. Should have never been marketed/released the way it sits.

[krewat]

 

And it would be so typical in this day and age that the programmer of the game (or someone in their camp) would bother to defend it by saying they were under such and such a crunch. Poor work conditions, poor pay, deadlines, whatever.

 

Which is exactly why Impossible Mission is almost 90% of the time unsolvable

 

But in regards to games that are total turds, I remember some disdain towards video gamers at that time in history, and that they could basically sell almost anything if the TV commercials looked good enough. Which they did, selling games that absolutely sucked using commercials that showed things that had absolutely nothing to do with the actual game play.

[Jinks]

 

Which is exactly why Impossible Mission is almost 90% of the time unsolvable

 

But in regards to games that are total turds, I remember some disdain towards video gamers at that time in history, and that they could basically sell almost anything if the TV commercials looked good enough. Which they did, selling games that absolutely sucked using commercials that showed things that had absolutely nothing to do with the actual game play.

You the guy with California games?!

[krewat]

You the guy with California games?!

 

Maybe, depends on what you want to pick on - LOL

 

but yeah, there's a very small piece of one of the games from Summer Games that I managed to get working right - and now can't get anything off the floppies. Anyway...