49 replies to this topic

[MmSadda]

In your opinion, what's the best-looking 7800 game? I'm only really well-versed in the most common/popular 7800 games, and just got my system out of my parents house and played it for the first time in a decade at least. As a point of reference, what games really did the hardware justice?

[Allpaul]

I really like Alien Brigade. There's alot going on.. It sure doesn't have much in common with Ms. Pac Man and Dig Dug, although those are kick ass versions...

[AtariBrian]

any of Bobs games

[Jinks]

Plutos.

[Trebor]

Focusing only on original retail releases, I always enjoyed the player movement and over fluidness of Impossible Mission.  The opening screen of Winter/Summer Games entries are nice as well.

[MmSadda]

I remember Tower Toppler having some cool effects. Anyone else feel that way?

And I was thinking in terms of original releases, though I've heard guys in the Atari community are able to use some programming tricks to get shockingly impressive results from the hardware

[DracIsBack]

Alien Brigade is generally good looking; Tower Toppler has some awesome animation effects and the underwater sequences rock; Midnight Mutants has great bosses. Sirius is an awesome side scroller; Commando is a slick conversion; Ballblazer has cool animation; Ninja Golf is bright, colorful and fun; Scrapyard Dog is a cool experiment of a side scroller;

Bentley Bear looks great too!

[KevinMos3]

I second everything DracIsBack said.

I'll make a list of games that "graphically" I was always proud to show off to friends.  I'm not saying anything about the gameplay of some of these:

Alien Brigade (really good Operation Wolf type game)
Ballblazer (not the most impressive graphics, but about as good as you can get for the type of game on an 8-bit system & a ton of fun -- especially with a friend)
Barnyard Blaster
Basketbrawl
Bentley Bear: Crystal Quest (probably slated to be the most impressive game in the 7800 library once completed)
Commando (the very best home version on an 8-bit system IMO)
Crack'ed
Crossbow
Dark Chambers
Ikari Warriors
Impossible Mission
Klax (Prototype)
Mat Mania Challenge
Mean 18 Ultimate Golf
Midnight Mutants
Missing In Action (Prototype)
Motorpsycho
Ninja Golf
Pete Rose Baseball
Plutos
Pole Position II (The 1st game I played on the 7800 and I was very impressed.  It had me convinced the 7800 was every bit as good as the NES)
Scrapyard Dog
Sirius (Prototype)
Summer Games
Titlematch Pro Wrestling
Tower Toppler
Winter Games
Xenophobe
Xevious


There really are NO games that I consider to have "bad" graphics on the 7800; they all look good to me (well, except Double Dragon and Rampage.  I always felt those could be so much better, so even though they look fine, I'm not satisfied).  I didn't really include most arcade ports like Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Food Fight, etc.  Only reason is because at the time, friends were playing the NES (me too) and much of the 7800 library was just out of style.

[Stun Runner 87]

Missing in Action

[Classic Pac]

I can't believe no one mentioned F-18 Hornet You can fly through hangers in that one, not to forget through gates. As far as I know there is no other 8 bit game could do that.

[Greg2600]

AtariBrian, on Sun Jan 13, 2013 2:45 AM, said:

any of Bobs games

I concur.

[Allpaul]

F-18 looks great too!

[Stun Runner 87]

Bentley Bear Chrystal Quest

[shadow460]

I must be the odd one out, as I can't stand the graphics produced by the Alien Brigade engine. That game and MIA do play fine but they are hard to look at.

I'd say F-18 Hornet is probably the most impressive. There are plenty of other good looking games, though. The 7800 is a system where you really don't have to worry about the games looking bad. The sound might be horrid in some, but the Maria chip is well suited to the graphics these games demand.

[GM1982]

Ballblazer is pretty impressive.
Commando has good graphics too, along as Scrapyard Dog or Impossible Mission.
I've also always liked the graphics of Double Dragon (especially the scenery).

[ZylonBane]

KevinMos3, on Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:10 PM, said:

There really are NO games that I consider to have "bad" graphics on the 7800

Obviously. Barnyard Blaster? Holy hell.

[KevinMos3]

ZylonBane, on Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:27 AM, said:

Obviously. Barnyard Blaster? Holy hell.

Yeeuuup!  Barnyard Blaster.  Was always impressed with that one's graphics when I was a munchkin.

[Rex Dart]

KevinMos3, on Sun Jan 13, 2013 3:10 PM, said:

There really are NO games that I consider to have "bad" graphics on the 7800; they all look good to me

I noticed you didn't list Jinks

[Atarifever]

They're all pretty great.  I think I have some mental disorder that makes me incapable of actually disliking the 7800, its controllers, the hardware, or any of the games it plays.  As a result, I think Barnyard Blaster looks better than Halo 4.  I think there is a risk of this disorder biasing my opinions, so I won't provide a list of games.

[KevinMos3]

Rex Dart, on Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:16 PM, said:

I noticed you didn't list Jinks.

lol, I almost did... and yes, I'm serious.  Again, criteria I'm going by is what I thought of them as a kid.   I was actually impressed with Jinks.

[theloon]

In general the graphics didn't compare to either SMS or NES.  I don't blame the hardware for that, though.  The only game that really stood out was Tower Toppler.  Sadly, that was the ONE GAME I could never find in stores >:-(

[Stun Runner 87]

theloon, on Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:04 AM, said:

In general the graphics didn't compare to either SMS or NES.  I don't blame the hardware for that, though.  The only game that really stood out was Tower Toppler.  Sadly, that was the ONE GAME I could never find in stores >:-(

I agree..........I was going to mention tower toppler........the bonus level graphics In the sub look almost 3d......I liked the 7800 version better than the c64 version because it was a little slower and you can actually beat a few levels unlike the c64 version where its a little too fast......But all in all, the c64 and 7800 versions are almost identical.......I hated the nes version, especially the stupid bonus levels....The name of the game was different for the nes aas well but I forgot what the name was.

[Bakasama]

theloon, on Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:04 AM, said:

In general the graphics didn't compare to either SMS or NES.  I don't blame the hardware for that, though.  The only game that really stood out was Tower Toppler.  Sadly, that was the ONE GAME I could never find in stores >:-(

I didn't find in stores either but I just ordered it direct from Atari Corp. back in the 80's.

[DracIsBack]

Funny thing about Tower Toppler was that it was released in Canada, whereas Atari Canada essentially abandoned the 7800 outright around this time. I think they did TOWER TOPPLER, CROSSBOW and DARK CHAMBERS, but nothing beyond that came out in Canada. I remember trying to order games that I read about like IKARI, SCAPYARD DOG and MIDNIGHT MUTANTS because they were on Atari's order list. Atari took my money order, but told me the games were out of stock and wouldn't refund the difference. Had to substitute.

Let me tell you, FIGHT NIGHT was not a substitute when you wanted IKARI WARRIORS. :-)

TOWER TOPPLER I ended up buying in stores.

[7800 Emucoder]

DracIsBack, on Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:08 PM, said:

Funny thing about Tower Toppler was that it was released in Canada, whereas Atari Canada essentially abandoned the 7800 outright around this time. I think they did TOWER TOPPLER, CROSSBOW and DARK CHAMBERS, but nothing beyond that came out in Canada. I remember trying to order games that I read about like IKARI, SCAPYARD DOG and MIDNIGHT MUTANTS because they were on Atari's order list. Atari took my money order, but told me the games were out of stock and wouldn't refund the difference. Had to substitute.

Let me tell you, FIGHT NIGHT was not a substitute when you wanted IKARI WARRIORS. :-)

TOWER TOPPLER I ended up buying in stores.

I don't know that it was just a Canada problem. I live in Boston, MA and I was around 15 when the 7800 came out so I used to scour all the local games and toy stores for new releases and many of the later games like you mentioned never made it to store shelves here.

Besides the Evil Eleven launch games, I think the only ones I ever saw make it to store shelves were One on One, Summer Games, Winter Games, Hat Trick, Jinks, Choplifter, The Absolute Entertainment games, and Froggo games.

Most of these latter releases I never actually saw until I found this website in the early 2000's.

Edited by 7800 Emucoder, Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:26 PM.