Best 2600 arcade translation?

[Army Of 2600]

Joust? Space Invaders? What do YOU think?

[Albert]

Do homebrew games count?

[Army Of 2600]

Yes. I was also thinking of that new Asteroids remake.

[+save2600]

For original releases, Stargate quickly comes to mind. Tapper is also very impressive and a favorite of mine. Moon Patrol gets honorable mention.

 

On the home-brew side, and in more recent times, take your pick!

 

Lady Bug

The various enhanced Pac-Man's, including Pac-Man 4K and Hack 'Em!

Space Rocks

Gun Fight

Juno First

Medieval Mayhem

[Mister-VCS]

Star Wars: The Arcade Game, Track & Field, Stargate, Road Runner, Phoenix.

[MAC-42]

I'm very fond of Juno First. Space Rocks is great, too.

[VectorGamer]

Joust? Space Invaders? What do YOU think?

 

No doubt that Space Invaders was killer when it came out, but certainly Stargate is one of, if not THE best arcade translations released for the 2600 BITD.

 

Of the home brews, Space Rocks looks impressive. Since I don't own that one, I'll go with Lady Bug as the best home brew arcade translation for the 2600.

[Ransom]

Back in the day, I'd say Ms. Pac-Man was the most impressive to me.

 

The homebrews that have impressed me the most over the years are Lady Bug, Juno First, Space Rocks, and Pac-Man 4K. It would be hard for me to choose just one of those.

[Army Of 2600]

Missle Command is another old school game that has held up quite well.

[+save2600]

Forgot to mention Joust and Jungle Hunt. And I agree about Ms. Pac-Man too. That was incredible BITD. Really, most all of the arcade translations on the 2600 were done pretty well. Especially considering the limitations of the system,

 

Track and Field(didn't have it back then though), Reactor, Popeye, Frogger, Centipede/Millipede, Super Breakout/Breakout, Wizard of Wor, Galaxian, Bump N Jump, Mouse Trap, Berzerk and many more - were such a blast to play - still are! Also played a lot of Kangaroo and Donkey Kong, even though they catch a little but of heat as far as translations go.

 

Might be easier to come up with the duds as they were few and far between.

[Muzz73]

I'd vote Joust and Ms. Pac-Man, for sure.

[PFL]

I like the ones that aren't straight ports but have that Atari flavour. Space Invaders, Missile Command (still wish it was possible to make a proper trackball hack though!), Galaxian and (dun, dun, duuun!) Pacman are some of my favourites. The ports aren't the same as their arcade brethren but there's no doubt what games they're representing. I like that.

[TrekMD]

From the original releases, Stargate and Track & Field definitely are amazing arcade ports. T&F, in particular, if you can get the controller that came with the game.

[bohoki]

to me berzerk captures the arcade just about right

[Mister-VCS]

Missle Command is another old school game that has held up quite well.

 

Yes- forgot Missile Command -more fun than the Arcade-original!

[+Nathan Strum]

Yes- forgot Missile Command -more fun than the Arcade-original!

 

 

And Missile Command: Trak-Ball is better still.

[PFL]

^

 

Cool beans! I'll have to dig out my trak-ball now!

 

 

 

Bonus choice of arcade translation: Centipede. (Definitely no track ball hack if that one! )

[Andromeda Stardust]

Pacman 4k, Ladybug, Space Rocks, are among the best homebrew arcade ports in my collection. Star Castle Arcade and Circus Atari (upcoming releases) are also coiming up. Not sure how accurate Circus Atari is but it's hella fun to play on my Harmony. Pacman 4k now has new competition with an even more arcade accurate version of Pacman in development:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/229152-new-pacman-for-atari-2600/

 

I'm not siding with the Space Invaders camp, although it is/was a great game for the time. Space Investigators IMO is a much better homebrew port that looks and feels much closer to the original with flicker free 5 rows by 9 columbs of invaders, and impressive feat for VCS, albeit it eliminates any gameplay variations and can get tiresome after multiple play-throughs.

 

On the console side, Joust, Mario Brothers, Frogger, Tapper, and Pooyan are excellently made arcade titles that play very similar to their arcade counterparts and look nice too. Dig Dug is impressive for the amount of sprites it has as well.

 

It really depends on the programmer that the game got assigned to. Some arcade games got really good ports, some others (Pacman, ET) were rushed/over-hyped turds.

Edited October 2, 2014 by stardust4ever

[TrekMD]

Another one I forgot to mention before, The Official Frogger by Starpath for the 2600 using the SuperCharger.

[NE146]

My first nod goes to Q-BERT. People laugh at this title but one thing it had was faithful GAMEPLAY. To the point I could practice it at home, and then be better at the arcade game. It's true! Not many 2600 titles can make that claim.

 

Sticking to originals I always dug Frogger (I prefer Parker Bros over the Starpath), Missile Command, and Ms. Pacman are the games that stand out in my mind as being excellent ports of their arcade originals and actually brought the fun home we all wanted at that time. Space Invaders was of course an early favorite but let's face it, it's is a rudimentary shell of the original gameplay.. Not that that's a bad thing as the game is an obvious classic, but just saying. Crystal Castles is I think in the same league.. i.e. a game that's stands on it's own as a 2600 gem.

 

Stargate & Jr. Pac are great.. but man those came out so late. When the heck did they come out.. 1987?? When I FIRST saw them I was already in college, the NES was out, and my VCS had been under my bed for a number of years. Doesn't change their excellence though.

 

 

[Keatah]

I always preferred the VCS version of Space Invaders over the arcade version. Missile Command comes close, and is loads of fun.

[Unbeliever]

Original releases to me would be Ms. Pac Man, Joust, Space Invaders, Berzerk, and one I have yet to own, Stargate. All seemed close to their arcade counterparts IMO. Oh yeah, Missile Command, too.

[ProperRogue]

An old gem often overlooked, is Solar Fox. I actually prefer the 2600 version over the arcade/MAME release.

[BassGuitari]

I don't count homebrews because they were created with advantages unavailable to programmers who worked on the 2600 during its lifetime. Objectively the best 2600 games would all be from the last 15 years.

No 2600 arcade port was really a straight port (Combat and Breakout probably come the closest). Most 2600 ports augmented the arcade games by adding things like color graphics (in the early days) and more play modes while also being somewhat simplified and lower-res.

That said, I think the best 2600 arcade port is Space Invaders. I think it's more fun than the arcade version, and it's almost endlessly replayable, especially with all those variations. Stargate was a contender, but the two-joystick control scheme, while necessary and clever, is cumbersome.

[Mr SQL]

I don't count homebrews because they were created with advantages unavailable to programmers who worked on the 2600 during its lifetime. Objectively the best 2600 games would all be from the last 15 years.

 

Good point but some homebrews use simple editor/assembler setups like bitd and intentionally don't take advantage of any modern tech.