Horrible game by a solid developer...

[Andromeda Stardust]

To be honest, Donkey Kong is a really hard game to do on the VCS. I don't think anyone at Coleco intentionally put out a crappy port. Sometimes your best isn't good enough.

 

Of course there are two potential homebrew ports in active development, but they're both 32kb, one uses Superchip and the other DSP, I believe. Hardly practical in 1982.

 

VCS DK is playable but all that brown looks like roach poop somehow. DK Jr looks just as bad but IMO is less playable.

Edited October 12, 2014 by stardust4ever

[MAC-42]

I wasn't even aware that Sky Skipper had been ported to the 2600 until reading this thread. I enjoy the arcade version in MAME a great deal. The 2600 version...gee, thanks, guys, for pointing out its existence to me. I didn't care for it. Bless 'em for trying, I guess, it it doesn't work for me.

[godzillajoe]

Coleco probably sold more 2600 DK carts than CV systems. And no company would waste that much money on R&D, engineering and manufacturing to intentionally release a bad game. There's no guarantee that it would result in more system sales. The problem was a 4K limit which doomed it like it doomed VCS Pac-Man

[freewheel]

Coleco probably sold more 2600 DK carts than CV systems.

 

No kidding. DK ranks up there with Combat and Asteroids for me. EVERYONE owned this game.

 

 

And no company would waste that much money on R&D, engineering and manufacturing to intentionally release a bad game. There's no guarantee that it would result in more system sales.

 

I think you underestimate marketing departments and the mindset of the day. Remember those Plimpton ads showcasing just how poor the 2600's graphics were compared to the INTV? I guarantee you that Mattel spent a hell of a lot more on those ads than Coleco spent developing several half-assed releases. It's very much conceivable that a company in the heyday of 1982-3 would spend millions of dollars just to create trash that makes their competitor look bad. Plus they more than recouped their money on several of the titles.

 

 

The problem was a 4K limit which doomed it like it doomed VCS Pac-Man

 

Good point. Atari released an equally shitty arcade port for their own system. No malicious intent required.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

The problem was a 4K limit which doomed it like it doomed VCS Pac-Man

In reference to Pacman, the programmer presented what was intended to be an early prototype, and an executive decided to release the game as is instead of allow the programmer more time to improve it. So yeah, Pacman could have been a lot better, even while sticking to 4k.

 

See also:

http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1010

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

Edited October 12, 2014 by stardust4ever

[high voltage]

aaah I like most of those games mentioned, Laser Blast, Sky Skipper, Miner 2049, Barnstorming, Amidar, DK, Frogger II

but yes Mr Dos Castle is a mess

Edited October 12, 2014 by high voltage

[godzillajoe]

In reference to Pacman, the programmer presented what was intended to be an early prototype, and an executive decided to release the game as is instead of allow the programmer more time to improve it. So yeah, Pacman could have been a lot better, even while sticking to 4k.

 

See also:

http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1010

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

 

Of course, but if we told someone NOW (Oct 12) that we wanted a Pac-Man release in time for Christmas, how good would it be? It's not really fair to use a home brew as a comparison. They don't have the marketing and sales depts. on their ass all day.

[Hydro Thunder]

I'd never heard of the arcade version before I first played it, but I really fell for Sky Skipper for 2600 when I first came across it. I thought the play mechanic was impressively interesting, and I for awhile considered it one of my favorite 2600 games

 

And for this thread as a whole, keep in mind that the guy who made Yar's Revenge also made E.T.

[Tempest]

I'd never heard of the arcade version before I first played it, but I really fell for Sky Skipper for 2600 when I first came across it. I thought the play mechanic was impressively interesting, and I for awhile considered it one of my favorite 2600 games

 

And for this thread as a whole, keep in mind that the guy who made Yar's Revenge also made E.T.

Was the Arcade version even released in the US? If so it must have been pretty rare. The 2600 version is the only home port.

[+FujiSkunk]

Was the Arcade version even released in the US?

 

To my knowledge, no.

[BrianC]

I personally feel the CV port of DK is overrated. It wasn't bad for the time it came out, but it is still lacking in some ways. No springs on elevator stage, smaller rivet stage, wrong colors on rivet stage, and missing animations. 2600 version isn't as much of a step down from the CV one as is hyped. It's decent for 4k and at least has the right color for the rivet stage. Coleco was hit or miss on the 2600, but they had a couple decent ports like Carnival, Frontline, and Roc 'n Rope, so I doubt they purposely made games bad on 2600.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Of course, but if we told someone NOW (Oct 12) that we wanted a Pac-Man release in time for Christmas, how good would it be? It's not really fair to use a home brew as a comparison. They don't have the marketing and sales depts. on their ass all day.

Well we have the current build of the new 4k Pacman with intermissions. It's playable and ready well in advance of Christmas this year. Plus, if the author were working on it 9-5 every day instead of in his spare time, it would have been finished a long time ago. Of course that's also with modern high speed PC and about ten seconds from build time to loading the ROM in Stella.

[godzillajoe]

Well we have the current build of the new 4k Pacman with intermissions. It's playable and ready well in advance of Christmas this year. Plus, if the author were working on it 9-5 every day instead of in his spare time, it would have been finished a long time ago. Of course that's also with modern high speed PC and about ten seconds from build time to loading the ROM in Stella.

 

And it's very impressive, but it's still 30 years after the fact and done at a leisurely pace with 30 years of "what not to do" behind us. As someone who works in software, there is so much shit involved, I'm surprised ANYTHING ever gets done. And more than once things were "finished" because it was promised by a certain date and not because it was a solid product. And as you mentioned, the tools make it easier today. You still have to be talented but you don't have to wrestle the development environment like back in the day when it took longer than 3 seconds to compile a binary for testing

[doctorclu]

aaah I like most of those games mentioned, Laser Blast, Sky Skipper, Miner 2049, Barnstorming, Amidar, DK, Frogger II

but yes Mr Dos Castle is a mess

 

Miner 2049er was one I recently discovered, apparently by Tigervision. I was impressed by what was actually there. Over the years the game was sped up and I gave it a new coat of paint by hacking the sprites based on the Atari 800 version. You can see the first and second volumes of the ones I hacked here...

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/216412-miner2049er-faster/?do=findComment&comment=4094286

[tschak909]

Here I thought you were going to go off on Bubsy 3D...

 

*ducks-and-runs*

[Lord Thag]

I'll have to second the Activision vote. WHile many of their games are excellent technical achievements... about half the library is super dull. They were cool when they were new but haven't aged well. The sports stuff, Fishing Derby, Dragster, Boxing, Freeway, Laser Blast etc. Many are just pretty dull these days. Don't get me wrong, the Pitfalls, River Raids, HERO etc are all A list stuff.... but there are many duds.

 

I personally feel the CV port of DK is overrated. It wasn't bad for the time it came out, but it is still lacking in some ways. No springs on elevator stage, smaller rivet stage, wrong colors on rivet stage, and missing animations. 2600 version isn't as much of a step down from the CV one as is hyped. It's decent for 4k and at least has the right color for the rivet stage. Coleco was hit or miss on the 2600, but they had a couple decent ports like Carnival, Frontline, and Roc 'n Rope, so I doubt they purposely made games bad on 2600.

 

Me too. The Atari 8-bit version owns it.

[uglyclone]

I liked M-Network games up until I played their port of Burgertime on the 2600. What a turd. It was one of the few times I had to concede to my cousins that maybe..just maybe...their Intellivision was better than my Atari 2600.