What was general opinion of Stargate 2600?

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I had Defender like most back in the day and I still do, I do not recall playing "Stargate" on 2600 and I don't recall hearing too much it overall. Was it actually the official sequel to Defender? What was the general opinion of Stargate? As good as Defender? Worth bothering with or?................

[Torr]

It definitely plays truer to the original Defender arcade game than the first VCS Defender game did, including the high difficulty. Mainly I find the difficulty comes from having a hair thin laser, so your shots have to be PRETTY accurate.

Plus it has a double edged sword in controls/gameplay:

Upside: Unlike the original VCS title, you can now use Hyperwarp and your Smart Bombs anywhere on screen, plus the new Invisio ability.

Downside: They are controlled by the second joystick... which can be tricky...

I personally prefer the original VCS Defender's method of utilizing Hyperwarp and Smart Bombs.

 

Myself I never knew about this "Stargate" until AtariAge... I had Defender II growing up... same game, different title/title screen... why did they do that anyway?

[Goochman]

Stargate is one of the most faithful arcade renditions on the 2600 IMHO. It is darn near perfect and also difficult like the original Arcade release. I think it requires 2 joysticks to utilize all the capabilities like warp and smart bombs.

[Goochman]

It definitely plays truer to the original Defender arcade game than the first VCS Defender game did, including the high difficulty. Mainly I find the difficulty comes from having a hair thin laser, so your shots have to be PRETTY accurate.

Plus it has a double edged sword in controls/gameplay:

Upside: Unlike the original VCS title, you can now use Hyperwarp and your Smart Bombs anywhere on screen, plus the new Invisio ability.

Downside: They are controlled by the second joystick... which can be tricky...

I personally prefer the original VCS Defender's method of utilizing Hyperwarp and Smart Bombs.

 

Myself I never knew about this "Stargate" until AtariAge... I had Defender II growing up... same game, different title/title screen... why did they do that anyway?

 

Midway didnt find out that the word Stargate was already trademarked and hence did a quick name change to Defender II after the original release.

[Army Of 2600]

Better than the original Defender (not that that is much of a challenge), but I was slightly underwhelmed when I played Stargate. It was better, but it didn't blow me away. Maybe Spiceware could make an updated homebrew of Defender/Stargate. Magic was worked with Space Rocks. Magic.

[Rybags]

Williams made the Defender and Stargate games, not Midway (which was later aquired by Williams).

 

Possibly the rights agreement wasn't struck by Atari and Williams which meant they used the Defender II title.

[+save2600]

2600 Stargate/Defender II is a kick ass arcade translation that improves upon original Defender big time. A must have in every 2600 collection!

[Master Phruby]

Never had Stargate/Defender II until very recently. I prefer it to the original Defender that I spent many hours of my youth playing.

[jhd]

The graphics are just spectacular, but I find the control scheme unworkable. I wish that it had used the keypad controller instead of a second joystick.

 

I was fortunate to find a NIB copy in close-out inventory at a local department store many years ago.

[NE146]

It wasn't until I went to the states for college in the summer of 1987 that I stopped at Kaybee and to my surprise saw Jr. Pacman and Stargate for sale.. I thought new games for my VCS were an extinct species.. especially after the NES was already out with games like Punch-Out. Well of course I bought them but didn't have a VCS to play them in my dorm room.. it wasn't until about 2 years later that I actually got to open them and give it a shot.. I don't know what to say except I was 100% blown away by both. I really regretted they hadn't come out earlier.. but honestly at that point like I said, I was well into games like Blaster Master, or whatever was hot in 1989-1990 so back into the storage they went as more or less a footnote to check out every few years.

[+Random Terrain]

It wasn't until I went to the states for college in the summer of 1987 that I stopped at Kaybee and to my surprise saw Jr. Pacman and Stargate for sale.. I thought new games for my VCS were an extinct species.. especially after the NES was already out with games like Punch-Out. Well of course I bought them but didn't have a VCS to play them in my dorm room.. it wasn't until about 2 years later that I actually got to open them and give it a shot.. I don't know what to say except I was 100% blown away by both. I really regretted they hadn't come out earlier.. but honestly at that point like I said, I was well into games like Blaster Master, or whatever was hot in 1989-1990 so back into the storage they went as more or less a footnote to check out every few years.

Yeah, if it would have been released in 1982 or 1983, I would have pooped my pants. I was happy that they finally made a version that looked more like the arcade, but it was just too late for me to get overexcited about it. The games on my Commodore 64 overshadowed it at the time.

[Keatah]

I rather like it. I consider it a realistic arcade-to-home port. There have been so many technical achievements on the VCS that I wouldn't know where to begin to put Stargate, but it's in there.

 

I was involuntarily "getting out" of Atari games at the time of its release. Being told to grow up and to stop playing baby games. These shenanigans "cost" me several years of that era's gaming, and therefore I missed Stargate entirely. In fact I had no idea it was made for the VCS to begin with!

 

When I discovered it in the early 2000's via emulation it was titled Defender II. And then a few months after that I found the real final version. It's so different from VCS Defender that it's actually very good. I like a different control scheme, and can get that through emulation. So that just 1up's the game.

[Rex Dart]

Don't know what the opinion "was", but it's a good port. Like a few have mentioned, the controls certainly suffer being on the VCS, so it's not my preferred way to play. That, and my copy is irradiated & erratic.

[Andre81]

Yeah, if it would have been released in 1982 or 1983, I would have pooped my pants. I was happy that they finally made a version that looked more like the arcade, but it was just too late for me to get overexcited about it. The games on my Commodore 64 overshadowed it at the time.

Stargate was released in 1984 and Jr. Pac-Man was also completed in 1984, but due to the crash and sale of Atari Inc. not released before 1986.

 

Same with Solaris (Last Starfighter), completed in 1984 but delayed until 1986.

 

Atari had many awesome games in the pipe for 1984.

[Crimefighter]

Stargate was probably one of the best 2600 converts of the arcade you will find. And definitely one of the hardest.

[Atariboy]

Midway didnt find out that the word Stargate was already trademarked and hence did a quick name change to Defender II after the original release.

To clarify, there was never a Defender II arcade cabinet (Your post could be interpreted as saying that later examples of the arcade machine reflect this change, something you may or may not of intended).

 

The rom was actually modified in the 1990's in the early years of the compilation era.

 

http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/games.html#wacdos

Edited November 20, 2014 by Atariboy

[iesposta]

I was so good, PacManPlus hacked it back into Defender Arcade!

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/91016-2600-defender-arcade-pretty-much-complete/?p=1425814

[Chris++]

The problem with the Stargate translation is that your ship fires quite slowly, relative to the fast firing capability of the original (and VCS Defender). One of the most appealing things about either arcade game is that you can fire very rapidly, depending on how fast your fingers are; this is curtailed in 2600 Stargate.

 

I think Polaro did a great job with 4 KB when he wrote his Defender conversion. You can fire extremely fast. Admittedly, this causes your ship to look like an aerosol space-can while it's firing. But he managed to capture the overall feel of the arcade game, which was quite an accomplishment in itself. It's no Berzerk or Missile Command adaptation, but I like it more than Stargate, even though the latter has more detailed graphics, and mountains instead of a city. These are merely cosmetic aspects. As we know, being 2600 players, good graphics, while cool, are separate from good game-play.

 

Stargate is worth checking out, at the least, so I'd advise that you don't concern yourself with others' opinions; give it a try and see what you think. Taste in games is subjective, just as with music or anything else.

[Zonie]

It rocks. Build a custom controller and you will love it.

[Agent X]

I'm a big fan of Stargate on the 2600. They did a good job of reproducing the colorful and detailed enemies from the arcade game. The game dishes out a hearty challenge with fast action and distinctive enemy behavior.

 

Some of the arcade conversions being done in 1984 were rather stunning, considering the hardware they were working with. Stargate is a fine example, but I'd also cite Millipede and Jr. Pac-Man (which, as Andre81 mentioned above, was released in 1986). All of these games nailed the fast-paced feel of the arcade originals, along with great graphics and impressive sound work.

 

The graphics are just spectacular, but I find the control scheme unworkable. I wish that it had used the keypad controller instead of a second joystick.

 

 

I feel using a second joystick was the correct decision here. When considering the overall user base, many more 2600 owners had access to two joysticks, compared to those who had a keypad.

 

You know what might work well for this game? I've seen third-party controllers that just had a set of five buttons on a base (no joystick). These were intended chiefly to play Asteroids, as they replicated the arrangement of buttons on the Asteroids arcade machine. Since four of the buttons were merely mimicking joystick directional inputs, you could actually use it with any joystick-compatible game. Something like that might come in handy when plugged into controller port 2 for this game.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Thanks all for the great replies, I learned a lot about Stargate / Defender 2 for 2600.

[Mef]

Just got my Stargate cart today and gave it a two-hour run. It's great! It's so good, even my wife liked it* (with me supporting her with bombs and inviso).

To be honest, I never liked the Defender formula. It was always "oh, yet another game with this shitty flip-around movement" and I've passed on all of them but Chopper Command, which I've only played to get to the badge score. Man, I hated those ridiculous splitting projectiles! I also tried the first Defender for Atari, not to miss the "classic", but on top of this control scheme it was also pretty poorly made.

This however is different. The flawless presentation, fast action and the strategic element when to use one of the special abilities is just pure win. I love it so much I'm determined to make myself some kind of controller for this game alone (would be handy for Radar Lock too).

By any means, get this game if you haven't already. If a long-time enemy of Defender recommends it, think of how the real fan would react!


* My wife does have a weak spot for River Raid, Enduro, Missile Command and Video Olympics, but I haven't seen her so excited about a freshly tried title yet!

 

P.S. The cart I got is a PAL grey label with copyright date '85 and regular (non-cursive) font on the end-label. Strange that there are so many small variations.

Edited January 13, 2015 by Mef

[BassGuitari]

[pre-reply slightly OT rant] My opinion of "Stargate 2600" is that suffixing (or prefixing) a game's title with the console's name is a pet peeve of mine. (The Vectrex homebrew scene is -- or at least was -- horrible in this regard; if there's a way to work "Vec-" or "-trex" into the title, they'll find it. Amazing games, though, and that's what counts!) [/pre-reply slightly OT rant]

Defender II is an amazing effort, and doubly so when you compare it to the first Defender. Defender was a good game, but clearly lacking polish (and it's way too easy); Defender II not only ramped up the difficulty to a more appropriate level, but it almost looks like an Atari 5200 game (almost). The two-joystick control scheme isn't ideal, but is a clever workaround for a controller with only one button. (The one thing I dislike about the computer ports of Defender -- C64, A800, TI99/4a, etc. -- was having to take a hand off the joystick and reach for the keyboard to use smartbombs and hyperspace.)

(BTW I call it "Defender II" because that's what I know it as; my first introduction to the game was in a Williams arcade compilation for PC that called it "Defender II," and I got a copy of Defender II for the 2600 before I ever had a copy of Stargate.)

[Cynicaster]

It's a strong port on the system, but I never even knew it existed until I "re-acquired" an Atari about 4-5 years ago and got it in a shoe-box full of games a buddy of mine had collecting dust in his crawlspace.

 

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have given a shart about the game if I had seen it when it was brand new, because at the time, I was more interested in the games-du-jour, not crusty old golden age arcade stuff. In retrospect, I can appreciate it much more.

[Gabriel]

I most frequently played Stargate at 7-11. I was never any good at it, but I liked it a lot. Everyone knew it was the sequel to Defender, despite never being known as "Defender II" back then.

 

I played Defender on my 2600 and 5200 a lot. I liked the 2600 Defender, but I always thought it was a bit shit because of the non-existent difficulty, the disappearing ship, the "city", and the method used for Smart Bombs and Hyperspace. I LOVED 5200 Defender. It may have shared the same issue of being way too easy with the 2600 port, but the visuals, sounds, and gameplay makes that one feel so good.

 

I always wanted a home port of Stargate, though. One day when I was in KayBee toys in the mid to late 80s, I spied a Stargate cart for the 2600. It was really cheap, so I actually had enough money to buy it. I honestly didn't expect much.

 

Stargate on the 2600 blew me away. As BassGuitari says above, it compares well even with a 5200 game. The only flaw is having to use a second stick for smart bombs, inviso, and hyperspace. Even then, it's a superior solution to what Defender on the 2600 used. I guess the only other thing that irritates me is how it handles swarmers, but that's just a mild nit, as they're still deadly (unlike the swarmers in the original 2600 Defender).

 

One final thing. As far as I'm concerned, it's STARGATE. It isn't Defender II. I know it was released with a Defender II label and the game is known today as Defender II. I don't care. It's STARGATE dammit.