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Atari 2600 3rd party games: Coleco or Activision?


Shawn

Atari 2600 3rd party games: Coleco or Activision?  

81 members have voted

  1. 1. Atari 2600 3rd party games: Coleco or Activision?

    • Coleco
    • Activision
    • Neither, I hate all games from both

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The bright, vivid graphics and engaging gameplay made me an early-Activision ('81-'83) fanboy at a young age. Getting older and returning to the fold, they still stand up for me, and in many ways define what I like about 2600 games. Kaboom!, Keystone Kapers, Megamania, Pitfall!, River Raid, etc.... these are the type of games that keep me coming back to the 2600, and I'm discovering new-to-me others, like Pressure Cooker and Beamrider, to love as well.

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What I like(d) about the Coleco games is that they're mostly arcade translations - my favorite type of gaming. Platformers and maze games in particular. That said, I spent untold amounts of time playing DK, Mousetrap, Venture and Carnival BITD. Smurf is and never was my cup of tea, but can appreciate Zaxxon today! Didn't have DK Jr. back then, but it, Mr. Do! and Frontline are a couple of "new to me since the 90's" favorites.

 

When I sit and really analyze it, guess I would have to say that today, Activision ranks a little lower on my list of 3rd party companies. Have to give the edge to some of the others if I want to be honest with myself. Some of my very favorite games are from the likes of Mattel, CBS, Coleco, Parker Bros. and 20th Century Fox.

 

Don't get me wrong, love and can appreciate many an Activision and Imagic game too of course! Just saying that I'm glad there were other companies and different talent supporting the VCS. :love:

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This poll should be in favor of Coleco. Coleco had a tremendous reputation for quality. Unfortunately, they cheaped out and only used 4K ROM's. (Please correct me if I'm wrong). It's difficult to reproduce arcade titles with only 4k to work with - hence, only 2 levels in Donkey Kong.

I wish Coleco would've done something crazy, like create their own expansion module for the VCS. Intellivision almost did this exact thing, but backed off after the failure of the Intellivoice for the Intellivision.

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Arcade ports were a novelty on the 2600, rarely replicating the true fun of the original game. Original titles developed for the platform are the true gems that provided endless hours of fun.

 

Kaboom. Pitfall. Enduro. River Raid.

 

Easy decision = Activision

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You are 100% correct. Activision games are the true gems.

I poorly stated my point, which is; If any company could've pulled off near - accurate arcade ports, it was Coleco.

When I was a kid, and went shopping for an Atari VCS game, my first choice was always a port of my favorite arcade game. After being disappointed repeatedly, I stuck mostly with Activision - and was never disappointed!

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Anyway, the first sentence of my first post, should read, "this poll should be in favor of Coleco, but it's not even close!"

 

Forgive me for the string of posts I created - I am a night shift worker, currently running in 5 directions with little sleep!?

Edited by AtariKid81
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Anyway, the first sentence of my first post, should read, "this poll should be in favor of Coleco, but it's not even close!"

Forgive me for the string of posts I created - I am a night shift worker, currently running in 5 directions with little sleep!

I know your feeling. I work 3rd shift also. I get about 4-6 hours of sleep a day. I'm an overnight freight manager.

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This poll should be in favor of Coleco. Coleco had a tremendous reputation for quality. Unfortunately, they cheaped out and only used 4K ROM's. (Please correct me if I'm wrong). It's difficult to reproduce arcade titles with only 4k to work with - hence, only 2 levels in Donkey Kong.

I wish Coleco would've done something crazy, like create their own expansion module for the VCS. Intellivision almost did this exact thing, but backed off after the failure of the Intellivoice for the Intellivision.

 

Coleco had a few larger games. Smurfs is 8k, Mr. Do is 8 or 16k so is Mr. Do's Castle. I don't remember if there are any more.

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I agree that Smurfs is a good game, although I voted for Activision due to their plethora (thanks El Guapo) of quality games and their support for programmers. The name itself is a form of activism from a time when programmers were being dropped out of the credits, so to speak. I read here (on one of those cute little factoids) that Colorado Leather grunted out turds for the 2600 to sway folks towards the up and coming Colecovision. I actually liked DK for the VCS better than the arcade version as a kid because it was easier. Today I use several factors in deciding and find the Activision lot more appealing. Time Pilot and Zaxxon are probably my favorite from Coleco. Frontline is pretty fun. My wife loves Carnival. My Activision list is pretty big. I love H.E.R.O, Ghostbusters, Rampage, Double Dragon, Commando, Kung Fu Master, Pitfall II, Fishing Derby (the wife loves that one, too), and quite a few others.

 

A hard decision.

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I agree that Smurfs is a good game, although I voted for Activision due to their plethora (thanks El Guapo) of quality games and their support for programmers. The name itself is a form of activism from a time when programmers were being dropped out of the credits, so to speak. I read here (on one of those cute little factoids) that Colorado Leather grunted out turds for the 2600 to sway folks towards the up and coming Colecovision. I actually liked DK for the VCS better than the arcade version as a kid because it was easier. Today I use several factors in deciding and find the Activision lot more appealing. Time Pilot and Zaxxon are probably my favorite from Coleco. Frontline is pretty fun. My wife loves Carnival. My Activision list is pretty big. I love H.E.R.O, Ghostbusters, Rampage, Double Dragon, Commando, Kung Fu Master, Pitfall II, Fishing Derby (the wife loves that one, too), and quite a few others.

 

A hard decision.

 

Coleco making lesser quality games on purpose for the 2600 VS what they did for the colecovision is just a myth. Nobody who actually likes money would ever do such a thing.

 

My favorite from Activision is still Ice Hockey to this day. I look at it as the grandfather to Blades Of Steel. :)

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I don't understand how any Atarian could vote for Coleco over Activision!!! ;-) I'm not saying that Coleco didn't have some great games; but when compared to classics like Pitfall! and Chopper Command!, I can't see how Coleco would come out ahead of Activision. Maybe the people voting against Activision are mad about not be able to play Battlefield 2142! ;-D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Same here; Activision all the way: Pitfall II, River Raid, H.E.R.O., Frostbite, Pressure Cooker and Decathlon are games that I play quite often. I think from Coleco the only title I can say that I would play occasionally would be Venture. Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, and even Time Pilot were such disappointments.

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