nosweargamer Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 For my final episode of The Atari 7800 Game By Game Podcast, I asked for people to vote for their top 5 and bottom 5 official Atari 7800 games. I got more votes than expected and put the results in the two videos below. As far as I know, this is the first time such lists have been created using several users input. Thanks to everyone who voted here on the forums!!! Some notes: Votes were weighted when voters listed the games in order of preference. The videos show the games in order with honorable mentions, making these more like top ten lists. The "Best" video has an extra honorable since Xevious & Asteroids were tied. The #1 Best & Worst game won by a large margin. Impossible Mission got a lot of "Worst" votes due to the impossible bug in the US version. Sport Games and Flight Simulators really suffered in the votes. The two sports games that got the most "Best" votes included Ninja Golf (Ranked #12) and One on One Basketball (Ranked #19). The only flight simulator to get "Best" votes was Ace of Aces (Ranked #28) Games that got both "Best" & "Worst" votes: Ace of Aces, Double Dragon, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Impossible Mission, Kung Fu Master, Midnight Mutants, Motor Psycho, One on One Basketball and Xenophobe The Top 5 7800 Games: The Bottom 5 7800 Games: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 Nice! I just don't get the popularity of Ballblazer though. Not much of a game there IMO. Seems more of a tech demo than a game to me. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosweargamer Posted December 9, 2016 Author Share Posted December 9, 2016 Nice! I just don't get the popularity of Ballblazer though. Not much of a game there IMO. Seems more of a tech demo than a game to me. You're not the only person who feels that way, but I actually really enjoy it. But then again, that's what makes lists fun: No two tend to be the same, even with a library as small as the 7800. However, I'm happy that these lists actually incorporated several 7800 fans, whereas most lists are either made by just one person or a very small group of people. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 I'm not surprised, but a little disappointed with all the "worst" votes for the flight sims just because people didn't like the genre. I get it, it's all subjective, everyone has their own list, "worst" simply means "I don't like it"... but to me, there are already plenty of terrible games that are terrible because of their failings, not their genre. "I don't want to read directions" doesn't mean it's a bad game. That's like saying Civilization is a bad game because you have to read a chart with the upgrades, and that games take more than 10 minutes to play. Just my 2c. Thanks for putting this together Phil, I've really enjoyed the podcast. Not too many surprises in the top and bottom lists. I think if everyone had the entire library the results would be a little bit different. Hard to vote on games I haven't played, and I'm sure many others are in the same boat. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 My Top 5 would look more like Ikari Warriors, Commando, Xenophobe, Galaga, and Xevious. (You can tell what kind of games I like. )The Bottom 5 is pretty dead-on IMO. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 "I don't want to read directions" doesn't mean it's a bad game. I wish I could "like" this post a thousand times. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Nice! I just don't get the popularity of Ballblazer though. Not much of a game there IMO. Seems more of a tech demo than a game to me. People were obsessed with playing this at parties when I was growing up 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Once again, I feel the need to stick up for Impossible Mission. The fixed version, I'd place nowhere near the bottom five. It's a decent port. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosweargamer Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 Once again, I feel the need to stick up for Impossible Mission. The fixed version, I'd place nowhere near the bottom five. It's a decent port. If the bug wasn't there, it might have got a lot of top 5 votes. Besides that, it was a really good port. And even with the bug, I personally wouldn't call it a bottom ten game. I'm not surprised, but a little disappointed with all the "worst" votes for the flight sims just because people didn't like the genre. I get it, it's all subjective, everyone has their own list, "worst" simply means "I don't like it"... but to me, there are already plenty of terrible games that are terrible because of their failings, not their genre. "I don't want to read directions" doesn't mean it's a bad game. That's like saying Civilization is a bad game because you have to read a chart with the upgrades, and that games take more than 10 minutes to play. Just my 2c. Thanks for putting this together Phil, I've really enjoyed the podcast. Not too many surprises in the top and bottom lists. I think if everyone had the entire library the results would be a little bit different. Hard to vote on games I haven't played, and I'm sure many others are in the same boat. You're very welcome. I enjoyed putting it together. To me, when you see Tomcat F-14 in action, it actually looks like it doesn't belong with the other "bad" games. (Same could be said for Impossible Mission). But what can I say? It seems a lot of people want pick up & play and get disappointed when a console game has more of a learning curve, as flight simulators tend to have. Especially on the 7800 it seems. And yes, some of the later releases might have gotten more votes with more exposure. Games like Ikari Warriors, Mean 18 Ultimate Golf, Ninja Golf, Midnight Mutants and Alien Brigade may have got a lot more votes if they were as easy to find as Food Fight, Joust, Galaga and Centipede. And a game like Meltdown might have made a run for one of the worst. But it says something that Commando, even though a bit rare, made the top 5. Also, did you notice that both games with the Pokey chip made the top 5? Once again, makes me wonder what would've happened if they were able to fit a Pokey chip on the motherboard of the system itself... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accousticguitar Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Not a bad list in the top 5 but I would definitely swap Centipede and Ballblazer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorfy Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 I thought Galaga would at least get honorable mention. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Dig dug is great!! How is a flight sim bad? Robotron and Ballblazer are boring to me. Mean 18 was great. Motor psycho great as well.. Impossible mission cool looking but boring. Yeah Galaga was pretty good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 re: flight sims, lets just say I bet most of us would have enjoyed a Super Baby Huey game more! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosweargamer Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 I thought Galaga would at least get honorable mention. Galaga was tied with Dig Dug for the #13 game. #12 was Ninja Golf. All 3 were close to getting at least an honorable mention. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I loved that microsoft flight simulator 1 and 2 on the computer as a kid back in 82 I thought it was beyond amazing. I never had a computer yet but at school etc. seen it. Thats why I like sims. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BydoEmpire Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I loved that microsoft flight simulator 1 and 2 on the computer as a kid back in 82 I thought it was beyond amazing. I never had a computer yet but at school etc. seen it. Thats why I like sims. I really liked flight sims in the 8 and 16 bit home computer era: F15 Strike Eagle I & II, Chuck Yaeger's Advanced Flight Simulator, Apache, Gunship, Falcon 3.0, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, A-18. Those were pretty fun and engaging games. I always argued that flight (and other) sims and historical war strategy games (SSI, etc) were the actual mature games. Blood, boobs and swearing is teenagers stuff. Mature means having to think and plan, having patience, having to read... There haven't been too many I've enjoyed on consoles, though. Unfortunately I haven't played any on the 7800. Ultimately, different strokes for different folks. That's what makes it fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 For my final episode of The Atari 7800 Game By Game Podcast, I asked for people to vote for their top 5 and bottom 5 official Atari 7800 games. I got more votes than expected and put the results in the two videos below. As far as I know, this is the first time such lists have been created using several users input. Thanks to everyone who voted here on the forums!!! Some notes: Votes were weighted when voters listed the games in order of preference. The videos show the games in order with honorable mentions, making these more like top ten lists. The "Best" video has an extra honorable since Xevious & Asteroids were tied. The #1 Best & Worst game won by a large margin. Impossible Mission got a lot of "Worst" votes due to the impossible bug in the US version. Sport Games and Flight Simulators really suffered in the votes. The two sports games that got the most "Best" votes included Ninja Golf (Ranked #12) and One on One Basketball (Ranked #19). The only flight simulator to get "Best" votes was Ace of Aces (Ranked #28) Games that got both "Best" & "Worst" votes: Ace of Aces, Double Dragon, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Impossible Mission, Kung Fu Master, Midnight Mutants, Motor Psycho, One on One Basketball and Xenophobe The Top 5 7800 Games: The Bottom 5 7800 Games: What games that got no best or worst votes? Also I kinda expected Scrapyard Dog to get the "both" category... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I thought Galaga would at least get honorable mention. This. I enjoy the 7800 version of Galaga moreso than the NES version, even though NES is more accurate. I can't really explain why... re: flight sims, lets just say I bet most of us would have enjoyed a Super Baby Huey game more! IMG_0033.JPG Few flight sims are truly worth playing. Blue lighning (Lynx) was one of them. After Burner (SMS, NES Tengen) wasn't bad either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 After burner etc. I would not call a flight sim. Kinda cheesey arcade flight game. But they can still be fun. A person would have to play a real flight sim to appreciate the realism. Console gaming a flight sim makes no sense I guess. Some need like 20 or so buttons not including a flight stick. Coupled today playing with a dpad for the ultimate lameo experience ever. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I haven't gotten into airplane-based flight sims, but I quite enjoy helicopter-based flight sims. Haven't tried Super Huey yet, but I had some fun with LHX Attack Chopper on the Genesis. Helicopter sims do tend to blur the line between flight sim, combat sim, and arcade action, and usually aren't as "pure" as something like Microsoft Flight Simulator (which I've played a little bit on the Mac). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Dig dug is great!! How is a flight sim bad? For me, it was usually the control scheme and the pacing. In the case of F18 hornet, you basically had to sit by the console and press buttons on it as well as the controller (also in weird combinations) to make the plane fly. The weirdest thing I remember was the reset button, where if you tapped it, it did one thing and then if you held it down, it did another. Felt to me like the 7800 was surprisingly suited for those types of games graphically but not control wise. Just a personal thing, I probably never got compelled enough to play the game due to pacing and never seemed to be able to really hit other planes, find things to fight or land without crashing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 After burner etc. I would not call a flight sim. Kinda cheesey arcade flight game. But they can still be fun. A person would have to play a real flight sim to appreciate the realism. Console gaming a flight sim makes no sense I guess. Some need like 20 or so buttons not including a flight stick. Coupled today playing with a dpad for the ultimate lameo experience ever. Flight sims from the bit eras before 3D took off just don't age well. SNES StarFox with it's SuperFX chip and primitive 3D polygon pushing is about the earliest flight sim that's actually worth playing IMO. Even Blue Lightning on the Lynx, which I mentioned is fun for a while, feels more like a glorified tech demo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosweargamer Posted December 12, 2016 Author Share Posted December 12, 2016 What games that got no best or worst votes? Also I kinda expected Scrapyard Dog to get the "both" category... The only game without any best or worst votes was Desert Falcon, which I guess would make it the ultimate "Meh" game in a way. Scrapyard Dog only got "Worst" votes. It has its fans, but none who like it enough to give it Top 5 status. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Flight sims from the bit eras before 3D took off just don't age well. SNES StarFox with it's SuperFX chip and primitive 3D polygon pushing is about the earliest flight sim that's actually worth playing IMO. Even Blue Lightning on the Lynx, which I mentioned is fun for a while, feels more like a glorified tech demo. Those aren't really flight sims as much as plane-themed rail shooters, though. A true flight sim allows for 360° movement (or something like it), lets you fiddle with your vehicle's controls, and generally expects you to manually take off and land. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 The only game without any best or worst votes was Desert Falcon, which I guess would make it the ultimate "Meh" game in a way. Expand it to Top 10 Games, and Desert Falcon would make at least my list. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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