the_wizard_666

I hate to break this to you, but the description of StarTropics makes me cry a bit inside. See, the letter actually came attached to the manual, and is pretty hard to come by still attached in good shape...I really hope I just misread it...

It seems I picked the wrong week to sign up...unfortunately I don't have a copy to try out, and I don't really like emulation either :/

Yeah, I try to be open minded when it comes to new games, and unlike many who grew up with more advanced systems, I can enjoy most games for what they are. I know the limits of the VCS, and some of the games so far have blown me away by how much they managed to accomplish with such limitations. I suppose that comes with developers figuring out tricks to coax more out of the hardware, but even some early games...in anticipation of the next thread I post, I fired up Blackjack and just spent an hour on it. Is it simple? Sure. Is there better versions out there? Definitely. But is it fair to judge it based on what another console is capable of? Hell no! I think the biggest enjoyment I have with it though is that I've played the crap out of my NES, and have at least a passing familiarity with the bulk of the library. There isn't really an unexplored corner for me to check out. With the VCS though, there's a ton of games I have yet to experience, and even though I have had people tell me what they think is good, there's so much that they haven't told me about for one reason or another, and it's almost like unless I ask about a specific title, it just doesn't get thought of often, even if it's a good game. As for your publisher recommendations, I've actually been thinking of Data Age myself, although I've only got 4 games for it. Telesys might be interesting, but I only have Fast Food, so it probably wouldn't be a good one to hit right now. Apollo could be interesting...a cursory glance at the list shows that I should have at least half of them, and probably more, so that may be a near-future publisher to do. Meanwhile, I'll talk to my buddy and see if I can score some loaners to play

Well, I've already picked out all the launch titles I own (I've got 8 of 9 according to Wikipedia, only "missing" Basic Math), so that'll probably be the next batch. I know I'll definitely need to do more than a few minutes on each though...most will have enough variations to require a few separate plays to get the most out of each, so I'm not expecting it to happen all in one night or anything...although who knows with me I've bookmarked the link you gave me so I can reference it. I'm thinking I may go with Wikipedia as far as the year goes, and break them down into chunks as needed to keep the numbers reasonable. I don't want to do all Atari in one fell swoop though...I'm thinking more like doing a publisher or two and then doing a chunk of Atari published games, just to mix things up. I may be making a mountain out of a molehill though...it doesn't look like there were terribly many first party releases in any year, so it may just be a matter of splitting the years in two at most. But we'll see...I'll start with the launch and go from there To close this post though, I have to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying making these threads. It makes the daunting task of trying out 200+ games (of which I've played maybe 20 prior to starting) far more manageable. And being a younger dude who grew up with the NES, it's also showing me what I missed out on. Maybe I'll even manage to get my nieces playing Atari instead of Minecraft...now THAT will be a task!

I had no idea there was an arcade version of Blueprint, although I guess I'm not surprised either. I've never been big on the arcade scene, so I just never really looked I guess. Something for me to consider next time I boot up my buddy's MAME cab though. As for chronologically breaking the first party games, that would definitely be a good idea. I'm just not sure how big the chunks would be if I do that, y'know what I mean? I'd like to keep them in the under 20 range if possible, and that may simply not be possible for some years without some other arbitrary breakdown. Unless of course there's a chronological list with release months on it (because I know release dates as we know them were almost unheard of back then). Chronological is my personal leaning though, I just want to make sure that any further breakdowns I need to do are done logically, know what I mean?

I don't know if I want to go the emulator route, but I am definitely interested in the "acquiring games I don't have and revisiting the publisher later" route. The overall is really more my overall impressions of what I've already played, along with my prioritization of the publisher as far as acquiring the games I don't have. I fully intend to update my scores and such when I get the opportunity. Also, I love the arcade version of Time Pilot, so that was one of the ones I was looking forward to firing up. I could've sworn I owned it, but it would seem I was wrong. Maybe I have a different version and thought it was the VCS one. And Venture and Smurf were both games I was looking forward to, so I'm hoping it's just something with my console that refuses to play them and not the carts themselves...gonna try them again when I test out my other models...I've only got the 6-switch hooked up, but I have a 4-switch Woody, a Vader, and a Jr. that still need testing, not to mention my Gemini. I'll be editing whenever I can

Well, since I knocked off another small corner of the 2600 library (or at least the portion of said corner that I happen to own), I thought I'd quickly run through my initial thoughts on another publisher. Same idea as the Coleco thread. These are my initial thoughts, and nothing received more than half an hour of play time, so take these impressions with as much salt as needed. I'd like to hear other opinions, agreements and disagreements, etc. I'm more looking to promote discussion and interest than cause controversy, and would definitely like to hear what others think about these (and other) games. One note - I use "5/10" as being an absolutely average game. It kind of came up with some of my "harsh" rankings on the Coleco thread. Even a 4/10 can be an okay game in my books, and 7/10 is above average. 8+ would be great, and 3 and under would be crap. Anything in the 4-6 range are not bad, just not great. My scores on someone else's scoring system might look substantially higher, and my low scores do not necessarily mean I don't like a game or that it's not worthwhile. Unless it's a 1...then it's probably crap Anyway, without further ado, here's CBS Electronics! Blueprint: Although I didn't play a whole lot, I did manage to knock off a couple early levels. It's a neat little game, hard to describe really. A bit of memory, a bit of action, and a neat little "shooter" boss stage after collecting all the parts you need. While not perfect, I did enjoy firing it up, and am looking forward to the next time I play it...maybe with a somewhat better joystick, as the one I'm using right now is a wee bit wonky. 7/10 Gorf: Unfortunately, I don't own it yet. Mountain King: Now, I've seen conflicting reviews on this, so I'm thinking it may be a bit controversial to some, but I really enjoy Mountain King. The controls are a bit tough to get the hang of, as I kept trying to use the button to jump, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually. The visuals aren't the greatest, but they're more than adequate, and I honestly really like the music. The bats are frustrating, especially with the iffy movement, but not enough to break the game, at least for me. 7/10 Omega Race: While I do own it, I don't have a Booster Grip. Even though there are other options that I could use, I feel it'd be a disservice to review it without using the controls it was designed for. As such, it's currently unplayed. Solar Fox: I fired it up and was like "ooh, another dot muncher...yay..." That said, I actually really liked it. While not an original concept or anything groundbreaking, and it's not really much to look at, it's much better to play than to watch, that's for sure. Solid, but unremarkable. 5/10 Tunnel Runner: Unfortunately this is another in the "don't yet own" category. Wizard of Wor: I was thinking this was gonna be another Pac-Clone when I fired it up and saw the maze, but man am I glad to have been wrong! The maze is the only similarity. It's like a maze-based shooter and works really well on the hardware. I've never played any other version, so I can't say how it stacks up, but man is it ever a fun game. Sadly, I didn't have anyone handy to play it co-op with, as I feel that this could really be a classic with two players simultaneously working together to beat the Wizard while also competing with each other to get the highest score. Do you kill your friend for an easy 1000 points, or let him live so you may survive the beasts longer? As it is, it's still a damn good game that I'll likely play again! 6/10 (with a potentially higher mark for multiplayer). OVERALL: While only playing 4 of 7 titles doesn't really give the whole picture, when the worst I can say about one of their games is that it's horribly average, I'd say it's one of the better third party publishers on the system IMO. Based on what I've played, I definitely want to get the rest to see what else I'm missing. I wasn't expecting any of these games to be any good going in, so I'm incredibly glad to have been wrong! Overall publisher rating: 7/10 And now for a bit of post-thread analysis: I'm actually having a lot of fun doing these lists, both for the exploration of the 2600 library AND for the sharing of my thoughts on the games themselves. If anyone has any suggestions for good (or bad...I like bad games too for some reason) publishers for the next thread, or perhaps some ideas on breaking down the first party games (so the lists aren't insanely long when it comes time to do them), feel free to mention them along with your thread-related posts! Thanks for reading

I never thought to look for similar threads actually...usually that's the first thing to do, but it seems such breakdowns may not be commonplace anyway. I thought it might be a neat way to go about checking out the library, aside from the stuff that gets all the love of course Glad to hear it's not something that's fully been explored in this way yet though, and that it's interesting to those of you that've been around a lot longer I'll definitely be revisiting a bunch of these games though. I'm mostly going for quick runs to see what I like, but I do want to "beat" every game I own, and many will take a bunch of practice to get to a point that I feel comfortable classifying them as "beaten," so even if I don't like a game, it will most likely see more play time at some point in my lifetime. And really, I can't count the number of times I've initially hated a game that grew into a favorite (or at least got itself off the crap list) after future runs, so I know I may change my tune on some titles at a later date

Interesting to see that I'm in the minority on Mr. Do! Maybe I am a bit harsh on it, but then again I don't like the arcade game at all, and it definitely felt worse to me. Zaxxon was...well, weird. I just couldn't get the hang of it no matter how much I wanted to. I got past the first wall, and a half dozen enemies or so, but I just couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. It looked nice enough, but yeah, I just couldn't figure out what was going on. Kinda makes me want to play other versions though, just to see if it's the game itself I don't like or just this particular port. As for the overall ranking of the publisher, I feel a 4 is justified in that my take is that a 5 is "perfectly average." I felt that, while some of their games were definitely above average in quality, that overall they had more that were either slightly below par or worse. Again, it's based on my personal opinions of the games, as well as not being a complete overview due to some games not working or not being owned. I feel like if Venture and Smurf both worked, the score may well have been higher (I like the Coleco version of Smurf, and the videos I watched of Venture look pretty damn sweet). At the end of the day though, I can only rate what I played, and had to go off of that. Also, I must reiterate that all of these are first impressions (or very close to it). Play time ranged from 5 minutes to half an hour, so some maybe need more time to grow on me, and some may not be as good as they initially seemed. I don't want any of my negative scores to be taken as an in-depth review, because I didn't really play them enough to really feel right doing such reviews. It's just a general idea based on a quick run through a game. I may revisit some at a later date to see how my first impressions stack up down the road. I just thought this might be a fun way to explore the library, and share my thoughts. On a semi-related note, what do you think of this idea in general? I just ran through another publisher stack and was thinking of doing another similar post, but don't really want to waste time if it's not interesting

Oh no, I'm definitely not confusing anything. And I agree, Mr. Do!'s Castle is pure shit as well.

It could just be the settings on your TV. I'm sure if someone cared enough they could adjust their settings to match what yours displays. I just can't imagine anyone would give enough of a crap to do so.

Hey guys! Seeing as I'm a relative noob to the VCS library, yet have a good sized collection (~200 titles), I thought it might be a neat idea to break down the library by publisher and give my thoughts on some of the games as I explore the library, as well as giving people a chance to chime in with their opinions on the same thing. Before we start, I will mention that I am keeping this to retail releases only for both access reasons and simplicity's sake. I will also list every game by the publisher, even if I don't own it or if the game refuses to boot for me. This is more for completion's sake than anything...so people aren't like "what about XXX game?" After a short blurb about each game (where applicable) I will give my overall thoughts on the publisher as a whole. Anyone who wants to do the same, feel free to do so. So without further ado... Berenstain Bears - Don't own. Carnival - While nothing special, I don't mind the game. It's pretty generic, but I never felt truly bored while playing it. Not great, but good. 5/10 Donkey Kong - It's an extremely stripped down port from the arcade, but it looks good, plays well, and still retains the DK "feel." Another board might have made it an above average game, but even with just the two boards it's better than I would've expected. 5/10 Donkey Kong Junior - Well, it looks like it should when you boot it up, but that's the best thing I can say about it. As soon as you start moving it loses that plus. It adds an extra board over DK (good), but shits the bed in every other way. Sounds good though. 2/10 Front Line - Wait a minute, this is a 2600 game? I had no idea they could look this good! And it actually plays fairly well. The movement is a touch slow, and aiming isn't the greatest (although that could be the joystick I used), but all in all this is above and beyond what I was expecting from the VCS! 7/10 Mouse Trap - While I'm not a big fan of Pac-Man or it's clones, I will say that the small twists on the formula definitely help this game. The ability to store pellets until you need them adds a different element to the game, and the doors that switch the layout of the map are a neat plus. Both those elements add depth to an otherwise tired formula and keeps it fresh. 6/10 Mr. Do! - What an abysmal port! While I'm no fan of the arcade game either, this port just plain bastardizes it. Even if you're a fan of the game, this one is in the "avoid" pile. 1/10 Roc 'n Rope - Don't own. Smurfs Save the Day - Don't own. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle - I want to play this, it looks awesome...but unfortunately my cart won't boot :'( Time Pilot - I thought I owned it, but it appears I don't. Venture - Couldn't get the cart to work. A pity, even though it looks like the weakest version, I still think I'll like it. Zaxxon - I'm not sure if it's the port or the game itself, because I've never played Zaxxon on any format before this, but my god this is terrible! Maybe I need practice, but the game sucked. It gets a couple points for the visuals though...it definitely LOOKS good...at least that's something. 2/10 Overall - From what I've played, it would appear that most of their games are either passably decent or utter shit. I have not played anything that strikes me as a great game, and conversely there's quite a few turds to go around. There's enough passable stuff to put Coleco a step above the bottom of the barrel, but not quite enough to give a glowing recommendation. As a whole, I'd say don't avoid them outright, but don't go out of your way to get them either. OVERALL PUBLISHER RATING: 4/10

Well, I fired up a few games last night (had a couple Coleco published carts that wouldn't run, so I fired all of mine up to see if it was a universal issue with the publisher...and it wasn't), and I have to say, while none of them really grabbed me, the 2600 versions of DK Jr and Mr Do! are both utterly terrible. While none of the games I played were gems, those two ended up being the cream of the crap, so to speak. Both of them do the absolute bare minimum with the source material and end up not only playing like ass, but not even getting the "arcade at home" feel right. Donkey Kong may have sucked, but at least it feels like Donkey Kong should. Even Pac-Man still feels like Pac-Man at a fundamental level, for all it's flaws.

Is that a problem that could affect a 6-switch by chance? I forgot to mention that mine is a 6-switch system. It's only the first player difficulty that has the issue, the second player one works fine.

I'm going to bump this because I have the exact same issue, but after popping everything apart, cleaning it, and refitting everything, the switch is STILL stuck in Expert mode. Is there anything else that would do this besides needing a cleaning, because I don't think I can get it much shinier on the inside...

Lamer Gamers has a nice ring to it. That gets my vote!

Indeed!

You'd think the ET graveyard would've proved it, what with all the other super popular and well regarded games that were also buried with E.T. It was one of the top ten best sellers on the VCS, so it was clearly a successful game, even if it wasn't the best. And if people thought Pac-Man was bad, it probably wouldn't have sold well enough to be the top selling VCS games ever. It was poor decisions like overestimating sales potential, coupled with the glut of mediocre copycat titles that were dominating shelves at the time, the rise of home computing, a short-lived recession in the US in '83, and probably a ton of other factors that all contributed to the collapse of the gaming industry. People look for a singular cause, but there wasn't one. No one issue would be enough to sink the industry, but a perfect storm of several seemingly minor contributors all at the same time would certainly do that.

Add me to that list too

I was under the impression that Atari's overproduction was one of the major factors leading up to the crash. I'd even heard E.T. had more copies made than Atari's install base at the time. Assuming that's true, whoever was in charge of that decision should have been shot. I'd like to see where the mass returns were documented, because that just doesn't make much sense to me. It's not like you can return a purchased game to a retailer because the game sucks...you'd have to at least make up that it was defective, and in that case typically they go for an exchange rather than a refund anyway. Anyway, I've always felt that E.T. wasn't too bad, it just would have benefited immensely if the programmer had another week or so to polish it up a bit. And frankly, unlike the bulk of the games being released on the VCS at the time of the crash, it was also a very unique game. For better or worse, it's not like you can find another game entirely like it...and to me, that gives it a HUGE plus. As a side note, for anyone defending their choice of otherwise popular games, know that I feel your pain. I rank SMB3 as one of my worst NES games ever, and have had to explain that more often than I can count to the masses. Don't feel like your opinion is being challenged, just that people are more curious as to why you feel the opposite way from them

Haha I know how you feel there man. I feel the same way about the kids slagging on my favorite games from my childhood because they're "too hard" or "too cryptic" or whatever other crap they spew. And while I can see where Combat would suck for a person sitting on his own playing games themselves, I also know that it's not meant to be played like that. Maybe I'm spoiled having a few friends that would have no problem playing a few rounds of Combat or Outlaw or whatever other 2-player only titles I want to try, but even if I didn't, i wouldn't feel right judging them without playing the games the way they're meant to be played. And even then, I'd want to try as many variations as I could, just to see which ones I enjoyed most. And even if after all that I still decide I don't like the game, the odds of it being one of the worst titles on the system are about as likely as a pink elephant flying through my window. Man, all this talking about the Atari is getting me wanting to fire the old girl up again. I just have to decide whether I want to fix the bunged difficulty switch now or deal with permanent hard mode for a while. On the one hand, getting the patch requirements on Freeway felt awesome when I did it with the game locked into hard mode...on the other hand, I'd like to actually be able to play Astroblast without getting hit every half second

I've finished 21 games for the first time this year, according to my Backloggery page, but many of them were kinda lame completions that I'm not particularly proud of. The highlights for the year though would be the Mass Effect trilogy (although I'd previously finished the first two, I decided to start from scratch before beating #3), Genghis Khan and Nobunaga's Ambition on the NES, getting the final achievements I needed in Chronicles of Mystara (XBLA) to get the full completion, and Curious George (Xbox), which isn't so much a great completion for myself so much as a fun run through a game that I could play with my niece. Honestly, I think I'm more proud of that one because of the time shared with her than any other game I beat this year so far.

I was barely alive during the VCS days, so there's no way I could've had experience with them at the time, but I know what you mean because I've seen it with the NES, which is what I grew up on. Nobody slagged on Castlevania II, SMB2, TMNT, or scores of other games that people seem to love to pick on these days because they were bloody awesome at the time. I wish I actually had the experiences of playing these games when they came out just to know what it was like. But I do try to look at a game based on it's own merits rather than comparing it to other versions. I also realize that, at the time, the game's instructions are required reading in many cases. I mean, anyone can plug in Pac-Man or Space Invaders and know what to do, but something like ET or Raiders of the Lost Ark require an understanding of what is expected of the player, not to mention utilizing unconventional control methods and other oddities. Even the simplest titles would still need the mode chart so you know what variation to switch to if you want to play with a friend, or make the game more difficult, or whatever other things you may need. So yeah, I can't understand why someone would plug a game in, play it for a few minutes, and say "this game sucks" when clearly it's the player getting in over their head for what they were expecting. And I know you weren't singling me out specifically or anything, I just figured I'd point out that despite my relative youth and inexperience with the library, I know I need to take more than a quick blind run with most games in order to properly experience the games. Also, I haven't slept in two days and I tend to ramble when I get sleep deprived, so I just saw an opening and took it Hope I'm not getting boring or redundant

Well, the only two sites I can think of that would fit the bill are Digital Press and RF Generation. Below I've linked directly to the searches for your convenience (although both sites are worth checking out). http://www.digitpress.com/video-game-guide/ http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/search.pl I personally prefer RFG for the ability to add your collection to your user profile, as well as having handy dandy printable checklists, but I'll leave the decision for your preference up to you. Hope at least one is what you were looking for.

I'll take your word on the CoCo version, since I haven't played it, but I do like the NES verison. Then again, I like Conan, Cliffhanger, Back to the Future II & III, Mutant Virus, every Color Dreams game I've played (aka pretty much all of them)...basically, I love "shit" games...or at least I like to find enjoyment in something that most either can't or won't. So in that regard, I guess you can take my opinion with a grain of salt