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DoctorSpuds
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Posts posted by DoctorSpuds
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Just popping back in at the mention of terrible PAL Games.
After a brief rummage through Atarimania I have these gems to taint your emulators/harmony carts with. (With Links!)
To be honest I got all of these from a single publisher, Suntek. Admittedly Suntek lifted a good chunk of their games from Homevision, but due to Homevision's games being impossible to acquire I have to defer to these guys as the more common option.
Dragon Defender: Astroblast on its side with terrible collision, sounds, and difficulty.
Farmyard Fun: Half the name is a lie, guess which one. A mixture of Challenge from Zellers and Pac-Man with no walls. The sounds are atrocious and is an overall painful game to play.
Mole Hunter: Whack-a-mole, except you're slow as a brick and can barely hit the moles. Eventually the moles escape the holes and run around the screen, unfortunately you are the aforementioned.
Parachute: The first round is alright bar the awful sounds but the second round makes the game unplayable. The obstacles shift diagonally upward across the screen, which means they will emerge from beneath you when you're on the edge of the screen and kill you. They also maintain their positions across the screens so if you exit the bottom of the screen directly beneath where an obstacle is on the top of the screen then you're guaranteed to lose a life upon entering the next screen. Good concept, crap execution.
Treasure Island: A unique dodg'em game where you control a pirate ship and blow away obstacles with a player controlled cannon. The controls for aiming the cannon are a bit unintuitive but you can get the hang of them, too bad actually hitting anything is near impossible. A hit will only register if the cannonball hits an obstacle at the point of landing which is nearly impossible to do as everything is moving at wildly varying speeds. Luckily for you the enemy shots operate on the same logic so you can just blow past them without firing and collect the end of level reward.
UFO Patrol: Just dismal. The idea is solid, it could actually be a decent game with some serious polish. Unfortunately everything moves too fast, the collision is dreadful, and the difficulty spike on level two, where half the playfield is obscured, makes the game impossible. The game is a friggin' precision shooter, make sure the shooting is fine-tuned and that the second level doesn't make the things you're shooting invisible!
Firebug: The controls kill this game completely and utterly. Even if you can figure them out the game you wind up getting was not worth the hassle.
As far as I can tell none of these games were released in any capacity in North America, heck it seems even the South American publishers ignored these. None of them are good, the few that have decent concepts are destroyed by their terrible executions of said concepts. I will give these games credit for having, at times, very impressive graphics, not quite Xonox levels but still quite colorful and complex... at times. All of these games feel like they were programmed over a weekend by somebody who should've known better.
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26 minutes ago, insertclevernamehere said:
What is it with Parker Bros? You knew where you were with most publishers. They either did mostly good games with an occasional duff one or they were mostly bad with the occasional good one. Sometimes you got publishers where ALL their games were good or all were bad. But with Parker Bros, it could swing either way. You had about a 50/50 chance of the game turning out good or total garbage. I don't think any other publisher was quite so regularly inconsistent in the quality department as them.
I think it was usually a case of biting off more than they could chew. If you look at their game library they probably have one of the most ambitious lineups on the system with a huge amount of arcade conversions and licensed IP's. We all know that the 2600 is spotty at best when it comes to quality arcade conversions and that spottiness hits Parker Bros pretty hard. I'd say the simple fact that they managed to get those games working on the system is impressive enough even if a good chunk of them are subpar.
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Ooh! This is a toughie.
In regards to raw resale value it's a pretty solid deal.
A 4-Switch woody is, as far as I can tell, the most common of the 2600 variations. And while you did say it was complete there are a few things that usually slip under the radar, mainly the paperwork, the cardboard inserts for the console and controllers, and the pack-in. If the system is CIB with inserts, paperwork, and Combat then you'd be looking at prolly 100$ as a fair in-person asking price on the low end. Due to the minimal edge wear and incredibly clean front I don't think it would be asking too much to add another 25 bucks to that.
So IMO the CIB system is worth what they're asking for it and the games.
As for the games:
They're all incredibly common games and judging from their condition they're all within the realm of 8-15 dollars each, probably less even depending on who you talk to.
The real problem is playing them.
Surround is really a two player game with limited single player options unless you like minimalist Pixelart. Warlords is a four player game at it's heart and is really difficult to play with fewer people than that. That also means you need to get another set of paddles (If you don't have one already.) Indy 500 can be played single player but is best with two and you have to deal with the hassle of getting driving controllers (Again, if you don't have a set already.) Asteroids and Skiing? Yeah I don't have anything to say about those.
All in all that's at least a 150$ lot if the system is as complete and as clean as you say. Unfortunately of the six games, including the metaphorical Combat four are multiplayer and one needs a pair of specialty controllers. So playwise it may not be as good a deal as if you were to just resell it yourself, unless you have some friends who really like Atari.
Prices shift quite a bit, with boxed consoles especially so in a few years, or weeks, my guess on the value of this might look really stupid. But considering the 2600 is trending a bit higher than usual value-wise I think this would be a pretty good impulse purchase.
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Mmmm, I love the final revision Data Age catalog, so much effort, but coming way too late to save them from bankruptcy.
You also gotta love their coming soon page in the back.
Too bad the least interesting of the four was the one they actually started work on.
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Well this is off to a bad start
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This show was on all of the drugs
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Post whatever the hell you want, I don't really give a shit.
Just don't be racist, that's where I'm gonna draw the line.
If ya'll actually start posting here then this is gonna get real toxic so just don't get too offended and start complaining.
As evidenced by the second post ya'll got no chill. Spam and whatever the fuck that is is heavily frowned upon.
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1 hour ago, BassGuitari said:
What am I, some kind of animal?
Perhaps...
3 hours ago, chewy said:only one i wont have on cart now will be Tomarc- still confused on playabilityof that one (am not alone
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You gotta be in the right mood for Tomarc and if anything its best left as a conversation starter about Xonox or just bad/unenjoyable games on the system in general.
It's definitely not the worst but probably doesn't clear the bottom 30.
I'm finding myself growing very apathetic to most Parker Brothers games, I consider Amidar and Sky Skipper to be rather appalling and James Bond 007 is a disaster.
They have some excellent games, don't get me wrong, but most of them fall into the realm of "meh" which might be worse. I'll actively play bad games to laugh at them but I'll never play Popeye or Star Wars or Frogger 'cause they don't make me feel anything.
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25 minutes ago, Atariperson23 said:
Is this Motocross Racer? Plays more like Enduro than Spike's Peak.
Nope. That's one of the more unique PAL region games most commonly found from companies like Quelle and Rainbowvision. It does exists in NTSC supposedly from several smaller South American publishers but there isn't much detail on Atarimania about them.
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1 minute ago, BassGuitari said:
Yeah, but when you get tired of those, it's fun to play something weird. ?
(...Foot? ?)
Yeah. Put the console on the floor, the cords are long enough, and operate the whole thing with your foot. If you have an UNO or Harmony cart you won't even have to bend down to swap carts.
On the thread topic of terrible games I challenge everybody to find anything redeemable in Bomb's The Great Escape, I can't make any sense of it.
Also... Opinions on any of Avalon Hill's games, they've all struck me as "interesting but not in a fun way."
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3 hours ago, GoldLeader said:
They allowed the fire button to start the game.
37 minutes ago, BassGuitari said:That, in conjunction with having to hit the Reset Switch on the console every time you die. That's especially annoying when you're learning the game and dying a lot.
Foot
but don't play the game there are better games to play
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Okay, I'm shocked we've overlooked them so far...
Strawberry Shortcake: Musical Mashups: It's got graphics and nothing much else. If PB had done something like Smurfs with it then it would have been golden, but all you get is matching.
Pooyan: Any other version on any other system is preferable to the 2600 version.
Sub Scan: It almost can't be classified as a game.
Final Approach: Quaaludes the videogame.
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1 hour ago, Atariperson23 said:
By the way, which company was Starsoft? They're mentioned in a couple of websites and videos, but they're not on Atarimania or Atariage.
Looks like Starsoft falls in with Quelle and Rainbowvision with a lineup of similar games with different titles. They also snatched a Technovision game or two so it seems they had fewer scruples than some others. Looking at the cartridge design it looks like the standard Quelle Taiwan/S.S. style so the only likely distinguishing factor is the boxes that are probably all decomposed by now.
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1 hour ago, Atariperson23 said:
Speaking of which, I wonder what the 10 worst PAL games would be...
Unfortunately many terrible PAL games also had NTSC releases from the likes of Panda, ZiMAG, Froggo, and Zellers, with many (even) smaller companies like K-Tel Vision and Ultravision releasing incredibly rare and hard to find games in the NTSC format. If one really wants to dredge to bottom of the barrel then they can go through the Taiwan Cooper bootlegs and find many games not released officially in NTSC, they can also be found on the many South and Central American releases where copyright wasn't enforced as tightly. One can easily find most all the releases by Bit Corporation in these forms.
If you want to see some games that can't easily be found in NTSC territories I'd recommend going through Atarimania
Some publishers that are definitely worth looking into though are:
- Bit Corporation
- Hertie/Quelle/Rainbowvision: Very similar libraries of games
- ITT Family Games/Homevision
- Technovision
- Hi-Score/Action Hi-Tech
- The entirety of the Australian market just for the variety.
There's so much weird crap out there, you just need to dig deep enough to uncover it.
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Aha! Something I can contribute to!
I saw it mentioned before that PAL games should be ignored due to their obscurity but I won’t hold back because of that. I’m also a big fan of obscure somewhat unknown games that are floating in the videogame ether so I’ll be sure to mention some of those. I’m also excluding the launch titles because that’s really low hanging fruit, even compared to what I’m picking. Also no Mythicon for the same reasons as the launch titles.
1: I know this is cheating but Froggo in its entirety, otherwise almost half of the list would be taken up by their games alone, this also exempts much of Panda’s library unfortunately. Several of these games were originally released in PAL regions.
· Spiderdroid is just Amidar with the difficulty jacked up.
· Task Force is just Gangster Alley from Spectravision (not the most enjoyable of games in the first place) with nasty graphics.
· Cruise Missile has some of the jankiest shooting mechanics ever constructed.
· Sea Hawk is actually alright in short bursts.
· Sea Hunt is painful on the eyes and ears and all too easy to cheese.
· Karate – Karate.
2: I’m cheating again! ZiMAG. They licensed their games from Bit Corporation who had a large presence in Europe. Too bad they never got Pizza Chef out the door.
· Cosmic Corridor is like if Chase the Chuckwagon was made into a shooter. Honorable mention to Chase the Chuckwagon
· Dishaster is entirely pointless and is simply a mundane act of maintaining patterns.
· I Want My Mommy is inferior to its European release lacking the voice sample, and is just Donkey Kong but janky.
· Tanks but No Tanks it’s a guilty pleasure game for me so I’m very biased.
3: Imma cheat one more time! Bomb! Dismal, obscure, and rare, are the only three words this company should be associated with. Again... more common in PAL regions.
· Z-Tack is just reverse Atlantis with stiff controls and an inhuman difficulty spike.
· Great Escape is the ghost of Sinistar on crack.
· Wall Defender… I’d prefer not to think about Wall Defender.
4: Skeet Shoot. It was a tech demo side project that was commercially released for whatever reason. There is almost no skill involved and your experience revolves entirely around where you’re placed on screen and the direction the skeet moves, which is random in the standard mode. Bland, lifeless, and lacking in fun.
5:Death Trap. Frankly it’s a bit of a tossup which of Avalon Hills games are the worst but I’m picking Death trap because it commits the cardinal sin of boredom. It moves slow and even when it gets a bit of energy going it winds up being frustrating. The most lifeless space shooter on the 2600.
6: Word Zapper. I was considering Sneak ‘n’ Peek but this just barely edges out. It starts confusing and ends boring when you finally figure out what to do; there is just no fun to be had. It could be passed as education software but I think there is enough of a ‘game’ tucked away for it to be considered as one.
7: Bugs. It’s a nasty little Paddle shooter that quickly grows unfairly difficult. Couple that with some of the most misleading packaging ever devised and you have a recipe for disappointment. Ties with Sssnake as the worst Data Age game.
8: Entombed. It’s a neat vertically scrolling mirrored maze tech demo that they turned into a game. You see everything it has to offer after the first level and all you wind up getting is a faster scrolling speed after each level until it is actually impossible to play. If there is a plateau in difficulty then it is located far past the realms of human reaction times.
9: Spike’s Peak. It’s a visual marvel but a confusing difficult mess to play. You need to manual to even have a basic understanding of what the heck is going on and how to get past it. It’s also the only game I know of where you can die on the ‘victory’ screen, how’s that for a slap in the nuts?
10: Walker/Schussel, der Polizistenschreck. Words don’t do it justice, you need to play it to believe it.
I could keep this list going on way longer if I wanted to but the title of the post said 10 and I’m already at 20 so I think I’ll stop there. I’d recommend playing all these games for yourself to see how my assessments stand.
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Sears Big Sexy
Serial #:68193U
Made in Sunnyvale
Currently owned by DoctorSpuds, Madsion, WI.
No Channel Slot but has a Channel Switch
Works but I would rather not use due to bad luck with Light Sixers.
Found in parts in local game store basement. Boards likely aren’t original, a bit of a Frankenstein’s Monster. If wondering, these were the only loose Sixer boards in the basement the rest were housed in broken machines. CX-10 Controllers and Power Supply are originals. The Sears Paddles and console box were acquired later.
“Sears Reconditioned” But that probably doesn’t matter all that much due to the –probably- unoriginal boards.
Have some low quality pictures:
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No competition for me.
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Spectravision has my vote for worst labels. Excellent design but the silver aesthetic makes the ink wear off incredibly easily and any and all damage is shown clear as day. The same goes for Imagic labels but at least they have a simple shape and are quite a bit more durable. Don't even bother with trying to cleanly remove a Spectravision label, they're thin and will rip incredibly easily.
As for worst art there are a load to choose from. My vote is for Bit Corporation, the art is amateurish and sloppy, with some of it looking like it was made with sharpies over a couple of hours. I'm not sure if they qualify but the Taiwan Cooper games also have some pretty out there artwork. the TC version of Karate's artwork is literally colored pencil and sharpie
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Hands down it has to be Space Cavern for me. It's your standard move-around-the-bottom-of-the-screen-and-shoot-at-things game but the graphics coupled with the sounds make for something special. It'd say that both Shark Attack/Lockjaw and Infiltrate are pretty decent as well, though more in short bursts.
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16 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:
Bumper Bash
I got a Bumper Bash too!
Following that is probably:
Chase the Chuck Wagon
Guardian
Death Trap
Quest for Quintana Roo
Robin Hood/Sir Lancelot Double Ender
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I have never seen a copy of Slot Machine loose or otherwise, and for the longest time I couldn't find Frogs & Flies, when I did get one it was dead.
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This is what kids watch these days. I wish I could say I was disappointed.
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If I were forced to describe the Internet with one video it would have to be...
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Top 10 Worst Games on the 2600 (In my Opinion)
in Atari 2600
Posted
At a guess I'd say a lot of these obscure publishers were affected heavily by region. And due to their dubious legality I'd say they were also limited to very few stores. Some of them may be akin to own-brand toys and things found in dollar/pound stores, a bit like the Zellers releases, and others were likely only advertised in magazines as mail-order only. Some of the bootleggy brands were actually fairly prolific, especially in Germany with Quelle and its design subsidiaries, you can't find a single game lot on ebay.de that doesn't have one or two Quelle games in it. The possible creator of most of the games I listed, Homevision, only seemed to have a presence in France and Italy, and a pretty small one too despite how many stores they have listed in their ads. (Fun fact, according to their mailing address in their advertisements they were a Belgian company based in Brussels.) The same holds true in North America for the more established publishers, I'm sure a few folks on the forum can confirm that they never saw at least one or two well established publishers until after the fact because the stores around them just didn't carry them.
As far as I can tell you exposure to certain pockets of the library is based entirely on luck and where you live.