kirin jensen

For the O2, I'd have to go with Attack of the Time Lord! The sequence of the Time Lord appearing, talking(!) to you and the saucers appearing out of the portal is stunning. And the saucer movement is something that is pretty spiffy compared to most Death From Above games.

Some concepts and gameplay elements require a certain level of hardware capability to render satisfactorily. Plus nice graphics are satisfying to look at in and of themselves. For example, I'd rather watch a cartoon or read a comic book with good drawings, rather than poorly done drawings. Video games, like comic books and cartoons, are a visual medium; the images play a significant part in relaying the experience. Now, I prefer a game with good gameplay and bad graphics to a game with good graphics and bad gameplay, but that doesn't mean graphics are not important. I'd much rather have both good graphics and good gameplay, than solely one or the other. You don't even need terribly powerful hardware for eye pleasing graphics. You just need enough power to give your sprites several colors and some curves (rather than blocks). For example, the lowly (by today's standards) Nintendo Radar Scope hardware from 1980 was capable of making Donkey Kong look good. Nintendo's Popeye and Punch-Out looked awesome, and still do IMO. Bally Midway's MCR-3 hardware (e.g., Tapper, Timber, Demolition Derby, Discs of Tron) was capable of beautiful graphics in 1983. Well, not to poke the stick too far into the bee's nest, but: Scott McCloud covers this very well in Understanding Comics. Often, simplified graphics allow for a much cloder identification of the self with the character onscreen. And frankly, Demon Attack still looks breathtaking on the 2600. But what do I know? I'm still playing on the Odyssey2 I always wanted and never got until the 2000s.

The Odyssey2 could really use more homebrews. It's got quite a few good ones already, but it would be nice to see a Berzerk/Wizard of Wor style game using the Voice, or a Gorf-style shooter. And maybe a Starmasters/Star Raiders-style game. It's really a pity it doesn't have a bigger fanbase.

Sorceror is way more fun than you'd believe. And while people dismiss all the Mythicon games as essentially the same, this is the only one I can play for hours.

Nope, not just you. Atari 2600 Asteroids blows. It's so easy and lame (the asteroids never come at you and their movement is just plain wrong compared to the arcade), it's all I can do to play for more than 5 minutes. There's always UFO! on the O2 if you're wanting more of a challenge.

If anyone ever played it, they'd add Springer for the 2600. Q*bert for the O2 plays amazingly well. Popeye would be a better candidate for worst port on the O2.

I guess I'll just shock everyone by mentioning Defender - either version. AND Kaboom And River Raid.

Hah. I own an O2. I love the O2. The O2 brings out a weird combo of snobby and stupid in collectors. Usually, they'll tell you how much it sucks and how awful it is and then later say how great game (fill in the blank) is - and wouldn't it be awesome on the Atari? Gah.

My new high score! K.C.Munchkin! Game 3 4850

I vote for the version on the Meggy jr, , mentioned in this very forum.

The important thing would be to play it on a mechanical television.

I immediately thought of the 5200, but the controls are problematic at best. So I'll go for the obvious answer: The Vectrex.

I bought an O2 because I'd always wanted one in my teens, and it was worth it. I grew up without a video game console in the house. Though many of my friends had a 2600, from the moment I saw the O2 I wanted one. And not a day goes by that I don't play an O2 game or two (or three).

Wizard of Wor would seem a pretty good fit for the O2, if one can manage to do a 'raster split' just below the bottom of the main map. The CBS version was playable on the 2600 showing two sprites at once; the O2 version could easily push that to four, and if you could manage to do a raster split it could do a nice job with the scanner as well (show two sets of two sprites side by side to show a 16x8 2-colors-plus-black bitmap). It might be possible to do the scanner with a bunch of period characters in close proximity, but I'm not sure the system would render those correctly. The radar, lives and enemies and enemy fire = 12 characters....there are 12 hardware character objects all of which can only use the system font as images. 4 enemies( the men characters) 2 enemy shots at a time(2 periods the same color as the enemy that fire them) 4 enemies radar blips (four period characters) 2 live counts characters( single numeric charcater) The two scores are using the 4 quad character objects. The players and thier missiles are using the 4 image redifinable sprite objects The backdrop is the hardware grid.....not one object need be reused and the result so far aint too shabby if I might say so myself. Please please please tell me you plan to use the Voice for this.

I didn't know that. I do now. Thanks!

I'm aware of the number of objects in crazy chase, I'm just not sure it poses as big a problem for the 2600 as you think it does. Certainly it's got a better chance of being converted in a 2600 game without significant alteration than does Killer Bees or Ufo.

The graphic output isn't the real killer. It's the motion of the beebots.

What? There's not that much in the way of independently-moving objects in Crazy Chase. You have: 1) the dratapillar 2) the drats (two of them) 3) KC that's a total of four objects. Doesn't seem like it would pose much of a problem for the 2600.

Every time this discussion comes up and inevitably turns to the possibility of completely gutting the play mechanics in order to produce a game that only vaguely looks like Killer Bees! it gives O2 owners something to feel smug about.

So far it looks like they're up to #80, and it's looking very...post Nintendo, I guess is how I'd put it. A pre-NES name here and there (I suspect mostly to shut older gamers up), but in the main newer stuff. I have to wonder whether Ralph Baer or Ed Averett will make the list.

I suspect the 'key' might be sticking to the Challenger series of games. And enjoying them as the games they are. If you think of, say, K.C. Munchkin! as being "just like Pac-man", you're going to miss a lot of what makes K.C. Munchkin! so much fun. The games on the O2 may be similar to another popular game, but they often play in ways that make them very unique. So play around with the maze editor on K.C. Munchkin! or K.C.'s Crazy Chase! Enter your name when you get high score. Definitely try some of the homebrews in emulation.

You could have added the Voice as well. It's a pity that the O2 never got a port of Gorf or Wizard of Wor or Sinistar or Berzerk(yeah, I know, we got Amok! - with no Voice support...grr) or Space Fury or... The O2 also has better movement on many of its games. And who doesn't love entering their name when they get the high score.

I think people are coming to terms with the fact that it's not a 2600. Every console of that era gets compared to the 2600, and the O2 was its own beast. When people finally sit down and play the damn thing they realize that a majority of the games are not only playable, but fun! True, it's not as colorful as the 2600, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the good games versus bad games ratio was much higher with the O2 than the 2600. Part of it is also that O2 games are often so different from their source material that they seem disappointing to an Atari fan wanting a game that merely imitates an arcade game. Pick Axe Pete! may be an attempt to imitate what made Donkey Kong great, but they play completely differently and playing PAP like it's DK could leave you with a very unfavorable impression of PAP. Many others look worse for being two-player games that you don't have a second player for: Invaders from Hyperspace,Blockout/Breakdown, Monkeyshines and War of Nerves are all fun two-player experiences, but only as two-player games. Still, the best are often stunning, with great game play, voice synthesis, surprisingly good graphics (check out the Time Lord in Attack of the Time Lord or the explosions in Freedom Fighters or Killer Bees in general), actual level editors and high score entry. Even the homebrews have been a lot of fun.

Have you tried playing with your switches in the Tarkovsky setting? I find that helps...

Nostalgia is a potent drug and too much time spent imbibing it can cause temporary then permanent blindness...