IGN Retro's Top 10 Worst Atari 2600 Arcade Ports

[8th lutz]

http://retro.ign.com/articles/860/860116p1.html

 

Here is the the order and the writers comments about the game:

 

10.) Donkey Kong -The barrels looked like cookies. The hammers were just blips. As for DK himself... who knows what that monstrosity in the upper right corner is actually supposed to be? The 2600 edition of Donkey Kong, first brought home by Coleco, was a dream-killer to any kid that has already spied screens of the Colecovision edition. (I still think this port was a secret commercial for the Colecovision itself.) DK for the 2600 includes only the first two screens and horrible sound effects. At least Mario looked a little like Mario, but that was a small condolence to any kid that was out their allowance.

 

9.) Burgertime- No. Was this game even finished when it shipped in 1982? Look at the burger ingredients? Just slabs of color that blend in with the already icky-looking structure that houses the action. And the fried eggs? They are just squares! The game barely functions, too, with ladders that are extremely touchy when you try to grab on to them and unleashing Chef Peter Pepper's pepper attack freezes the game. No.

 

8.) Zaxxon- Imagine the surprise/horror of popping this isometric shooter into your 2600 and being greeted with a blocky, top-down view. Your ship is now an orange jet fighter. And the mothership stages, which scale like trying to force toothpaste back into the tube, are completely without detail or scale. The entire altimeter mechanic is botched, too, since the new perspective gives you little point of reference. This is one of those situations where, after a few weeks of programming, publisher Coleco should have just absorbed the R&D losses and moved on. Instead, Coleco recouped their investment on the backs of sad children.

 

7.) Defender- Defender actually looks pretty solid on the Atari 2600 -- you can draw a straight line between it and its source material. It's the technical stuff that drives the game into ruin. For example, constant flicker makes it difficult to judge enemy patterns. You can, however, use this flicker to your advantage. Since the game cannot seem to hold both your ship sprite and laser fire, you ship disappears when you shoot. You can use that moment of invisible invincibility to escape tricky situations. The controls were also clumsy. To use the hyperspace or the smart bomb, you had to fly off-screen and then press fire. If you could wrangle out of a tough spot to get off-screen, you were already out of danger.

 

6.) Donkey Kong Jr. -If you thought Donkey Kong was upsetting, Donkey Kong Jr. is a way to test your personal pain threshold. The monstro-DK is back, but look at little Donkey Kong Jr. What even is that? The Snapjaws are deduced to little flapping Ts and there is no fruit to be found anywhere. Eliminating the fruit that you drop on the Snapjaws essentially carves the gameplay in half. What you're left with is a bad platformer with horrible controls, abysmal graphics, and dismal sound effects. Again, this has to be a Manchurian Candidate to get kids to want a Colecovision instead of a 2600.

 

5.) Double Dragon - Instead of harping on the obviously atrocious graphics, the real scorn is heaped on Double Dragon's pathetic control scheme. The Atari 2600 joystick had only one button, so you have to move the stick (which you need to move your hero) in different directions while hitting the fire button to attack. It's a mess. The collision detection is also terrible in Activision's home port, meaning you never quite know if your hit landed until the bad guys responded in kind. By the way -- did you know this game came out in 1989? That's five years after the crash that killed the 2600.

 

4.) Q*bert- One simple technical problem with Q*Bert renders the entire thing unplayable: There are no enemy animations between cubes. They disappear when moving, popping up on an adjacent cube without notice. This makes it impossible to play a fair game, especially on the highest difficulty setting. As for the visuals, it could be said the Parker Bros. did the best they could in 1983. But there is an element of generosity in such a concession.

 

3.) Reactor- Reactor was a tough-as-nails arcade where you used a track ball to move your ship around a reactor core, bouncing enemy particles into the walls while avoiding the walls yourself. On the Atari 2600, the Parker Bros. 1983 port looks atrocious and controls even worse. Swirling around the reactor, trying to hit cooling rods is an exercise in futility -- the joystick just isn't up for it. You constantly slam into obstacles when going to the needed bumps. I can imagine this game sent a lot of broken Atari 2600 joysticks into the nation's landfills.

 

2.) Tutankham- Here's an arcade port -- again, from parker Bros. -- with bad visuals and horrible controls. Itty-bitty enemies slither around a very bright and ugly maze while your hero hunts for treasure. Because you can only shoot to the left or right (and only while moving), you are constantly at risk of being popped from below. And with crappy collision detection coupled with bad flicker, this happens quite often. Bad ports like this help take a little luster of the Golden Age of Videogames.

 

1.) Rampage- Another late 2600 port from Activision, 1989's Rampage is just mind-bogglingly un-fun. There was certainly a real effort to replicate the arcade game here -- but the 2600 just isn't up to the job and Activision should have known that... and thusly quit. Instead, this dirty trick of a port throws up some horrible graphics (nice buildings) and bad collision. Climbing up a building is a pain since you have to find just the right spot, and the big blocky visuals give no clues. Your monster looks nothing like the arcade game, but at least there is a stab at animation here. As one of the last Atari 2600 games, Rampage shows that the limitations of the machine were stretched well beyond the breaking point five years after the crash.

[Nognir]

I personally like Rampage very much.

 

But I really dislike Zaxxon, which should have a "higher" rating in this Top 10!

[Gregory DG]

Um... Where's Pac-Man? It's even part of the main screen graphic!

 

Oh, and I was totally expecting Congo Bongo to be #1, but it isn't even mentioned. Are these guys even TRYING?

Edited March 18, 2008 by Gregory DG

[Vic George 2K3]

They make Donkey Kong sound worse than it actually is.

[Lord Helmet]

That's actually a pretty decent list, though I'd put Pac-Man on there instead of Qbert.

 

I actually really enjoy Qbert on the 2600.

[Deteacher]

10.) Donkey Kong -The barrels looked like cookies. The hammers were just blips. As for DK himself... who knows what that monstrosity in the upper right corner is actually supposed to be?

 

It's hard to take someone seriously when they don't know their right from their left.

 

Seriously, though, I disagree with most of this article. Most of the games he talks about aren't really that bad, once you took some time to really understand how to play the game. I loved Zaxxon, Defender and even Donkey Kong. Now, I will agree that DK Jr is pretty rough around the edges, but who am I to say they could have done better? Maybe he should sit down with the exact same equipment they used back in the 80's and lets see if he can do a better job. My money would be on "no, he couldn't."

[NE146]

My vote has always gone to Amidar. Worst port ever

 

Defender on the other hand, was a GREAT port despite what everyone thinks now with 'retrovision'. In it's time (which is when it counted really), it rocked.

 

And I fully dispute Q-Bert. in my opinion it is the ONE 2600 arcade port you could actually practice at home, and with those skills actually get better at the arcade game. And that's what we were all looking for then, a way to play the arcade games at home. Q-Bert is the only one that benefitted your skills in the real thing I actually can't think of any other 2600 arcade port that can claim that...

[Atari5200]

i don't really take stuff like this into consideration when comparisons are made to 2600 games, especially arcade conversions. It was the 2600 for god sakes, what the hell did you expect? Yeah the games may be ugly, but Donkey Kong and JR are fun imo, as was Defender and Zaxxon. Again, what the hell do you expect from the 2600?

 

I too am in shock that Pac-man did not make the list. I guess the "what the hell do you expect from the 2600" may have been taken into consideration for Pac-man.

[ScottHuggins]

Reactor as a port .... well, *maybe*. But as an Atari 2600 game, it was GREAT fun.

[Tempest]

How the hell did Reactor make that list? I think it's one of the best 2600 games! Tutankham isn't one of the 2600's best games, but it's certainly not one of the worst!

 

The thing with no enemy animation between cubes in Q*Bert always bothered me, but then again I had the 8-bit version as well so I didn't spend much time with the 2600 version...

 

Tempest

[DaveD]

Yeah, Pac Man belongs on that list for sure, if not in the number one spot. I read stuff like that and I just picture a twenty-something sitting behind his computer typing away and his only real experience with the 2600 is what they've read online or through emulators.

[+DamonicFury]

I'm really glad to see Defender, Reactor, and Q*bert shown some love in this thread... these were great ports for their time. Defender and Reactor were actually big favorites of mine back in the day. The rest of the list... yeah, those are some real dogs.

[vdub_bobby]

Tutankham isn't a great game, and it's a fairly poor port, but the coin-op original only allowed left-right shooting!

 

Of course, the coin-op also scrolled left-right, so he does have a point...

[Shannon]

http://retro.ign.com/articles/860/860116p1.html

 

2.) Tutankham- Because you can only shoot to the left or right (and only while moving), you are constantly at risk of being popped from below. And with crappy collision detection coupled with bad flicker, this happens quite often. Bad ports like this help take a little luster of the Golden Age of Videogames.

The arcade only allowed you to shoot right and left as well...

[Tempest]

I'm really glad to see Defender, Reactor, and Q*bert shown some love in this thread... these were great ports for their time. Defender and Reactor were actually big favorites of mine back in the day. The rest of the list... yeah, those are some real dogs.

 

It's almost like it really isn't a port, but a completely different game. Everything has been so simplified that it really doesn't play like the arcade version. That being said, I grew up with the 2600 version and didn't even know there was an arcade version until years later. I still like the 2600 version better for some reason, maybe because it is so simple...

 

Still, the 2600 could have done much better. Look at the O2 port! That system had even more limitations!

 

Tempest

[Warriorisabouttodie]

They make Donkey Kong sound worse than it actually is.

 

I agree, Donkey Kong could of been a lot better, but it is still fun to play. Why so negative anyway? They should of made a top 10 best arcade to 2600 conversions.

Edited March 19, 2008 by Warriorisabouttodie

[aftermac]

So, essentially this guy is saying that Pac Man is a better port than Donkey Kong?!? Please...

[godzillajoe]

I view 2600 ports like movies that are "based on" books

[Foxsolo2000]

I agree with the list save for Q-Bert, excellent conversion in my view. Amidar, now that should have been number 1 and Pac Man should have been on there somewhere

[godzillajoe]

Q*bert was a great port but the "jump through Coily" trick kills the replay value a bit. You can pretty much never die.

 

Most of the games on that list are not really that bad.

 

Burgertime definitely belongs on there though

[Gregory DG]

Here's my list (in no particular order)

 

Pac-Man

Burgertime

Congo Bongo

DK Jr.

Zaxxon

Time Pilot

Mr. Do's Castle

Roc 'n' Rope

 

Shoot, I can't even get to 10.

[Tempest]

Here's my list (in no particular order)

 

Pac-Man

Burgertime

Congo Bongo

DK Jr.

Zaxxon

Time Pilot

Mr. Do's Castle

Roc 'n' Rope

 

Shoot, I can't even get to 10.

 

Time Pilot and Roc n Rope? Seriously?

 

Also, am I the only one who liked Amidar? Not the best conversion out there, but I had fun with it as a kid.

 

Tempest

[DaveD]

I kinda liked (and still like) Amidar too. It's a fairly simple concept and most of the gameplay is still there. And the original is no graphic spectacle either.

[+Ransom]

I think the Atari 2600 port of Amidar is fine. It's not on my top 10 best list, but it's a decent game.

 

(And I agree that the author of this article had no idea what he was talking about.)

Edited March 18, 2008 by Ransom

[Godzilla]

man, wtf. i loved time pilot, rock n rope, q*bert, defender, and especially tut and reactor. I still think what tut pulls off on the 2600 is impressive and the game is just huge. Reactor, I agree, is definitely one of the better 2600 games, period.

 

I certainly agree that zaxxon is a poor port of the arcade game (though I never liked the arcade game, I found it too deliberately hard,) I'm probably one of the few that actually likes the 2600 version. Imho, it somehow still captured the gameplay.

 

Another funny thing, as much as I hated (and still hate,) 2600 donkey kong, one of the few 2600 games that just didn't capture the fun and gameplay of the arcade game it was based on, imho, I was really impressed with DK jr. It may have looked horrible, but it had three out of the four screens and the gameplay, I enjoyed (back then,) wonder what I'd think of it now...