which arcade ports got it "right" ?

[godzillajoe]

There were a bunch that were bad and a bunch that were great.

 

And let's disregard the Pong era games

 

Dig Dug.

 

Aside from graphics, nothing was missing from that game

 

Pac-Man of course was a disaster with the maze completely changed, awful sound effects (though ironically these days the 'definitive' video game sound in commercials), a vitamin instead of fruits and snacks etc.

 

Q*bert had no Ugg or Wrongway but was still damn good.

 

DK was decent but missing two screens

 

Frogger seemed to have it all.

 

So which games got it 100% "right" and which despite their changes were just as enjoyable or dare I say, better?

 

I'll throw Space Invaders out there because I feel that one will get a lot of responses.

[Animan]

Bezerk Was fantastic, but missing the synthesizer speech.

 

Jungle Hunt was pretty good.

 

Stargate/Defender 2 was WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY better than Defender 1.

 

Missile Command was fun, but no Trak Ball support

 

Mousetrap was severely handicapped in graphics compared to other versions, but arguably more fun.

 

Personally, i am a big fan of Zaxxon's gee-wiz 3D. Weird, but fun.

 

Carnival was decent.

 

...Tutankhan...SUCKED!!!!

 

Night Driver Is god awesome, and that car is amazing. I wish i had a car that was like that...

 

Jr. Pac Man more than makes up for 2600 Pac Man. Forget Ms. Pac Man.

 

There may be a few i'm missing, but oh well.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Animan

[xybot67]

Tapper and Time Pilot seemed to have gotten it right.

[Animan]

Tapper and Time Pilot seemed to have gotten it right.

Man, how did i forget Tapper?

[Deteacher]

Moon Patrol deserves to be on this list. I don't think you can get much closer, IMO.

[homerwannabee]

OK, I know I am really biased, but I think Galaxian's port was actually better than the arcade version. True the yellow box on the outside is kind of ugly, but the game itself was a technical marvel on the 2600.

[aftermac]

Joust is pretty decent... even with floating eggs and no lava troll.

 

Centipede isn't a bad port.

 

Crystal Castles, considering the 2600's limitations is decent.

[godzillajoe]

Joust is pretty decent... even with floating eggs and no lava troll.

 

Centipede isn't a bad port.

 

Crystal Castles, considering the 2600's limitations is decent.

 

Centipede is a great port despite the GFX

 

That one should have been a pack-in for the trakball, with true tb support

 

Millipede is an OMFG$#@! port

 

That game is intense

[brojamfootball]

Phoenix was pretty good for its time.

 

Although I now find Night Driver boring, I loved it back in the day and it actually expanded on the arcade game.

Same with Space Invaders--arguably the first real "killer app."

 

Joust--managed to have pretty good graphics while really preserving the feel of the arcade game--you can almost feel the inertia when changing directions. The floating egg thing is a drag but overall impressive port for 2600.

 

Warlords accommodated four players for true preservation of the arcade game mechanics. Great version of a great game.

 

I am also fond of Star Trek. Although it is a slightly watered-down version of its vector graphics arcade counterpart, and like many 2600 arcade ports suffers from the Atari joystick button shortage, it's one of the few, precious 2600 titles that manage to use lower resolution versions of the arcade icons and sprites with great success. The splitscreen-style interface looks pretty darn nice, too.

 

Asteroids was a classic one. The graphics were just good enough to work and the game was fun. So what if it was much easier than the arcade game? Tons of game variations change difficulty as well as many other options.

[Zwackery]

I very much like Reactor. Parker Bros. managed to suggest the rocking guitars that blasted from the coin-op, the basic game play was pretty much intact, and the only major difference was that you really couldn't use a true trackball like the coin-op (but in some ways, I prefer the joystick on this one).

 

Graphically, Amidar was primitive compared to its coin-op counterpart, but the basic game play was pretty easy to replicate.

 

Omega Race wasn't too bad, but Wizard of Wor is rather well done.

 

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom was a lot better on the Colecovision as were BurgerTime, Bump'n'Jump, and Spy Hunter.

 

The basic game play of Road Runner was there, but the cartoon graphics of the arcade game were sorely missed.

 

[borntorun]

I think that the port of Star Wars: The Arcade Game is fantastic. Pole Position is pretty good. I also think that Kung-Fu Master is impressive in terms of how much of the arcade game is captured.

[Thorsten Günther]

I have to disagree with you on Q*Bert and Donkey Kong, IMHO these translations are abominable, esp. in comparison to the acceptable (Q*Bert) and great (DK) versions on the A8. Mario's moves and the whole play mechanics feel "wrong" in the VCS version, and the choppy animation in Q*Bert is a major turnoff (and could IMHO have been done way better, cf. "Quick Step").

 

Dig Dug and Space Invaders are great, as you already mentioned.

 

Ms. Pac-Man

Jr. Pac-Man

Warlords/Medieval Mayhem

Stargate aka Defender II

Centipede

Millipede

Missile Command

Mouse Trap

Mr. Do!

Berzerk

Pole Position

 

Thorsten

[+save2600]

OK, I know I am really biased, but I think Galaxian's port was actually better than the arcade version. True the yellow box on the outside is kind of ugly, but the game itself was a technical marvel on the 2600.

 

Right-on, what was up with the border on that game? Total nonsense if you ask me. It's supposed to take place in outer space,

not inside a spoiled pumpkin

 

On top of all the others mentioned: Gyruss, Pole Position, Popeye, Star Trek, Klax, Outlaw, Space War, Star Wars Arcade, Venture,

Solar Fox, Xenophobe, Crystal Castles, Blue Print, Pooyan - ALL of these are quite admirable ports in terms of gameplay and

general effort put forth to squeeze the arcade experience into an Atari 2600 cart.

 

...and the totally incredible Track & Field got it right in just about all arenas (pun intended). Especially when you

consider it even had its own special arcade controller.

[Rybags]

In some ways, Space Invaders on the 2600 was superior to all other versions.

 

Asteroids... pretty good but constrained by the mainly vertical rock movement and only 2 player shots onscreen.

 

Missile Command... enjoyable but let down somewhat by inability to display more objects and explosions.

 

Super Breakout... not a direct aracde port but I rate it as one of the best 2600 games.

[HP Atari King of Michigan]

Let's see:

 

Ms. Pac-Man

Dig Dug

Kangaroo

Donkey Kong (although the gameplay gets a little repetitive after a while)

Centipede

Millipede

Frogger (especially the Starpath version)

[VectorGamer]

Bezerk Was fantastic, but missing the synthesizer speech.

 

Jungle Hunt was pretty good.

 

Stargate/Defender 2 was WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY better than Defender 1.

 

Missile Command was fun, but no Trak Ball support

 

Mousetrap was severely handicapped in graphics compared to other versions, but arguably more fun.

 

Carnival was decent.

 

...Tutankhan...SUCKED!!!!

 

Night Driver Is god awesome, and that car is amazing. I wish i had a car that was like that...

 

Jr. Pac Man more than makes up for 2600 Pac Man. Forget Ms. Pac Man.

 

 

I agree with most of your dead-on picks...but...

 

Mouse Trap - my 2600 joystick is missing the four buttons required to play this game effectively.

 

Carnival - it's OK but maybe I can't get over how the CV version is near arcade-perfect.

 

Night Driver - dreadful! I used to play the arcade version a ton and this version is awful...it epitomizes why people scoff at the 2600 graphics/audio

[VectorGamer]

Moon Patrol deserves to be on this list. I don't think you can get much closer, IMO.

 

Much closer on the 2600 or any system?

 

I didn't like Moon Patrol until I played the C64 version (I never played Moon Patrol in the arcade or on any other system) which is fantastic. Having a new found respect for the game, I revisited the 2600 port and I agree it is a very good port.

 

Is someone still working on a "Moon Patrol Arcade" hack?

[VectorGamer]

OK, I know I am really biased, but I think Galaxian's port was actually better than the arcade version. True the yellow box on the outside is kind of ugly, but the game itself was a technical marvel on the 2600.

 

Better than the arcade? No way... Not even better than the ColecoVision version which I believe is the best port of this particular title (written by Atarisoft no less).

 

But, way better than that C64 POS or the version released for the 5200.

 

I love Galaxian Arcade and even though the 2600 versions are not as good as the arcade or CV version, they are very good ports. This is a case where the graphics are good enough and do not take away from the game play. Easily one of the better ports released for the 2600.

[NE146]

Definitely agree with most of what's said above.. I love Reactor

 

Bezerk Was fantastic, but missing the synthesizer speech.

.. and the diagonal shots from the robots. Although the speech was of course later added thanks to homebrew/hacks (and diagonal shots to a lesser extent)

 

Graphically, Amidar was primitive compared to its coin-op counterpart, but the basic game play was pretty easy to replicate.

They coulda sped it up a bit though.. thankfully that was fixed via a hack as well.

 

I have to disagree with you on Q*Bert and Donkey Kong, IMHO these translations are abominable, esp. in comparison to the acceptable (Q*Bert) and great (DK) versions on the A8. Mario's moves and the whole play mechanics feel "wrong" in the VCS version, and the choppy animation in Q*Bert is a major turnoff (and could IMHO have been done way better, cf. "Quick Step").

 

I totally disagree with you on Q-Bert. While the 2600 version is indeed choppy (and ugly), and missing some enemies, the gameplay of it is completely faithful. It's faithful to the point that I got better at the actual arcade game from practicing the 2600 version. There is almost NO OTHER 2600 game that can make that claim I think. Like you could master 2600 Space Invaders, walk into the arcade and completely suck at the original. Anyway, just my opinion

[VectorGamer]

Joust is pretty decent... even with floating eggs and no lava troll.

 

Centipede isn't a bad port.

 

Crystal Castles, considering the 2600's limitations is decent.

 

 

All three of these are good and I never played Crystal Castles until about a month ago and found it to be a really cool game.

 

My only beef with Centipede is that I wish they would have done a better job on the cannon - it's a rectangle that reminds me of Mini Golf.

 

I find Joust to be tough because you may notice compared to other versions how tight it is between the platforms.

[mcjakeqcool]

None of them. The first consoles to get it right were in the 7800/NES era, altough for Arcade perfect ports, you're looking at the likes of the Neo Geo, FM Towns Marty or even the cd32.

[VectorGamer]

Phoenix was pretty good for its time.

 

Asteroids was a classic one. The graphics were just good enough to work and the game was fun. So what if it was much easier than the arcade game? Tons of game variations change difficulty as well as many other options.

 

Phoenix and Asteroids were both well-received at the time of their release.

 

The 2600 Asteroids in its own right is a good game. However, as a port I cannot shake the fact that the arcade is vector and along with the audio effects and degree of difficulty it is a totally different experience that the 2600 port cannot measure up to.

[VectorGamer]

 

Graphically, Amidar was primitive compared to its coin-op counterpart, but the basic game play was pretty easy to replicate.

 

 

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom was a lot better on the Colecovision as were BurgerTime, Bump'n'Jump, and Spy Hunter.

 

 

What bugs me about Amidar is how slow our guy moves. I would love to see someone do an "Amidar Arcade" - if anything just to speed things up around the same pace as Pepper II.

 

BurgerTime on the 2600 is absolutely dreadful. If you have to ask what the graphics are supposed to be, it's not good.

[VectorGamer]

I think that the port of Star Wars: The Arcade Game is fantastic. Pole Position is pretty good. I also think that Kung-Fu Master is impressive in terms of how much of the arcade game is captured.

 

A lot of folks dog Pole Position but I believe the ports that they did for the 2600 and the 7800 are pretty good...

[VectorGamer]

I have to disagree with you on Q*Bert and Donkey Kong, IMHO these translations are abominable, esp. in comparison to the acceptable (Q*Bert) and great (DK) versions on the A8.

 

Jr. Pac-Man

 

 

DK is really bad.

 

I love Jr. Pac - but what p155ed that guy off that he to make the game so difficult? I think I've made it to level 2 only three times out of 500 tries.