Coin op ports (or variants) that were worse then the actual coin op

[carmel_andrews]

Like it says on the tin, coin op ports (incl. clones/variants) you know of, that were worse then the actual coin op game and conversely coin op ports (incl. clones/variants) that were actually better then the coin op port or coin op

 

I will avoid naming the obvious ones like 2600 pacman and the 8bit computer versions of outrun as well as the A8 version of rampage (as coin op ports that were worse then then actual coin op)

 

other notable candidates for 'worse than' category are, Gunpowder charlie (can't remember if this was simply a pd game or whether it was a comm. release) for the A8, a very bad poor mans clone/variant on 'Bomb Jack', as well as Red Rats dismal G&G (Ghosts and Goblins) clone 'Domain of the undead' (not even a poor man would want to buy this poor mans clone of G&G) and even our favourite company (ATARI) has an entry with it's UK released game 'Cygnus X1 or XI' which is dismal clone of sega's coin op game 'buck rogers, planet of doom'

 

 

As for coin op ports or clones/variants that were better then the official ports or coin op's themselves some do come to mind, namely Rainbow Arts limited release 'Giana sisters' a clone of the nintendo console and coin op game 'super mario' was slightly better then the original coin op, also the A8/c64 game released by synapse/synsoft called Quasimodo, which was a clone of the coin op game 'hunchback' quasimodo is in a different league to the official hunchback port done by Ocean software, additionally, Spindizzy (activision/electric dreams) which takes the marble madness concept to the next level...somewhat better then the official EA coin op port

 

The Alligata software clone(who dares wins) of Elite software's 'commando' coin op port is just as good as the elite game (even if the alligata version is somewhat 'colour challenged')...If i recall correctly, alligata software was forced to pull the product from the market initially because elite felt it infringed on the 'commando' game copyright (it was released sometime later and was ported eventually to the A8 by tynesoft (as a sequel, WDW II)

 

The Rainbows Arts game 'Katakis' (eventually released in modified form as 'denaris' for the c64/amiga) was better then the official computer ports irem's R TYPE (as activision claimed in court that katakis was a copy or variant of R TYPE and as part of the court settlement, katakis programmers, rainbow arts were forced to program the various computer versions of R TYPE for no pay, not surprising that Kataklis/denaris looks better then the c64/amiga versions of R TYPE then

 

And some would say that Oddyseys banned game 'KC Munchkin' was miles better then the VCS port of PACMAN (there again what variant/clone of pacman isn't better then the 2600 version)

 

Anyone have any more