Your Most Difficult 2600 Game?

[HatefulGravey]

Yar's Revenge I can play for some time on novice, but flipping that switch means I'm a dead man. Not sure what it really is, but I can't get to the blue shield on expert.

 

Dodge Em I find brutal.

 

The worst of all is Frankenstein's Monster ruins my day everytime. Jumping on those small and/or moving platforms at the bottom of the screen is just hell!

[A.J. Franzman]

I usually don't last more than a second or two in Ion Patrol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ion Patrol

 

[scorpion]

Springer...........Can only get to the 2nd screen.

 

 

Annoying

[Pioneer4x4]

I usually don't last more than a second or two in Ion Patrol.

That line about the "GLS Chip" (Good luck sucker) sounds like what we used to call A.D.O.C. when a game just blantly ramps up difficulty, or something comes out of nowhere to kill you, or on a pinball machine when the safe bumper drops just as your last ball aproaches it and you get an instant drain...

 

A.D.O.C. = Automatic Dick Off Control (or Circuits)

[pis]

I have played demon attack alot lately but it´s impossible for me to get over 20,000 points (game 1 difficulty b)!

[A.J. Franzman]

That line about the "GLS Chip" (Good luck sucker) sounds like what we used to call A.D.O.C. when a game just blantly ramps up difficulty, or something comes out of nowhere to kill you

I have a copy of an old EGA version of the RISK boardgame which has some bizarre cheating behavior. Aside from the "computer players gang up on the human player(s)" which you might expect, it also biases the dice against the human players but only when the humans are losing. Once a human player achieves parity or advantage, the dice roll normally and it's clear sailing to victory.

[WolfAmongWolves]

Can't believe it's been over three years since anybody has vented their frustration about difficult games here. The game that's currently bringing my blood pressure to a boil is Mega Force. I find those flying saucers nearly impossible to beat. If I try to take them all out they destroy me; if I fly past them in an attempt to quickly reach the enemy headquarters they destroy Sardoun before I get there. I can usually do okay in almost all games after a few tries, but Mega Force is consistently getting the better of me. If anyone has any tips, let me know.

[godzillajoe]

Stampede! 30 years later, I still don't get the strategy required to beat this game.

[BassGuitari]

I'm down for a little necrothread action.

River Raid II stands out as being really hard, at least for me. I can't recall getting anywhere in Title Match Pro Wrestling (though who'd want to?). I can clear the first few stages in Defender II before the game just spanks me.

[Lauren Tyler]

Spike's Peak stands out for me.

[enthusi]

I found/find solaris rather hard (if you want to finish it).

Dragonstomper can be pretty hard unless you have a good start and guessed right about the items

[wishfuldrifter]

Of the ones I have played (which is not too many, mind) I would say Exocet is my hardest. The way that the game controls just does not compute in my mind very well. It's so jumpy!

[IHATETHEBEARS]

This is an interesting topic. It’s a perfect example at how some people simply excel at certain games while not doing so well at games that others have mastered. I’ve never been able to get the huge high scores at Kaboom or Stampede like others can. But games like Vanguard, No Escape, Pitfall II, Dodge ‘Em, Spike’s Peak, Super Breakout and Riddle Of The Sphynx I was great at. And I was quite proud of myself for beating level 5 on Private Eye 18 months ago.

 

My first thoughts for me on this topic were Jr. Pac Man and Springer – two games mentioned by others here. Although I didn’t have either of these games when I was a kid. I only acquired them in the past few years and haven’t spent much time with either. The day I got Springer I put it in and found the jumping to be incredibly difficult. Unless you were absolutely precise, you’d fall to your death. I spent about 30 minutes on it, determined to get past the first board – which I eventually did. I don’t think I’ve played it since. I have no desire to play that horrible mess again. It’s a bad game with bad controls.

 

As for games I had back in the 80’s, Star Raiders always knocked the crap out of me. I could never rise higher than “cook.” I found Dolphin hard too. I could never master the sounds, and simply jumped over the fish instead. But once it got too fast it got really hard for me.

[atari_envy]

Based on my anger level, I would have to say Pitfall 2. It is the very last stretch up the ladders to Quickclaw that brings out some very colorful language. I have gotten sooooo close

 

Then when I hear that others have achieved a perfect score on Pitfall 2, it makes me want to kick my dog.

[WolfAmongWolves]

Stampede! 30 years later, I still don't get the strategy required to beat this game.

 

That game killed me at the beginning too, but this is actually one of the rare instances where the old series "How to Beat Home Video Games" provided some useful information:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-s8d4m-ZPw

 

I was instantly able to quadruple my score after following the strategy described there. Have you tried it?

[Magicmantjhill]

I challenge anyone to find a more cryptic and difficult game than Indiana Jones for the 2600. 

[insertclevernamehere]

If my performance in Pressure Cooker is anything to go by, I would suck at working in a fast food restaurant.

[BONEMAN]

I'm going to say Jr Pac-Man too.

[Glitcholog]

Got to say, Indiana Jones is the cryptic game of the batch. 

[Steve Guidi]

On 11/8/2020 at 7:13 PM, Magicmantjhill said:

I challenge anyone to find a more cryptic and difficult game than Indiana Jones for the 2600. 

This one definitely requires the manual. The hint section is basically a walkthrough.

[Steve Guidi]

Master frikken Builder.  Probably easy to play today since we can take an instant and free photo of the screen.  You get a short amount of time to memorize the structure you have to build before the screen is cleared, for every level!

 

I played this so much as a child that I eventually memorized the structure detail for the first level, then abandoned the game when realizing that this was just silly and impractical.

[davyK]

Jr Pacman is an extremely tough game. Ms. Pacman is no slouch either for that matter, but getting past the 2nd maze of Jr is an achievement for me!

 

Getting the expert rating on Space Shuttle is quite a challenge too - don't think I ever managed that.

 

I'd consider clocking any of the modes (9,999)in Super Breakout to be one of the greater challenges - progressive mode being the ultimate test.

 

I'd consider get 100,000 on Kaboom! to be pretty tough. I can break 10,000 but I need to play myself in to be able to do that.

 

There's a point in Demon Attack when you get to the splitting enemies that also have the homing missiles where I find it extremely tough to progress. 

 

Two games I'm just bad at and just can't get to grips with are Stampede and Dodge 'em

Edited November 15, 2020 by davyK

[JasperAK]

I'm ashamed to admit it; I suck at Megamania. My high score went from 6,840 in December 2018 to 9,770 in August 2019. I'm going to take my Harmony out and play on the cart and see what happens. 45,000 for the patch... there's something I'm missing there like in Dolphin. For ages I hovered below 10k and I figured out a technique that got me in one game to 60k. I assume there's something like that in Megamania. Now I'm going to go and try to find it.

 

Actually, it seems to me that most Activision games are like that. I sucked at Enduro for a long time and then figured out how to deal with the fog. River Raid, Chopper Command, the same. I just find techniques that work.

 

Edit: I got 9,810 on my first try, which is my new highest. I keep losing all of my lives on the damn Pink stage, so my score keeps hovering around 9,000. I can't seem to get the leading down and my dead shots on the other difficulty are even worse. I just can't get the rhythm. And it's not like I get hit by the missiles, no, I keep getting crushed by those bastards. Now I'm going to get mad...

Edited November 15, 2020 by JasperAK
Added score

[The Mr. Video]

I'm gonna say ET. It's so difficult to progress through the game when the FBI agent and the scientist are constantly harassing me. It's especially bad when the agent comes and steals one of my phone parts because then I'm back at square one jumping down holes looking for phone parts again.

[Cebus Capucinis]

>Comes into thread to make joke about Strawberry Shortcake 2600

>Looks at who created thread

>Realizes this thread is 10 years old

 

Well, that's a mix of disappointment in a ruined joke AND realization of how old I am.