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My teacher allowed me to bring my 2600 at school


PitfallHarry2600

Which game should I take to school  

81 members have voted

  1. 1. Which game should I take

    • Warlords
      13
    • Kaboom
      15
    • Asteroids
      7
    • Space Invaders
      17
    • Combat
      14
    • Beat'em an... no, forget this
      5
    • Ms. Pac-Man
      5
    • Antother game (precise which one in a reply, I may not have it)
      5

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Of course, you should dress in authentic '83 clothes to further enhanced your presentation.

Yipes! Have parachute pants come back yet? Acid washed jeans and a t-shirt with something "Awesome!" on it would probably work. Don't forget the headband! ;)

 

I voted for Mrs. Pac-Man in the poll, but I'm not sure it's the best game. "E.T." has the cultural significance of being a symbol of the Crash (though I honestly don't think it's responsible, the great Landfill Legend is a telling sign of '80s overindulgent doom). Very poorly written third-party games for the Atari are probably more to blame, as well as some Atari Corp. management decisions. It would be nice to showcase a GREAT game on the 2600, something fun & graphically intriguing, but I'm not sure what that'd be. I wouldn't bother with "Combat", and "Warlords", while fun, is pretty simple (a PONG variation). Otherwise, "Yar's Revenge" is generally accepted as one of the best games and it's flashy. That way, you can communicate that the 2600 could've been a more competitive system had the market been different (if the market hadn't been glutted with crappy games, there might've been fewer but better games).

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My advice - use Pacman and ET as examples of rushed games of lesser quality that contributed to the glut of stock that was a cause of the crash. But be sure to point out that they weren't the actual cause, only part of it.

 

Maybe show some landmark games that push the system beyond what was expected at the time as well as some other ordinary ones.

 

e.g. of landmark games pushing the system:

Space Invaders, Pole Position, Chopper Command.

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I have to say I have never seen the draw to Space Invaders. Maybe my skills lack, but I could rarely even get past the first level of invaders. As you get them whittled down to a select few, they get maddenlingly quick.

 

Were there many who could actually get very far on this game in the day?

 

Because of its difficulty, I would not recommend it as a good game for his classmates.

Edited by sqoon
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I would recommend Kaboom or Warlords. Both games can finish rather quickly - Kaboom is timeless in fun and 4 people warlords is good at first no matter the age.

 

I setup 4 player 'Castle Crisis' on my 800 for an 11 year old BDay party and the kids couldnt stop playing 4 player.

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I'd recommend Warlords as the came can go quick and it also has some hectic speed to it when 4 players are fighting for supremacy. If you want to show off something flashy, I'd say either Solaris or Pitfall II. Pitfall II might be something more relatable since it is of the familiar side-scrolling platformer genre and has a continous soundtrack.

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I voted for Warlords. Best 4 player straight to the action game of the day. Assuming you have 2 pairs of paddle controllers.

Also, I HIGHLY recommend testing everything. Bring it in ahead of time, test it on the actual TV, have a backup plan. (If some other need takes that TV)

There are some good ideas so far. Keystone Kapers is good gameplay, no one will hog it long, and it looks great. I also liked the Kaboom! idea.

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I'd suggest either two games, OR focus on one of the following:

- a game everyone knows/remembers/heard of like Asteroids, Space Invaders or Pitfall

- a really nice example of different game concepts back then, like cosmic arc, or other more psychedelic games....

 

Well, that's what I'd do :)

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I would suggest brininging Asteroids or Space Invaders -- these are both well-known arcade titles and that was the focus of the 2600 at the time. Space Invaders sold a lot of consoles.

 

(I too studied Economics in Grade 11 -- ae. 15/16 -- but we never discussed anything as fun or interesting as video games.)

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Demons to Diamonds looks pretty nice & is a good two-player paddle shooter. Just be aware of how dull a one-dimensional shooter like Space Invaders, as nifty as at might've been 33 years ago, appears today.

Most Activision games would be a great choice.

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I would say, Space invaders, it was released and was the first big hit for Atari.

I voted for "Space Invaders," too. Wasn't it the first (or one of the first) home versions of a hit arcade game-- the first "killer app" for a home video game console, that helped establish the Atari 2600 as "the" console to buy? If this is for an economics class, it makes sense to show one of the games that helped start the "Atari 2600 craze."

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Two more suggestions-- "Adventure," as one of the first graphical adventure games (and with one of the first easter eggs)*-- and "Pac-Man," as a highly-anticipated home version of an arcade hit that left a lot of people feeling very disgruntled.

 

* I'm not sure if "Adventure" was *the* first graphical adventure game, or had *the* first easter egg-- but if not, it was certainly one of the very first.

 

PS-- I actually enjoyed the Atari 2600 version of "Pac-Man," but that's probably because I'd never really played the original arcade game. (I more or less tended to boycott almost all arcade games, because I didn't care too much for the idea of having to feed roll after roll of quarters into a game in order to get even halfway good at it.)

 

From the Wikipedia entry for "Pac-Man":

 

One of the first ports to be released was the much-maligned port for the Atari 2600, which only somewhat resembled the original and was widely criticized for its flickering ghosts.[71][72][73] This port would eventually become one of the contributing factors to Atari's decline and the North American video game crash of 1983, alongside Atari's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[74] However, in contrast to the criticism, this version of Pac-Man sold seven million units[74] at $37.95 per copy,[11] making it the best-selling home video game to date[75] and the best-selling game of all time on the Atari 2600 console. In addition, Coleco's tabletop Mini-Arcade versions of the game sold 1.5 million units in 1982.[76][77]

Edited by SeaGtGruff
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I'd go for Warlords if you have 2 sets of paddles - failing that Kaboom and Combat are hard to look past...Tank Pong is a really fun game...

 

 

....isn't it funny that paddle games are getting a load of votes?

 

I think you should also bring an example if one of the better later games - Berzerk, Pitfall, Megamania, Demon Attack and Atlantis all look pretty good - Yars Revenge would be another nice example. Bringing a surround cart in would show that snake didn't first appear on mobile phones....

Edited by davyK
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Take some of the shitty games that were credited with killing the system. (I'm not going to mention the obvious)

 

Then, take a Harmony cart loaded with the best. Show the cream of the crop, the most sophisticated, and the homebrew/hacks that "if only they could have been" back in the day. The fact that they're running on the same hardware means that it's still inside the realm of possibility that these awesome later releases certainly could have. Contrast "Pacman" with Nukey Shay's "Hack 'Em." Some of the later stuff - while definitely years (or decades) outside of the 2600's peak years - are still relevant in demonstrating the unique capabilities of this thing that sorta seemed like a color Pong machine but did some cool stuff with shockingly few resources.

 

Some of the later releases I missed out on (I moved to Atari 400 fairly early), but later I found out were surprisingly fun and well-done, considering the meager 2600 hardware spec. I don't remember when Dig-Dug was released for the Atari 2600, but when I finally played it for the first time, I was absolutely impressed at how the game had actually managed to capture the fun of the arcade original - on the 2600 - and I still think the graphics are also cool, for the machine.! BRAVO!!!!

 

 

I think it's interesting to present (when discussing the 2600) the fact that the 2600 was sort-of originally intended as a COLOR super-pong-type-thing but ended up having some pretty impressive games, as developers moved up the learning curve. Close with the fact that the machine still has such a legacy that they CONTINUE to do so. Present the Harmony cart.

 

Sounds fun!

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....isn't it funny that paddle games are getting a load of votes?

 

Not really; it's pretty unique in having those controllers. The only modern system I can think of with an actual paddle controller (not that half-assed madcatz thing for 360) is the Nintendo DS. And only like two games support it.

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