Question: The worst 2600 games other than Pac-Man or E.T.

[jaybird3rd]

Carefully camelflaging it on the way home.

Ugh ... I can understand being excited about a new game, but I don't think we need to know how or why you "flog your camel".

 

 

(All kidding aside, I think the word you're looking for is "camouflage".)

[rbudrick]

I have no idea why, but Dragster never gets any disses. That game is the most disappointing, uncontrollable, boring piece of crap ever made. Getting that as a present when I was a 5yo kid was worse than handing me a wrapped turd. At least I would have laughed at a wrapped turd, but Dregster (sic) only made me cry. To this day, I think it's the worst game ever. Hate that game. HATE THAT GAME.

 

-Rob

[SoulBlazer]

Defender had it's issues, but I enjoyed the game as a kid and still do today (the 2600 port, mind you). A lot of what they did for the game they had to, due to the limiations for the system. It was like that with most of the arcade games.

 

Pac-Man I hated for being a terrible and shoddy port, but it wasn't the worst game on the system. I'll agree with what everyone said about sssssnake.

[Dauber]

Okay, maybe it's because I've never played some of the duds you've all mentioned, but two games make me ragingly angry (and I'm a guy who's fallen into his share of pits in E.T.):

 

Breakout -- two levels and that's it. WTF?!

 

Cosmic Ark -- yeah, you read me correctly. Cosmic effing Ark. HATE IT. Joystick response is terrible, as is the collision detection during the meteor/asteroid screen...really, shots go right through 'em.

[Pioneer4x4]

I have no idea why, but Dragster never gets any disses. That game is the most disappointing, uncontrollable, boring piece of crap ever made. Getting that as a present when I was a 5yo kid was worse than handing me a wrapped turd. At least I would have laughed at a wrapped turd, but Dregster (sic) only made me cry. To this day, I think it's the worst game ever. Hate that game. HATE THAT GAME.

 

-Rob

That was always one of my favorites. A car game WITH A CLUTCH!

[Miss 2600]

How do you guys pronounce Sssnake? Is it a long S----- sound, or individual S's like someone stuttering, s-s-snake?

[rolenta]

How do you guys pronounce Sssnake? Is it a long S----- sound, or individual S's like someone stuttering, s-s-snake?

 

I pronounce it SssssHIT

[Arkhan]

How do you guys pronounce Sssnake? Is it a long S----- sound, or individual S's like someone stuttering, s-s-snake?

 

I pronounce it SssssHIT

 

I loled.

 

 

One of my least favorite games was Stellar Track.

 

 

It was like a semi retarded Star Raiders, that made me sleepy.

[PitfallHarry2600]

How do you guys pronounce Sssnake? Is it a long S----- sound, or individual S's like someone stuttering, s-s-snake?

It's pronounced like a long S. The programmers wanted the consumer to get a good feeling of the game before buying it, so they added some s's to the word snake to induce the sensation of someone taking a piss. Personally I would do that Sss(nake) induced feeling on a copy of the game

[Lentzquest]

There's probably about 50 or so that could tie for the all-time-worst 2600 game. If I had to pick one though, I'd go with Realsports Baseball. I love old-school baseball games, but this one is simply unplayable. After struggling with trying to play that turd, I popped in Homerun and had a blast and all-new respect for it.

[Arkhan]

wtf? I thought realsports baseball was easy. I used to play it all the time when I was little. I can still taste the BBQ chips I ate while playing it!

 

http://nachodonut.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/snyder-bbq-potato-chip.jpg

[Asaki]

I liked the double-enders, though I was never any good at Spike's Peak.

 

...or Chuck Norris...

 

...or Artillery Duel...

 

...but I've beaten Ghost Manor a few times.

 

Worst game, I might have to agree with Swordquest. I think Earthworld is the one I have. It seems kind of neat, but I have no idea what you're supposed to be doing. I guess I should probably check the manual one of these days and give it a second chance.

 

I hated Night Driver when I was little, but I like it now that I don't crash every three seconds.

[BydoEmpire]

I always thought Airlock by Data Age was the worst game I owned. It's pretty bad, and I always held it against Data Age, until recently I picked up some of their other games which I enjoyed.

 

For the record, I like the Swordquest games and 2600 Pac Man. Not a big fan of ET but it's not *that* bad.

[Dino]

I agree that there are literally dozens of games worse than ET and huderds that are worse than Pacman. Pacman would easily be in my top 100 despite the fact it was a poor conversion. It is such a good game compared to most other Atari 2600 releases

 

EDIT: In fact in the thread on the top favourite games pacman is number 32 and ET number 133. Hardly the worst games for the system....

Edited May 11, 2012 by Dino

[esplonky]

Mouse trap is pretty bad. it's like Pac Man smoked craploads of meth and then shot himself in the foot.

[Tin_Lunchbox]

I may be the ninth person to think "Sssnake!" and yes, it did occur to me before opening the thread. I was feeling a little hesitant about it because sometimes I might play a game and not really "get it." And then someone tells me I was missing some play aspect. But from the other comments I guess Sssnake! doesn't have any hidden values.

 

I am familiar with a guy who likes Dragster. Some might not know that it's a port of a very early stand-up arcade game. So for something like that one really must consider not only one's personal impression of it, but also whether it's a faithful port (which I don't know). As for Barnstorming, I didn't think much of it either but it did have good graphics.

 

Stellar Track, now you're getting into advanced consideration of a fringe game. It's unique on the 2600/Video Arcade, I think, as a conversion of a computer mainframe game "Star Trek" from like 1972. In my humble opinion Stellar Track has some depth and can be a compelling play experience, but there's a learning curve and a game can go on for a long time. One won't be able to play Stellar Track without the manual either, no way.

 

I'd also agree with what I think the original poster of this thread was getting at, that E.T. and Pac-Man are not really the worst Atari games, they just combine moderate badness and extreme notoriety. They, at least Pac-Man and I think both, crushed the expectations of so many kids, so we hold them to a separate, infamous standard, and this would not be the case if there had never been a Pac-Man stand-up arcade game or an E.T. movie. There are many cartridges that are worse than Pac-Man and E.T. but none that disappointed so many.

[+cvga]

Sssnake was a stinker but I didn't include because my expectations were low for it when it came out. Another game that I really really wanted but was very dissapointed in when I finally got it was Miner 2049er. I remember seeing how it was game of the year for tons of systems but I thought it was a real stinker for the Atari. Primarily because of how slow it plays. Yawn!!!

[Asaki]

I'd also agree with what I think the original poster of this thread was getting at, that E.T. and Pac-Man are not really the worst Atari games, they just combine moderate badness and extreme notoriety.

 

No, I think he just wanted people to get a little bit more creative in their answers and not just have a thread full of "Well I can't decide if ET or Pac-Man is worse..." We've already got enough threads about the pros and cons of those two games.

[Stan]

I always thought this list pretty much hit all the bad ones.

 

http://deafsparrowtheblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/top-10-worst-atari-2600-games-of-all.html

[+Nathan Strum]

Another game that I really really wanted but was very dissapointed in when I finally got it was Miner 2049er. I remember seeing how it was game of the year for tons of systems but I thought it was a real stinker for the Atari. Primarily because of how slow it plays. Yawn!!!

 

I forgot about that one. And actually, it's twice as bad as other games, because they made Vol. II!

[Pioneer4x4]

Another game that I really really wanted but was very dissapointed in when I finally got it was Miner 2049er. I remember seeing how it was game of the year for tons of systems but I thought it was a real stinker for the Atari. Primarily because of how slow it plays. Yawn!!!

 

I forgot about that one. And actually, it's twice as bad as other games, because they made Vol. II!

I like Miner 2049er, but it is dissappointing, and slow.

[Tin_Lunchbox]

Ah I realized I was actually confusing "Bugs" with "Sssnake!" I never played Sssnake! No disrespect to the Sssnake! author intended, at least not from me, because I don't know.

[MaskDeSmith]

The port of Defender was not that good.

 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game?

[sqoon]

I actually sold my copy of Sssnake years ago to an unsuspecting victim, but recently bought another copy just to complete my Data Age collection. I am a glutton for punishment.

[Kripto]

I used to say Ssssnake was the worst whenever this topic came up, but I really feel that Karate has it beat. The reason being that you can't even tell if your joystick movements and button pushes are influencing the game. At least with Ssssnake, when you move the joystick, your character/block moves around the crappy little glitched-out center box/area.

 

BTW- Does anyone know if Ssssnake is in the public domain? I'm toying with the idea of porting it to the iPhone/iPad(!) but would like to avoid any legal action. Maybe if I just add or subtract an s from the name?