ACTIVISION vs. IMAGIC!!

[NE146]

31 minutes ago, keithbk said:

Here's an easy way to determine... which do you like better:

Imagic's Star Voyager

 

 

 

I don't know man videos like that are kind of annoying. Like are they not aware that you can shoot lasers in Star Voyager? Or are they deciding not to use it.

 

Either way it misses demonstrating a pretty major part of the game, or at least that one in particular. It's like the 2600 Asteroids videos that don't have "fast" (diagonal moving) asteroids, or even the UFO's enabled. ?

Edited November 11, 2021 by NE146

[Mr SQL]

10 minutes ago, NE146 said:

 

I don't know man videos like that are kind of annoying. Like are they not aware that you can shoot lasers in Star Voyager? Or are they deciding not to use it.

 

Either way it misses demonstrating a pretty major part of the game, or at least that one in particular. It's like the 2600 Asteroids videos that don't have "fast" (diagonal moving) asteroids, or even the UFO's enabled. ?

Good point, these games are basically the 3D asteroids genre of Star Raiders with and without the strategy screens. 

 

I prefer Bob Smiths Star Voyager for being a better 3D asteroids.

 

The big red X in the middle of Starmaster is a distraction and the Starfighter cannot see their ships window frame. 

 

The homebrew release StarFire has the Star Voyager look and action focus and is another great 3D asteroids.

 

[zzip]

When it came to graphics on the 2600,   Activision was clearly better at it.    However when porting to other platforms, Activision games usually stayed mostly true to the 2600 graphics with modest enhancements,  while Imagic games often went wild and had vastly improved graphics:

 

 

[Crazy Climber]

Short Answer - Activision...

 

I've got a lot of nostalgia for Activision. Back in 80's I owned a good 20+ titles from them. Imagic on the other hand I owned zero and essentially have zero nostalgia for them. I honestly (with the exception of maybe a magazine ad or two) don't remember really ever seeing them for sale anywhere. I seem to have a vague memory of my Mom saying NO to Demon attack...that kind of stuff scared her back then I guess. I remember her not letting someone in their house party (my parents used to have keggers/etc back then) because they brought a Ouija board with lol.

 

So maybe I was just a little too young and missed their boom in the stores (I was pretty much limited to Children's Palace for my own personal atari game purchases) maybe their (Imagic) games were immune to the mega clearance prices? I think they kind of faded out before the big price drop everywhere (Besides Birthday/Christmas gifts, most of my games I bought myself came from the Children's Palace bargain bin at around $5 or less) ...or maybe they just didn't have a big presence here in MN? Well, for whatever reason, I missed them.

 

That being said, it's tough for me to not vote Activision. Comments like this hold a lot of weight though...

On 2/19/2003 at 2:00 PM, NE146 said:

My vote goes to Imagic. Activision's all good and stuff. But their games for the most part were somewhat bland (I mean come on.. Barnstorming?!). And a lot of their earlier games were timed.

 

Imagic had that unexplainable "luster" and their games had more action.

 

While typing this I completely remembered my "older cooler" Cousin playing Riddle of the Sphinx. I remember he drew a bunch of maps for it/etc and was really into it. I never played it and just watched for a few seconds...

 

If I was a little older and had a little more money to play with back before atari was being liquidated...I would say I'd probably pick Imagic. NE146's comment sums it up nicely, I'm guessing he's around my cooler older cousins age

[Thomas Jentzsch]

43 minutes ago, zzip said:

However when porting to other platforms, Activision...

Much unlike Imagic, the PAL conversions of Activision are lousy. All Activision PAL games I am aware of, run only at 5/6 speed.

 

The main reason is, that Activision ignored Atari's advice how to program portable games. Instead they used the resources which would have been required for following the advice, for other stuff. Since Activision's developers knew what they were doing, one could say they cheated and had an unfair advantage.  

Edited November 11, 2021 by Thomas Jentzsch

[+McCallister]

23 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

I remember her not letting someone in their house party (my parents used to have keggers/etc back then) because they brought a Ouija board with lol.

Soooo much winning in this one sentence. I've read it five times already; just awesome.

 

I'd go with Activision. As a kid, Pitfall just hit all the right notes.

[kermit73]

A couple months ago, I brought my 2600 over to my sister's house for my 10 and 12 year old nieces to play for the first time.  For them, Activision games won the night.  The favorites were Kaboom! and Keystone Kapers.

 

My favorite games have always been arcade ports.  This puts both Activision and Imagic at a disadvantage considering both only released original titles, some of which ripped off the concepts from an arcade game.  The 3rd party vendor I liked most was Parker Brothers since most of their arcade ports were pretty good.

 

Between Activision and Imagic, my vote goes to Activision.  The only Imagic game I had as a kid was Demon Attack.  I've played more Imagic games within the past couple years.  While they are solid games, I don't enjoy playing them as much as some of the my favorite Activision titles like Enduro or River Raid.

 

[CapitanClassic]

It isn’t even close. Activision is also clearly the winner of most punctuation in game titles.

 

Activision 

***********************************

S-Rank

Kaboom!, Starmaster, Pitfall!, River Raid, Enduro 

, Robot Tank, Pitfall 2: Lost Caverns, H.E.R.O.

 

A-Rank

Boxing, Tennis, Stampede , Kung-Fu Master, Chopper Command, Megamania, Spider Fighter, Seaquest, Dolphin, Keystone Kapers, Beamrider

 

B-Rank

Crackpots, Frostbite, Pressure Cooker, Fishing Derby

 

C-Rank

Dragster, Laser Blast, Freeway, Barnstorming, Gran Prix, Sky Jinks, Oink!, Plaque Attack, Decathlon, Private Eye, Commando, River Raid 2, Rampage , Ghost Busters, Cosmic Commuter, Skiing, Skate Boardin 

 

D-Rank

Checkers, Bridge, Ice Hockey, Space Shuttle, Double Dragon

 

F-Rank

 

Unplayed 

Kabobber , Hard-Head, Contenders, Fighter Pilot, Ghostbusters 2, Dreadnaught Factor, Wing War, Zenji

 

 

Imagic             

***********************************

S-Rank

Demon Attack, Dragonfire, Moonsweeper, Quick Step

 

A-Rank

Atlantis, No Escape!, Laser Gates

 

B-Rank

Cosmic Ark, Fathom, Subterranea

 

C-Rank

Trick Shot, Star Voyager, Riddle of the Sphinx, Shootin' Gallery, Solar Storm

 

D-Rank

 

F-Rank

Fire Fighter

 

Unplayed

Sky Patrol, Actionauts, Aerial Ace, Fantasy Football, Wing War

[Crazy Climber]

On 11/12/2021 at 11:51 AM, McCallister said:

Soooo much winning in this one sentence. I've read it five times already; just awesome.

 

I'd go with Activision. As a kid, Pitfall just hit all the right notes.

Haha, yeah, I remember it clearly. Even though she said she wouldn't play it, my mom made her walk it back to her car before she would let her in the house lol. 

 

In other news, I just noticed this thread is like 18 years old haha. In fairness I wasn't even a member here that long ago so I guess it's new to me

[JasperAK]

I am surprised that no one mentioned one of the biggest differences to me. Activision offered patches.

 

So while most of the games were never ending, there was a distinct goal to reach. Now my crew back in the day never sent away for the patches, but we always challenged each other to earn them. We had high score sheets that we would have to sign off on.

 

When I got back in to playing Atari, I took my hacked Flashback to work and we played the shit out of all the Activision games that were fun and offered a patch. My 19yo co-worker earned about six patches and I earned around nine. I printed out the patches and made a shadow box for mine. Earning the patch for Dragster, Spider Fighter, and Barnstorming were quite the achievement. I remember he missed the Spider Fighter patch by around 500 points, but he was the first with Dragster.

 

So for me, Activision wins by offering a tangible goal.

 

Tangent: Chopper Command's patch score of 10,000 was ridiculously low. You can get that in about three or four waves. It should have been somewhere around 30,000 or so.