Most unique ideas in 2600 games?

[godzillajoe]

So a lot of games were arcade ports, knock-offs of arcade games (Megamania, Dodge 'em etc.) or representative of a genre that already existed (maze games, shooters, racing etc) but what games were sorta, hmmmm..... this is new!

 

I'll start with Activision's Stampede!

 

Roping cattle. WTF?!

 

Was there anything like it before?

 

What other examples are there?

[Atarian7]

How about Plaque Attack or is that a shooter?

[cvga]

How about Gopher where you're trying to hit that carrot-stealing gopher in the head with your shovel?

 

Mangia's also pretty original.

[godzillajoe]

Yeah Mangia is another weird game that seems to follow no trend

 

Gopher seems to fit the bill too

 

Plaque Attack is sorta Megamania (Astroblaster) meets Missile Command so I would say no.

Edited December 28, 2013 by godzillajoe

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Indeed, not sure if it was the Pot inducing "creativity" or simply that since you pretty much had to be imaginative with such basic graphics that you might as well go over the top. Maybe a little of both. I love some of the ideas though, from trying to catch your catch luggage to taking on Galactic foes pretty much anything goes lol.

[JadeETC]

I always thought Beany Bopper was really unique.

[JacobZu7zu7]

ghost manor seems pretty original... option to play a female rescuing a boy,

a graveyard, tombstone, moving walls, coffins.

 

spikes peak cosmic mountain climbing.

 

adventure first quest game ?

 

haunted house first spooky game ?!

[high voltage]

sneak 'n peek....gotta be the first hide and seek game

Video Jogger...very unique back in 83, a jogging mat and game, later copied by Bandai as the Power Pad, and much later became famous with the DDR games

Edited December 29, 2013 by high voltage

[godzillajoe]

ghost manor seems pretty original... option to play a female rescuing a boy,

a graveyard, tombstone, moving walls, coffins.

 

spikes peak cosmic mountain climbing.

 

adventure first quest game ?

 

haunted house first spooky game ?!

 

The second screen of Ghost Manor is just Carnival/Shooting Gallery which has been done a thousand times. First screen chasing the ghost is kinda unique though. Not sure about other screens, I fired it up yesterday but only got two screens in

 

Spike's Peak is a platformer/climber so I would say no to that

 

If you count Adventure you surely can't count Haunted House as it's essentially Adventure but in a house instead of a magical kingdom. Find the treasure, avoid the enemies.

[Gorfy]

How 'bout Raft Rider?

 

Was Blueprint a port or an original? Also, Reactor?

 

Escape From the Mindmaster

 

If we're including homebrews, I'd add: Marble Craze, Raster Fahndung

[godzillajoe]

Raft Rider is kind of a racer, no? Similar elements, get down the river, avoid crashing into stuff.

Blueprint and Reactor are arcade ports

Mindmaster is similar to Tunnel Runner (and either way, a maze game from a different perspective)

Marble Craze and RF are good choices though.

BTW Raster Fahndung is flipping hard!

[godzillajoe]

Also isn't Beanie Bopper just another shooter? Ok so it scrolls and it has "beanies" but aside from that. Shoot enemies is the main theme

[high voltage]

Talking about Starpath, Party Mix the first 'party type game' later copied by Nintendo as Mario Party

[Jess Ragan]

Oh, let's not start with this crap again. I get the feeling High Voltage took those comics in the Atarian a little too seriously...

 

Anyway, let me give Quadrun a vote. It's been thirty years and I STILL don't know what that game was all about...

[godzillajoe]

What crap? About Starpath? My initial post meant gameplay, not who came out with a party game or a gimmick controller. The games in Party Games are stripped down versions of existing games and genres. Racing (the first one), button mashing sports games (Tug Of War) etc.

 

Not sure on Quadrun. I never understood it.

 

Anyone wanna agree or disagree?

 

Not trying to start a pissing contest, just decided I would try and beat Stampede! after all these years and thought it was a strange game. I don't remember anything else playing like it does. I guess you could say that it's a shooter since you "shoot" the cattle with your lasso if you wanna argue the point but even so is there another game where you can push them back up the screen and they can't get behind you.

 

That was the original intent. I love a good argument though.

[Jess Ragan]

I wasn't directing that at you specifically. Someone else claimed that Nintendo "copied" Party Mix, which is highly unlikely. Atari just wasn't that popular in Japan, and the chance that the Supercharger was released at all in that country is doubtful at best.

[godzillajoe]

I didn't take it as a personal attack, was just confused. There is probably a ZERO % chance that Party Mix influenced anything Nintendo did. Who even knows about it aside from obsessive Atari fans that frequent this site?

[+SpiceWare]

A snowman "fire fighter" seems pretty unique to me

[godzillajoe]

Oh yeah, that one. Towering Inferno / Firefighter clone.

[+adamchevy]

Sneak n peek

 

Virtual hide and seek

[Rybags]

AFAIK 2600 Adventure was the first real-time graphical role-playing game.

 

Plenty of the early Activision games used fairly original ideas. Barnstorming also comes to mind.

 

Also, wasn't Pitfall the first or at least one of the first flick-screen open roaming platformers ?

Edited December 30, 2013 by Rybags

[high voltage]

I wasn't directing that at you specifically. Someone else claimed that Nintendo "copied" Party Mix, which is highly unlikely. Atari just wasn't that popular in Japan, and the chance that the Supercharger was released at all in that country is doubtful at best.

 

Nintendo were well aware of Atari (or maybe they read those Atari comic books), actually they wanted Atari to distribute the NES in USA, so please don't presume...

Edited December 30, 2013 by high voltage

[Mr SQL]

Talking about Starpath, Party Mix the first 'party type game' later copied by Nintendo as Mario Party

I think Starpath's Communist Mutants from Space is pretty unique, Galaga looks to have been influenced by it.

[high voltage]

Freeway, surely a unique concept, David Crane said the idea came to him seeing people trying to cross a busy road.

[WolfAmongWolves]

I'd definitely add Pressure Cooker to the list. I can't think of any other game that is even remotely similar. Fathom had a completely new game concept as well in my opinion.