What is the hardest 2600 game?

[MaximRecoil]

Space Attack with both difficulty switches set to "A" (or "Expert" if you have a Sears unit) is a hard game, especially if your goal is to beat it without losing any lives. I've only done it a few times since I first played the game in 1985, one of which I recorded:

 

 

It is pretty hard just to beat the game at all, even though you have 9 lives total. With most games that I'm good at, I can relax while playing and still do well, but not with this one. If I try to play this game casually I lose quickly. You have to be moving almost constantly or you'll get nailed.

 

This game is unusual in that with both switches set to "B" ("Novice"), or even just the left difficulty switch set to "B" (the left difficulty switch is the one which controls the difficulty of the space battles), it is ridiculously easy, like shooting fish in a barrel. On that setting, I beat it the first time playing it as a 10-year-old. So this game can be set to be wicked easy or wicked hard; no middle ground at all. It is also unusual for an Atari 2600 game in that it not only has an ending, but it doesn't take long to get there (less than 5 minutes). If you want some quick, intense gameplay, this game is about as good as it gets.

[keilbaca]

For a game that's difficult right out of the bat, Jr. Pac-Man wins, for sure.

 

A game that starts out easy and ramps up in difficulty, a lot of people can't handle level 8 on Kaboom!

[keilbaca]

Cosmic Ark, game variation 4. It's actually more impossible than hard. The meteor showers are already pretty tough, but once you reach the second planet surface, the planetary defense system just fires incessantly, and it's a matter of sheer luck whether you can steer the shuttle through or not. As far as I can tell there is no skill involved and no chance to improve with practice. It's a pretty pointless game variation; I only used it to shock my friends as a kid. If anybody has figured out a method of actually beating the second level, let me know.

 

I'll have to add this to a list of my games to live stream, see if I can beat the 2nd level.

Edited October 21, 2015 by keilbaca

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

I have to go with Jr. Pac-Man. The maze design is much different then it's arcade counterpart as you are going in a vertical format than a horizontal format. And the speed of Jr. Pac-Man goes at a rapid pace and you have to have good reflexes, timing, and skills to do well. I also have to give a nod out to Dodge Em as well. It is all about timing and precise judgement when you want to cross over to the next rectangular lane plus the appropriate time to push the button for a speed burst.

[WolfAmongWolves]

 

I'll have to add this to a list of my games to live stream, see if I can beat the 2nd level.

 

Let us know if you make it!

[toiletunes]

Sea Hunt.

 

'nuff said.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

One of the things that I like the most about the Atari 2600 is that the difficulty level of almost every game is very reasonable on the standard default settings, but there are still a few that are just brutally hard. Of the couple that come to mind, I'm going to have to go with Jr. Pac-Man for the award of Hardest Game On The Atari 2600. I've spent hours and hours playing this game and only beat the first level and small handful times. Gravitar, Dodge 'Em, and Kaboom! get pretty ridiculous pretty fast too, but I don't think there's any other game I know of on the Atari 2600 that will just mercilessly kick your ass right out of the gate quite like Jr. Pac-Man.

[MaximRecoil]

One of the things that I like the most about the Atari 2600 is that the difficulty level of almost every game is very reasonable on the standard default settings, but there are still a few that are just brutally hard. Of the couple that come to mind, I'm going to have to go with Jr. Pac-Man for the award of Hardest Game On The Atari 2600. I've spent hours and hours playing this game and only beat the first level and small handful times. Gravitar, Dodge 'Em, and Kaboom! get pretty ridiculous pretty fast too, but I don't think there's any other game I know of on the Atari 2600 that will just mercilessly kick your ass right out of the gate quite like Jr. Pac-Man.

 

I just tried Jr. Pac-Man for the first time, and I beat the first level on my first try ... the arcade version in MAME that is. I also tried the 2600 version for the first time (in Stella), and I didn't beat it on my first try, nor on my tenth, at which point I'd had enough of that foolishness. It is bizarre that a 2600 port is harder than its arcade counterpart, at least on the first level.

 

By the way, if you have Space Attack, give that a try with both difficulty switches set to "A". There's a review of that game on YouTube by "Nin10Guy" where he lambasted it for being too easy. After posting the video he added this note to it:

 

I just figured out that there was a difficulty setting for this game. If you set the game to "Difficulty A" on your Atari console, the game will be so hard that it will show you no mercy. So everything I say about this game being too easy is only half true because this review is only showing gameplay footage of "Difficulty B".

[Torr]

I must say, Space Attack is one of my FAVORITE games now.

 

I never played or heard of it back in the day, got it a couple years ago in a lot (luckily WITH instructions) and I play a game of it at least once when I'm having a gaming session. And the harder difficulty is the ONLY way to play! Easy is good for getting used to the controls, but after that? come on... real time it! I don't think I've ever kept all my ships alive... it seems like saving 7 (losing one ship from 2 squadrons) is my standard score... if I win... sometime they are just relentless and other time they seem to come more intermittantly... but I don't really play for a score with that game... I just wana survive!

 

AND that's a game where I appreiciate the difficulty... Jr. Pac-Man... which I will agree is possibly THE hardest game on 2600 considering it's honestly hard... not programming flaws or an enemy bug or something... it's a well made game... made well and hard! Too hard... Pac-Man was too ugly... Jr. was too difficult... MS. PAC-MAN... that one they got right!

[MaximRecoil]

I must say, Space Attack is one of my FAVORITE games now.

 

I never played or heard of it back in the day, got it a couple years ago in a lot (luckily WITH instructions) and I play a game of it at least once when I'm having a gaming session. And the harder difficulty is the ONLY way to play! Easy is good for getting used to the controls, but after that? come on... real time it! I don't think I've ever kept all my ships alive... it seems like saving 7 (losing one ship from 2 squadrons) is my standard score... if I win... sometime they are just relentless and other time they seem to come more intermittantly... but I don't really play for a score with that game... I just wana survive!

 

It's one of my favorites too, and it seems to be an often overlooked game. It was one of the 5 games I bought the same day I bought my first Atari 2600 in 1985 (when I was 10). Like everyone else, I couldn't intuitively figure out how to play, but then my older brother read the instructions and we were quickly off and running. I beat it easily the first time, but then my older brother tried the difficulty switches, and it was like a whole different game. My older brother never cared much for Atari or video games in general, but whenever I'd happen upon him playing my Atari, it was always Space Attack (even though I eventually had dozens of games) on the difficult settings. His goal was to beat it without losing a life, which, to my knowledge, he never did. I never did either until a few years ago. He got a kick out of it when I linked him to the

.

[classicgamer_27330]

Kaboom with the joystick

[0078265317]

barnstorming

 

alway hit something and never make good time

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I already mentioned the original production Atari 2600 games that I thought were the hardest, with Jr. Pac-Man leading the pack in that category, but there's one homebrew game that I just have to mention if I'm going to be talking about the hardest games on the system: Lead. This 2008 homebrew title doesn't appear too difficult when you watch gameplay videos of it, but once you try playing it you quickly realize that some very bizarre design choices make this game just mercilessly hard in the most literal sense of the word "merciless".

 

What I mean by this is that in most vertical or horizontal scrolling spaceship shooters (A.K.A. "shmups") you're given around three or so lives, have the opportunity to earn more if you rack up a certain amount of points, and there's no punishment for letting an enemy pass by you without shooting them. In Lead however you are given one and only one life, no chance to earn extra lives, and if you let an enemy pass by your ship without shooting them or run into any enemies or hazards you immediately lose the game. What the actual @!#?@!? Even the most brutally difficult games like Jr. Pac-Man give you at least a few lives, so it's not an instant game over if you make a mistake, but that's not the case in Lead. If you make one mistake at any point in the game that's it, no mercy. Game over, you're done. There have been a few quality shmup titles on other platforms over the years that were able to get away with only giving you one life, such as 1943 and 1943 Kai: Midway Kaisen, but that was only because they gave you a health bar so you didn't instantly lose the game if you took a hit; which isn't something you have in Lead. And don't even get me started on the Scramble stages, which rapidly crank up the difficulty from "challenging" to "I want to smash the controller".

 

To Lead's credit the game does give you infinite continues, but whenever you continue it resets your score to zero so there's not much point in continuing unless you just want to practice the stage you died on for your next play through attempt. It's a beautiful looking game with smooth controls and enjoyable gameplay (aside from those godforsaken Scramble stages), and some of the best music on the Atari 2600; but some really strange design choices (only giving you 1 life, no opportunity to earn extras, and instantly losing if you fail to shoot any enemies) make it pretty much unplayably difficult for all but the most hardcore shmup fans. If I had to pick the absolute hardest game on the 2600, counting both original releases and homebrews, Lead would be it.

Edited October 23, 2015 by Jin

[Zonie]

ET

[+Atarius Maximus]

I'd have to agree regarding Jr. Pac Man. Whenever I fire up that game on the Harmony I always play Nukey Shay's 2005 hack (Jr. Pac Man Speed Throttle). Holding down the fire button makes you move at double speed. It makes an otherwise nearly impossible game fun to play.

[unicyclesuck1992]

Hands down for me its gotta be Spikes Peak, that game makes me want to die.

[+Atarius Maximus]

I forgot to mention Thrust. I love it and hate it at the same time. It was one of the very first homebrews I ever bought, I've owned it for over 10 years, and I still suck at it. Most of the time it just makes me want to throw my joystick at the TV. I'd love to hear tips on that one.

[BladeOfOsiris]

Killing that damn Pterodactyl in Joust.