What's your favorite "kind" of game?

[Major_Tom_coming_home]

I like games that require finesse more so than fast reflexes. The ones that immediately come to mind are Gravitar, Lander, Dragster, Pinball, etc.

[Cynicaster]

Generally speaking, I only like to play arcade-style games on the 2600, but, somewhat paradoxically, not ports of actual arcade games. If I want to play an arcade game I play MAME, or, when I'm lucky, real machines.

 

By arcade-style, I mean fast-paced, score-based, games that are relatively short and test your skill. Activision had all the best ones, IMO (Frostbite, Pressure Cooker, Megamania, Enduro, etc.)

 

The "adventure" style games like "Adventure" and "Haunted House" just translate as slow, crude, and boring for me nowadays. I also don't care for the "timed" games, even the Activision ones (Sky Jinks, Skiing, etc.).

[sloth-machine]

I didn't get to spend much time in the arcades back then so playing arcade ports on my 2600 was all I had, but it was great. My favorite are all the higher quality arcade ports by Atari (the ones by GCC during the silver label era), but they can range in genre so it's hard for me to pinpoint. Some of my top favs are Pole Position, Dig Dug, Jungle Hunt, Battlezone, Moon Patrol, Centipede, Mario Bros. Crystal Castles, Stargate, Kangaroo, Missile Command, Asteroids.

 

All of these play quite differently, So I guess I will just say arcade games. I prefer playing the 2600 versions of arcade games vs Mame due to sheer nostalgia.

 

Secondly I would say adventure games like Pitfall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Riddle of the Sphinx, Haunted House, Adventure, Superman, etc.

[Syzygy1]

Space shooters, because a lot of my Robot Force stories apply to them.

[Flojomojo]

I like the way there seems to be an in-house aesthetic consistency and tone even among the variety of Activision designers and titles. They weren’t all winners, but the best games share a “feel”, even between disparate titles like River Raid and Megamania (although to be fair, those are both shooters). I enjoy that kind of consistency, similar to the way Nintendo’s core world in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s had a personality of its own that transferred from title to title. And I think Activision’s “personality” appeals to me almost as much as any particular game they released. It was colorful and kinetic, but still largely friendly and inviting. It just makes the Activision games I have a real blast to play.

 

I agree with everything you said in your wall-o-text but this part most of all: Activision's catalog really holds up better than other Atari VCS stuff in my opinion. The software lineup on the Atari Flashback Portable would be way better if it were stuffed full of Activision games.

 

When I was younger, I was all about the arcade ports. Atari and Parker Bros were easily my favorite developers and I have warm memories of all their advertisements in comic books. Now we have MAME which delivers the actual arcade game, and as much as I liked the VCS ports, the real thing is generally better.

 

One thing that I miss about the classic era is the focus on space games as a genre. We still get a few once in a while, but zombies and military shooters are way more popular. Even Star Wars Battlefront is mostly an on-the-ground infantry game, which makes me sad. When looking at a list of games on any given system, I often scan the S names first for Star and Space in the title.

[hizzy]

Anything in a maze!

[accousticguitar]

Arcade games

[Gabriel]

I think nowadays I'd say my favorite type of action game is a death from above space shooter with fast paced levels and different level themes which cycle. Phoenix is an excellent example of what I'm talking about.

[Tangentg]

I like arcade games, but my favourites all happen to be shooters, at least in the 2600. Good short fun. I'd also like a game I could beat too that has some sort of replay value, but since save points weren't a thing, you had to do those in 1 sitting.

[Garwor]

Read wall of text and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

For me I tend to enjoy niche games, or games that do something "unique". Towering Inferno, Frogs, even Hide n' Seek. Though I'm not sure if this is more of an appreciation, as opposed to a "I want to play these constantly." Hard to tell. I get glued to just about any decent game.

[Garwor]

Actually I should add that I have a special affinity for multi-directional shooters.

[Flojomojo]

I love that we didn't really have "genres" of games in Atari times. Things really felt fresh back then, there was a spirit of anything goes.

 

When Sony gives away (!) a bunch of indie games on PS+, there's always a choir of whiners who only want AAA FPS, it gets so old so fast.

[+save2600]

Generally speaking, arcade translations are my favorites. Doesn't matter the genre as the VCS does a nice job/adds its own personality to every one of them.

[BassGuitari]

On the VCS specifically, I prefer arcade-style shooters. Air-Sea Battle, Star Ship, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Spider Fighter, Seaquest, River Raid, River Raid II, Subterranea, Solar Storm, GORF, Astroblast, Radar Lock...the Atari was certainly blessed with arcade shooting goodness.

In general...I think I still prefer arcade-style shooters. Favorites include Scramble on Vectrex, Galax Attax on the TRS-80 Color, Threshold on Apple or C64, Galaga on NES (or arcade!), Ikaruga on Dreamcast, Star Fox on SNES, Silpheed on Sega CD, Blue Max on C64 or Atari XE, and Defender on any platform. Run-'n'-Guns would be a close second. Lately I'm partial to Ikari Warriors for the Atari 7800.

But I like so many different kinds of games across so many eras and genres that it would be really hard to nail down otherwise. On the rare occasions where I can/will allow myself to say "Know what? Screw it; I'm going to do nothing but play videogames tonight" I might dig into something like Resident Evil, Zork, Super Mario Bros., Half-Life, Star Trek III, or something else a little (or a lot) more substantial...but even then I usually just play lots of different arcade shooters.

I can say definitively, though, that I don't like RPGs. They just do not grab me and seem like more of a chore to play than fun. [/sorrynotsorry]

[maibock]

Ok.. I'll say it!

 

I really love sports games.. Skiing, Boxing, Tennis, Football(yes plain Atari Football), Baseball, Basketball, Winter Games, Summer Games - all of it!

 

Really like the programmers interpretation of the sport and how it's captured in the game.. the simplicity of head to head gaming. Love it!

[davyK]

The Activision library holds up well today for a number of reasons. Two of the main ones are :

 

1. Technical standards. There were ground rules that seem to have been enforced. No flicker for example. The fact the Activision were formed from several of best Atari devs helps of course.

2. Original game design. Because they couldn't get the big licences, activision had to be a bit more creative. Arcade games are great but they don't always make for the best home game. Of course certain games are closely based on arcade games (eg. Chopper Command) but being free from the shackles of having to recreate an existing game on inferior hardware meant that their games are largely designed around the strengths of the hardware (which of course helps with the tech standards for their games too). Similarly, when Atari created an original game it usually ended up being a superior title - Yars Revenge for instance.

 

Genre-wise , I love paddle games on the 2600 and they are amongst my favourite no matter what the genre! Super Breakout, Kaboom! , Circus , Warlords, and Solar Storm would be my favourites among the paddle games.

 

I also favour the earlier Atari games that , like Activision's, were not restricted by trying to recreate arcade games that had advanced beyond the 2600's capabilities. They usually were pretty good 2 players games as well - actual competitive "versus" games instead of the "take turns" style of game which is what you get with an arcade port. Now some of these games are based on very early arcade games but because of their pioneering nature they usually required 2 people to play as well and of course it means the 2600 is closer to them power-wise. So games like Combat, Surround, Sky Diver, Maze Craze and Space War would be among my favourites

 

Generally I prefer the 2 player versus format even in modern games but sadly you don't get a lot of that now (I don't count online - it's nowhere near as good as same room and the game design is lazy, though the Wii had some great same room games). So 2600 games really hit the spot.

 

Of course some of the arcade ports are great too and while I enjoyed and played A LOT of Asteroids and Defender back in the day, I don't feel they have aged all that well. Some of the arcade ports have though , and they remain among my favourites too. Berzerk , Night Driver, Dodge 'Em, Ms. Pacman, Jr. Pacman, Space Invaders, Phoenix, Missile Command and Solar Fox are all excellent arcade ports that hold up well even today.

 

I'm old enough to have been around when Space Invaders arrived in the arcades (I was about 11 or 12) so shooting games equalled video games for a long time and that genre will always hold a special place in my heart. Even today I love shooters and bought a 360 just to play great games such as Mushihimesama Futari and Under Defeat. The 2600 has a lot of shooters and a lot of them are pretty humdrum, not too hard, and a bit boring, but there are some crackers I haven't mentioned yet.

 

Megamania for me is the best shooter on the 2600. Its 8 levels change with each loop in new and interesting (and hard!) ways to make it still an excellent game. The great graphics help too of course. Demon Attack, Atlantis, Vanguard and the astounding homebrew game Thrust are among the better examples of the genre.

Edited January 11, 2017 by davyK

[Atarikid96]

For me, mostly the arcade ports on the 2600 (Missile command, asteroids, defender and stargate breakout, etc), although there are some non arcade gems i love (Yar's revenge, adventure,etc) and i LOVE all of the old school first person space shooters like starmaster, star raiders, etc.

[Everett1954]

I enjoy space shooters, like Beam Rider, Juno 1, Vanguard including Demon Attack and Phoenix and Atlantis.

[+LS650]

Racing such as Enduro or Pole Position.

Puzzles such as Tetris.

Maze such as Pac-Man.

Shooters such as Galaxians.

 

I hate most Super Mario style platformers. Ugh!

Edited January 19, 2017 by ls650

[zzip]

My favorite games were the Adventure-oriented games- Adventure, Raiders, Riddle of the sphynx, Pitfall II, even ET. Except the Swordquest games

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark was awesome! It was rather deep for a 2600 game, and I remember the fun my friends and I had one summer trying to solve it. Being ecstatic when we finally found the entrance to the black market, etc

 

Nowadays I still find myself playing Adventure a lot.

 

For arcade ports- too often I found them disappointing, even back then. But my standout arcade ports were Space Invaders, Berserk, Phoenix, MS Pac-Man, Wizard of Wor, Defender. Probably a few others.

 

My other favorites are the unique games the system had, which there were many, like Spikes Peak, Tunnel Runner, more but I'm drawing a blank.

 

Someone mentioned Activision specifically earlier. I agree about their aesthetic and how they pushed graphics forward on the system. Unfortunately most of their games don't hold my interest very long these days. But I appreciate how groundbreaking they were.

[Harrison]

The games I like best on the 2600 have a few things in common:

 

-simple, solid controls

-steady difficulty progression

-clean (not necessarily advanced) graphics

-easy to pick up and play

 

I give every game a chance. I read the manual, try out all the different modes, and try to learn most of the ins and outs before moving on. The ones I go back to again and again tend to have the qualities above. The genre isn't as important as the ability to jump in and have some quick fun. I do find the more complex games to be interesting, but I don't go back to them as often.

[Zonie]

Shooters, Space related games, one-on-one stuff like Combat, Warlords. Needs to be more and better one-on-one stuff.