Unpopular games that you like?

[Flojomojo]

The sounds in Dark Chambers are funny to me.

 

WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK

 

while the enemies cycle thru their various forms. I wish this game could be licensed on the Atari Flashbacks.

[Vinnie D.]

Raiders of the Lost Ark. Most people complained that it was confusing, but once you understood the controls there was fun to be had in discovering what to use where. Clever idea using the 2nd joystick to get around the button limitation.

[zzip]

Raiders of the Lost Ark. Most people complained that it was confusing, but once you understood the controls there was fun to be had in discovering what to use where. Clever idea using the 2nd joystick to get around the button limitation.

It was awesome! The manual explained everything you needed to know to get started. My friends and I had a blast trying to figure everything out.

[yanbu]

Not sure if it's consider unpopular, but Circus Atari. Me and a friend would play this pretty regularly but only on Sundays, and would check up with each other getting together for 'Circus Atari Sunday'. We'd almost always get some box of cereal we hadn't tried beforehand, and then play two player until we got sick of it. We even had a couple ridiculous songs we came up with about Circus Atari and red row completion!

 

Also loved Kool Aid Man way back when. I do remember I wrote down the last high score I had (which was probably circa 2002) at 48,800.

 

I really liked Raiders of the Lost Ark too, it's not one of those pick up and get immediate action kind of games which I think lent to it being unpopular. Maybe.

[HammR25]

Sneak N Peak. My Grandpa got a 2600 for us grandkids and all the cheapest games he could find so he ended up with this game. It was fun cheating on my sister by peaking. The game was one of those "it's so bad it's good" experiences.

[zzip]

Sneak N Peak. My Grandpa got a 2600 for us grandkids and all the cheapest games he could find so he ended up with this game. It was fun cheating on my sister by peaking. The game was one of those "it's so bad it's good" experiences.

Heh, I got this for like $5 and ended up returning it. I think because I was becoming a teenager and feeling "too cool for hide and seek" or something (what would my friends think** ). Maybe it was also the 2-player "no peeking" aspect that felt wrong for a video game.

 

I didn't think it was badly designed, it was probably about as good of a hide and seek game you could make on the 2600 at the time.

 

** Ironically, after one of my friends found out I bought it and returned it, he was disappointed "aw man, I wanted to try that game!"

[MrBeefy]

Some cool games mentioned here.

 

I like Human Cannonball. Doubt too many others do. And I play Fun with Numbers sometimes...

 

I agree with someone else who mentioned Hangman. Also cool...

 

And yes, absolutely: E.T. just isn't as bad as everyone makes out. Not as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark, but still very good (Raiders is simply superb).

I love Human Cannonball! Its a great beer pong type game. Make it they take two drinks you miss you take a drink. Loser takes 5 drinks.

[bigfriendly]

I too poured many hours of my youth trying to discover all the clues in SQ:EW. Even got to the point that I could run straight through the waterfalls of Leo without stopping.

 

 

 

Me too:)

[Opry99er]

I actually really enjoy Sears Target Fun with my kids.

 

Other games I can't live without that typically get less-than-stellar reviews:

 

GORF (played several hundred hours of this as a kid)

Survival Run (Newish to me, but absolutely love the "zen" quality)

Oink! (Come on.... childhood nursery rhyme on a 2600 cart...)

Journey Escape (another zen game)

Laser Blast (zone in, zone out... what else could one ever want?)

[digdugnate]

I actually really enjoy Sears Target Fun with my kids.

 

Other games I can't live without that typically get less-than-stellar reviews:

 

GORF (played several hundred hours of this as a kid)

Survival Run (Newish to me, but absolutely love the "zen" quality)

Oink! (Come on.... childhood nursery rhyme on a 2600 cart...)

Journey Escape (another zen game)

Laser Blast (zone in, zone out... what else could one ever want

i dunno, i just can't get into Journey Escape. It was one I ended up picking up again because I had it as a kid, and i still dunno lol

Edited May 15, 2018 by digdugnate

[+save2600]

Had Journey BITD and liked it well enough. Still give it a go once in a while in fact, but the later levels are tough! It's one of those games where after you're playing a bit, then turn it off, still have a sense of motion in your mind.

[mbd30]

i dunno, i just can't get into Journey Escape. It was one I ended up picking up again because I had it as a kid, and i still dunno lol

 

I always thought that Journey Escape was just another shitty license game, but the No Swear Gamer's review changed my perspective a little.

 

[thetick1]

 

I always thought that Journey Escape was just another shitty license game, but the No Swear Gamer's review changed my perspective a little.

...

 

Oh the arcade version is so much better...

Play it now at https://archive.org/details/arcade_journey ..Neil Schon rules!

Edited May 15, 2018 by thetick1

[CaptainBreakout]

Just wanted to add my two cents...

 

Beany Bopper.

A lot might be due to having had this as a very young kid, but hey it's a lot of fun. Also, I discovered as an adult that you can 'break' the game. If you roll over the score, weird things happen. I can't remember exactly what, but it had me laughing since it seemed pretty obvious that it was a glitch that was only half-addressed.

 

I think the manual mentions something like a 'surprise' if you get a very high score.

 

Other often-played underdogs I'd like to mention:

Snail vs Squirrel

Mr Postman

Strategy X

Obelix

Demolition Herby

Mines of Minos

Polaris

Malagai

[up2knowgood]

The sounds in Dark Chambers are funny to me.

 

WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK

 

while the enemies cycle thru their various forms. I wish this game could be licensed on the Atari Flashbacks.

WHACK! Oh, I'm a wizard now. WHACK! Skeleton? WHACK! I grew skin and became a zombie...for some reason WHACK! Oh I'm dead.

[Atariboy2600]

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600)

 

I got this game on day one released, beat it in under 20 mins and I never once hated it. And I still play it.

[Flojomojo]

WHACK! Oh, I'm a wizard now. WHACK! Skeleton? WHACK! I grew skin and became a zombie...for some reason WHACK! Oh I'm dead.

 

Thank you, I will paste this as my "status update" on the front page.

[up2knowgood]

 

Thank you, I will paste this as my "status update" on the front page.

 

Hehe, you're welcome.

[BassGuitari]

Most of the games being mentioned aren't really "unpopular" as much as they're just not A-list Top 10 games. They're not Asteroids or Space Invaders or River Raid or Yars' Revenge or Pitfall or other games everybody and their mamas remember. But that doesn't make them worse.

 

Games like Air-Sea Battle, Dodge 'Em, Maze Craze, Cosmic Commuter, Star Voyager, Donkey Kong, Commando Raid...people who've played these games generally enjoy them. They're just not as iconic as Berzerk or Chopper Command or Pole Position.

 

I think some of these don't get mentioned as much because, while experienced collectors know about games like Subterranea, there are a lot of newer people here lately as well. Subterranea used to come up all the time in "Underrated Games" threads.

 

FWIW, here are some of my "diamonds in the rough:"

 

Star Ship (I. liked. this. game. before. it. was. cool. Although I was also much younger and spazzier then... )

Squeeze Box

Home Run

Night Driver

Air Raiders

Commando Raid

Space Jockey

Rescue Terra I (glad to see this got a mention earlier...got myself a nifty repro of this cart)

Guardian

Air-Sea Battle (I don't think anyone "dislikes" this cart but it always comes up in these discussions for some reason)

Fantastic Voyage

Spacemaster X-7

GORF

Secret Quest

Defender (it has its fans, but plenty of people hate it, too; I love it)

Miner 2049er (a far cry from the Atari 5200, Coleco, C64, or Apple versions, but fun; dying and starting over sucks tho)

Montezuma's Revenge

Fast Eddie

Radar Lock

Galaxian (nobody talks about Galaxian and it's baffling. Great game, even with that weird yellow border.)

Donkey Kong (is this unpopular?)

Pac-Man (bad port, fun game. It's fun. Sorry, it just is. Your shitty Christmas in 1982 doesn't change that. )

River Raid II

Ikari Warriors

Xenophobe

Street Racer

Video Olympics (again...is this unpopular?)

Survival Run

Communist Mutants From Space (Supercharger cassette)

Bugs

Warplock

Sub Scan

Halloween (yes, seriously)

Cross Force

Super Football

Turmoil

Cosmic Commuter

Subterranea

Burgertime (people usually think of the Intellivision, Coleco, or some other version)

Bump 'N' Jump (^ ditto)

Tapper

Mega Force

Crash Dive

Codebreaker

Brain Games

Golf

Miniature Golf

Stellar Track

Steeplechase

Football (provided there's somebody to play with)

Dolphin

Track & Field

Realsports Tennis

 

I thought of another one the other night that I don't think I saw mentioned in this thread:

 

Zaxxon.

 

There's a little bit of Pac-Man Syndrome going on with this one. As a port of the arcade title, Zaxxon is very weird--it's almost not even the same game. And yeah, it probably could have been a little better-looking. Nevertheless, Zaxxon is a fun game. The control is crisp, you can "rapid fire," it maintains the altitude-based "aiming," it has the Zaxxon end boss itself, and it's just satisfying to shoot stuff and blow crap up in this game. The 2600 version also shows that the isometry of the arcade original really has only gimmicky, superficial value, and that the perspective isn't the true meat of the game. Yet, Zaxxon for Atari (and Intellivision) seems to get raked over the coals over it more often than not, which is unfortunate because there's a pretty good--if not quite great--little game in there.

[FOX2600]

Porkys and Alien.

 

Other than 2600, I enjoy Color-a-Dinosaur, Taboo: the sixth sense, and Home Alone on NES haha

[OldAtAtari]

I know E.T. has been mentioned several times in this thread, but I have to put my vote in for it also.

 

Today, I played E.T. for the first time in maybe 30 years. And this was after I read all the modern bad press about it. I read the instructions first (and had to look back at them a few times while playing), and then I played it and really enjoyed it! And I like that he's green. The only thing that bugged me is that sometimes Elliot wouldn't come save me when I called for him. Irresponsible kids!!! But other than that, yeah, my vote goes to E.T.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

I've read at times that Mines Of Minos isn't well-liked but I always enjoyed that one...I still give it a spin every once in a while.

 

Is Krull unpopular as a game? If so, it's in the same boat as Mines Of Minos for me.

 

I admit that I wear nostalgia glasses with a few titles that I just can't hate on as I have fond memories playing them as a kid: Pac-Man, Frontline, Laser Blast (the latter was the very first 2600 game I ever played and we added a lot of extra 'imagination' to it which made it more fun than it actually is). When I first played Pac-Man I had no idea of the existence of an arcade version to compare, a shame for me given how into arcades I am now.

 

I also didn't hate or dislike E.T. back when I first came across it as an 8-year old (a few years after it had been released so I never heard good or bad about it and formed my own opinion on how it was). Yeah it was a little frustrating but I enjoyed finding the easter eggs and completing it when I was bored with other games. When it became cool to hate in the late 90s I found that odd and eventually irritating.

[DCent]

Towering Inferno and Dragonfire don't get a whole lot of love but they are fun games.

[AMenard]

I didn't have a 2600, I bought the Coleco Gemini instead. I only had 3 games for it before being forced to sell it to get food. I had a billiard game, can't remember the name, Donkey Kong and the Gemini build in Mouse Trap game. Mouse Trap was my favorite but I did like the other two.

[louisg]

I love Towering Inferno, and most people seem to dislike that one. It's buggy and unattractive. Seriously, what is with your main sprite? And it ripples too as you move up the screen! But, despite everything, it's such a great game concept and I can play it for quite a while without becoming bored of it. And yeah, I like E.T.. I can't say it's a favorite, but I still enjoy it every now and then. I think I'd take it over Haunted House, Indiana Jones, and Superman for 2600 adventures. Yeah, I know, I know...