Worst 2600 game ever...and the winner is...

[Raiu]

I thought Fire Fighter's graphics were pretty good and it controlled well. But that's where the positives end.

 

I've always been disappointed in this game, because I've always felt it would be a great game if there was just a little more to it. I'm not exactly sure what that "little more" should be, though.

 

The little fireman is animated so well and has that nifty little "sproing" noise when he jumps and I just wish you could do more with him than just run back and forth under the windows and to the truck.

 

Maybe a second screen showing the inside of the building, turning it into an exploration game where you have to put out fires as you go, climbing up and down stairs and searching for the person you need to rescue. That might have been more complicated than the 2600 could handle, though.

[BassGuitari]

Fire Fighter isn't even in the running for "worst 2600 game." (Neither is E.T., for that matter.) It's an average game, not especially good or bad. Sorry you didn't like it or that it ruined your Christmas or whatever, but if you had gotten any of these instead, the very idea of Christmas would have been ruined for the rest of your life:

Karate
Scuba Diver (a.k.a. Sea Hunt)
Sorcerer
Fire Fly
Skeet Shoot
Fun With Numbers (okay, kind of a low blow ; a.k.a Basic Math)
Sneak 'N' Peek
Airlock

All of these are objectively and quantifiably worse than Fire Fighter.

[Rom Hunter]

Fire Fighter isn't even in the running for "worst 2600 game." (Neither is E.T., for that matter.) It's an average game, not especially good or bad. Sorry you didn't like it or that it ruined your Christmas or whatever, but if you had gotten any of these instead, the very idea of Christmas would have been ruined for the rest of your life:

 

Karate

Scuba Diver (a.k.a. Sea Hunt)

Sorcerer

Fire Fly

Skeet Shoot

Fun With Numbers (okay, kind of a low blow ; a.k.a Basic Math)

Sneak 'N' Peek

Airlock

 

All of these are objectively and quantifiably worse than Fire Fighter.

I second that

 

The Bi! Bi! version of Scuba Diver (Skindiver) is even worse: it contains a bug that causes you to get stuck at the beginning of the second screen:

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-bi-bi_12329.html

 

[zzip]

Why is "Sneak 'N' Peek" so bad? Yes it's a weird game for its era in that there are no lives, it needs two players, but requires that one hide their eyes. But as a "hide and seek" video game, I don't think it fails at its mission.

[mbd30]

What Fire Fighter needed was an actual sense of danger and challenge. I mean, you're fighting fires. Have people die if you don't put out the fire in time and if too many die then game over. Were they afraid of the game not being kiddie enough if there was any realism? Just stupid. It's like a Fisher Price game.

 

The graphics aren't bad by Atari 2600 standards.

[Tempest]

SwordQuest: Fireworld

 

Even with the contest the game is so frustrating and buggy that it's absolutely no fun.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

It's been a while since the last time I played Fire Fighter, but I remember it as more boring than truly awful. There are too many fundamentally broken and unplayable games out there for the 2600 to call one that is just dull the worst of them all.

[Inky]

Fire fighter? No. First, I kinda like the game. Secondly, unlike some games, it's playable, and has good graphics. To me, a bad game must have bad graphics, be unplayable from a control perspective, and just not be fun. The first game that comes to mind using this perspective is Karate.

[Inky]

I thought Fire Fighter's graphics were pretty good and it controlled well. But that's where the positives end.

 

I've always been disappointed in this game, because I've always felt it would be a great game if there was just a little more to it. I'm not exactly sure what that "little more" should be, though.

 

The little fireman is animated so well and has that nifty little "sproing" noise when he jumps and I just wish you could do more with him than just run back and forth under the windows and to the truck.

 

Maybe a second screen showing the inside of the building, turning it into an exploration game where you have to put out fires as you go, climbing up and down stairs and searching for the person you need to rescue. That might have been more complicated than the 2600 could handle, though.

 

IMHO, while I like Firefighter, Towering Inferno captures the danger of fighting fires better. It has worse graphics, and you can get stuck on the corners, but I find it a lot more fun. I'd love to see an updated version of Towering Inferno for the 7800.

[G-type]

Why is "Sneak 'N' Peek" so bad? Yes it's a weird game for its era in that there are no lives, it needs two players, but requires that one hide their eyes. But as a "hide and seek" video game, I don't think it fails at its mission.

 

I like Sneak N Peek too

[BassGuitari]

Why is "Sneak 'N' Peek" so bad? Yes it's a weird game for its era in that there are no lives, it needs two players, but requires that one hide their eyes. But as a "hide and seek" video game, I don't think it fails at its mission.

For me, any game that operates on an extraneous honor system automatically gets a strike against it. They tend to stray into "This doesn't need to be a video game" territory and thus are kind of pointless as video games. A lot of the word puzzle and math games of the day fall into this category to me. Games like Crypto-logic! on the Odyssey 2 or Hangman and Basic Math on the Atari (or their equivalents on the Fairchild, Bally, etc) could be played with paper and pencil or a deck of flashcards and wouldn't really lose anything except a few colorful blocks. They are somewhat salvaged by single-player modes, though, which Sneak 'N' Peek lacks; if Sneak 'N' Peek had a single-player variation, it could be pretty neat.

 

Some "honor system" games still manage to be pretty fun, like Tennis and Hockey on the Odyssey 100 (I used to play this with my kid sister and she 'd screw with the score markers when I wasn't looking, or steal an extra point or two when she scored ). Sneak 'N' Peek doesn't get there for me, though, but I'd probably be more lenient toward it if I could get someone to play along.

 

FWIW I think Sneak 'N' Peek's "engine" could be a solid basis for a survival horror or other type of adventure game, if expanded a little (more rooms/areas). There's a good start to a game there that unfortunately stopped at hide and seek.

[Tempest]

FWIW I think Sneak 'N' Peek's "engine" could be a solid basis for a survival horror or other type of adventure game, if expanded a little (more rooms/areas). There's a good start to a game there that unfortunately stopped at hide and seek.

Yeah I thought the same thing. Graphically (especially at the time) it's not bad. Why they decided to use it for a game that's best played without a computer I have no idea. Just because they could I guess.

[mbd30]

For me, any game that operates on an extraneous honor system automatically gets a strike against it. They tend to stray into "This doesn't need to be a video game" territory and thus are kind of pointless as video games. A lot of the word puzzle and math games of the day fall into this category to me. Games like Crypto-logic! on the Odyssey 2 or Hangman and Basic Math on the Atari (or their equivalents on the Fairchild, Bally, etc) could be played with paper and pencil or a deck of flashcards and wouldn't really lose anything except a few colorful blocks. They are somewhat salvaged by single-player modes, though, which Sneak 'N' Peek lacks; if Sneak 'N' Peek had a single-player variation, it could be pretty neat.

 

Some "honor system" games still manage to be pretty fun, like Tennis and Hockey on the Odyssey 100 (I used to play this with my kid sister and she 'd screw with the score markers when I wasn't looking, or steal an extra point or two when she scored ). Sneak 'N' Peek doesn't get there for me, though, but I'd probably be more lenient toward it if I could get someone to play along.

 

FWIW I think Sneak 'N' Peek's "engine" could be a solid basis for a survival horror or other type of adventure game, if expanded a little (more rooms/areas). There's a good start to a game there that unfortunately stopped at hide and seek.

 

I wonder if Sneak n Peak was even originally supposed to be hide and seek because that's just so stupid. Maybe they spent a lot of time on the graphics and game engine and then rushed it into stores with the simple hide and seek concept before they could develop it into something decent.

[zzip]

 

I wonder if Sneak n Peak was even originally supposed to be hide and seek because that's just so stupid. Maybe they spent a lot of time on the graphics and game engine and then rushed it into stores with the simple hide and seek concept before they could develop it into something decent.

 

 

For me, any game that operates on an extraneous honor system automatically gets a strike against it. They tend to stray into "This doesn't need to be a video game" territory and thus are kind of pointless as video games. A lot of the word puzzle and math games of the day fall into this category to me. Games like Crypto-logic! on the Odyssey 2 or Hangman and Basic Math on the Atari (or their equivalents on the Fairchild, Bally, etc) could be played with paper and pencil or a deck of flashcards and wouldn't really lose anything except a few colorful blocks. They are somewhat salvaged by single-player modes, though, which Sneak 'N' Peek lacks; if Sneak 'N' Peek had a single-player variation, it could be pretty neat.

 

Some "honor system" games still manage to be pretty fun, like Tennis and Hockey on the Odyssey 100 (I used to play this with my kid sister and she 'd screw with the score markers when I wasn't looking, or steal an extra point or two when she scored ). Sneak 'N' Peek doesn't get there for me, though, but I'd probably be more lenient toward it if I could get someone to play along.

 

FWIW I think Sneak 'N' Peek's "engine" could be a solid basis for a survival horror or other type of adventure game, if expanded a little (more rooms/areas). There's a good start to a game there that unfortunately stopped at hide and seek.

 

Remember Sneak and Peek is from an experimental era where they literally tried to make games out of everything and anything, so the fact that they did it to Hide and Seek isn't shocking to me.

 

Yes the 'honor system' aspect makes it weird, but there was no other way to handle that, other than online connectivity which was decades away in consoles.

[BassGuitari]

Remember Sneak and Peek is from an experimental era where they literally tried to make games out of everything and anything, so the fact that they did it to Hide and Seek isn't shocking to me.

Exactly! That's why I appreciate the game as a relic of video gaming's "wild west." That, and other weirdness like Mangia, Squeeze Box, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and X-Man.

 

But as an actual game...eh, not as much.

 

Yeah I thought the same thing. Graphically (especially at the time) it's not bad. Why they decided to use it for a game that's best played without a computer I have no idea. Just because they could I guess.

It would be really fun if some intrepid homebrewer could use S'n'P to create something in the vein of the old Apple game Mystery House, sort of like what Adventure was to Colossal Cave Adventure or Adventureland.

 

Or--*fingers crossed*--Resident Evil.

Edited September 15, 2017 by BassGuitari

[BassGuitari]

[n/m...added quote to last post.]

Edited September 15, 2017 by BassGuitari

[G-type]

They are somewhat salvaged by single-player modes, though, which Sneak 'N' Peek lacks; if Sneak 'N' Peek had a single-player variation, it could be pretty neat.

 

 

Game 1 is single player. (although you can only seek)

[Swami]

Since this is a nostalgia forum, I thought I'd post this thread I stumbled on looking for instructions to gingerbread man:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/174229-what-is-the-worse-atari-game-ever-made/

[Harrison]

I'm not a big fan of Bugs.

[AtariWarlord]

Fire Fighter isn't even in the running for "worst 2600 game." (Neither is E.T., for that matter.) It's an average game, not especially good or bad. Sorry you didn't like it or that it ruined your Christmas or whatever, but if you had gotten any of these instead, the very idea of Christmas would have been ruined for the rest of your life:

 

Karate

Scuba Diver (a.k.a. Sea Hunt)

Sorcerer

Fire Fly

Skeet Shoot

Fun With Numbers (okay, kind of a low blow ; a.k.a Basic Math)

Sneak 'N' Peek

Airlock

 

All of these are objectively and quantifiably worse than Fire Fighter.

Definitely agree with Airlock. Sorcerer was actually kind of fun when the HSC made it one of the bonus scores a few months back (awfully repetitive though). Karate and Fire Fly are awful. Never played Skeet Shoot or Sneak 'n Peek. Basic Math can't even be considered a game.

[Mister-VCS]

And the winner is: Fire Spinner

 

Fire Fighter, Fireworld, Fire Spinner,,, the 2600 has no luck with "fire games"!

[MathewM]

Some thoughts from a newbie to the Atariage forums:

 

As a kid I remember ET frustrating the hell out of me. Constantly falling down pits and the creepy government spooks stalking me. However, I still played the heck out of it and probably enjoyed it. I could beat the game which is something that did NOT happen with Raiders of the Lost Ark or Fireworld. Raiders tried to do too much and instead should have focused on simplified versions of key scenes. Sort of like how Krull was done. The reliance on a comic book for clues and contest tie-in made FireWorld indecipherable. I liked Pac-Man but I'm pretty sure my dad thought it was crap. It was the reason he bought the Atari in the first place. I don't remember him playing the Atari very much after his disappointment in that game.

[toddtmw]

Worst game? PacMan! It sucked. Hard.