Inky Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Wow, how about that, I didn't realize that. Only, I'm sorry I said you were mistaken when you were correct. I stand by Demon Attack, though! Well, not everyone is perfect like me. Thank god Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 "Only" should be Inky but I see you figured it out, smart fella. Since we're dumping on oldies, Starmaster is so much more elegant than Star Raiders. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Since we're dumping on oldies, Starmaster is so much more elegant than Star Raiders. No argument from me on that one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddhell Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Since we're dumping on oldies, Starmaster is so much more elegant than Star Raiders. Since we've just about exhausted the 3rd party makers.....should change to "what was the biggest disappointment in a 2600 game you bought from a retail store?" Star Raiders was one of mine....overhyped, big ass keypad (that did about the same as Starmaster did without it), comic book was best part of the entire package...was like 39.99 brand new. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Why does everyone think of Demon Attack as a Phoenix clone. Oh yeah because the birds on the first stage look like the birds in the 2nd stage of Phoenix. But there's little else similar about their gameplay anymore than most any shmups of the time. Not to mention 2600 Demon Attack came out waaaay before Phoenix got ported (and made the name "Imagic" legendary among VCS owners) and for me was the first game to really show us the colors and fast action that the 2600 was really capable of in the days of games like Air Sea Battle, and yes even Space Invaders. Since we've just about exhausted the 3rd party makers.....should change to "what was the biggest disappointment in a 2600 game you bought from a retail store?" Freeway.. by far. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Since we've just about exhausted the 3rd party makers.....should change to "what was the biggest disappointment in a 2600 game you bought from a retail store?" I don't think I paid full retail for any 2600 game (late to the party, enjoyed crash blowout pricing) but I'd say Raiders is the Lost Ark. I understand what they were trying to do, but it's so abstract and inscrutable, and too far removed from the quick & intuitive classic arcade aesthetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Since we've just about exhausted the 3rd party makers.....should change to "what was the biggest disappointment in a 2600 game you bought from a retail store?" Pac-Man. I ended up returning it, which was a rare thing for me. I didn't even return Laser Blast. I would've said Miner 2049er, because the hype surrounding it in Electronic Games magazine was huge and the 2600 version was garbage, but I bought it (and Vol. II) through the Columbia Video Game Club, so technically that wasn't retail. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddhell Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 (edited) Why does everyone think of Demon Attack as a Phoenix clone. Oh yeah because the birds on the first stage look like the birds in the 2nd stage of Phoenix. But there's little else similar about their gameplay anymore than most any shmups of the time. The Atari version of Demon Attack? nothing like Phoenix to me......I believe they mean the Intellivision version, which was pretty much Phoenix rip-off complete with mothership with a barrier to penetrate...and much better graphics... Edited April 10, 2019 by eddhell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddhell Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Pac Man ofc was the biggest disappointment ever....but thank god I couldn't afford it at the time or I would be complaining as well.....I was able to play it at friend's houses, and saw very quickly what a rip off it was.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Freeway.. by far. Loved that game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddhell Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Freeway.. by far. that game would have been 1000% better if they just allowed left and right movement.....i never got that.... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 that game would have been 1000% better if they just allowed left and right movement.....i never got that.... Amen! Surprised it hasn't been hacked yet to allow full movement. Even still, will always seem like a second rate shareware clone to me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetset Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Coleco. Time Pilot and Zaxxon are GREAT if you....pretend they're not really TP & Zaxxon. Time Pilot though runs surprisingly smooth, even moreso than the CV version, Zaxxon is a fun game, you just have to suspend the thought that it has to be diagonal. Mouse Trap would be awesome but the difficulty would ramp up, but it doesn't and it gets boring quick (just needs a simple hack to include the Hawk). DK & DK Jr....ok they both suck. Not gonna lie. Jr is tolerable. Carnival is a decent shooter, Front Line is actually a lot of fun once you get used to aiming and firing the gun. Smurfs: RIGC is great, Mr Do is very well done. Even the proto's are decent. Turbo rocks, Looping is good but way too hard. Not sure if that's the finished product...And I still enjoy the hell out of Venture, plain as it is. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Zaxxon is a fun game, you just have to suspend the thought that it has to be diagonal. YES. I think VCS Zaxxon is a better game for it. I don't think I've met an isometric game I've truly liked. Hey, "Boing" is incredibly rare. How am I supposed to play it? I'm kidding! I know about emulation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Coleco. Time Pilot and Zaxxon are GREAT if you....pretend they're not really TP & Zaxxon. Time Pilot though runs surprisingly smooth, even moreso than the CV version, Zaxxon is a fun game, you just have to suspend the thought that it has to be diagonal. Mouse Trap would be awesome but the difficulty would ramp up, but it doesn't and it gets boring quick (just needs a simple hack to include the Hawk). DK & DK Jr....ok they both suck. Not gonna lie. Jr is tolerable. Carnival is a decent shooter, Front Line is actually a lot of fun once you get used to aiming and firing the gun. Smurfs: RIGC is great, Mr Do is very well done. Even the proto's are decent. Turbo rocks, Looping is good but way too hard. Not sure if that's the finished product...And I still enjoy the hell out of Venture, plain as it is. Coleco is, IMHO the most undeservedly disliked publisher for the 2600. They really only have one terrible title, DK Jr. The prototypes from Coleco that have emerged - Turbo, Cabbage Patch Kids, Looping - are all REALLY well done, if not hard (especially the last two.) Anyone who says they intentionally crippled their games is flat out wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I was gonna say, but what about Carnival, which I thought was really boring on the Colecovision, and the VCS version has to be worse, because it always is ... but this looks pretty nice for an Atari port. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insertclevernamehere Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 (edited) Outside of Imagic and Activision, easily Parker Brothers, although, apart from The Empire Strikes Back, all my other PB games are for the Colecovision. With only 1 PB 2600 game, that puts them level pegging with Fox (Turmoil) and M Network (Astroblast) in my collection. If I didn't have a Colecovision too, I would have more 2600 PB games so, yeah, Parker Bros. Edit: Ooh, I forgot CBS. I have 1 game by them too (Solar Fox). And Sega (Tapper). Doesn't change the outcome but wanted to be 100% accurate with my comment. I think that's it. Maybe I should check......tum tee tum tee tum...phew. Lucky I checked. 1 game from Data Age too (Frankenstein's Monster). Edited April 10, 2019 by insertclevernamehere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KaeruYojimbo Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 (edited) I was gonna say, but what about Carnival, which I thought was really boring on the Colecovision, and the VCS version has to be worse, because it always is ... but this looks pretty nice for an Atari port. 2600 Carnival is a very good port, but if you don't like the original, it isn't going to change your mind. (I've always liked Carnival. For whatever reason, it's one of my favorite shooters. I think it's the duck eating your bullets. That's such a great feature.) The only Coleco port I find unbearable is Donkey Kong Jr. The rest are all pretty good. It surprises me that there are people out there who still believe the intentionally bad ports myth after all these years. My guess is most of them have never played a Coleco port other than Donkey Kong and just hate that one because there are only 2 screens (and Donkey Kong looks like a gingerbread man). Edited April 10, 2019 by KaeruYojimbo 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Activision is leagues beyond the others to me. Kaboom, Pitfall, Pitfall 2, River Raid, Megamania, Keystone Kapers, HERO, Enduro, etc. Next I'd pick Parker Bros. I still enjoy rounds of Frogger, Reactor, Spider-Man, Q*bert, TESB, Popeye. I enjoy some Coleco games and Imagic, but not as many as PB. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I love Activision games but at times there is a little bit of "style over substance". I have to agree there. I remember when I first got my Windows PC, I was excited to pick up an Activision compilation, only to realize most of those games were not as much fun as I remembered. Graphically they are some of the best on the 2600, but gameplay wise most are very shallow with a handful of exceptions. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 First one that came to mind was CBS- Mountain King, Tunnel Runner, Wizard of Wor Parker Brothers too, but I enjoyed their work on other platforms more than I did on the 2600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I really don't get the opinion that Activision games are somehow shallow or lacking gameplay. Yeah, there's Freeway, Dragster, Barnstorming and Sky Jinks which might fit the "shallow" description, but @Cafeman mentioned Kaboom, Pitfall, Pitfall 2, River Raid, Megamania, Keystone Kapers, HERO, Enduro I would raise him Beamrider, Seaquest, and Frostbite. Sure these games are no Space Shuttle in their complexity, but a few of them would have probably made a fair amount of money sitting on an Arcade floor. For me the high quality titles definitely outweigh the more shallow games. AND you could say the same thing about Atari and Imagic. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I really don't get the opinion that Activision games are somehow shallow or lacking gameplay. Yeah, there's Freeway, Dragster, Barnstorming and Sky Jinks which might fit the "shallow" description, but @Cafeman mentioned Kaboom, Pitfall, Pitfall 2, River Raid, Megamania, Keystone Kapers, HERO, Enduro I would raise him Beamrider, Seaquest, and Frostbite. Sure these games are no Space Shuttle in their complexity, but a few of them would have probably made a fair amount of money sitting on an Arcade floor. For me the high quality titles definitely outweigh the more shallow games. AND you could say the same thing about Atari and Imagic. I would argue that Pitfall has pretty shallow gameplay. For the promise of adventure, there really wan't much to it. Maybe it's because I was already in love with Adventure by that point, but to me, Pitfall!, while not bad, is overrated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 Pitfall is deeper than it looks, if you're playing for score and/or completion. That's something I've never bothered to do, because the "one screen of underground is equal to three screens of surface" breaks my brain, but the maps are out there. There are also homebrews that up the number of potential encounters, and possibly randomize things? Activision was never overrated. Lots of design, no flicker, good documentation, patches, credit for creators, original ideas, reliably high quality. Dumping on Activision cos you weren't wowed by a PC collection a decade later misses what they were all about. Sure, they ran out of steam as technology moved on, but they did amazing things while they were at the peak of their retro powers. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wongojack Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I would argue that Pitfall has pretty shallow gameplay. For the promise of adventure, there really wan't much to it. Maybe it's because I was already in love with Adventure by that point, but to me, Pitfall!, while not bad, is overrated. And I also somehow find myself defending Pitfall! . . . As it is generally considered one of the highest rated games of all time, I'd say there is absolutely room to consider it overrated. It is NOT my favorite, but shallow? I dunno, It would have been nice to have a procedurally generated series of screens each time, but chasing a perfect score or getting all of the treasures takes some effort and skills rarely demanded by other VCS games. I can't really think of another game on the platform that has pushed me to create multiple maps over the years, and I still haven't gotten all of the treasures. I'll add that as a 7 year old, it blew my mind. There is definitely something there to inspire imagination that Raiders of the Lost Ark was missing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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