One on One Basketball - My review and discussion...

[gorfcadet]

So which Atari 7800 basketball game do you think is better? My only sadness is the system didn't get a proper 5v5 title, but I do really enjoy this one. Since this was a super cart, I also wish there had been some audio boost for the crowd noise, organs, and general sound effects like the Amiga version got.

 

I don't want to buzz kill this one though, as is, I really love this game. All these years later, I still hit button 2 forgetting it's just a time out call.

 

 

 

[+save2600]

Don't play this one much on the 7800, but have to say that I loved it BITD ('83/'84) on the Apple. It's just not the same with the Atari joystick and really, really miss the controls of the way I played it on the Apple. You know, that analog 2-button Kraft joystick that sucked for most games, but really excelled here - and especially loved the mushy fire buttons. Just seemed to add an extra dimension to the play somehow. Anyway, no doubt the game overall was a lot more impressive back in '83 than it was by the time it reached the 7800.

 

I have it for the Amiga, so nice shout out for that version. Will have to give it a try soon on that system and see if I still miss the analog stick and mushy buttoned Apple experience.

[DracIsBack]

I'm the outlier. I know this is considered by many to be a computer classic of the early 1980s, but I couldn't get into it. Had it on both the 7800 and the XEGS at one point.

 

I honestly found Basketbrawl to be a lot more fun, even though it has its "quirks" and isn't really a straight basketball game

Edited May 7, 2019 by DracIsBack

[gorfcadet]

Don't play this one much on the 7800, but have to say that I loved it BITD ('83/'84) on the Apple. It's just not the same with the Atari joystick and really, really miss the controls of the way I played it on the Apple. You know, that analog 2-button Kraft joystick that sucked for most games, but really excelled here - and especially loved the mushy fire buttons. Just seemed to add an extra dimension to the play somehow. Anyway, no doubt the game overall was a lot more impressive back in the '83 than it was by the time it reached the 7800.

 

I have it for the Amiga, so nice shout out for that version. Will have to give it a try soon on that system and see if I still miss the analog stick and mushy buttoned Apple experience.

 

It plays way faster on the Amiga and the sound is night and day. Not a fair comparison I suppose, but I wanted to illustrate how the team phoned in the music and sound on this one. Ahhh, the mushy buttons... I remember trying to play so many Apple games at school that way.

 

I'm the outlier. I know this is considered by many to be a computer classic of the early 1980s, but I couldn't get into it. Had it on both the 7800 and the XEGS at one point.

 

I honestly found Basketbrawl to be a lot more fun, even though it has its "quirks" and isn't really a straight basketball game

 

I'm really curious to play Basketbrawl. I want it on cart, but I may resort to emulation just to play it and see how it goes if I can't hold out until payday. I do really like the look of that one from what I've seen.

[+cvga]

I absolutely loved this game on the Commodore 64. It was the first game I bought when I got my disk drive. A ref who called fouls, a shattering backboard and instant replay kept me coming back for more and more not to mention that Larry Bird was my favorite player.

 

I do have one issue with the review. You were down about 10 points consistently through the review but went on a run near the very end to get within 2 points with about a minute left when the review ended. I was interested in the game and wanted to see if you were going to comeback and get the win. Now I'll never know (unless you respond and tell me).

[gorfcadet]

I ended up losing by 4. Live by the three; die by the three. It never occured to me that someone would be tracking how that particular game went. That was actually my warm up game, but since that was the only one where I kept accidentally hitting time out, that was the footage I ended up using. After that I also switched to points rather than time. I ended up 2W-2L on the day.

[Inky]

People complain about the 7800's sports titles, and if all you look at are football, baseball, and hockey, it would be reasonable to assume that the 7800 sports titles are trash.

However, both basketball games (Basketbrawl and One on One,) and both golf games (Ninja Golf and Mean 18,) really shine.

 

I'd like to see someone take the code for Realsports Baseball and TOuchdown Football, and tweak the code to make more playable games.

[zzip]

I'm the outlier. I know this is considered by many to be a computer classic of the early 1980s, but I couldn't get into it. Had it on both the 7800 and the XEGS at one point.

It was one that my friends would all come to my house to play, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of it myself. It was ok, kinda awkward to control.

 

Had it on the 8-bit Atari Computer.

[John Stamos Mullet]

I loved this game for the broken backboard/gumbling janitor character. By the time if came out for the 7800 it wasn't as impressive as other games, but I still liked it.

[DracIsBack]

It was one that my friends would all come to my house to play, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of it myself. It was ok, kinda awkward to control.

 

Had it on the 8-bit Atari Computer.

 

Funny how that works, eh? :-)

 

I had friends come over and thought they'd be all over some games- and they weren't. But then they spent hours on others. Two that came to mind were Xenophobe on the 7800 and Blue Lightning on the Atari Jaguar!

[+GoldenWheels]

Loved it on my XE. I always thought it was a very good controlling and well designed game of basketball, with a good CPU opponent and it was a great game for two players if both knew how to play. Finding the right spot for releasing your shot, risking getting the ball stolen getting too fancy in your moves, getting your jump timed right for rebounds, etc etc. Once you get familiar everything was consistent.

[Lord Thag]

How good this game is depends on when you encountered it. If you played this when the only other offerings were things like 2600 Basketball, it was amazing. Being able to break the backboard, the janitor coming out etc were details you just had never seen at that point.

If you played it later than that, say once intellivision or the nes had made really good basketball games, it's just kinda meh.

Really, it was too old to be ported to the 7800. Atari never really got what made a good sports game anyway.

[gorfcadet]

How good this game is depends on when you encountered it. If you played this when the only other offerings were things like 2600 Basketball, it was amazing. Being able to break the backboard, the janitor coming out etc were details you just had never seen at that point.

 

If you played it later than that, say once intellivision or the nes had made really good basketball games, it's just kinda meh.

 

Really, it was too old to be ported to the 7800. Atari never really got what made a good sports game anyway.

 

Yeah, this and Karateka were both really long in the tooth by the time they were released for the 7800. Odd they didn't go for a newer game.

[DracIsBack]

I thought Karateka would have been reasonable even in 1987. It was on the NES too and had variety ... different showdowns, animated sequences and challenges. The problem with that one was it just just a really, really, really shitty port

[zzip]

How good this game is depends on when you encountered it. If you played this when the only other offerings were things like 2600 Basketball, it was amazing. Being able to break the backboard, the janitor coming out etc were details you just had never seen at that point.

 

If you played it later than that, say once intellivision or the nes had made really good basketball games, it's just kinda meh.

 

Really, it was too old to be ported to the 7800. Atari never really got what made a good sports game anyway.

I had it when it was new. And yes it was innovative in some way-- the shattering backboard for instance. But controls always felt sluggish, and the on-screen characters barely looked Like Dr. J and Larry Byrd. But then again, 8-bit systems were hardly up to the task of representing real people. So including them felt more like a gimmick than something that added to gameplay.

[Lord Thag]

I had it when it was new. And yes it was innovative in some way-- the shattering backboard for instance. But controls always felt sluggish, and the on-screen characters barely looked Like Dr. J and Larry Byrd. But then again, 8-bit systems were hardly up to the task of representing real people. So including them felt more like a gimmick than something that added to gameplay.

Yeah, I did too. And we were all more forgiving of shoddy gameplay at that point. A few years later... not so much.

[+chicgamer]

How good this game is depends on when you encountered it. If you played this when the only other offerings were things like 2600 Basketball, it was amazing.

 

I actually still love Basketball on the 2600. It's just so easy to pick up and play. And then there's all the nostalgia from playing it as a kid ...

 

I never did play the One-on-One games, even after they substituted Michael Jordan for Dr J (I was a big fan of Jordan and the Bulls). Not sure why.

[+Pac-Lander]

Excellent game. For kids growing up playing basketball and who had brothers or sisters who played, this game was a fantastic one-on-one gaming experience.

 

One of the best 2 player experiences for any system at the time, and one of the best initial releases on the ProSystem!