Mr. Brow Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) I'm surprised I hadn't heard of this one before. There weren't many games doing graphics this sophisticated in 1980 and the control scheme is really clever. Clearly a lot of TLC went into the development. I did write-ups on the controls, the scrolling background, and the sprites. It's acclaimed by critics, but I wonder why it didn't catch on more with arcade-goers. Perhaps the controls were too hard to learn or the difficulty curve too steep. What do you think? Anyone play this a lot in the arcades? Edited March 9, 2020 by Mr. Brow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_Bill Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 My all time favorite game. Very under appreciated. Played it in the arcade for several months before it disappeared. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schuwalker Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 (edited) What makes you think it didn't catch on? It was very popular back when I remember playing one. It must've been enough since it spawned a sequel. First time I recall playing one was at a Dominicks' Foods in Chicago west 'burbs - instantly hooked. When I got into collecting arcades, I sought out the Taito-licensed version since I never ran across the Nichibitsu version. A snippet of CC2: Edited March 10, 2020 by schuwalker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brow Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 30 minutes ago, schuwalker said: What makes you think it didn't catch on? It was very popular back when I remember playing one. It must've been enough since it spawned a sequel. Fair enough -- I don't know what its revenues were like, so you may be right that it was popular in its day. My impressions are based on its Mobygames entry, where it has 6 votes with an average score of 2.1, the fact that its Wikipedia entry is in stub territory, and the fact that I hadn't heard of it until I started digging into arcade history. It has been ported many times, however (even recently), so perhaps it has a sizable cult following. Whatever its current status in the gaming community, I do think its worthy of attention. It took me a while to get the hang of it when I started playing, but it was well worth the effort, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 (edited) It came out relatively early and turnover was high in arcades at the time. I only have vague memories of crazy climber. It doesn't come up in top sales/revenue lists. Only the Atari 2600 got a home conversion at the time; famicom came later in Japan. Those games were programmed for single joysticks so not exactly the same experience. Sometimes, in the early 1980s, older machines just happen to be at a location near you where it would have disappeared for most other people. It explains why some people remember a certain machine well and others do not. Edited March 10, 2020 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 (edited) Actually, the famicom version had you use both dpads, controllers held vertically, one in each hand, mimicking the climbing mechanic of the arcade. It was made by nichibutsu. Edited March 10, 2020 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 I've been a big fan of the game for the past 40 years. While not exhaustive, I've pretty much gotten every iteration of the game I could get my hands on whether it's the handheld versions (both Entex and Bandai VFD's, LCD keychain versions, etc.), or the consoles (Hyper Crazy Climber, Crazy Climber 2000, Famicom version etc.). For the arcade version, I prefer the original japanese voices which is what I grew up with and not the US version really. I'm not a huge fan of Crazy Climber 2 although that's fun for a little while. btw.. Anyone notice the Switch version did a poor job with the sounds? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brow Posted March 15, 2020 Author Share Posted March 15, 2020 I put up a review of the game, thanks for the feedback. It's hard to imagine it being as fun without two joysticks -- that's pretty cool what they did with the Famicom version, I don't think I've ever played a NES game that used both controllers for one player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotty Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 I played it a lot back in the day. Pretty easy to find here in the Cleveland area back then. Not as popular as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, but everyone knew about it. This is one of the main reasons I bought an X-Arcade controller years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.bill Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 On 3/9/2020 at 4:12 PM, Mr. Brow said: I'm surprised I hadn't heard of this one before. There weren't many games doing graphics this sophisticated in 1980 and the control scheme is really clever. Clearly a lot of TLC went into the development. I did write-ups on the controls, the scrolling background, and the sprites. It's acclaimed by critics, but I wonder why it didn't catch on more with arcade-goers. Perhaps the controls were too hard to learn or the difficulty curve too steep. What do you think? Anyone play this a lot in the arcades? you must be too young to have played it back in the day. Crazy climber is one of my favorites. I have been taking mine to cax for the last 4 or 5 years. Before that, someone else was taking one. At one point I owned 4 different versions(cabinet styles) of the game. Currently I still have 3. I plan to only keep the taito version as I played that one when it came out. I think I have most/all handhelds and released versions of the game(I dont own a switch). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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