Parker Bros 8 Ways to Play

[cvga]

Parker Brothers used to run adds showing 8 ways to play a given game which consisted of showing the same game on 8 different systems (2600, 5200, 8bit, Colecovision, Intellivision, Vic-20, C-64 and TI-99). Besides Frogger and Q*bert, what other games are available on all 8 systems (doesn't have to be a Parker Bros game)?

 

[jaybird3rd]

Popeye is the first one that comes to mind:

 

 

It's interesting that they listed separate screenshots for the 400/800 and 600XL, both of which played the same version of the game, but omitted the Odyssey² version.  Perhaps they thought that it wouldn't compare favorably to the others shown in the ad.  If you make that substitution, that's eight separate systems, the same systems as Frogger except for the VIC-20.  (Interestingly, Popeye finally got a VIC-20 port in 2015.)

[DavidD]

I'm trying to remember how many platforms Atari released Donkey Kong on... what Atarisoft title had the most platform versions?

[cvga]

2 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

Popeye is the first one that comes to mind:

 

It's interesting that they listed separate screenshots for the 400/800 and 600XL, both of which played the same version of the game, but omitted the Odyssey² version.  Perhaps they thought that it wouldn't compare favorably to the others shown in the ad.  If you make that substitution, that's eight separate systems, the same systems as Frogger except for the VIC-20.  (Interestingly, Popeye finally got a VIC-20 port in 2015.)

I saw the Popeye ad and noticed that they split the 8-bit systems. I just assumed they did that to fill all 8 screens. I had forgotten about the Odyssey2 version. Maybe they didn't want to show that one because of the graphics. I never knew that someone made Popeye for the Vic-20.

 

There's a similar ad for Q*bert with the same 8 categories as Frogger (in the exact same slots). I wonder how they decided which games to put in each space. I love the Vic-20 but not sure I'd put that version in the center of my advertisements.

 

[cvga]

1 hour ago, DavidD said:

I'm trying to remember how many platforms Atari released Donkey Kong on... what Atarisoft title had the most platform versions?

That's a great question.

 

Donkey Kong (9) - 2600, 7800, CV, INTV, Vic-20, C64, 8bit, TI99, NES  (I realize not all of those are Atarisoft ports). I also only looked at carts. I'm pretty sure Atarisoft also released titles for the Apple II and IBM in disk but I'm not sure which titles.

 

 

[DragonGrafx-16]

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Edited August 18, 2020 by DragonGrafx-16
wrong

[DavidD]

3 hours ago, cvga said:

That's a great question.

 

Donkey Kong (9) - 2600, 7800, CV, INTV, Vic-20, C64, 8bit, TI99, NES  (I realize not all of those are Atarisoft ports). I also only looked at carts. I'm pretty sure Atarisoft also released titles for the Apple II and IBM in disk but I'm not sure which titles.

 

 

This is a DK for the Apple II and IBM, and I thought I remember seeing the Atari logo on them.

 

I'm sure there's a complete list of all Atarisoft titles SOMEWHERE... however, what might make things interesting is changing the question to "Which title did ATARI publish on the most platforms"...

[zzip]

9 hours ago, jaybird3rd said:

Popeye is the first one that comes to mind:

 

 

It's interesting that they listed separate screenshots for the 400/800 and 600XL, both of which played the same version of the game, but omitted the Odyssey² version.  Perhaps they thought that it wouldn't compare favorably to the others shown in the ad.  If you make that substitution, that's eight separate systems, the same systems as Frogger except for the VIC-20.  (Interestingly, Popeye finally got a VIC-20 port in 2015.)

I suppose the Parker Bros ad template needed 8 screenshots.   Was the O2 version available at the time the ad was made?

[zzip]

Here is the Q*Bert Ad.

[zzip]

Back then there was an obvious difference between games on different systems.   Today if you ran similar ads showing screenshots of games on Xbox One, PS4 and PC side by side, they would look virtually identical, yet the gamers will still argue that the difference between them is "massive"

[cvga]

3 hours ago, zzip said:

Back then there was an obvious difference between games on different systems.   Today if you ran similar ads showing screenshots of games on Xbox One, PS4 and PC side by side, they would look virtually identical, yet the gamers will still argue that the difference between them is "massive"

Good point. Back then, versions of some games like Demon Attack were not even all that similar.