What game system libraries have games whose titles start with every letter from A to Z?

[+jgkspsx]

This is a subject I started thinking about when I put all my Lynx games in a coin binder and alphabetized them. Presumably the larger systems all have libraries that span the Roman alphabet, but do they really? Also, it would be interesting to know what systems have the lowest alphabetical diversity.

 

Only games released more or less legally publicly on physical media count for this. One-off cartridges or cartridges of ports made without the permission of rights holders don’t count. Official or aftermarket doesn’t matter. The word “The” doesn’t count for this purpose.

 

So the Lynx has (picking a game at random where there is more than one):

 

A.P.B.

BattleWheels

Chip's Challenge

Dracula - The Undead

Electrocop

Fidelity Ultimate Chess Challenge

Gates of Zendocon

Hydra

Ishido: The Way of the Stones

Joust

KLAX

Lemmings

Ms. Pac-Man

Ninja Gaiden

Othello*

Pinball Jam

Qix

Rampart

S.T.U.N. Runner

Todd's Adventures in Slime World

Unnamed*

Viking Child

Warbirds
Xybots

Yastuna 2: The Space Incident*

Zarlor Mercenary

 

It looks like the Jaguar may just fall short, at least until official Qix or Quest 64 ports emerge  

 

(Neither Orion Collection nor Ocean Depths seems like a “real” entry for O…)

 

Attack of the Mutant Penguins
Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales
Club Drive
Defender 2000
Evolution: Dino Dudes
FlipOut!

Gravitic Mines*
Hoverstrike
I-War
JagZombies*
Kasumi Ninja

Last Strike*
Missile Command 3D
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition

Orion Collection*
Power Drive Rally

Q?
Ruiner Pinball
Super Burnout
Tempest 2000
Ultra Vortek
Val d'Isère Skiing and Snowboarding
White Men Can't Jump

Yopaz IceStar*
Zool 2

 

The Game Gear squeaks over the line thanks to Ren and Stimpy, the X-Men, the Japanese library (not to mention a numeric title too!)

 

5 in One Fun Pak

Alien Syndrome

Berlin no Kabe

Cosmic Spacehead

Dynamite Headdy

The Excellent Dizzy Collection

Faceball 2000

Gunstar Heroes

Halley Wars

Iron Man/X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal

James Pond 3: Operation Starfi5h

Kishin Douji Zenki

The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck

Magical Puzzle Popils

Nomo’s World Series Baseball

The Ottifants

Popeye Beach Volleyball

Quest for the Shaven Yak Starring Ren Hoëk & Stimpy

Rastan

Sylvan Tale

Tails Adventures

Tails' Skypatrol

Urban Strike

Virtua Fighter Animation

Wizard Pinball

X-Men: Mojo World

Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Horobishi Mono no Gyakushuu

Zool

 

The Channel F might be unique in that all of its games’ official titles start with the same letter: V for Videocart  
 

* homebrew/indie games

[Leonard Smith]

Well definitely not the NUON, that much is known.

[Steven Pendleton]

Saturn does.

[+jgkspsx]

32X is missing a lot, in part because 1/5 of its library starts with S…

 

After Burner Complete

Blackthorne

Corpse Killer

Darxide

E?

Fahrenheit

Golf Magazine: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples (not convinced that this shouldn’t start with 36…)

H?

I?

J?

Kolibri

L?

Metal Head

NBA Jam Tournament Edition

O?

Primal Rage

Q?

R.B.I. Baseball '95

Shadow Squadron

T-MEK

U?

Virtua Racing Deluxe

WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game

X?

Y?

Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000

[Steven Pendleton]

Still probably smaller than the percentage of SFC/SNES games that begin with "Super".

[+jeremiahjt]

9 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Still probably smaller than the percentage of SFC/SNES games that begin with "Super".

This is neither here nor there, but that MRE Tobasco bottle brings back some memories. I used every bottle I could get my hands on. Sometimes I would save one to use as salad dressing when they supplied us with a hot meal.

 

Anyway back to the alphabet.

[carlsson]

Obviously most of the major home computers have physically available games A-Z: C64, Atari 8-bit, ZX Spectrum etc.

 

Actually back in November 2013, I played one game on each starting letter, though I cheated and utilized multiple systems.

Edited January 17 by carlsson

[glazball]

I can confirm these consoles all have A-Z games (considering only US retail, not foreign or homebrew games):

 

Atari 2600

NES

SNES

Genesis

 

I assume, but haven't checked, that PS1 - PS4 all have A-Z titles, as well as Wii and Switch.  Each console has a massive library so it's understandable.  Sega Dreamcast is only missing a "Y" game!

Edited January 17 by glazball

[+jgkspsx]

Now that might be the only major modern console to not not have an A-Z list: the Wii U! Using @MegaManFan’s list:

 

Most letters are covered, with some surprising omissions:
 

007 Legends
Axiom Verge Multiverse Edition
Bayonetta 2 (2 discs)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

DuckTales: Remastered
Epic Mickey 2
Funky Barn
Game & Wario
Hyrule Warriors
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Just Dance
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD
Mighty No. 9
NintendoLand

O?
Pikmin 3

Q?
Rodea: The Sky Soldier
Splatoon
Tank! Tank! Tank!

U?
The Voice: I Want You
The Wonderful 101
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Yoshi's Woolly World
Zombi U

[Steven Pendleton]

6 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

This is neither here nor there, but that MRE Tobasco bottle brings back some memories. I used every bottle I could get my hands on. Sometimes I would save one to use as salad dressing when they supplied us with a hot meal.

I was so incredibly hungry in MCT that I used to drink every bottle that I got just to have more stuff in my stomach. That's part of why I keep one sitting on my desk at all times. The other reason is because I found out that they cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year and got rid of them because of that, which I always thought was pretty funny for some reason.

Edited January 18 by Steven Pendleton

[MegaManFan]

I couldn't complete an A to Zed on GameCube either. No Q.

[Steven Pendleton]

Genesis/MD does (what Nintendon't). SFC/SNES and PC Engine also do. Obviously SuperGrafx does not and neither does Neo Geo, I guess.

[+jgkspsx]

I suppose a console has to have more than 26 games to complete the alphabet, ha. Did the PC FX?

 

I feel confident the Tandy Color Computer did between 1&2 and 3, but they may not count as the same system.

[carlsson]

11 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I feel confident the Tandy Color Computer did between 1&2 and 3, but they may not count as the same system.

There is a listing of games here. While we count 1&2 separate from 3 in the tracker, I'm not sure if the listing below combines them.

https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Disks/Games/

 

Here is a page for the BBC Micro, which also features 0-9 and A-F within commercial releases:

https://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?rt_R=on&atoz=%23&sort=b

 

Generally I think many of the major home computers will satisfy this condition, because it was so easy to publish tapes and floppy disk based games compared to the cartridge based consoles which often (post-NES) involved licensing schemes or unauthorized games.

 

Even the slightly more obscure Oric-1/Atmos has a full listing here:

https://www.video-games-museum.com/en/sys/97-oric/3/q

https://www.oric.org/software/

Edited January 18 by carlsson

[+jgkspsx]

Plus so many formats - cartridge, tape, and disk for many computers. I wonder what the cartridge distributions alone look like?

 

The Vectrex is close thanks to the massive homebrew library, but not quite there:

 

3D Narrow Escape

Armor Attack

Bedlam

Cosmic Chasm

Dead of Knight*

Every Day Is Halloween*

Fortress of Narzod

Gravitrex Plus*

Harmageddon

I, Cyborg*

J?

KnightEx*

Logo*

Mine Storm

NOX*

Omega Chase*

Polar Rescue

Quartz’s Quest*

Rip Off

Solar Quest

Thrust*

USA Zombie Apocalypse *

Vector Pilot*

Web Wars

Xmas Cart*

Y?

Zantis*

 

* homebrew

 

EDIT: It has been pointed out that the Vectrex has YASI (Yet Another Space Invaders) and Jingle Bell Hero (Guitar Hero takeoff with Christmas music) but neither was released so far as I know by itself, and neither was the lead game on the twofer carts they were released on. YASI certainly was meaty enough to deserve its own cart, but Alex Herbert never authorized its release that way.

[carlsson]

Cartridge games missing per system:

 

Letter	E	Q	U	W	X	Y	Z
C64					0	0
VIC-20	0		0	0	0	0	0
Atari 8-bit			0	0	1	0	0
TI-99/4A		0	0		0

 

If you disregard the XE Demo Cartridge with 4 games for the Atari 8-bit, it should get another zero in the X column.

 

(in case anyone wonders how the above table was created, I made a separate HTML page and the cut and pasted the WYSIWYG from the webpage into the editor)

[glazball]

Now the next step in this thread should be for everyone to list their favorite games, A-Z, for each console.  Here's my Genesis list:

 

Altered Beast

Beyond Oasis

Castle of Illusion

Disney's Aladdin

ESWAT

Forgotten Worlds

Golden Axe (Ghouls N Ghosts a close 2nd, Grind Stormer is damn good too.  This one was tough!)

Herzog Zwei

Insector X

Jurassic Park - Rampage Edition

King of the Monsters 2

Lightening Force

M.U.S.H.A.

Nobunaga's Ambition

OutRun

Phantasy Star II

QuackShot

Revenge of Shinobi

Splatterhouse 2 (another toughie with Shinobi III, Strider, Streets of Rage, etc)

Truxton

Ultimate Qix

Viewpoint

Wonder Boy in Monster World

X-Men 2: Clone Wars

Ys III

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel

[MegaManFan]

My favorite A to Zed completions so far were Nintendo DS and PS1. I got some really weird stuff to do it. Zooboomafoo (sp?) for PS1, Zenses (sp?) for DS, whacky games that I don't think anybody wanted except me for this purpose!

[+jgkspsx]

Hey @MegaManFan, I like Zenses!!

[+neogeo1982]

On 1/17/2022 at 9:11 PM, jgkspsx said:

more than 26 games to complete the alphabet, ha. Did the PC FX?

As much as you collect and you asked that? Yes it has almost 3X that.

[+jgkspsx]

I have historically tried to avoid learning too much about the PC FX. It makes me sad. Looks like it’s missing E, H, I, N, Q, U, X, and Y.

[MegaManFan]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:16 AM, jgkspsx said:

Hey @MegaManFan, I like Zenses!!

I'm sure it's good, I just never got 'round to playing it. Once I had a "Z" I tested it and tucked it away. I'll pull it out and give it a go sometime!

[+Cobra Kai]

Well done on the topic OP!

 

I always thought the Lynx and Jaguar libraries being like this was done on purpose. I mean, you have a pretty limited amount of games, especially with the Jaguar, and yet somehow almost every letter of the alphabet was represented. I don't believe for a second this was just a coincidence, there was some marketing strategy behind it. 

[MegaManFan]

I'm getting closer on the 3DS games. Just picked up Wreck-It Ralph, Yo-Kai Watch and Zoo Resort!

[Black_Tiger]

The PC Engine has all 26 covered. I can't list examples, but you can easily check each letter here:

 

http://pcengine.co.uk/