Best and Worst Arcade Conversion

[PatrickDBowlingo]

Ummmmmmmm, nevermind about the pictures of Frogger for Super Charger.

 

Perfect arcade port?

 

I think not.

 

While very good its not quite up to the level of the arcade.

[Jess Ragan]

Yeah, Amidar was pretty lifeless... no sound, very limited graphics, and the characters no longer jumped... they just turned into black squares when you pressed the button. It's odd... most of Parker Bros.' 2600 translations were at least OK, but someone was out to lunch on this one (I suspect half the programming team).

Super Cobra was also really lame. I spent a lot of time playing this when I was a kid but it seems pretty miserable now. It makes me wish Konami would have finished and released Super Scramble... I'd like to think that, even with their mediocre 2600 track record, Konami could have made the game better than Parker Bros.' Super Cobra.

Donkey Kong for the 2600 is really rough around the edges, but I dunno, I'm not sure a better translation would have been possible around the time it was made. It would have been a lot better five years later, when all the really terrific games were being released for the VCS, but in 1982, that was about the best you were going to get.

 

JR

 

P.S. Wow, no comment from Blackjax about the Tempest prototype? He had some really memorable ones when I talked to him about it.

[NE146]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scorpio:

BEST:

Asteroids: The Vector Edition.

---

 

Hey! Thanks!!!

 

Seeing as I did that one night a few years ago just for fun (when this whole graphic alteration thing wasn't quite so rampant) it's kinda nifty that it's still floating around and liked.

[Atari-Jess]

too bad the vectrex wasn't color it be way better.

 

and even though tempest wasn't finished its still pretty awful.

[MagMax667]

quote:

---

Hey! Thanks!!!

 

Seeing as I did that one night a few years ago just for fun (when this whole graphic alteration thing wasn't quite so rampant) it's kinda nifty that it's still floating around and liked.

 

---

 

I like the Vector Edition of Asteroids better than the original version because the vector graphics make it feel more like the arcade game. A fine job!

[Marco(2)]

I like Frogger a lot, the PB version also. Though the graphics may be not as nice as on the Starpath version, PB did a great job at preserving the atmosphere of the arcade game.

 

I was really disappointed by the 2600 versions of MrDo! and Pengo. Perhaps I just expected too much, but the home versions of these two arcade favourites of mine could've been better, I think.

 

Anyone ever consider spicing up either of these two games and making a better 2600 version of them?

 

 

Cheers,

 

Marco

[MattyXB]

One of the worst Arcade Games are Double Dragon. Unplayable. I only love the HES Picture Lable version, because the picture is great.

Looks great or what you think?

 

Matthias

[VectorGamer]

Best, Star Wars: the arcade game (a good job)

Worst, Tempest prototype (its just sad.)

 

what do you think, whats your best and worst?

 

Best: Stargate

Worst: Pac-Man

 

Honorable mentions: Frogger (Official), Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Arcade, Space Invaders Arcade, Juno First, Lady Bug

[Gabriel]

Damn dude. You're a busy little necromancer.

 

Best arcade port? I'm going with Stargate. It pulls off look and feel about the best the 2600 can. It's a damn fine adaptation, worlds better than Defender, and it edges out Joust and Centipede with it's greater fidelity to the source.

 

Worst? Really, you're going with Pac-Man? I'll beat the tired drum again. Pac-Man was fairly representative of all the 2600 arcade ports of the time. None of them had anything other than a passing similarity to the arcade games they were based on. Look and feel typically weren't even given passing consideration before the Pac-Man backlash.

 

I'm going to go with Zaxxon as the worst port of an arcade game. I don't think the game itself is bad, and I enjoy playing it a lot, but as an arcade port it's absolutely laughable. There is very little chance of it even being guessed as being a port of Zaxxon without already knowing that's what it allegedly is.

[7800Lover]

I thought that Space Invaders was an excellent port for the Atari 2600.

 

As for the worst - that has to be Congo Bongo hands down. Seriously, you only had TWO out of four levels and the graphics are ugly. The Atari 2600 DOES NOT handle an isometric viewpoint well.

[Master Phruby]

Just to be different I'm saying Warlords for the best and Crystal Castles for the worst.

[+SpiceWare]

Warlords

The Arcade game was the conversion, the 2600 version was the original. From Will Nicholes - Interview with Carla Meninsky

 

I went straight to Warlords which was on the list as Kings in the Corner break-out game. I would like to set the record straight here—I did the 2600 game before the coin-op game even existed!

More info in this topic.

[7800Lover]

Just to be different I'm saying Warlords for the best and Crystal Castles for the worst.

 

Exactly what I was saying before - Crystal Castles and Congo Bongo are positive proof that the Atari 2600 CANNOT handle a three-quarter isometric view.

[AtariLeaf]

Wow, I actually like a lot of the ones people hate - Donkey Kong, Mr Do, Pacman, Defender. Are they great representations of their arcade counterparts? Absolutely not. Are they fun as stand alone games? I certainly think so.

[+save2600]

Wizard of Wor is an *excellent* conversion for the 2600. And as mentioned, so is Stargate. Tapper rocks and so does Starpath's Official Frogger.

 

Q*bert is pretty damned playable too. I bet today, a proficient homebrewer could do an even better job, with speech, higher-rez play field, etc.

 

Worst? I'm going to take a slightly different route to this answer. Some of the more obscure arcade titles such as Q*bert's Qubes and Mr. Do!'s Castle quickly come to mind. Castle is so bad, really don't know what the hell you're supposed to be doing, unless you read the manual or see a video walkthrough. lol

 

Burgertime really frickin' stinks too. And as far as conversions go, Off The Wall is NOTHING like the arcade. Besides the game/gameplay being totally different, the fact you have a breakout type game with no analog paddle support is totally and utterly inexcusable. We're talking about the 2600, HELLO?! In other systems' defense (Jaguar/Breakout 2000), a paddle controller wasn't available. And the game suffers sorely without it.

 

And WTF was up with 2600 Xevious? Okay, so it's a prototype... but still. How finished is it? Atariprotos doesn't even say (Tempest, do you know?). Game is as dull to play as Espial, arcade or 2600 version - blech!

[BrianC]

Worst? Really, you're going with Pac-Man? I'll beat the tired drum again. Pac-Man was fairly representative of all the 2600 arcade ports of the time. None of them had anything other than a passing similarity to the arcade games they were based on. Look and feel typically weren't even given passing consideration before the Pac-Man backlash.

 

I agree Pac-Man's not the worst, but I disagree that it was representative of other arcade ports. Some of them like Combat, Berzerk, Breakout, Dodge 'em, Super Breakout, Indy 500, Air Sea Battle, Circus Atari, Missile Command, and Asteroids definitely bear more resemblance to their arcade counterparts than Pac-Man.

 

Best: Starpath Frogger, Tapper, Spy Hunter, Jr. Pac-Man, Stargate/Defender II, Millipede

Worst: Mr. Do's Castle, Burgertime

 

I wouldn't lump Q*Bert's Qubes in with Mr. Do's Castle. Unlike the latter, I found it to play very well and to be a pretty good port of the coin op.

 

Off the Wall only shares a name with the arcade game. It's not a conversion at all, just a case of different game, same name. I have to check, but doesn't it have a speed up button (could be wrong on this)? I found it to be playable despite the lack of paddle and to be a nice game on its own, though the lack of paddle is disappointing.

Edited August 30, 2013 by BrianC

[Cynicaster]

The oft-repeated complaints with 2600 Pac-Man (bad graphics and colors, flickering, non-rotating head, etc.) are definitely strikes against the game as an arcade port, but I tend to agree that the magnitudes of those discrepancies aren't too far off from "typical" for VCS ports of the day. I think the high-profile nature of the IP makes the game subject to more intense scrutiny than most others. I mean, Amidar? Come on... where are the legions of retro gamers shouting from the mountaintops over that mess?

 

For me, there is a single thing that demotes VCS Pac-Man from a rank of "so-so port" to "coffee table coaster": the ridiculously cheap collision detection. The arcade game allows you to rub shoulders with the ghosts and survive, but on the port, the slightest nick with a ghost results in death and frustration. If the collision detection were reworked to mimic the arcade game, I'd actually play VCS Pac-Man from time to time and enjoy it--not for its authenticity, but for its own merits. As it is, though, forget it.

 

Regarding Burger Time, I don't understand the flack that game gets. I consider myself a pretty harsh critic of arcade ports and I think that one is definitely "better than average" for the VCS. Yes, the graphics are stupid, but the gameplay is there, IMO.

 

Most of my favorite ports have been mentioned, but I'll throw in Popeye; I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned it yet.

 

For me, I think some of the worst ones are the later ones: Kung Fu, Double Dragon, and Rampage are examples. The VCS hardware was out of its league on those, I think.

[BrianC]

Regarding Burger Time, I don't understand the flack that game gets. I consider myself a pretty harsh critic of arcade ports and I think that one is definitely "better than average" for the VCS. Yes, the graphics are stupid, but the gameplay is there, IMO.

The graphics are not the problem I have with the 2600 Burgertime. It's the slow movement of Peter Pepper and the butchered AI of the enemies that make the game less than fun.

Edited August 31, 2013 by BrianC

[NinjaFlicker]

Kung Fu as one of the worst? No way in Hell. The Atari 2600jr was my first game console, and I couldn't believe there were that many enemies, that many stages, and a deadly boss waiting at the end of each one. It was my addiction - my first exposure to post-crash gameplay. High scores were forgotten. I needed to explore...

 

But Space Invaders has to win best - we wouldn't even be having this conversation without it. It was the console market's first killer app.

 

Worst: Double Dragon. The very first fight is roughly equal to the last fight in the NES port. Your only hope to survive is to exploit the Ai over and over again, rather than try to actually fight it.