Jess Ragan Posted November 12, 2001 Share Posted November 12, 2001 Maybe he'll feel more motivated when he plays my hack, Kabul! (sorry, shameless plug) JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooterb23 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 OK, I can't believe nobody has said OINK! that game was wretched in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Pitfall Harry: Except for the fact that Freeway came before Frogger It did?? Obviously 2600 Frogger came out later but I swear I knew of Frogger (the Coin-Op version) prior to Freeway coming out. Which is why when I looked at the box I thought "ooh! Frogger with a chicken!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Well I did a quick check and it looks like both Freeway and Arcade Frogger are dated 1981... so who knows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utamav91 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 quote: Originally posted by NE146: Well I did a quick check and it looks like both Freeway and Arcade Frogger are dated 1981... so who knows? Can anyone really imagine doing the Freeway game without the original arcade Frogger to inspire it? Total clone job, I'm tellin' ya. Sort of like Odyssey's KC Munchkin came out after arcade PacMan but before the 2600 Pac Man. And then the Parker Brothers 2600 still rocks. Sort of a state of binary disfunctionality. Compare 2600 Frogger to Space War or Adventure and you can see how far the Atari came along graphically toward the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eckhard Stolberg Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Actually I think Freeway is inspired by an old Atari arcade game named Space Race. It was two players trying to fly though an asteroid field that consists of horizontally moving lines. See Space Race at KLOV for reference. Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yiearkungfu Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Freeway was an awesome game, i love playing it in 2 player Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Despite Crane's Freeway being first, I find Frogger much more fun. And Preppie is fun too (a Frogger clone). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videotwit Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Amen, brother Pitfall! Well researched, and nicely articulated. You win. Actually I'm glad someone rose up in defense of Freeway. It actually is on my top 10 list of games based on my replay rate. You all may hate it, but I find it not only fun to play, but conceptually amusing as well. C'mon ... a chicken crossing the road ... getting run over by speeding traffic ... what's not funny about that!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Albanese Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 I think one has to consider the times. Activision really made a huge impact with their initial games. They were mnore colorful, had little or no flicker and always featured the Activision logo. In many ways, their carts were upscale for the time. Take Freeway, for example. Amazing for it's time. The colors, the funny concept ... and that super-real horn sound! A really funny game that I still play on the emulator at work. How could anyone knock Stampede? It has a great difficulty curve. It's Defender with livestock! Yes, Dragster is kind of lame, though. Crackpots has to be the worst -- no fun! Great thread about the coolest company, Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Nice research on the frogger/freeway connection Harry Ok. Opinion time again.. You know what I didn't like about Freeway? 1. As a kid, I played lots of my games solo (my brother was too young). Freeway required two players to get any kind of real fun going. Not to mention that "timed" games just never really did anything for me (generally). 2. quote: C'mon ... a chicken crossing the road ... getting run over by speeding traffic ... what's not funny about that!?!? Well depending on the difficulty switches the chicken either just got pushed back a few lanes or completely dissapeared and started back at the beginning. i.e. whats up with that!? No SPLAT?! No "Chicken Death"?! (So I guess as a kid i thought that was stale) And no running around frantically trying to avoid cars (which is how I imagined it to be) since you can only move up and down which significantly limited the gameplay imo. Although I must admit to being impressed with the cars graphics at the time so there ya go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagMax667 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 My least favorite Activision game is Plaque Attack. I always thought playing as a tube of toothpaste fighting hamburgers was stupid. But I HATE the version of Kaboom on the PSX Activision Classics disc. The controls are terrible! You cannot play that game with a PlayStation controller! But on the 2600, it's Plaque attack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klove Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 For those of you who enjoyed Freeway, keep your eyes peeled for the Anthology project. It'll have the original "Human" Freeway included on it. "Blood 'n' All." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videotwit Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 quote: Originally posted by NE146: Well depending on the difficulty switches the chicken either just got pushed back a few lanes or completely dissapeared and started back at the beginning. i.e. whats up with that!? No SPLAT?! No "Chicken Death"?! (So I guess as a kid i thought that was stale) I think that "splat" is pretty dang funny just in itself. Realistically, what do you think would have happened if they actually released the "human" version (or even a bloody chicken version)? Back at that time, it probably would have put Activision in almost the same light that Wizard Video was in a year or so later (a bad light, that is). Blood & Guts would have been really looked down on by parents all over the world -- although noone (well, almost noone) thinks twice about gore and violence in gaming now, I think it would have been a different story back then, possibly even leading to boycotts of Activision and Freeway being available only from behind the counter (ala. Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th). Where would that leave us now? [ 11-13-2001: Message edited by: twit ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted November 13, 2001 Author Share Posted November 13, 2001 I cant wait to see the human freeway.. Im sure ill get a good laugh out of it.. bloody pixels are pretty funny How is the project coming along? Good I hope. Ever since it was anounced I have been waiting on it for all of the great features it will have... Quick question, does the Anthology cover all the Activision 2600 releases, or just the most popular and well known, as with the actio packs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 As far as the "chicken death" I was just thinking of some kind of graphic that would show for a second that indicated that the chicken (i.e. "you") got run over and would have to start again. I mean that would be better rather than just the quick dissapearance and INSTANTANEOUS appearance back on the bottom. I think small change would have made a pretty big difference as far as the overall feel and atmosphere of the game and wouldn't necessarily have to be controversial or gory. The way 2600 Frogger does it is pretty much exactly what I'm talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted November 14, 2001 Share Posted November 14, 2001 quote: Originally posted by NE146: Which is why when I looked at the box I thought "ooh! Frogger with a chicken!" Now THIS is funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodyi76 Posted November 14, 2001 Share Posted November 14, 2001 scooter Oink is a great game. very unique and requires great joystick skill and quick thinking. I want my Oinkers Patch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted November 14, 2001 Share Posted November 14, 2001 I remember playing Oink! for like hours on a snow day from school back when I was a kid (it was a marathon of that and Tennis). But, I loaded it up on the emu a month back and it just didn't do it for me. The game was too slow. It took forever to lose a pig and I wasn't having enough fun to stay interested. Oink-less Stan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted November 14, 2001 Share Posted November 14, 2001 Well, Plaque Attack was pretty craptacular. I've always had a dislike of games that try to push ideas on kids like "brush your teeth" (Don't get me wrong... I'm not all blood 'n' guts... I just don't like preachy games). However, I'd have to say I was most disappointed by Ice Hockey. I'm a huge hockey fan, but this sure ain't hockey.... Games that are also pretty boring include: Dolphin, Sky Jinks and Skiing. Laser Blast isn't so bad a game, though I will admit that it's repetitive, and gets boring after a while. I'd have to defend some of the other games mentioned though... particularly Space Shuttle (Although it's not the most fun game in the world, it's amazingly innovative), and Freeway. Sure, Freeway is a rip-off of Frogger (Even if it did come out first, it still has the rip-off feel to it), but at least it has a two player mode. When you think about it, LOTS of Activision games are ripoffs of existing games (Although I'm sure people will correct me on the actual order of the rip-off... some of Activision's games probably came out first in some of these cases): Freeway --> Frogger Chopper Command --> Defender # Tennis --> Pong Spider Fighter --> Phoenix/Demon Attack Enduro --> Pole Position * Sky Jinks --> Skiing (Rip-off of their own game!) # Commando --> Front Line # Seaquest --> Defender, Stampede, etc Frostbite --> Q*Bert Pressure Cooker --> Burger Time (Kinda) Robot Tank --> Battlezone # Starmaster --> Star Raiders # (* Enduro gets extra points for it's amazingness) (# These ones are particularly obvious!) --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalkeir Posted November 15, 2001 Share Posted November 15, 2001 How come no one's mentioned Boxing?!?! BTW, I really like Frostbite. It has elements of Q*Bert, but also Frogger and some neat twists. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodyi76 Posted November 15, 2001 Share Posted November 15, 2001 I rated boxing the 4rth worst activision game. Also I love frostbite myself It's not a q*bert ripoff it's unique enough. Plus I think it came out before q*bert. They both came out in 1983 but I know frostbite came out in the early part of that year according to my activision catalog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcostin Posted November 15, 2001 Share Posted November 15, 2001 I've never really been able to get into some of the earlier Activision games. Stampede is one that a lot of people have named. They were already doing some pretty nifty things with graphics and sound, compared to other games of the time, but some titles hadn't yet developed the high standards of gameplay that we later came to expect. I always liked Freeway, indestructible chicken and all. I used to play that game for hours with a neighbor kid. The traffic noise always has a stragely calming effect. And it does seem as though game designers were more liberal in borrowing and sharing game ideas back in the good ol' days. (Fewer lawyers around to ruin the fun, I guess.) Activision wasn't alone in this on the 2600, and a lot of computer games of the same era were also clearly "inspired" by whatever was popular in the arcades. Another Activision example is Megamania, which is a lot like Astro Blaster (but without that pesky overheating laser), and Beamrider always struck me as a cross between Tempest and an old computer game called Gridrunner. It's always a matter of opinion, but sometimes I like the "ripoffs" better than the original, or just as well in different ways. Robot Tank's damage feature and the weather and darkness effects (like in Enduro) give the game a different feel from the 2600's Battlezone cart. There's something kinda cool about piloting a tank with dead radar and damaged treads, trying to catch a glimpse of enemy fire coming at you through the fog... [ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: 10KVGhost ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalkeir Posted November 16, 2001 Share Posted November 16, 2001 Sorry, woody, I missed that. This seems to be a popular subject! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utamav91 Posted November 16, 2001 Share Posted November 16, 2001 quote: Originally posted by NE146: As far as the "chicken death" I was just thinking of some kind of graphic that would show for a second that indicated that the chicken (i.e. "you") got run over and would have to start again. I mean that would be better rather than just the quick dissapearance and INSTANTANEOUS appearance back on the bottom. I think small change would have made a pretty big difference as far as the overall feel and atmosphere of the game and wouldn't necessarily have to be controversial or gory. The way 2600 Frogger does it is pretty much exactly what I'm talking about. A drumstick/chicken leg would work well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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