Excluding Pac-Man and ET, which is the worst game?

[supercat]

Anything by Mythicon.  Fire Fly, Star Fox (not to be confused with the Nintendo series of the same name) and Sorcerer were just plain awful.

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Starfox was the best of the three, IMHO, and was not absolutely completely without merit. The other two were dreadful, though. BTW, the box scan for Firefly shows it as #1 in the Firefly series and the scan for Star Fox shows it as #1 in the Star Fox series. What more did Mythicon have planned for those lines?

[sandmountainslim]

I think the worst game is Desert Falcon, it blows goats.

[CaptainCaputo]

Math grand prix

[pinball22]

My vote would have to go to Riddle Of The Sphinx. While playable, does anybody know what the object of this game is????

 

I, for the life of me can't figure it out!! It's FRUSTRATING!!

 

SjN

924857[/snapback]

 

Read the instructions. It's actually pretty fun (though once you've figured out the "secret" it's not so challenging, but

I remember being incredibly excited when I figured it out as a kid.)

[HP Atari King of Michigan]

I had previously stated that I personally liked ET, but there was others that didn't think the same.

 

So you admit to following the crowd like a drone so you fit in.

 

STAND UP PROUD AND DEFEND THE HONOR OF E.T. INSTEAD OF DUMPING ON HIM!!!

925313[/snapback]

 

HEY, GENIOUS!!! I WASN'T "DUMPING" ON ET, OK?? Read the back story on the sales of Pac-Man and ET and you'll see why I titled this forum. I'm tired of having to explain myself!!!

[HP Atari King of Michigan]

It is obvious that this topic has touched a nerve with people, particularly in the title of this topic (especially where ET is concerned). I want everyone viewing this topic to know that I am a fan of both Pac-Man and ET and I am not a hypocrite. The reason I titled this topic "Besides Pac-Man and ET, which is the worst game?" goes back to when these two games first came out. Atari had aquired the rights to make a VCS version of Pac-Man, probably the biggest anticipated game from Atari. When it came out, people were disappointed about it not resembling the arcade version at all. I really doesn't look like the arcade version, but I agree that it's still a good game. I actually rate it high on my "What-to-play" list. But some folks back in 1982 and even today don't agree. And then there's ET. When Universal gave Atari the rights to do a video game based off their big hit "ET The Extra Terrestrial" the brass at Atari gave programmer Howard Scott Warshaw only a few weeks to develop it in time for Christmas. When ET finally came out that Xmas season, people were ticked off at Atari because they thoght ET was the worst game they ever made, far worse than even Pac-Man. Their biggest complaint was about the numberous pits that ET falls into. In fact, that's what led Atari to bury the unsold ET carts (along with a few unsold Pac-Man carts) in a cement-filled landfill in New Mexico.

 

Which brings me to this topic. I created the title (whether you want to believe it or not, it's up to you) in defense of both these games. I wanted people to share what they thought was the worse game ever made for the 2600, with the exception of those two, because I thought they weren't that bad and worthy of being played. Some of you (like moycon-YES I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!) might harbor a grudge against this topic because of the title. But if I offended anybody with this title, I am a Pac-Man/ET fan, too!

[RickHarrisMaine]

Haunted House. What a boring game, and it generally sucks in my opinion.

[moycon]

Some of you (like moycon-YES I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!) might harbor a grudge against this topic because of the title. But if I offended anybody with this title, I am a Pac-Man/ET fan, too!

 

LOL Don't worry friend you haven't offended anyone that I can tell.

My over the top comments regarding E.T. are made with tongue firmly in cheek and ment to amuse.

I do like the game though, personally I don't who does and doesn't like it.

I will say that the "cement-filled landfill in New Mexico" full of E.T. carts is far from a proven fact though.

[crunchysuperman]

What's funny is that despite most folks loathing them, ET & Pac-Man are usually the titles sellers will put in the auction description for cartridge lots on Ebay that contain them.

[+Random Terrain]

I'm tired of having to explain myself!!!

926085[/snapback]

Instead of calling it this:

 

"Besides Pac-Man and ET, which is the worst game?"

 

maybe you could have avoided any problems by using this as the title:

 

"Excluding Pac-Man and ET, what is the worst game?"

 

We can edit our posts, so don't feel like you have to leave the title the way it is.

[Ringman]

The funny thing is just about every game mentioned on here I find some fun. Except for Karate, as I couldn't get it to play right. Maybe that's just me.

 

But it seems the games I like are usually considered bad.

 

Rampage

ET (actually one of my favorite games on the 2600. Why did people think it would be more then it was? I mean how much can you do with ET? ET was still extremely impressive for the material it was based on. It's better then just making a pacman/invaders/frogger/kaboom clone or something.)

Pac-Man

BurgerTime (I LOVE THE 2600 version over almost all versions. Why do people hate it so:? )

Donkey Kong

Dark Chambers

AirLock

Mines of Minos

Ghostbusters (Leave it alone.)

Sneak and Peek (My sis and I played this game alot especially after I figured out the secret hiding places...heh.)

And I'm sure there's more. It seems the atari is very subjective when it comes to gaming. My most hated games?

 

Custer's Revenge (It's just sick and morally wrong, but I guess that has nothing to do with playability)

Pigs in Space (I dunno it seems rather pointless though I have played it several times.)

Alien (It's not half bad, but jeez couldn't they have done a maze game like dark chambers for this? Or perhaps a skeleton plus type dealy. Maybe somebody could make an Aliens game that would actually do the movie some sort of justice.)

[doctorclu]

Let's see, been playing games on the Atari 2600 for 27 years.... through time, I really stuck to the games I liked, and there were many I don't play anymore... to be honest, I have forgotten any games that really sucked since they were weeded out years ago.

 

The only games I remember are really realy fun ones.

 

And I like E.T.

[pacmanfevr76]

Of the games I have actually played, my vote is Miniature Golf.

[jammajup]

My vote would have to go to Riddle Of The Sphinx. While playable, does anybody know what the object of this game is????

 

I, for the life of me can't figure it out!! It's FRUSTRATING!!

 

SjN

 

Haunted House. What a boring game, and it generally sucks in my opinion.

 

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Haunted house is one of my all time favs and i am very surprised Riddle of the sphinx has been mentioned we had fun on that back then and i always remember my school friend messing about and instead of heading up screen he started reversing going downwards at the begining of the game to the first oasis and finding an object we had been searching for in the game for weeks!

Edited September 9, 2005 by jammajup

[MetalSlime23]

I hate Star Raiders. Aww...hate is a strong word. I dislike Star Raiders. The game I hate is Towering Inferno. The Swordquest games didn't make any sense to me either.

[doctorclu]

I hate Star Raiders. Aww...hate is a strong word. I dislike Star Raiders. The game I hate is Towering Inferno. The Swordquest games didn't make any sense to me either.

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Being a HUGE fan of the Atari 800 Star Raiders, flying the 2600 Star Raiders is like flying a garbage Scow rather than a Star Cruiser. But if you look at it that way, it's a great game! My Garbage Scow vs. the Zylon empire!!

 

Yeh for the 2600 the best Star Raiders games are Star Master and Phaser Patrol.

 

As for other games... I always liked the graphics and puzzles in Sword Quest.

 

Another game that was not all that good but that I had hours and hours of fun goofing around in was KRULL. It took NOTHING to beat that game. But I loved the graphics, I loved the spider room, and I would have my character dancing in the doorway taunting the spider.

 

Ok, I found a game that I liked the graphics in and was desperate to enjoy it as long as I could. And I had played all my other games to death by that point.

[Foxsolo2000]

Burger Time sucked for the graphics were crap, even by Atari 2600 standards for most of the enemies were just flickering squares and added to this the chef moved so slowly that it was a waste of time playing it for your enemies could easily outrun you. Also control was painfully fickle which made it a nightmare to play.

[Ringman]

Burger Time sucked for the graphics were crap, even by Atari 2600 standards for most of the enemies were just flickering squares and added to this the chef moved so slowly that it was a waste of time playing it for your enemies could easily outrun you.  Also control was painfully fickle which made it a nightmare to play.

928363[/snapback]

 

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

[Foxsolo2000]

Er, Yes

[The Game]

Please...don't burn me alive....

 

but I hate Pitfall II.

 

 

I don't think that it is the worst 2600 game, but I hate this game...

[Room 34]

Neither Pac-Man nor E.T. should even be on the list of the top 100 worst games. They are bad (IMHO), but... c'mon, out of 700+ games, MOST of the stuff for 2600 was crap. But you pretty much have to rule out almost everything that the majority of the third parties produced. I'd say there were only 5 or 6 companies that produced ANYTHING of quality.

 

So... among THOSE companies, which games are the worst? Well, I still probably wouldn't put either of these 2 in the top 10. Just among Atari's games, there were a lot that were WAY worse than these two (again, IMHO, of course):

 

Star Ship

Space War

Street Racer

3D Tic-Tac-Toe

Basic Programming

Golf

Video Checkers

Slot Machine

The SwordQuest games

Math Gran Prix

 

...and that's being VERY generous to all of the "Learning Center" titles.

[+Random Terrain]

Please...don't burn me alive....

 

but I hate Pitfall II.

 

 

I don't think that it is the worst 2600 game, but I hate this game...

928456[/snapback]

I think I love you.

[supercat]

Burger Time sucked for the graphics were crap, even by Atari 2600 standards for most of the enemies were just flickering squares and added to this the chef moved so slowly that it was a waste of time playing it for your enemies could easily outrun you.

928363[/snapback]

 

The fact that the enemies could outrun you is part of the point of the game: the only way to win the game is to deal with the enemies. If they happen to be below you, you can drop food on them. If they're following you, you can drop the food they're standing on. And if neither of those approaches seems workable, you can use a pepper on them.

 

As for the "flickering squares", I'll agree that with the amount of RAM the cart has, it should have been possible to do a better display kernel. Three of the enemies are drawn using the two missiles and the ball, and the only thing done to try to make them "interesting" was to vary the NUSIZ/PFCTL registers. I don't know what the display timings in Burgertime are, but given the available RAM it should have been possible to make the "missiles" interesting, as was done in Lock & Chase or Dark Cavern. The egg probably couldn't have been done well with a missile, so use the player sprite for him; the cheese could be a straight missle (as exists now). If the playfield was colored reddish, then the hot dog could be done with the ball. If the game could manage one-line resolution on it, the remaining missile could be used for a "venetian blinds" onion.

 

Still, I'd say M Network tried a lot harder to do a decent kernel than than Atari did with Pacman.

[supercat]

I'd say there were only 5 or 6 companies that produced ANYTHING of quality.

928457[/snapback]

 

I dunno if I'd go that far. Companies that produced at least one decent game (I'm listing one game for each company, even though some produced more). Note that I'm not implying that a game's being listed here implies that great, but at least decent.

• Atari (Solaris)
  
• Activision (HERO)
  
• 20th Century (Bank Heist)
  
• Avalon Hill (London Blitz)
  
• Imagic (Moonsweeper)
  
• CBS (Omega Race)
  
• Coleco (Mouse Trap)
  
• Data Age (Frankenstein's Monster)
  
• Epyx (California Games)
  
• First Star Software (Boing!)
  
• M Network (Lock & Chase)
  
• Milton Bradley (Spitfire Attack)
  
• Parker Brothers (Montezuma's Revenge)
  
• Sega (Tapper)
  
• Starpath (Frogger)
  
• Xonox (Sir Lancelot)
  

In addition, even some of the companies people love to hate have managed to produce at least one game that was somewhat playable.

• Mythicon (Star Fox)
  
• Spectravision (Tape Worm)
  
• Tigervision (Jawbreaker)
  

Seems like a lot more than five companies to me. A more interesting question (albeit a subjective one) would be what company has put out the most games without putting out any stinkers.

[Room 34]

I'd say there were only 5 or 6 companies that produced ANYTHING of quality.

928457[/snapback]

 

I dunno if I'd go that far. Companies that produced at least one decent game (I'm listing one game for each company, even though some produced more).

Sorry... I was a bit hasty when I wrote that. I really meant companies that produced multiple good games. Honestly, I think the only companies that produced more than one game I liked are Atari, Activision, Imagic, M Network, and Parker Brothers. (OK, as much as I hate to admit it, I need to put Coleco on that list too. I liked Venture and Mouse Trap, and I even liked Donkey Kong, although the only one of those 3 that I still like today is Venture.)