Best Of The Decades

[sandmountainslim]

This should be fun

What do you think is the best VCS game release of each decade of it's existence?

I shall take the first stab at it.

 

70's- Combat, the most well known of the earliest games as well as one of the most iconic ever.

 

80's- Space Invaders, top of the line and the game which sent everyone into eclipse.

 

90's- Edtris, beginning of the homebrew scene and proved the system was still kickin despite PS etc.

 

00's- Conquest of Mars, probably the most action filled shoot 'em up the VCS has ever witnessed.

 

Now give it a go!

WP

[Vic George 2K3]

70's was Space Invaders, hands down.

 

80's is a real toss-up The Activision games mostly rated the best.

 

Nothing really came out in the 90's that's worth any mention.

 

Though it's still a WIP, Ladybug is the best of the 2000's.

[homerwannabee]

This is a little tougher

70's Breakout (I think Space Invaders came out in 1980)

80's Megamania or Pitfall 2

90's Secret Quest

[+atari2600land]

70's - Street Racer or Breakout/Super Breakout

80's - Pole Position or Freeway

90's - Edtris

00's (so far) - Strat-O-Gems

[Shawn]

70's - Pong

80's - Smurfs

90's - Edtris

00's - COM

Edited August 18, 2006 by Shawn Sr.

[BassGuitari]

'70s- Star Ship

'80s- HERO

'90s- Secret Quest

'00s- Cave 1K

[vdub_bobby]

70s: Indy 500

80s: Jr. Pac-Man

90s: Oystron

00s: Thrust+

 

Note: Secret Quest was released in 1989. Or, at least, it is copyrighted 1989.

 

Another note: 1990s games are:

Xenophobe

KLAX

BMX Air Master EDIT: See Godzilla's note below

Motorodeo

Acid Drop

Ghostbusters II

Fatal Run

Pick 'n' Pile

Sentinel

 

Homebrews:

Alfred Challenge

Oystron

Edtris

Dark Mage

INV (possibly)

Merlin's Walls

Minesweeper

Mondo Pong

Okie Dokie

Pac-Man (Ebivision)

Pesco

Pressure Gauge

Tetris26

This Planet Sucks

Video Simon (I think)

Edited August 18, 2006 by vdub_bobby

[128bytes]

Best:

70's - Adventure - blew my mind and so many others' - no score, no clock, no typing commands at prompt lines!

80's - H.E.R.O. - gets so much gameplay by so many people, young and old, on my VCS. The ultimate easy to learn, hard to master game.

90's - Oystron - very influential to so many homebrewers and just plain good. I got hooked onto it, in all places, on my Game Boy Advance while playing Activision Anthology.

00's - Marble Craze - Brought paddle gameplay, head to head gameplay, great music, and lots of Atari trivia together into a really deep and entertaining whole. I need to go further and see more levels!

 

Most influential:

70's - Space Invaders - started the boom (technically released in January 1980 IIRC, but I had heard rumors about it in 1979 - in any event, Space Invaders fever in the arcades in 1979 was one of the main reasons the Atari VCS was such a huge success in Christmas 1979)

80's - E.T. - started the bust

90's - Okie Dokie - opened so many eyes to possiblities of homebrews

00's - Thrust+ - the whole package -- incredible gameplay, packaging, continued improvements after release - seemed to raise the bar for so many.

Edited August 18, 2006 by 128bytes

[LeafsFan47]

70s: Video Olympics (graphically not the most interesting, but there were some manic 4 player contests in our house back in the day)

80s: Ice Hockey (or you could easily substitute any of a number of Activision titles, such as Pitfall or River Raid)

90s: Oystron (a super fun game to play)

00s: Thrust (a real challenging game)

[Godzilla]

thats actually a neat question...

 

cause the 70's, well there isn't a lot there, the 80's an explosion, the 90's a lot slimmer, and the 00's all homebrews (unless u count found protos, etc.)

 

(if anyone knows exactly what 2600 games made it out by the end of 79? christmas 79 counts... like adventure may be 79 for example,)

 

so...

 

1970's... hum... harder than it sounds for me :-) breakout, circus atari were great fun fast games, street racer & star ship had great gameplay variety (jet fighter, scoop ball,etc. ;lunar lander, space racing, etc.) and superman is a great game very far ahead of it's time... but I have to give it to ...

 

surround. the gameplay itself is timeless and awesome, with lots of game variations. and the addition of video graffitti... i LOVED drawing stuff with surround as a kid, I remember drawing ets face after seeing the title screen of et and how happy I was...

 

1980's... my god, where to begin, the imagics and activisions (etc,) hit the fan, and there is greatness like pitfall 2, demon attack, star gate, reactor, tapper, yars, so SOO much more... but Space Master X-7 is still my favorite 2600 game, so it gets the decade.

 

1990's... (bmx airmaster would be a strong contender, or even a winner, here, but it actually originally came out in 89 from tnt.) so, Oystron it is.

 

2000's... Though not officially out, I have played the .rom extensively, so for the moment the winner is Man Goes Down.

[vdub_bobby]

1970's... hum... harder than it sounds for me :-) breakout, circus atari were great fun fast games, street racer & star ship had great gameplay variety (jet fighter, scoop ball,etc. ;lunar lander, space racing, etc.) and superman is a great game very far ahead of it's time... but I have to give it to ...

Circus Atari is copyright 1980 on the label of the cart. ??

 

1990's... (bmx airmaster would be a strong contender, or even a winner, here, but it actually originally came out in 89 from tnt.)

Thanks for the correction.

Edited August 18, 2006 by vdub_bobby

[ATARIPITBULL]

For me its:

 

70's: Adventure.

 

80"s: Pitfall.

 

90"s: Secret quest.

 

00's: Thrust +.

 

[Atariboy2600]

This should be fun

What do you think is the best VCS game release of each decade of it's existence?

I shall take the first stab at it.

 

70's- Combat, the most well known of the earliest games as well as one of the most iconic ever.

 

80's- Space Invaders, top of the line and the game which sent everyone into eclipse.

 

90's- Edtris, beginning of the homebrew scene and proved the system was still kickin despite PS etc.

 

00's- Conquest of Mars, probably the most action filled shoot 'em up the VCS has ever witnessed.

 

Now give it a go!

WP

 

Dont count the Conquest of Mars on the 00's part I think somthing big will be coming on 00's best is yet to come

[pocketmego]

Ok, been letting this one stew a bit before answering...

 

70's - Superman (as was stated earlier, just a great game and quite ahead of its time)

 

80's - Demon Attack (In my opinion it may quite possibly be the greatest 2600 game of all time)

 

90's - It was a real close tie on this one for me. I was VERY close to going for the one everyone else has voted for, but I think in this case I have to give it to Solaris, which is just a technically superior and beautiful rendition of star raiders)

 

00's - Hunchy 2 and Wolfenstein VCS : The Next Mission are exactly tied in my book as the two finest games of the 00's.

 

 

-Ray

Edited August 20, 2006 by pocketmego

[Spector]

70s: Combat

80s: Enduro

90s: Klax

00s :Cave (though Ladybug looks like claiming that title soon)

[vdub_bobby]

Solaris: 1986

Secret Quest: 1989

 

Neither are a 90s game!

[pocketmego]

Solaris: 1986

Secret Quest: 1989

 

Neither are a 90s game!

 

Oh, then scratch that. In that case I have nothing to add for 90's games

 

 

-Ray

[Godzilla]

1970's... hum... harder than it sounds for me :-) breakout, circus atari were great fun fast games, street racer & star ship had great gameplay variety (jet fighter, scoop ball,etc. ;lunar lander, space racing, etc.) and superman is a great game very far ahead of it's time... but I have to give it to ...

Circus Atari is copyright 1980 on the label of the cart. ??

 

Here is my source for mentioning circus atari in the 70's, it lists it's release date as 1978:

 

(quick edit: I just noticed he had cart and box scans, and you can clearly see the copyright date of 1978 on both.)

 

http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft.php?MEN...n_sauver=Search

Edited August 22, 2006 by Godzilla

[Godzilla]

ok, so to help, near as I can tell, here are the 70's choices:

(Of course if anything is amiss, let me know and I'll correct.)

 

Air-Sea Battle CX2602

Backgammon CX2617

Basic Math CX2661

Basic Programming CX2620

Basketball CX2624

Blackjack CX2651

Bowling CX2628

Brain Games CX2664

Breakout CX2622

Canyon Bomber CX2607

Casino CX2652

Circus Atari CX2630

Codebreaker CX2643

Combat CX2601

Flag Capture CX2644

Fun with Numbers CX2661

Football CX2625

Game of Concentration (A) CX2642

Hangman CX2662

Home Run CX2623

Human Cannonball CX2627

Hunt & Score CX2642

Indy 500 CX2611

Miniature Golf CX2626

Outlaw CX2605

Sky Diver CX2629

Slot Machine CX2653

Slot Racers CX2606

Space War CX2604

Star Ship CX2603

Street Racer CX2612

Superman CX2631

Surround CX2641

Video Chess CX2645

Video Olympics CX2621

[supercat]

Superman CX2631

 

Funny that Superman predates Adventure, since they both share a common code base. Atari insisted upon giving Warren Robinett's adventure game code to someone else to make the Superman game, while Warren himself kept working with it to eventually produce Adventure.

 

I consider Adventure the better game, though it's interesting the number of technical things in Superman that aren't in Adventure, such as the use of stripe-colored sprites and the status line. IMHO, the use of the Ball for the player (reducing flicker) more than makes up for the lack of color striping, though the latter are admittedly prettier. And I'd say the Adventure map makes a lot more sense than the Superman one.