The Bad and the Crash...

[pocketmego]

Whenever I read anything about the Crash, I see that a LOT of companies pushed anything they had out the door in that last year and that most of it was pretty awful.

 

Yet, I haven't encountered anything truly horrific yet. Was there really just tons of TRASH released in 83 and 84, more than any other time?

 

I'm curious as to what you all think. This is an area of history that I am not as sharp on as I'd like to be.

 

-Ray

Edited September 8, 2006 by pocketmego

[Rom Hunter]

Not all of it was trash.

 

Even some of the original Taiwanese releases are quite playable (if you know how to play them).

 

But there were also companies who made some cheap bucks by hacking already existing titles.

 

That's what I call trash.

 

But I love it anyway.

 

I mean, look at all these different releases of Enduro:

http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft.php?SOF...age=1&OK=OK

 

It's one and the same game and almost every week I add another version!

 

It still amazes me.

 

1983 was indeed the year that "the dam in the A2600 software river broke down".

 

Edited September 8, 2006 by Rom Hunter

[pocketmego]

I played one today that may or may not be from that era called Robot Fight and it was the most hideous Missile Command Hack, that I've ever come across.

 

Was this phenomena only associated with the 2600? Did Intellivision and Colecovision also have a flood of crap 3rd party titles as well?

 

-Ray

[Rom Hunter]

It's funny that you mention Robot Fight (AKA Space Robot), Ray.

 

AFAIK Space Robot was the first Atari 2600 hack ever made.

 

[nester]

1984 doesn't seem so bad, but 1983 had some real stinkers. There were 3 Mythicon games in 1983. We're really lucky the world didn't explode. It seems that 83 had most of the games from the obscure 3rd party publishers and lower quality later releases from established companies. Atari did seem a bit over-extended.

[pocketmego]

1984 doesn't seem so bad, but 1983 had some real stinkers. There were 3 Mythicon games in 1983. We're really lucky the world didn't explode. It seems that 83 had most of the games from the obscure 3rd party publishers and lower quality later releases from established companies. Atari did seem a bit over-extended.

 

I've heard such horrendous things about Mythicon. Were they so bad?

 

-Ray

[Video]

The theory behind Mythicon games isn't bad. The games themselves are of a decent design, and would have been, for any other system. But the 2600 couldn't handle them and they are some of the, if not THE worst flickering games on the 2600.

 

The Idea behind the games was sound, the hardware just wasn't capable of pushing it well.