HARDEST 2600 games?

[godzillajoe]

Have we done this yet?

 

Either based on complexity like Raiders Of The Lost Ark or frantic action like Millipede, which ones would you list?

 

Jr. Pac-Man is up there for arcade action. I've never cleared the first maze without losing at least one life

 

So what other Atari games kick your ass on a regular basis?

[Foxsolo2000]

Jnr Pacman definetly up there as one of the most challenging. I would also like to nominate Defender 2, certainly a challenge

[JacobZu7zu7]

I am not sure, if this Topic has been done,

but it's the first time I posted one like this.

 

Here's my most difficult games to play,

 

Chopper Command

Gravitar

Jr. Pac-man

Kaboom!

King Kong

Pitfall II

Swordquest Earthworld (Don't have fireworld or others)

Spikes Peak (Starting to be very good at this game)

Double Dragon (Even if I got a technique that doesn't fail)

[+atari2600land]

Pitfall (for some reason I can't jump on the alligator's heads very well.)

Pole Position (it seems like the cars *want* to crash into you.)

[keilbaca]

Quadrun for endurance.

 

7 misses or 3 lives and you die. you get all your misses back when you get to the woita wave, but when you're trying to get over 100k, its really tough.

[Lord Thag]

The new homebrew/hack Atrix from the last NWCGE will kick your ass. It's hard as hell!

 

Of the original games, I'd have to say River Raid II and Double Dragon are merciless. Double Dragon is damn near unplayable.

[jpfalcon2003]

Jr. Pac-Man

Double Dragon

Road Runner

[Crazy Climber]

SpiderMaze, hard due to poor programming and lots of screen flicker.

[pocketmego]

The new homebrew/hack Atrix from the last NWCGE will kick your ass. It's hard as hell!

 

Of the original games, I'd have to say River Raid II and Double Dragon are merciless. Double Dragon is damn near unplayable.

 

Totally agree. Double Dragon is in my opinion the HARDEST 2600 game there is.

 

-Ray

[iratanam]

Jr. Pac-Man

Double Dragon

Road Runner

 

 

Road Runner - Yep, I'll Second that!

[Recycled]

I'm getting pissed trying to figure out Solaris. Does that count?

[shadow460]

Killer Satellites is pretty tough past wave 9. That's why I rip on it so much. The meteors are everywhere and cannot be destroyed, but they sure do kill you!

 

Krull gets merciless on higher levels, especially in the web stage.

I think Kaboom! is pretty difficult, too. Sure, we might be good at it, but a beginner's game is going to last all of what...30 seconds?

In fact, quite a few of the early Activision titles were kind of hard. I didn't figure out Stampede until recently. Dragster, while easy to learn, takes a lot of skill and patience to master.

[godzillajoe]

I think Asteroids, game 32 with difficulty 'A' is a nice challenge. You don't get any extra lives and there are no shields or hyperspace to save you.

 

Cosmic Ark also gets twitchy. No room for error on the asteroid screen and getting past those damn lasers and picking up both beasties on the planet screen is damn near impossible, at least for me it was

[G.Whiz]

Depends what you mean by "hardest" but I would think the River Raid has to be up there... Has anyone reached the 1,000,000 mark where the game freezes?

 

~G

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The new homebrew/hack Atrix from the last NWCGE will kick your ass. It's hard as hell!

Too hard?

[Tempest]

Lots of games start out easy and gradually speed up until they either plateau or become unplayable. I don't count games that do this as being hard because almost every 2600 game would eventually fall into this category.

 

Games on my too hard list are (in no particular order)

 

1. Road Runner - Starts out deceptively simple, then gets nasty. Has anyone ever beaten this without save states?

2. Miner 2049er vols. I & II - The crappy jumping and crappy movement makes this game WAY too difficult. The original 8-bit Miner is cake by comparison.

3. Double Dragon - I can't even beat the first level on this. All I do is end up getting knocked down over and over again.

4. Springer - Same deal as Miner, the crappy jumping ruins this game.

5. Rescue Terra I - Same deal as with Road Runner.

 

Tempest

[Dauber]

Pitfall (for some reason I can't jump on the alligator's heads very well.)

 

Best way is to jump on the head when the mouth is closed, then walk over to the BACK of the head.

[jboypacman]

I agree Jr.Pac-Man is tough.I think Kaboom! can be pretty hard too.

[+atari2600land]

Not only Kaboom!, but also Crackpots.

[Vic George 2K3]

Stampede gets really hectic when the dogies fill the screen and you're trying to keep them from scrolling off the left side.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Not only Kaboom!, but also Crackpots.

 

 

I think Kaboom! is much tougher because Crackpots you can get a nice score before

you're finished.

 

Double Dragon indeed... I actually solved this game!

I used a technique of starting the game with two players and

switching between joysticks. The trick is to stand both guys in the corner so

the street fighters don't beat you senseless. Then you battle one guy at a time,

in the left corner using your leg kicks, without getting too close.

The music is pretty droning and almost electronic-classical, lol.

Anyway, the flying jump is effective, as long as you keep running after you kick.

This is one of the games I broke a C-64 joystick playing years ago,

I jammed it to the left, cause I was angry.. and it broke the LEFT contact.

 

Stargate, I was playing well once, and my Standard 2600 joystick "LEFT" contact

also gave out, but I didn't jam, it just happend. That joystick was great.

I haven't matched it since. Ones I got now are too stiff and cramp my hands.

[Starhopper]

I'm getting pissed trying to figure out Solaris. Does that count?

 

Okay, I'll give you that one.

 

When I think about it, I'm pretty sure Pitfall II and those damned condors are what taught me how to effectively express myself in the venue of eloquent profanity. Thank the gaming gods, I got over it.

Edited September 12, 2006 by Starhopper

[pocketmego]

In terms of difficult homebrews, as much as I love it, Hunchy 2 gets REALLY hard really quick. But, it is not nearly the pure level of insane hard that Hunchy on the Multicart is.

 

 

-Ray

[BLarry71]

Raiders of lost ark for me, oh and also the swordquest games.

[A.J. Franzman]

Pitfall (for some reason I can't jump on the alligator's heads very well.)

Best way is to jump on the head when the mouth is closed, then walk over to the BACK of the head.

Yep, the back of the head (above the "hinge" of the jaw; the part that doesn't open) is always safe to stand on. If going left-to-right, wait for the jaws to close, jump onto the jaws and quickly walk to the right until the tips of Harry's toes are in line with the right edge of the gator's head. From here, it's possible to safely do "tap-jumps" to the right regardless of whether their mouths are open or closed, though if you land too far to the right, to keep from accidentally walking off, you might need to tap left again to reposition yourself. If going right-to-left, knowing exactly where to stand in relation to the water's edge, you can do the same thing in reverse, only needing to wait for the jaws of the leftmost gator to close, then taking a step left before jumping back to dry land.