The definitive list of ALL simultaneous multiplayer games?

[midnight8]

what about race from sears. wasn't that their indy 500?

[godzillajoe]

what about race from sears. wasn't that their indy 500?

 

ummm.....

 

"Turn based games like Checkers or 3-D Tic Tac Toe were omitted because you can't do anything until your opponent does first

This also excludes unreleased prototypes, name variations for the Sears carts and PAL games"

[Big Player]

Medieval Mayhem = duh!

 

How did I miss that one?

 

Don't beat yourself up on this one. The game wasn't released when you last posted in this thread.

[Ransom]

Which of those offers some form of cooperative play?

 

I suppose for our purposes we might define cooperative as a game in which the players cannot destroy one another or otherwise shut one another out of the game, and in which they have a shared goal (destroying all the aliens, etc.). Having two different point displays doesn't matter, IMO.

 

I can think of a couple...

 

- Space Invaders

- Atlantis

 

Would Dodge 'Em qualify?

[godzillajoe]

Which of those offers some form of cooperative play?

 

I suppose for our purposes we might define cooperative as a game in which the players cannot destroy one another or otherwise shut one another out of the game, and in which they have a shared goal (destroying all the aliens, etc.). Having two different point displays doesn't matter, IMO.

 

I can think of a couple...

 

- Space Invaders

- Atlantis

 

Would Dodge 'Em qualify?

 

The black car is supposed to kill the white one.

 

I guess you could let them clear the boards but where is the fun in that?

 

Looking over that whole list, only Superman seems to fit

 

Games like Joust or Mario Bros, you CAN cooperate but more often than not you end up killing the other guy just by accident

[vdub_bobby]

M-4 (one of the minigames in the 2005 Minigame Multicart) has 2-player simultaneous modes.

 

Oh, and:

Games like Joust or Mario Bros, you CAN cooperate but more often than not you end up killing the other guy just by "accident"

Fixed.

Edited March 5, 2008 by vdub_bobby

[godzillajoe]

M-4 (one of the minigames in the 2005 Minigame Multicart) has 2-player simultaneous modes.

 

Added!

 

 

Games like Joust or Mario Bros, you CAN cooperate but more often than not you end up killing the other guy just by "accident"

Fixed.

 

Ha. Yeah, we've all been on both sides of "accidents" I'm sure.

[Hornpipe2]

Why no NTSC prototypes? The list is so sparse we could use e.g. "Unknown Universal Prototype" (the dragster game) too, and since we can all get the ROM files online these days it's not that big of an issue if they were never 'formally' released.

 

Maybe you could compile them in a separate sub-list?

[godzillajoe]

Hey I'm easy. Start listing them and I'll add them to the first post. But they have to be *complete* games. Not some half-started game where you can move two shapes around for no reason but there's no real gameplay.

[Rom Hunter]

Here's our 1 vs. 2 list:

http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft-MENU-2-...LAYER_ID-6.html

 

Here's our 2 (sim.) player list:

http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft-MENU-2-...LAYER_ID-5.html

 

And here's our 2+ player list:

http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft-MENU-2-...LAYER_ID-8.html

 

Hope this helps

 

Edited March 6, 2008 by Rom Hunter

[+thegoldenband]

This thread is extremely useful, and would make a great sticky for those of us who sometimes lose track when we're picking out games to play with our girlfriends, friends, or whatever.

 

I checked to see if there were any PAL-only 2-player simultaneous games, starting with Rom Hunter's list of PAL-only games. By crosschecking at Atarimania, it looks like Words-Attack is the only one that's listed as 2-player simultaneous, but I just tried it out, and I can't find any 2-player option. Am I missing anything? Plus it's an unfinished game that's not really playable, though we could list it marked accordingly.

 

All of the others are 1-player only or 2-player alternating (and only a few of those). So I guess, barring Words-Attack, there are no PAL-only simultaneous multiplayer games. Is that correct?

 

Given the above, here's my revised list of simultaneous multiplayer games for NTSC systems. I thought it'd be helpful to have the unreleased prototypes and homebrews listed separately from the released classic-era games, and also to note which games support 3-4 players. Here goes:

 

Classic-era games:

Air-Sea Battle

Armor Ambush

Atlantis

Basketball

Boxing

Breakout (up to 4 players, though only 2 at once)

Canyon Bomber

Combat

Demolition Herby

Demons To Diamonds

Dodge'em

Double Dragon

Double Dunk

Dragster

Entombed

Fishing Derby

Football

Freeway

Frogs and Flies

G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike (up to 3 players)

Guardian

Home Run

Ice Hockey

Indy 500

International Soccer

Joust

Karate

M.A.D.

M*A*S*H

Mario Bros

Maze Craze

Motorodeo

Oink

Outlaw

Party Mix (up to 4 players)

Pele's Soccer

Pete Rose Baseball

Quick Step

Racquetball

Rampage

RealSports Baseball

RealSports Boxing

RealSports Football

RealSports Tennis

RealSports Soccer

RealSports Volleyball

Sky Diver

Slot Racers

Space Invaders

Space War

Sprintmaster

Starship

Star Wars: Jedi Arena

Steeplechase (up to 4 players)

Street Racer (up to 4 players)

Summer Games (certain events)

Super Baseball

Super Challenge Baseball

Super Challenge Football

Superman

Surround

Tennis

Thunderground

Title Match Pro Wrestling

Track And Field

Video Olympics (up to 4 players)

Warlords (up to 4 players)

Winter Games (certain events)

Wizard Of Wor

Worm War I

 

Prototypes:

Polo

Sea Battle

Swordfight

Wizard

 

Homebrews:

Bee Ball

Fall Down

FlapPing

Go Fish!

Gunfight

M-4 (2005 Minigame Multicart)

Marble Craze

Medieval Mayhem (up to 4 players)

Phantom II

Stella's Stocking (Grandma's Revenge, Cold War games)

Sync (Me First! game option)

Warring Worms

Warring Worms: The Worm Returns

 

It'd be nice to have a version that was annotated a bit more, especially making note of which games were cooperative or independent (rather than competitive). I like mcge0053's distinction between head-to-head games and "simultaneous but independent" games. I also think there should be an addendum that includes some of the strictly turn-based games like Artillery Duel and Incoming!, Human Cannonball, etc., since they're "practically simultaneous" and there's no danger that one player will monopolize the game by going on a long run.

 

Also, did I miss any games that support more than 2 simultaneous players? I counted G.I. Joe, Party Mix, Street Racer, Steeplechase, Video Olympics, Warlords, and Medieval Mayhem. There's also Breakout, which alternates between 2 simultaneous players at a time. Any others?

Edited September 16, 2009 by thegoldenband

[Rom Hunter]

By crosschecking at Atarimania, it looks like Words-Attack is the only one that's listed as 2-player simultaneous, but I just tried it out, and I can't find any 2-player option. Am I missing anything? Plus it's an unfinished game that's not really playable, though we could list it marked accordingly.

Switching the right difficulty switch will trigger the 2 player sim. mode.

 

It actually makes the game 'playable', because you can shoot each other now.

 

Edited September 16, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[+thegoldenband]

Thanks, Rom! So Words-Attack is the only PAL holdout with 2-player simultaneous action.

 

Any others? Did I miss any complete homebrews, significant WIP homebrews, or protos?

[Neuronic]

Shield Shifter (Homebrew) supports two player mode where 1 player is the ship/cannon and the other is the alien. To start two player mode press the fire button on the right joystick.

Good Deal Games - Shield Shifter Cart

[toymailman]

How about Super Football?

[+thegoldenband]

Reviving this thread to ask:

 

1) Since I posted the list above, are there any new homebrews and WIPs that offer two-player (or more!) simultaneous play?

 

2) What titles should be on a list of games that are "practically simultaneous"? In other words, I'm talking about games where you alternate between players, but it's a strict turn-based system like Artillery Duel. Here's what I can think of off the top of my head:

 

Strict alternation:

3-D Tic Tac Toe

Artillery Duel

Blackjack

Bowling

Brain Games

Casino

Checkers

Codebreaker

Decathlon

Flag Capture

Golf

Hangman

Human Cannonball

Hunt & Score

Incoming!

Math Gran Prix

Miniature Golf

Othello

Slot Machine

Sneak 'n' Peek

Summer Games (also listed above)

Trick Shot

Video Checkers

Winter Games (also listed above)

 

What else? Does Glib qualify? (BTW the Atariage database incorrectly lists Bowling as a strictly one-player game.)

 

And are there any other two-player alternating games which don't let one player monopolize game time? Bugs comes to mind, since it's pretty much impossible to stay alive for more than a minute at a time in that game.

[accousticguitar]

Chase It is a simultaneous multiplayer game.

http://www.gooddealgames.com/inventory/Atari%202600.html

[JingleJoe]

This thread is excellent! Because you often don't get instructions with game carts bought on line or anywhere for that matter its difficult to know what all the game modes are, so this thread has revealed many possibilities to me I did not previously know! "Dodge 'Em" is going to be fun two player

[littleman jack]

I agree. This thread is excellent. It comes in handy when my brother comes to visit and we break out the 2600.

[maiki]

Does anyone know why is Fall Down 8k? That game does not look to be that graphics consuming not to fit inside 4k maximum... I looked briefly at the BIN file and there seems to be a lot of free space...

[+thegoldenband]

This is getting away from the topic question somewhat, but I recently discovered that Dragonfire has an excellent two-player mode. Instead of taking turns when you die, each player plays through one complete level, using however many lives, and then you switch off when he completes the level or runs out of lives. This works really well since among other things, it reverses the usual pattern of two-player alternating games -- instead of rooting for the other player to fail so you can have your turn, you're rooting for them to succeed.

 

Which other VCS games do the same thing? I can't imagine Dragonfire is the only one.

 

I think I'll eventually repost the lists made earlier, adding Super Football, homebrews Chase It and Shield Shifter, and the PAL-only Words-Attack.

 

Someday I can imagine making a kind of taxonomy of two-player games, something that'll help people pick out games where an inexperienced player won't get destroyed, frustrated, or bored while the other person monopolizes the game. It might look something like this:

 

True 2-player simultaneous games

Subcategories:

• cooperative (Atlantis, Double Dragon)
  
• independent and not directly competitive, i.e. you're not competing for the same resources (Dragster, Freeway, Entombed?) and not directly trying to keep the other player from scoring, though you can compete to see who gets the better score
  
• directly competitive but not mutually destructive (Fishing Derby, Frogs and Flies)
  
• mutually destructive (Combat, Outlaw, most sports games)
  
• games that can be played as co-op and/or competition, either through tactical agreement (Joust, Wizard of Wor) or through game variations (G.I. Joe?, Super Breakout)
  

Strict alternation games

Subcategories: As above, I suppose. Are there any strict alternation games for the VCS that are truly co-op? Most are mutual destruction (Artillery Duel) or independent (Golf)

 

2-player alternating games with some type of turn-limiting

Dragonfire is one example. Others?

 

2-player alternating games where turns will always tend to be short

Bugs is one example. Others? I suppose it depends on skill...

 

2-player alternating games where one player can monopolize the game for a long time

There are dozens of examples, if not hundreds.

 

1-player games which lend themselves to group play

Night Driver's timed levels are a good example: even though it's one-player, everyone's going to play for roughly the same amount of time, so it's a fine choice for parties and things.

Edited August 13, 2011 by thegoldenband

[+thegoldenband]

Just learned of another one that should be in the mix: the prototype Bugs Bunny, in which one player can control Bugs while the other one controls Elmer.

[Ringman]

What about Dark Chambers??? One of my favorite 2-player coop games for the 2600.

[+Atari_Warlord]

I think Alpha Beam with Ernie is two player simultaneous with one player above and one below the spaceship. Also, I'm not sure if Blackjack and Casino are strictly turn based. The manuals certainly make it sound like everyone can make their decisions at anytime and they are paddle based games?

[godzillajoe]

I think Alpha Beam with Ernie is two player simultaneous with one player above and one below the spaceship. Also, I'm not sure if Blackjack and Casino are strictly turn based. The manuals certainly make it sound like everyone can make their decisions at anytime and they are paddle based games?

 

Wow, this old thread. I would think that since REAL BJ and Poker are turn based i.e. the dealer goes around the table clockwise, the Atari version would follow. Note sure about Ernie.