Who's your favorite 7800 dev house

[+Mitch]

OK, so who's your favorite 7800 game dev house?

 

I've included a list of all games and the dev house (where known) below. I only included those software houses that developed at least two titles in the poll. The others are listed below for completeness sake.

 

If you notice I have a game attributed to a wrong company or have info about one of the unknowns, please let me know.

 

Mitch

 

Ace of Aces				Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Crossbow				Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Double Dragon				  Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
F-18 Hornet				Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Fight Night				  Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Ikari Warriors						  Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Kung-Fu Master				  Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Pete Rose Baseball			 Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Sentinel				  Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Super Skateboardin'		   Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Title Match Pro Wrestling	   Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Tomcat F-14 Fighter Simulator	Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment
Touchdown Football		   Imagineering Inc/Absolute Entertainment

Alien Brigade				Sculptured Software
Commando				 Sculptured Software
Dark Chambers	 			Sculptured Software
Fatal Run				  Sculptured Software
Missing in Action (prototype)	 Sculptured Software
Planet Smashers				Sculptured Software

Asteroids				GCC
Ballblazer				GCC
Centipede				   GCC
Desert Falcon				  GCC
Diagnostic Cartridge		   GCC
Dig Dug					GCC
Food Fight				GCC
Galaga					 GCC
High Score Cartridge		  GCC
Joust					 GCC
Ms. Pac-Man				 GCC
Pole Position II			  GCC
Rescue on Fractalus (prototype)GCC
Robotron: 2084				GCC
Xevious					GCC

Basketbrawl				  BlueSky Software
Klax (prototype)			 BlueSky Software
Mat Mania Challenge		  BlueSky Software
Mean 18 Ultimate Golf		  BlueSky Software
Motor Psycho				  BlueSky Software
Ninja Golf				 BlueSky Software
Scrapyard Dog				BlueSky Software
Xenophobe				  BlueSky Software

Choplifter!				Ibid Inc
GATO (prototype)		  Ibid Inc
Hat Trick				Ibid Inc
Karateka				   Ibid Inc

Impossible Mission		  Man Development Corp
One-on-One Basketball		   Man Development Corp

Donkey Kong				 ITDC
Donkey Kong Junior		   ITDC
Mario Bros.				ITDC

Tank Command			Froggo Games
Water Ski				 Froggo Games

Jinks					US Gold
Tower Toppler			   US Gold


Crack'ed				Robert Neve/Atari

Midnight Mutants			Radioactive Software/Pixcel Software Inc

Pitfighter (prototype)		Imagitec Design

Rampage					Spectral Dimensions


Barnyard Blaster			?
Meltdown				   ?
Realsports Baseball			   ?
Summer Games				?
Super Huey UH-IX			 ?
Winter Games				   ?

 

For some reason the formatting isn't coming out right, oh well.

 

 

edit: updated to include US Gold

Edited April 13, 2007 by Mitch

[Atarimania75]

GCC is probably my favorite.

[Shawn]

Sculptured seems to have all my favorites of new titles on the 7800. And for the classics its GCC of course but my vote went to Sculptured cause of the original titles.

[mimo]

GCC 'cus I love all the classics, Bluesky a close second though

[Lord Helmet]

GCC and PacManPlus

[DracIsBack]

Weren't JINKS, Super Huey and Tower Toppler all done by Hewson?

[+Mitch]

Weren't JINKS, Super Huey and Tower Toppler all done by Hewson?

 

Well the label for Jinks says Softgold and the label for Tower Toppler says US Gold. Whether those companies actually wrote/developed the games or just licensed them out to someone else is what I'm not sure about. I think Hewson may have been the dev on the original versions of those but I don't think they did the 7800 versions.

 

Mitch

[DracIsBack]

Weren't JINKS, Super Huey and Tower Toppler all done by Hewson?

 

Well the label for Jinks says Softgold and the label for Tower Toppler says US Gold. Whether those companies actually wrote/developed the games or just licensed them out to someone else is what I'm not sure about. I think Hewson may have been the dev on the original versions of those but I don't think they did the 7800 versions.

 

Mitch

 

Just went digging through Google since my memory sucks these days. I remembered the programmer was Peter Pachla (on Jinks) and remembered that Tower Toppler and (the unreleased) Gauntlet and some kind of connection.

 

 

It turns out it was US Gold.

 

Peter Pachla

 

Anyone in touch with Gauntlet these days? Maybe he has insight into what happened to GAUNTLET?

Edited April 13, 2007 by DracIsBack

[Shawn]

If gauntlet and MIA both got into public hands this year I might pee 2 drops.

[jaybird3rd]

Ibid is on there as a joke, right? No disrespect intended to the programmers (it couldn't have been easy working for the Tramiel-era Atari in any capacity), but 7800 Karateka? Yeesh ...

 

Seriously, though, it's a tough call between Sculptured and GCC, but I've got to go with GCC because: (1) they rule, (2) the 7800 was their system, and (3) their 7800 library was the largest (and IMHO the most consistently good) of all the 7800 developers. I always seem to go back to their 7800 arcade ports, even though I always have the option to play the originals in MAME these days.

Edited April 13, 2007 by jaybird3rd

[PressureCooker2600]

GCC

 

Food Fight

 

'Nuff said.

[ApolloBoy]

I voted for GCC. They really put a lot of effort into their games, and if the 7800 was released as planned in 1984, we could've seen some incredible stuff from them around the late 80s.

[+Propane13]

I'll bet this will end up as a battle between GCC purists vs. everybody else.

Personally, I would have voted for Radioactive Software/Pixcel Software Inc, but they only made one title "Midnight Mutants" (although it was amazing).

 

You have no idea how hard it was to resist the Froggo button.

No idea at all

 

-John

[Dauber]

And PacManPlus isn't on the ballot because....???

[+Mitch]

And PacManPlus isn't on the ballot because....???

 

I only included those software houses that developed at least two titles in the poll.

 

Mitch

[8th lutz]

I picked GCC. They were the most consistent for having good 7800 games. I didn't play enough Blue sky 7800 games or Sculptured 7800 games for that matter to pick either of the them. Why was Ibid on the poll?

Edited April 13, 2007 by 8th lutz

[PressureCooker2600]

And PacManPlus isn't on the ballot because....???

 

I only included those software houses that developed at least two titles in the poll.

 

Mitch

 

Crack'ed Robert Neve/Atari

 

Midnight Mutants Radioactive Software/Pixcel Software Inc

 

Pitfighter (prototype) Imagitec Design

 

Rampage Spectral Dimensions

 

 

all these developing houses just have one game attributed to them

[+Mitch]

And PacManPlus isn't on the ballot because....???

 

I only included those software houses that developed at least two titles in the poll.

 

Mitch

 

Crack'ed Robert Neve/Atari

 

Midnight Mutants Radioactive Software/Pixcel Software Inc

 

Pitfighter (prototype) Imagitec Design

 

Rampage Spectral Dimensions

 

 

all these developing houses just have one game attributed to them

 

Yes, but they aren't on the poll.

 

Mitch

[Dauber]

And PacManPlus isn't on the ballot because....???

 

I only included those software houses that developed at least two titles in the poll.

 

Mitch

 

Pac-Man Plus

Pac-Man

 

[shadow460]

GCC, tied with the homebrew authors assembled into a single group. GCC = good arcade ports, and so far, so have the programmers we have here.

[gdement]

I picked Sculptured, but it was a tough call between them and Bluesky. GCC is very good, but they represent obsolete games, not what the 7800 really needed to be successful. Of course if the system had launched according to plan and GCC stuck around to keep making more games, they would have gone on to newer things. They did a great job with the games they made but that stuff didn't get me very excited when my friends had Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. The GCC library drove me to eventually get a NES.

 

Bluesky and Sculptured Software did a decent job with the NES-era types of games which I've always preferred. Unfortunately I never had any of their games back when the machine was current. Looking at the list, I think Sculptured is a little better.

[jboypacman]

GCC hands down.To me great conversions of classic games plus Food Fight.

[Atarifever]

GCC

 

Food Fight

 

'Nuff said.

Edited April 14, 2007 by Atarifever

[kenfused]

My main complaint about the GCC games is that they did not do much to go a step above the 8-bit versions other than a little more color and no flicker. It's like they went through great lengths to pack them in as little ROM as possible. I know they were earlier than the other 7800 games, but I still think Atari was being stingy with ROM space.

[Big Player]

I voted for Sculptured for Commando.