Kickman for the Atari 7800?

[7800Lover]

Anyone recall the 1981 Midway arcade game Kickman? Also known as Kick, it involved a clown on a unicycle having to catch and/or kick balloons as well as Pac Man onto his hat. I remembered playing this in Showbiz Pizza years ago.

 

Anyway, I understand that a home port of this game was planned for the Atari 2600 but never released. If we take this into account as well as how the Atari 7800 console is more advanced...could a port of Kickman be made for the 7800?

 

Discuss!

[tcv]

could a port of Kickman be made for the 7800?

 

I suppose you want to know if it could be done from a technical standpoint. I imagine it could if there was a proto for the 2600. The key, at least for me, would be to duplicate the controller experience. IIRC, it was a trak-ball game, was it not? And the faster you rolled the trackball, the faster the clown moved. You NEEDED that analogue style speed control many, many times. So, that would be the big plus!

[Artlover]

I dunno. Kickman on the C64 used a joystick, and played ok.

[Inky]

You could do Kickman with paddle

[littleman jack]

There is a version for the 8-bit computer line called Pinhead. Perhaps some ideas or even code could be taken from it? It was a great version.

[famicommander]

Andrew, did you get my PMs?

[littleman jack]

Just got them. Thanks! I sent a PM back.

[Trebor]

I dunno. Kickman on the C64 used a joystick, and played ok.

 

Agreed, the C64 port played fine using a joystick.

 

In fact, for a while MAME supported Kick(Man) using a joystick and it played fine too.

 

However, I believe the developers could not find any confirmation as to whether or not Kick(Man) ever supported a joystick, so the support was removed.

 

Regardless, even the Arcade version plays fine with a joystick.

 

-Trebor