Worst/Most Annoying Atari 8 bit game!

[MEtalGuy66]

Hot Lips...

 

That game was designed to annoy the hell out of anyone within a 50 yard radius..

[+therealbountybob]

From Atari themselves, I'd have to put Galaxian and Kangaroo right down near the bottom of their list.

 

Wow, I ADORED 'Kangaroo' and played the hell out of that game! Funny how one man's trash... etc., etc.

 

I remember a lot of Dynacomp games being pretty terrible (thus the frequent use of the adjusted moniker: "DynaCRAP"!)

Yes, wash your mouth out Rybags Kangaroo is great fun... not sure what games are really bad... probably those that are too hard to work out quickly like space shuttle maybe Probably having copies without instructions didn't help... Definately playing games competitively makes a great deal of difference. I even like playing Thanks God It's Friday with a few mates at the end of the evening so yes there must be something wrong with me

[Tempest]

Hot Lips...

 

That game was designed to annoy the hell out of anyone within a 50 yard radius..

Really? I have this on a Romox ECPC cart and while I haven't played it that much, I didn't think it was that bad. Dull and uninteresting perhaps, but not annoying.

 

Tempest

[TMR]

It's almost unplayable for me. I remember buying it and being seriously let down. I've seen a vid on YouTube of someone completing it (possibly the 64 version) and I'm in awe. It has to be one of the hardest games to control ever.

 

Hmm, i finished Last V8 on the A8 and then the C64 so i didn't think it was all that difficult... Red Max is the harder game to my mind, so that'd possibly be on my personal list somewhere but the number one position simply has to go to Thrust really because it was such a huge disappointment to an even more immature version of me. =-(

[Tickled_Pink]

IMO Last V8 and any (broken) Mastertronic's release.

I'm in total agreement with this.

Care to elaborate? The screenshots look pretty cool.

 

Tempest

Haven't played it for years but I remember it being one of the most annoying games I ever bought. IIRC it was primarily the control system that let it down. Just too damned awkward to play.

[emkay]

It's almost unplayable for me. I remember buying it and being seriously let down. I've seen a vid on YouTube of someone completing it (possibly the 64 version) and I'm in awe. It has to be one of the hardest games to control ever.

 

Hmm, i finished Last V8 on the A8 and then the C64 so i didn't think it was all that difficult... Red Max is the harder game to my mind, so that'd possibly be on my personal list somewhere but the number one position simply has to go to Thrust really because it was such a huge disappointment to an even more immature version of me. =-(

 

Yes, Thrust is 2nd place for me. The used resolution made it not really playable as intended for the game.

 

1st place of the worst games in all cases ist "One Man and his Droid" for me.. It starts with the bad graphics turns over with the bad playability and ends in the outermost horrible tune, all together in one game.

[spookt]

It's almost unplayable for me. I remember buying it and being seriously let down. I've seen a vid on YouTube of someone completing it (possibly the 64 version) and I'm in awe. It has to be one of the hardest games to control ever.

 

Hmm, i finished Last V8 on the A8 and then the C64 so i didn't think it was all that difficult... Red Max is the harder game to my mind, so that'd possibly be on my personal list somewhere but the number one position simply has to go to Thrust really because it was such a huge disappointment to an even more immature version of me. =-(

 

Yes, Thrust is 2nd place for me. The used resolution made it not really playable as intended for the game.

 

1st place of the worst games in all cases ist "One Man and his Droid" for me.. It starts with the bad graphics turns over with the bad playability and ends in the outermost horrible tune, all together in one game.

 

Noooo - I loved that game ! (and the music - sorry )

[+Larry]

Gee- there are so many "worthy" candidates...

 

But if I had to pick just one, released in the USA by a major company, it would be Congo Bongo.

 

I couldn't believe that I had bought that cartridge when it came out.

 

-Larry

[achacha]

Jumbo Jet Pilot - bought the cartridge as my first game on the 400 and found the Assembler/Editor more exciting (at the age of 10). It was impossible to do anything without overshooting and having some disastrous thing happen and I (nor any of my friends) found any way to land... to make things worse it was trying to be realistic so you had to fly for several hours (doing next to nothing but watching the horizon) and when you finally tried to land you always crashed. It was masochism in a cartridge.

 

Honorable mention:

Spelunker - you trip over a pebble and you die

[sl0re]

Jumbo Jet Pilot - bought the cartridge as my first game on the 400 and found the Assembler/Editor more exciting (at the age of 10). It was impossible to do anything without overshooting and having some disastrous thing happen and I (nor any of my friends) found any way to land... to make things worse it was trying to be realistic so you had to fly for several hours (doing next to nothing but watching the horizon) and when you finally tried to land you always crashed. It was masochism in a cartridge.

 

Honorable mention:

Spelunker - you trip over a pebble and you die

 

Yeah, I remember the PC version of the same kind of game. Really lame. Plus I know a couple real life pilots (one who flew 747's full time btw) and they couldn't land in the game either.

[roadrunner]

Strip Blackjack. It takes alot of luck to see Cathy look like this-

 

Edited February 28, 2009 by roadrunner

[+MrFish]

For me it was way back in the early 80's when my father told me if I could save 5 weeks allowance he would pitch in the rest and I could get Galaxian. So I did, I sacraficed all my trips to the candy store, didn't buy any hockey cards or stickers (when Gretzky was in his prime!!!!) for five whole weeks only to get Galaxian and realize it wasn't Galaga....No ship came down and conviently captured my ship so I could double up on the attack. Galaga was (and is) one of my all time fav. arcade games. Galaxian sucks!!! lol. Did anyone ever port Galaga over to the Atari?

 

I don't think Galaxian "sucks". I can think of plenty of games that are worse. It sounds like your "annoyance" is based more on the fact that you thought you were getting Galaga. Isn't that your own fault? Galaxian is a decent port of the game that it is supposed to be, Galaxian.

[Atari8guy]

For me it was way back in the early 80's when my father told me if I could save 5 weeks allowance he would pitch in the rest and I could get Galaxian. So I did, I sacraficed all my trips to the candy store, didn't buy any hockey cards or stickers (when Gretzky was in his prime!!!!) for five whole weeks only to get Galaxian and realize it wasn't Galaga....No ship came down and conviently captured my ship so I could double up on the attack. Galaga was (and is) one of my all time fav. arcade games. Galaxian sucks!!! lol. Did anyone ever port Galaga over to the Atari?

 

I don't think Galaxian "sucks". I can think of plenty of games that are worse. It sounds like your "annoyance" is based more on the fact that you thought you were getting Galaga. Isn't that your own fault? Galaxian is a decent port of the game that it is supposed to be, Galaxian.

 

 

Well I'll answer exactly as I would have at age 8....no Galaxian sucks!!. Of course as an 8 year old I had made a mistake....but Galaxian in any incarnation is a poor mans Galaga, it's like American Beer*....it resembles something familiar, but its just not quite right. A little weak in the delivery.

 

*Wisconsin residents excluded...I spent some time in Milwaukee this summer and had some great Microbrews. Even at Miller Park.

[Mirage]

Well I'll answer exactly as I would have at age 8....no Galaxian sucks!!. Of course as an 8 year old I had made a mistake....but Galaxian in any incarnation is a poor mans Galaga, it's like American Beer*....it resembles something familiar, but its just not quite right. A little weak in the delivery.

 

*Wisconsin residents excluded...I spent some time in Milwaukee this summer and had some great Microbrews. Even at Miller Park.

 

LOL, yeah, some of the WI brews are good. It's one of the most popular and largest, but I love a lot of the New Glarus ones.

 

Anyway, I can see someone, now or then, thinking Galaxian a bit dry compared to Galaga. It's true. The Galaxian arcade machine was the first full-color game though, so it has historical significance. I have a Galaxian cocktail, and I still like it.

 

I'm going to have to try some of these "worst/most annoying games" sometime!

[+MrFish]

For me it was way back in the early 80's when my father told me if I could save 5 weeks allowance he would pitch in the rest and I could get Galaxian. So I did, I sacraficed all my trips to the candy store, didn't buy any hockey cards or stickers (when Gretzky was in his prime!!!!) for five whole weeks only to get Galaxian and realize it wasn't Galaga....No ship came down and conviently captured my ship so I could double up on the attack. Galaga was (and is) one of my all time fav. arcade games. Galaxian sucks!!! lol. Did anyone ever port Galaga over to the Atari?

 

I don't think Galaxian "sucks". I can think of plenty of games that are worse. It sounds like your "annoyance" is based more on the fact that you thought you were getting Galaga. Isn't that your own fault? Galaxian is a decent port of the game that it is supposed to be, Galaxian.

 

Well I'll answer exactly as I would have at age 8....no Galaxian sucks!!. Of course as an 8 year old I had made a mistake....but Galaxian in any incarnation is a poor mans Galaga, it's like American Beer*....it resembles something familiar, but its just not quite right. A little weak in the delivery.

 

You have your analogy in the wrong chronological order. American Beer came later than it's European predecessor, but Galaxian did not come after Galaga. That's like saying Space Invaders is a "poor mans" Galaxian.

[retrorussell]

Wha...? No entries from "Mystique"? Their "erotic" games with "anatomically correct" 8-bit graphics were awful. The nadir, of course, being "Custer's Revenge". I suppose the games are good for a laugh but that's it. If you paid one penny for any of their games you got ripped off.

 

And I recognize one blogger has an avatar from "Beat 'em And Eat 'em". Nice..

 

Oh, and of course, ET was awful too.

 

And Activision's Laser Attack was pretty damn boring and linear.

[atarifan49]

I agree on The Last V8. Good graphics and music. Interesting story. But damn'it, if you touch just anything you are sent back to do it all over again. Just extremely frustrating that it sucks the fun of playing out of you.

 

Two other titles that are frustrating are: Koronis Rift and Escape from Castle Wolfenstein

 

Koronis Rift - a beautiful game written by the talented programmers of LucasArts. Great graphics, great sound. Exploring and finding better shields and weapons make a good game. But those damn saucers that patrol the planet and attack you. Drove me nuts trying to destroy them. Also, disk access gets old after a while and the copy protection can create issues with an old disk.

 

Escape from Castle Wolfenstein - the game that saw a wonderful resurrection by Id Software in the '90s. Good game in its days on the Apple and Atari. But the long wait for loading and reloading after you die is painful. Another game that after a while is no fun to play because of the long load times.

 

Even good games can be plagued by issues because of its design that make it annoying.

[olavese@online.no]

For me it was way back in the early 80's when my father told me if I could save 5 weeks allowance he would pitch in the rest and I could get Galaxian. So I did, I sacraficed all my trips to the candy store, didn't buy any hockey cards or stickers (when Gretzky was in his prime!!!!) for five whole weeks only to get Galaxian and realize it wasn't Galaga....No ship came down and conviently captured my ship so I could double up on the attack. Galaga was (and is) one of my all time fav. arcade games. Galaxian sucks!!! lol. Did anyone ever port Galaga over to the Atari?

 

I don't think Galaxian "sucks". I can think of plenty of games that are worse. It sounds like your "annoyance" is based more on the fact that you thought you were getting Galaga. Isn't that your own fault? Galaxian is a decent port of the game that it is supposed to be, Galaxian.

 

I so agree ... Galaxian on A8 was actually very good in my opinion. I played the hell out of it when I was young ... Now I am too slow ... But I used to kill the aliens just by having a shot on the front and let it ram into me ... And it was getting easier to avoid the bullet rain after playing a few times.

 

But I do agree on most of the other "hard" games, Last V8, time run out so fast (is it only on PAL version maybe?) and I don't like games where you more or less is chanceless. Thunderfox was difficult, I thought Heartache from Atari was difficult too. Jet Set Willy had just awful controls on the A8 port, but as said, the new version ZX port is really great. I wish they'd do more of those ports. Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, Thr Hobbit is games I miss from my ZX days

[FastRobPlus]

Wha...? No entries from "Mystique"? Their "erotic" games with "anatomically correct" 8-bit graphics were awful. The nadir, of course, being "Custer's Revenge". I suppose the games are good for a laugh but that's it. If you paid one penny for any of their games you got ripped off.

 

And I recognize one blogger has an avatar from "Beat 'em And Eat 'em". Nice..

 

Oh, and of course, ET was awful too.

 

And Activision's Laser Attack was pretty damn boring and linear.

 

I think the original intent was to identify Atari 8-bit computer games. I suspect the 2600 has had this subject covered quite a few times.

[emkay]

Noooo - I loved that game ! (and the music - sorry )

 

Look at the C64 version ... or the Speccy one (where it comes from)...

 

http://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=1837

 

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0003523

 

The Atari Version fails in every aspect.

Simple graphics is used. The Borders to the left and the right are obviously done to save some CPU time on the speccy. But with the Atari the game could have been done "fullscreen" and every row of Monsters could scroll smoothly...

The poor gameplay seems to be the best , since the soundtrack uses gen "2" for the basses....

 

 

The C64 version at least kept the hires and got a really nice soundtrack.

Edited February 28, 2009 by emkay

[emkay]

And here is the "perfect" tune for the game

 

 

 

btw. It's a fasttracker tune... possible to convert it to A8

[Wrathchild]

Koronis Rift ... disk access gets old after a while and the copy protection can create issues with an old disk.

Reminder: It is possible to put this onto a cart, see Here. Also The Eidolon.

[atarian63]

For me it was way back in the early 80's when my father told me if I could save 5 weeks allowance he would pitch in the rest and I could get Galaxian. So I did, I sacraficed all my trips to the candy store, didn't buy any hockey cards or stickers (when Gretzky was in his prime!!!!) for five whole weeks only to get Galaxian and realize it wasn't Galaga....No ship came down and conviently captured my ship so I could double up on the attack. Galaga was (and is) one of my all time fav. arcade games. Galaxian sucks!!! lol. Did anyone ever port Galaga over to the Atari?

 

I don't think Galaxian "sucks". I can think of plenty of games that are worse. It sounds like your "annoyance" is based more on the fact that you thought you were getting Galaga. Isn't that your own fault? Galaxian is a decent port of the game that it is supposed to be, Galaxian.

 

I so agree ... Galaxian on A8 was actually very good in my opinion. I played the hell out of it when I was young ... Now I am too slow ... But I used to kill the aliens just by having a shot on the front and let it ram into me ... And it was getting easier to avoid the bullet rain after playing a few times.

 

But I do agree on most of the other "hard" games, Last V8, time run out so fast (is it only on PAL version maybe?) and I don't like games where you more or less is chanceless. Thunderfox was difficult, I thought Heartache from Atari was difficult too. Jet Set Willy had just awful controls on the A8 port, but as said, the new version ZX port is really great. I wish they'd do more of those ports. Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, Thr Hobbit is games I miss from my ZX days

I really preferred Galaxian though the 8bit version is not the same as the arcade it is still good and fun. I have the actual arcade machine. Galaga is fun though. I have it on my 48 in 1 board.

[atarian63]

Jumbo Jet Pilot - bought the cartridge as my first game on the 400 and found the Assembler/Editor more exciting (at the age of 10). It was impossible to do anything without overshooting and having some disastrous thing happen and I (nor any of my friends) found any way to land... to make things worse it was trying to be realistic so you had to fly for several hours (doing next to nothing but watching the horizon) and when you finally tried to land you always crashed. It was masochism in a cartridge.

 

Honorable mention:

Spelunker - you trip over a pebble and you die

Wow! I know that's frustrating but Spelunker is one one my very favorites and has super graphics and nice small animations.

[Warriorisabouttodie]

I can't believe no one has mentioned ET Phone Home for the 8bit. The gameplay totally sucks and the radar sound is loud whistling screeching thing that is the most annoying sounding audio in a game ever!!! The only redeeming feature was the digital Et saying "et phone home ... et phone home" when the mother ship lands.