Good Multiplayer Games

[+stephena]

Yes, I realized that a bit later in this thread, when I remembered the names after seeing them written. Thank you for this list, I already had some other list, but it was errorenous so it was more confusing than explaining. Perhaps this one is correct.

 

Hmm, this list (that you gave me) seems to be actually accurate, thank you very very much!

 

- Monk

 

No problem, I found a few lists myself that were inaccurate, so I looked at the rom which is 64k, I used a hex editor to split it into 32 2k roms, ran each one in Stella and created the list of games that way.

 

Keep in mind that the list I provided is probably not 100% accurate, as some of these games look to be slightly modified versions of the original games.

Just an FYI that the latest versions of Stella include native support for the 32-in-1 cart as a special bankswitch type. You start up the 64K ROM, and do a 'Control-r' to cycle through each one. This simulates how you'd play each game on an actual cart, where you'd need to power cycle to go to each consecutive game. Behind the scenes, Stella is basically doing what you did (splitting up the ROM into 2K pieces). There's also support for 2in1, 4in1, 8in1 bankswitching, which operates on the same principle. Autodetection doesn't reliably work for these, so you may have to set it manually.

 

And to the other guy above that mentioned grey screens, this is the result of odd scanline counts in PAL mode (ie, it's just that way that a PAL TV works). This can be turned off in the Stella in the video settings (aka PAL color-loss effect).

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, if you turn on scanline counts with 'Alt-l', you'll see which game is which in the sequence (they'll be labeled as G1, G2, ...). Also, you'll see that the games that are greyscale have odd scanline counts.

[Buzbard]

Yes, I realized that a bit later in this thread, when I remembered the names after seeing them written. Thank you for this list, I already had some other list, but it was errorenous so it was more confusing than explaining. Perhaps this one is correct.

 

Hmm, this list (that you gave me) seems to be actually accurate, thank you very very much!

 

- Monk

 

No problem, I found a few lists myself that were inaccurate, so I looked at the rom which is 64k, I used a hex editor to split it into 32 2k roms, ran each one in Stella and created the list of games that way.

 

Keep in mind that the list I provided is probably not 100% accurate, as some of these games look to be slightly modified versions of the original games.

Just an FYI that the latest versions of Stella include native support for the 32-in-1 cart as a special bankswitch type. You start up the 64K ROM, and do a 'Control-r' to cycle through each one. This simulates how you'd play each game on an actual cart, where you'd need to power cycle to go to each consecutive game. Behind the scenes, Stella is basically doing what you did (splitting up the ROM into 2K pieces). There's also support for 2in1, 4in1, 8in1 bankswitching, which operates on the same principle. Autodetection doesn't reliably work for these, so you may have to set it manually.

 

And to the other guy above that mentioned grey screens, this is the result of odd scanline counts in PAL mode (ie, it's just that way that a PAL TV works). This can be turned off in the Stella in the video settings (aka PAL color-loss effect).

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, if you turn on scanline counts with 'Alt-l', you'll see which game is which in the sequence (they'll be labeled as G1, G2, ...). Also, you'll see that the games that are greyscale have odd scanline counts.

 

Now you tell me!

Actually, I did that a couple years ago.

This info is good to know, thanks.

Stella surprises me again!

[Godzilla]

I especially second Entombed and Quick Step, two of the best multiplayers on the 2600

[Roger Wolf]

after years of party-events with my friends playing most of the homebrew games and some of the original games on the atari 2600 I can draw the following conclusion:

 

1. there are just very very few valuable four-player games on the atari and of course, these are just paddle-games.

2. the by far greatest of these four-player games is MEDIEVAL MAYHEM.

3. there are far more good two-player (simultaneous) games but there are just two games, that shine above all others: FALL DOWN and WARRING WORM RETURNS.

4. though very notebale games in this category are: SPACE ROCKS, followed by GO FISH, GUN FIGHT and COMBAT REDUX

 

I also can draw the final conclusion, followed by the experience of lots of hours of laughter playing with my friends and playing almost any retro-system there is from 8bit to 128bit...

...that MEDIEVAL MAYHEM belongs to the top 3 multiplayer-games ever on any system and FALL DOWN is follwing-up as one of the top 10 two-player simultaneous games on any system!

[gauauu]

 

1. there are just very very few valuable four-player games on the atari and of course, these are just paddle-games.

 

 

I've spent the last few months mentally plotting on how to potentially design a 4-player joystick adapter for the VCS. I have a plan that might work, but I haven't had the time and energy to test it out yet. (Then, of course, the challenge is making games that work for 4 players with the limited power of the machine)