carmel_andrews Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 like it says on the tin, which or what coin op to computer ports/conversions still hold up today, and which or what ones are still CRAP x CRAP Here's some for starters Pacman/Super Pacman (apparently the latter one is only a proto)...I do seem to remember quite a few non atari multi format games mags slagging of the a8 version of pacman, claimimg the speccy version beats it by miles Defender....okies to good (even though the big A did 2 versions, an 8 man and a 10 man version), shame that stargate (the follow up to defender) didn't get an airing on the a8 Gauntlet....another okies to good port, a bit on the slow side and the a8 versions lacks colour (perhaps the guys at gremlin who did the a8 port had dodgy monitors,as the a8 version seems to be in different shades of brown/blue etc) Donkey kong....good to excellent....Apparently the only version that had all the screens from the coin op (or was that the follow up DK jnr) Centipede/millipede....two okies to okies ports....about par of the course Joust..... okies to good (do recall clocking it, i.e all 99 levels on the standard/default level setting) kaboom (i think it qualifies as it is based on the atari coin op 'avalanche')....pretty good conversion there (not bad for one of that companies first games for the a8) Dig Dug....Pretty good conversion....not quite sure why atari did 2 different versions, one seems to be slightly worse quality then the other Pole position....pretty good conversion from both atari and datasoft (shame that USG didn't get round to releasing both the atari and commodore versions of PP2) Mr Do....This has got to be probably the best coin op to computer conversion going....spot on in every department (well done datasoft) Buck rogers and the planet of zoom (I think this was re-released by USG under the sega label)....okies conversion, better off playing the coleco version though (much faster) Zaxxon/Super Zaxxon.....okies to good coversions of a sega coin op game Juno first/Pooyan....okies to good, seems about par for the course Rockford ... okies to good at best (mastertronic claimed it was a conversion of a coin op game based on the iconic 'boulderdash' theme) probably mastertronic's best game for the A8 Bomb Jake....good to excellent (even though i've only played 2 levels)....shame tezz and co couldn't squeeze out a 64k/128k version Yie ar KungFu....okies to good, probably one of the better coin op conversions from our euro friends only crap x crap coin op port....Rampage (need i say more, perhaps whoever programmed it was related to steven mcillwie) Anyone with anymore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 (edited) Your hatred for Steven McIlwee does make me laugh! I see that you've mentioned him on here before as being the worst programmer to ever "grace" the A8! I had exactly the same feeling for that man when I was a child. I couldn't stand his games. Though I must say that Leapster is quite good. He tended to program some frustrating games. Check out "Castle Top" or "Monkey Magic". EDIT: I've just had a game of "Monkey Magic" and it is as diabolical as I remember it. Edited June 10, 2011 by snicklin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Bomb Jake....good to excellent (even though i've only played 2 levels)....shame tezz and co couldn't squeeze out a 64k/128k version They did. The cart release plays fine on a 64Kb machine. That's the beauty of the Corina cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Your hatred for Steven McIlwee does make me laugh! I see that you've mentioned him on here before as being the worst programmer to ever "grace" the A8! I had exactly the same feeling for that man when I was a child. I couldn't stand his games. Though I must say that Leapster is quite good. He tended to program some frustrating games. Check out "Castle Top" or "Monkey Magic". EDIT: I've just had a game of "Monkey Magic" and it is as diabolical as I remember it. You should give the guy some credit, he wrote reasonable games for Atari User magazine and made the jump to commercial games. Admittedly a lot of them should have been made to be much better before release; but they were budget games so I guess they let standards slip, shame as other companies had such excellent budget games e.g. Red Max and Zybex. His best games are LA SWAT which is still playable today, and one of my all time favourites was Hunchback (ocean) (needs Translator for XL/XE) which is an excellent game though tough 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borntorun Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 I really like the Defender conversion- probably my favorite version of the game. I like Jungle Hunt, too. I actually like the graphics on the river stage better than the orignial. Mario Bros. is good, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr0tki Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Defender....okies to good (even though the big A did 2 versions, an 8 man and a 10 man version), No, they did only one version. The 8-men version you're referring to is a bad crack. kaboom (i think it qualifies as it is based on the atari coin op 'avalanche') It doesn't qualify. Atari released their own port of Avalanche through APX in 1980. Rockford ... okies to good at best (...) probably mastertronic's best game for the A8 I tend to disagree, considering that the game is unfinishable due to bugs. only crap x crap coin op port....Rampage (need i say more, perhaps whoever programmed it was related to steven mcillwie) ? It's still a playable game. His best games are LA SWAT which is still playable today That's not MacIlwee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Ok oops (sorry Randy Platt!), but I still like Hunchbackfor it's pixel perfect platform torment Unfortunately I didn't get to play many of the classics in the arcade days, might be if people can list if there are any game features/levels missing from a8 versions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kr0tki Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 but I still like Hunchbackfor it's pixel perfect platform torment Also check out his Castle Top, which is kinda final version of Hunchback (the latter is apparently an unreleased prototype). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 but I still like Hunchbackfor it's pixel perfect platform torment Also check out his Castle Top, which is kinda final version of Hunchback (the latter is apparently an unreleased prototype). I think the finished one is yet to be released! I liked Hunchback better... sorry for hijacking this topic, that's what atariage is all about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 The problem with questions like this is that I can't see the point of it 100%. The only way I can look at the games is how I felt when I saw them for the first time, I'll admit many games have since had update done years and years later by enthusiastic coders but given what you might call the dev time being huge allowing a better learning curve, ie coding methods and knowledge has had time to improve there was always going to be differences in quality. Because of this I judge as to what the coder did at the time compared to the competition / clones and the game it was meaning to a copy of. Sadly these questions normally spread into a system war with comparisons being made about other computer versions. Based upon what I saw at the time and still play, in no order... Defender......damn fine port, plays nicely... Mr Do.........Another good un. PAC MAN.......UGH!.....Other PAC man arcade games were much better but Atari Pac Man was awful... Frogger.......Nice, not my thing but did what it said. Donkey Kong...Excellent.. Anteater......OK Arkanoid......Not bad at all Asteroids.....Awful.. Berzerk.......Great fun..Good port. OH I give up, there's too many to go through, Burgertime, Breakthru etc etc etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skarrj Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 I gotta say, Centepede/Millipede and guantlet ports are pretty wretchid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tep392 Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Defender....okies to good (even though the big A did 2 versions, an 8 man and a 10 man version), No, they did only one version. The 8-men version you're referring to is a bad crack. Correct. Unfortunately, Atarimania still has the bad crack in there data base as a valid dump. I documented the problem in detail here but is has not been corrected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightSprinter Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Missile Command was pretty good, especially with a trackball and putting the game into trackball mode. Robotron was quite enjoyable as well (especially with the dual-stick holder to play the game John-Woo style, just as in the arcade original). Frogger wasn't half-bad, though Popeye was tricky on the timing for hitting the beer bottles. Qix was an okay port, very awkward to not need a second button for fast drawing. Datasoft's version of Pac-Man was quite impressive, even better than the Atari 5200 version I might add. Ironic that not even Nintendo theirselves could top the XE port of Mario Bros. First time I played that a few years ago, I could've sworn I was playing the arcade game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 I gotta say, Centepede/Millipede and guantlet ports are pretty wretchid. what are we missing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Must say I prefer Dandy to Gauntlet... As for Centipede & Millipede, they were ok, actually I liked Centipede a lot... The playing noises from Centipede were the first thing you heard in any arcade, either that or Galaxian starting a game, they seemed to be heard above everything else Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmel_andrews Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share Posted June 14, 2011 I've seen the emulator version of hunchback (a8)...is true that it was written in basic (or was that just the atari 8 version) Interesting that hunchback has the claim to fame for being the first 3rd party officially UK licenced conversion of a coin op to computers I didn't rate Arkanoid that much, the A8 version is a bit slow (the way the ball travels is a bit choppy and the colour scheme is terrible) Robotron was okies i guess, never played it much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skarrj Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 I gotta say, Centepede/Millipede and guantlet ports are pretty wretchid. what are we missing IDK, aside from Cent/mil barely looking different than the 2600 port? When I see pacman/mspacman running on the 8-bit, I have to think cent/mil could have looked a hell of alot better. Dandy>Gauntlet And I like dark chambers better also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted June 14, 2011 Share Posted June 14, 2011 Food Fight I thought was pretty good. I liked Robotron as well Battlezone is a bit too jerky for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamus Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 If you want to see what Millipede *should* have been then get the 2600 version. Seriously. The gameplay is *there*. Now imagine that with the graphical oomph of the 800/XL chipset, and you'd have a great conversion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kjmann Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 (edited) Defender......damn fine port, plays nicely... Mr Do.........Another good un. PAC MAN.......UGH!.....Other PAC man arcade games were much better but Atari Pac Man was awful... Frogger.......Nice, not my thing but did what it said. Donkey Kong...Excellent.. Anteater......OK Arkanoid......Not bad at all Asteroids.....Awful.. Berzerk.......Great fun..Good port. Defender......damn fine port, plays nicely... I agree. This is a good Port. Mr Do.........Another good un. Ditto. PAC MAN.......UGH!.....Other PAC man arcade games were much better but Atari Pac Man was awful... I think this was a good one. But the Datasoft version was better since it had the Intermissions. Frogger.......Nice, not my thing but did what it said. The cartridge version left a lot to be desired, but the Sierra On-Line Disk version by John Harris was Great. Donkey Kong...Excellent.. I liked this version but I always thought the Sound was Lacking a bit. Anteater......OK Not Bad Arkanoid......Not bad at all Fair, But Sucks in NTSC. Asteroids.....Awful.. A Pitiful Excuse. It should have been easy for them to do this game. even in an 8k Cart. Looks like it was rushed. Berzerk.......Great fun..Good port. Excellent version! The Voice was awesome too. Centipede.......... 5200 Centipede is what should have been. once again, the original 8-bit cart just looked rushed. Millipede.......... This was just a joke. They could have done much better. Edited June 15, 2011 by kjmann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 I think Donkey Kong, Joust, and Berzerk are all excellent. And I like Jr. Pac-Man and Pac-Man just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 If you want to see what Millipede *should* have been then get the 2600 version. Seriously. The gameplay is *there*. Now imagine that with the graphical oomph of the 800/XL chipset, and you'd have a great conversion. It must be good as I always really rated our Millipede re Centipede we played both the A8 ver and the 5200 port in the HSC recently; although the 5200 ver looks nicer I think the A8 version plays better as it's a bit easier (no I don't suck at gameplay!) so you get a more satisfying go [All these 'pede games are excellent games so we are spoilt, plus we have the awesome Bug Attack!] Aside from the comsetics, are there any A8 conversions where we are missing on levels or gameplay features Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 +1 for Berzerk, other than that can't think of anything that ticks all the boxes (audio,graphics AND gameplay) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 I'll just touch on ones I didn't particularly like, or I feel were insufficient. Asteroids - filled in crap. Possibly the limitation was due to being an 8K cart designated to work on 8K RAM. Every chance if it was a 16K cart for a 16K system then they could have done it properly with hires psuedo-vector graphics. Arkanoid - it just lacks polish. The graphics could have been done better and the sfx pretty ordinary. Poor conversion when put up against the likes of the C64 version. Battlezone - I've barely played it, but didn't think much of it when I did. Frogger - although it's a perfectly good game in itself, the look and feel has suffered. But, practically no home version can better it, only the recent homebrew 7800 version came through with the goods. Galaxian - pathetic sound effects and the gameplay just doesn't resemble the original very well. Gauntlet - barely passable effort, boring gameplay, not one that you feel compelled to keep booting up. Green Beret/Rush 'n Attack - I used to play quite a bit in the arcades and got jealous when the C64 got it but Atari seemingly didn't. Found out decades later that we did get it... but didn't feel like kicking myself for missing it one little bit. Gyruss - good conversion, the only negative I put on it is that they didn't do it in Mode E to match the C64 version. Jungle Hunt - servicable conversion but marred by ordinary sprite graphics esp river section, and lack of music and missing end sequence. Missile Command - would have been so much better with 3 bases. Still, a good effort for only 6K of programming. Moon Patrol - graphics and music could have been better. Pengo - the music just sucks. Should have used the world version music instead of the US one. Robotron - good game but the chunky movement of the player is a bit annoying. Space Invaders - looks nothing like the original. Super Breakout - 2600 version was much better, they should have kept closer to that. Super Cobra - don't think much of the gameplay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNIXcoffee928 Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 I'll just touch on ones I didn't particularly like, or I feel were insufficient. Asteroids - filled in crap. Possibly the limitation was due to being an 8K cart designated to work on 8K RAM. Every chance if it was a 16K cart for a 16K system then they could have done it properly with hires psuedo-vector graphics. ... Whatever happened with that guy that was doing a direct port of Asteroids, about a year ago? I remember that it was nearly complete, and it looked great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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