7800 vs NES games

[BassGuitari]

Didn't mean to make it sound as if *nobody* likes it, just seems *most* do not care for the home versions. I happen to like both the 2600 and 7800 version of this and consider them staples in my collection. A decent little alien blast 'em up that's fun in short bursts anyway.

I agree, my only real beef with Xenophobe is that it gets really tedious after a little while. But if you crank up the difficulty, it starts out almost unfairly hard. Dark Chambers had the same problem--it's either easy to the point of being a snooze-fest, or it's hellishly difficult, with nothing in between. (I'm talking about the 7800 versions, but I suppose the same applies to the 2600 versions.)

 

Just curious: did you have Xenophobe for the 2600 back around the time it came out, or did you acquire it later? I ask because for a long time it was considered a very rare title that few people originally owned, and then that South American warehouse was discovered and made titles like Xenophobe and Motorodeo pretty easy to get for anybody with an eBay account. I guess what I mean is, would Xenophobe have been considered a "staple" for the 2600 in the '90s?

[+save2600]

Just curious: did you have Xenophobe for the 2600 back around the time it came out, or did you acquire it later? I ask because for a long time it was considered a very rare title that few people originally owned, and then that South American warehouse was discovered and made titles like Xenophobe and Motorodeo pretty easy to get for anybody with an eBay account. I guess what I mean is, would Xenophobe have been considered a "staple" for the 2600 in the '90s?

No, I acquired 2600 Xenophobe sometime in the late 90's, early 2000's. And you're right, was extremely rare then and cost "big bucks". Just saying "staple" as a 2600 game I wouldn't want to be without today. After the hundreds of games I've filtered throughout the years, this one's here to stay. It's a very good and impressive effort for the 2600.

[Reaperman]

For all the dogpiling on NES arcade ports, now that the AVS is out with online scoring, I'm finding that the pre-crash arcade ports, which I largely neglected back in the day, are where I'm spending *ALL* my NES time.

 

Back in the day, I didn't even have them on NES, since I had my fill of many of them on A8 where they were "free" (thanks piracy) instead of costing actual monies that could have gone to hotter arcade ports like TMNT2.

 

I tried Rampage on a Famiclone when I had a friend over. Basically I didn't have the box and I pressed start and I didn't see any option for having a second player. Do you need to press Start with the second controller or something?

 

Rampage is drop in/drop out multiplayer, meaning the second player can join at any time with the B-button and they just get the other character. Not a terribly common feature back then, but very handy for wandering off to the kitchen/bathroom while the other player keeps the game going.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Reaperman

[malducci]

 

 

I think it's natural that the 7800 games were "older-styled" in comparison to the NES cause the 7800 stuff were really done before the NES came. It just wasn't released until the NES was.

 

And personally, the popular NES titles like Super Mario Bros and Metroid haven't interested me. Maybe I might give Megaman a try some time since it looks alright, but old arcade games are more appealing to me than those ultra-long-and-more-complicated sidescrolling NES platformers.

 

Normally, I'd say it was a generational thing - but I played a 2600 back in 1980 when I was four and thought it was the most boring-est thing I ever saw. I played arcade games in the 80's, even have a small home computer in which I played old 80's "style" arcade games (no end, just repeating/cycling levels); zaxxon, etc. I played them, but I never found them to be very satisfying. Adventure games were fun(text adventures, graphic adventures, and the awesome Dungeons of Daggorath), because you had a story and plot, and actually went on a journey/quest.. not a "loop" where things just got harder. The NES was the first machine to provided that sense of journey, mixed with action and arcade controls. The first Zelda game was probably the most impressive thing I ever played; I spent the whole summer trying to find every one of its secrets. When Megaman 1 came out, again there was nothing like it; the tight controls, the fast action, the exploration of the levels, the boss patterns, gaining weapons - an ending! And Metriod.. holy crap. I actually just played through it again and beat it over this past weekend on my NES; still an amazing game.

 

 

The 7800 has a 320 x 240 mode, which is higher resolution than the NES (256 x 240), but I'm not a programmer, so I don't know the caveats/limitation of using that mode. If 320 x 240 could be used for a Dodge Ball port, and if it doesn't carry with it some weird limitations like only having 4 colors or something like that, I would expect it to have at least passable graphics, and without the severe flicker of the NES version. The Pokey sound chip would be a must, because the NES Dodge Ball has some good music, especially the tune that plays during the final match (the "mirror match").

Unfortunately is does have more limitations. It's been years since I poked around with it (pun intended), but IIRC either detail (objects per line) and/or color is an issue with 320 mode. Even with more ram for display lists, I think it still has a bottle neck for color/detail.

Edited November 15, 2016 by malducci

[empsolo]

 

And personally, the popular NES titles like Super Mario Bros and Metroid haven't interested me. Maybe I might give Megaman a try some time since it looks alright, but old arcade games are more appealing to me than those ultra-long-and-more-complicated sidescrolling NES platformers.

 

Though the 7800 does lack in number of games by a long stretch.

 

 

The world record for Mega Man 2 is 29 minutes and change. It's not a particularly long game by NES standards. Plus it has a password system, so you can pick it up at any time.

[Tangentg]

I am an Atari fan, but I don't think I would judge DK and DK Jr. as a tie for these systems. Just for the bad sound on the 7800 alone... on those games it is really bad.

I feel that especially for DK, both are tied because neither really had anything to offer that the other doesn't already have as they both missed the conveyer belt stage. Perhaps for DK Jr then NES wins cause both have all 4 stages of the arcade but the NES has better sounds, but this seems somewhat inconsistent so I just listed both as ties.

 

Normally, I'd say it was a generational thing - but I played a 2600 back in 1980 when I was four and thought it was the most boring-est thing I ever saw. I played arcade games in the 80's, even have a small home computer in which I played old 80's "style" arcade games (no end, just repeating/cycling levels); zaxxon, etc. I played them, but I never found them to be very satisfying. Adventure games were fun(text adventures, graphic adventures, and the awesome Dungeons of Daggorath), because you had a story and plot, and actually went on a journey/quest.. not a "loop" where things just got harder. The NES was the first machine to provided that sense of journey, mixed with action and arcade controls. The first Zelda game was probably the most impressive thing I ever played; I spent the whole summer trying to find every one of its secrets. When Megaman 1 came out, again there was nothing like it; the tight controls, the fast action, the exploration of the levels, the boss patterns, gaining weapons - an ending! And Metriod.. holy crap. I actually just played through it again and beat it over this past weekend on my NES; still an amazing game.

 

 

Unfortunately is does have more limitations. It's been years since I poked around with it (pun intended), but IIRC either detail (objects per line) and/or color is an issue with 320 mode. Even with more ram for display lists, I think it still has a bottle neck for color/detail.

The first arcade game I played was Missile Command and I didn't like it back then. I thought it was like another average flash browser game. Years later after hearing many good things about it, it grew on me.

 

Story games aren't my thing cause they rely too much on progression so when you need to go (I usually only have 10-minute breaks from study) then you would lose a lot if you fail to complete a game in one go. Plus, I find text adventure games boring and tedious because for 1, it's just text, and 2, like any puzzle game, I always get lost and don't know what to do so you are unable to make any progression, unlike in other arcade games. So you're just gonna be stuck at one point for all eternity until you look around for a walkthrough, which then makes the game have no play value. The NES platformers were never fun to me and they just took too long to complete, which was impossible.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Tangentg

[+madman]

Rampage on NES does indeed have 2P mode. P2 just has to press the B button to join.