7800 game recommendations?

[T.A.P.]

I ended up with a 7800 again (boring story).

 

I have a couple games on the way for it, but I would love to know what ones you guys would recommend.

 

I'm mostly just interested in officially released games at the moment (homebrew stuff might come later). What's fun?

 

And are there any games I should totally avoid?

Edited September 8, 2021 by T.A.P.

[+slx]

Joust and Galaga are great, Food Fight as well.  Don‘t miss out on the homebrews, there are some real gems there. 

[+SmittyB]

As somebody with no nostalgia for the 7800 in my opinion the original library is mostly a bust, but I do find myself going back to some favourites. If I had to narrow down a few highlights I'd suggest these:

• Alien Brigade - A good Operation Wolf clone, and one of the best games on the system if played with the lightgun in my opinion. Read the manual if you get it because it's easy to shoot the wrong things and find you've lost when you get to the end of a stage.
• Ballblazer - A fast-paced sports-like game that's good for a few minutes of fun if you can find one that hasn't been (figuratively) melted down for the POKEY chip.
• Food Fight - As already suggested. I didn't used to understand the hype for it, but it grows on you quickly.
• Ninja Golf - A very simplistic 'belt scroller' mixed with golf that is strangely appealing despite no single element of its gameplay being better than mediocre.
• Xenophobe - Basically the same as the 2600 version, just with more colour. Another game that I enjoy playing a few rounds of every now and then.
• Xevious - My go-to 7800 game when I don't know what else I want to play. I first played the NES version many years ago, but the 7800 version just feels 'right' somehow.

There are still a lot of 7800 games that I've not really tried, but of the ones I have played the only thing I'd suggest avoiding unless you can get it cheap is Planet Smashers, the prequel/sequel (depending on the order you play them) to Alien Brigade. It has some good ideas but in my opinion the execution is very much lacking.

[ZylonBane]

15 hours ago, SmittyB said:

• Xenophobe - Basically the same as the 2600 version, just with more colour.

Uhh, more like more color, better animation, better controls, more detailed sprites, much more environmental detail, and actual cooperative multiplayer.

Edited September 9, 2021 by ZylonBane

[Jinks]

1 hour ago, ZylonBane said:

Uhh, more like more color, better animation, better controls, more detailed sprites, much more environmental detail, and actual cooperative multiplayer.

You just said the same thing. It brought the colour! 

[juansolo]

Galaga, Joust, Food Fight, Centipede and Asteroids for commercial. All are brilliant, beyond that you've got to go homebrew as there's way more and it's even better: Space Invaders, Moon Cresta, Asteroids Deluxe, Frenzy, Dungeon Stalker, Pac-Man Collection/40th, Froggie, B*nQ, T:ME Salvo, Donkey Kong PK, Rikki & Vikki (sadly now unnavailable). Then you've got the homebrew that's in the works: Arkanoid, EXO, Galaxian, Knight Guy, Millie & Molly, Popeye, Slideboy, etc. It's a good time to have a 7800, but limiting yourself to commercial would be missing out.

Edited September 9, 2021 by juansolo

[fiddlepaddle]

My favorite: Robotron, with one joystick in each hand.

[toiletunes]

Avoid Jinks, Karateka, Hat Trick, F-18, Football, Baseball.

 

The early arcade ports are good.

 

The exclusives are an acquired taste- you'll love them or you'll hate them.

[+jgkspsx]

Among the affordable stuff, beyond what’s already been mentioned, I enjoy the shooting gallery type games Crack’ed, Crossbow, Barnyard Blaster. I love Dark Chambers and Desert Falcon.

 

Among the slightly less affordable stuff, I really like Commando, and enjoy Rampage and Double Dragon despite their bad reputations.

[+davidcalgary29]

On 9/14/2021 at 3:08 PM, toiletunes said:

Avoid Jinks

Best advice! The 8-bit port is also dismal, but at least it's playable. For masochists only.

[Giles N]

On 9/8/2021 at 5:45 AM, T.A.P. said:

I ended up with a 7800 again (boring story).

 

I have a couple games on the way for it, but I would love to know what ones you guys would recommend.

 

I'm mostly just interested in officially released games at the moment (homebrew stuff might come later). What's fun?

 

And are there any games I should totally avoid?

Of the officially released games:

 

1. Ninja Golf

2. Food Fight

3. Commando

4. Pole Position II

5. Alien Brigade

6. Motor Psycho

7. Robotron 2084 

8. Rampage

9. Midnight Mutants

10. Scrapyard Dog

[+GoldLeader]

I agree with most of what's been said.  Especially, once ya get your feet wet,  Dive into the Homebrews!  Why wouldn't you?...

 

  Except I LIKE JINKS!  And since everyone else dislikes it,  I'll bet it's still cheap so you might take a chance...Realize it is an original game, and plays like a souped up, very advanced 2600 game.  It looks neat,  and the color palette changes as the levels change.  But to each his/her own;   It strikes me that video games can be art,  and I like weird things...

[JumbleJag]

Scrapyard Dog is quite good

[+jgkspsx]

It’s funny, everyone in the Lynx forum has a story about how they didn’t even want to play the Lynx version of Scrapyard Dog (a totally different game) because of bad experiences with the 7800 one…

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, JumbleJag said:

Scrapyard Dog is quite good

With the, ahem,   hacks of past years it should be a tiny bit beyond … mere quite good, ahem, hark…

 

… who wouldn’t love to be the dog - Scraps -, resquing his own owner…?

????

[Giles N]

14 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

It’s funny, everyone in the Lynx forum has a story about how they didn’t even want to play the Lynx version of Scrapyard Dog (a totally different game) because of bad experiences with the 7800 one…

Oh no…!!

 

It must be due to character-choice!!!

 

??

Edited September 21, 2021 by Giles N

[Giles N]

1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

I agree with most of what's been said.  Especially, once ya get your feet wet,  Dive into the Homebrews!  Why wouldn't you?...

 

  Except I LIKE JINKS!  And since everyone else dislikes it,  I'll bet it's still cheap so you might take a chance...Realize it is an original game, and plays like a souped up, very advanced 2600 game.  It looks neat,  and the color palette changes as the levels change.  But to each his/her own;   It strikes me that video games can be art,  and I like weird things...

I agree, - that by now - , the 7800 is one the longest ongoing 8-Bit platforms…

 

…

 

Essential homebrews are (but not limited to):

- Bentley Bears’ Qrystal Quest

- PacMan Collection 

- Rikki & Vikki (super-rare … as of date)

- Froggie

[JumbleJag]

1 hour ago, Giles N said:

I agree, - that by now - , the 7800 is one the longest ongoing 8-Bit platforms…

C64 has the most developers with nes as a close second,master system third with 7800 coming in last.This comes down to programmers helping bring other programmers into the community,the c64 has loads of tutorials,the nes has some quite good tutorials,the master system has a few tutorials,the 7800 has no tutorials.A large majority of new c64 programmers could get into 7800 with some help but there isn't really anything to help them,for me this is a big reason why the 7800 dev community is so small.

Edited September 21, 2021 by JumbleJag

[Giles N]

8 minutes ago, JumbleJag said:

C64 has the most developers with nes as a close second,master system third with 7800 coming in last.This comes down to others helping bring other devs into the community,the c64 has loads of tutorials,the nes has some quite good tutorials,the master system has a few tutorials,the 7800 has no tutorials.A large majority of new c64 programmers could get into 7800 with some help but there isn't really anything to help them,for me this is a big reason why the 7800 dev community is so small.

Ok, I really see that one.

 

So, where to begin?

 

Sharing 7800 coding manuals/instructions?

 

Sharing any 7800 developement-resource…?

 

Have 7800-programmers share what they did (as to coding) to give optimal functionalibility?

 

Other…?

 

- - -

 

And…btw…which 7800 tutorials are there out there?

 

How much do 7800 programmers share with each others…?

Edited September 21, 2021 by Giles N

[JumbleJag]

It's interesting to me that nobody has done this yet for 7800 to help bring new programmers into dev,just to note my experience helping bring others into a community Giles,I mean hand holding(explained in detail)

1:C64 programming - no complaints,other programmers would help answer questions and encourage new devs.

2:Nes programming- no complaints,other programmers would help answer questions and encourage new devs,

2:Master system programming - complaints from other programmers that I'm holding their hands,I should just program the game for them <- that really happened.

 

Notice a trend here?

 

 

Look at this c64 tutorial,this helped hundreds join the community,and we have nothing close to this

 

http://tnd64.unikat.sk/assemble_it.html

 

I'm learning the 7800 from others sharing source code but I have 15 years experience with 6502,the C64 community is helping new 6502 programmers with tutorials and they have a huge community,why is that same standard not being applied for 7800?

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by JumbleJag

[Giles N]

10 minutes ago, JumbleJag said:

It's interesting to me that nobody has done this yet for 7800 to help bring new programmers into dev,just to note my experience helping bring others into a community Giles,I mean hand holding(explained in detail)

1:C64 programming - no complaints,other programmers would help answer questions and encourage new devs.

2:Nes programming- no complaints,other programmers would help answer questions and encourage new devs,

2:Master system programming - complaints from other programmers that I'm holding their hands,I should just program the game for them <- that really happened.

 

Notice a trend here?

Kinda sad trend…

 

My own experience is that contributing to 7800 hacks like the Scrapyard Dog hack where you’re the Dog, resquing his owner, went smooth as that.

 

So, who’re into a project…? Want to see results…?

 

As to the the other stuff you mention, I’d say; the more direct, concrete info out there for everyone, the better.

 

I’m no coder, - can do some grfx on a good day, - but sharing good coding-tricks openly could really, really speed up processes man…

 

- - -

 

And still grateful for the cool Homebrews out there: produced and made…!!!

Edited September 21, 2021 by Giles N

[JumbleJag]

1 hour ago, Giles N said:

So, who’re into a project…? Want to see results…?

Did I read this incorrectly,did you want to see what I can do?

 

My goal is to try and do what others are doing for other consoles as in my view it's needed.Congrats on the hacking,many hackers became programmers from hacking games.

[Giles N]

46 minutes ago, JumbleJag said:

Did I read this incorrectly,did you want to see what I can do?

 

My goal is to try and do what others are doing for other consoles as in my view it's needed.Congrats on the hacking,many hackers became programmers from hacking games.

What I meant to say/express is: who feels commited to a certain part of a retro-game-project?

 

Are they doing their part?

 

I’ll probably never get the skills to code.

 

I can do grfx within certain limits.

 

- - -

But I see many others here that are coders etc.

 

If coders would:

a) share with each others best tricks/methods,

b) then: improve upon whats learned,

c) again, re-share with each others best tricks, best-methods

 

… a great leap of production may be gained…

 

(…getting the 7800 on or above the levels of C64, NES, SMS…)

 

- - -

Yes, I’d definitly be interested in what you’ve achieved on the 7800 as to programs being (user-)interactive (contra visual demo-stuff).

 

- - -

 

If new 7800 (in part 5200) resources or hands-on experiences got put down in clear and accessible wording, nothing would be better to

7800(5200) homebrewing.

 

Put your experiences with the world of zeros and ones, down on some sort of sheet - digital or physical - and get it out there.

 

Nothing… like efficient exchange of important info…

Edited September 22, 2021 by Giles N

[Leeroy ST]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

It’s funny, everyone in the Lynx forum has a story about how they didn’t even want to play the Lynx version of Scrapyard Dog (a totally different game) because of bad experiences with the 7800 one…

I feel the 7800 version reminds me of an Apogee game.

 

Whether that's positive or negative depends on the person lol.

[JumbleJag]

1 hour ago, Giles N said:

What I meant to say/express is: who feels commited to a certain part of a retro-game-project?

Are they doing their part?

 

Depends how you view this,doing their part in bringing in new devs..no,Not in my opinion but maybe they want that,it's great to get praise,if others go far beyond your skill level on game programming,that praise you were getting will stop.