tyranthraxus Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Anyone know why Activision's 5200 titles are so poor? Apart from the bonus level on Pitfall 2 they are pretty close to the 2600 version. Where as Parker Bros. did make their 5200 versions powered up from the 2600 edition. The same complaint can be made for Act's Colecovision versions too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetset Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Yeah I agree. They (Activision) really dropped the ball on the conversions. Zone Ranger though, is an AWESOME game. A Pretty close copy of Sinistar though, but great nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanBoris Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 I think (at least in some cases) Activision tried to do as little work as possible when porting games from the 2600 to 5200. Kaboom is a good example of this. Instead of using some of the more advanced graphic features of the 5200 hardware it treats it pretty much like the 2600 hardware. I discovered this when writing my 5200 emulator because Kaboom was writing to graphics registers that not used by other games. Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dantaipan Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 I think (at least in some cases) Activision tried to do as little work as possible when porting games from the 2600 to 5200. Kaboom is a good example of this. Instead of using some of the more advanced graphic features of the 5200 hardware it treats it pretty much like the 2600 hardware. I discovered this when writing my 5200 emulator because Kaboom was writing to graphics registers that not used by other games. Dan Graphically it may not be a ground-breaking title but with a paddle controller it's still a great game. The 2-player pitch and catch mode is a great addition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Yancey Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 How much better do you expect an Activision game to get? It's very difficult to improve on perfection! Some graphics and sound enhancements were made: like background music on Kaboom and the mine walls on H.E.R.O.. I do like the 2600 version of Beamrider better though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 How much better do you expect an Activision game to get. It's very difficult to improve on perfection! Some graphic and sound enhancements were made: like background music on Kaboom, The mine walls on H.E.R.O. LOL I almost agree with that statement! I think Activision was just a step above everyone else on the 2600. So even thou some titles show little improvements over their 2600 predecessors, they were still on par or better than alot of other titles by Atari, Parker Bros, & Sega. I wonder thou, the 400/800 games these were sold before or after the 5200? They are all very close, if not identical to the 5200 versions. Some titles might of already been made closer in time to the 2600 versions, and the improvements didn't seem neccessary at the time. Then 5200 ports were done from older games maybe. Just an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 That was the one major complaint by everybody back in the day.. that Activision did next to nothing to their titles when porting them to next generation systems. And no one was fooled either. Yeah you could say that the Activision titles were already pretty good, but even back then you expected a little more on your 5200 already.. I mean come on. I should dig up some magazine reviews talking about this very fact.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 Funny, I think the Activision titles are some of the 5200s best games. Keystone kapers, and Megamania are 2 of my favorite to play on the 5200. Chaz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 http://www.ataritimes.com/classics/feature...activision.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted November 30, 2003 Share Posted November 30, 2003 I'd take Megamania over Space Invaders anyday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 http://www.ataritimes.com/classics/features/fea_5200activision.html Good article. Another point that can be made is that when you see ports of games across the modern systems, you'll likely see only graphical tweaks and a few extra bonuses thrown in. No such thing as innovation across systems nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vic George 2K3 Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 I'd rather have seen Megamania on the ColecoVision rather than SierraVision's Threshold, despite the latter game's attempt to copy Sega's Astro Blaster game by adding a laser temperature gauge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 You know what's funny? The only difference between the 2600, and 5200 version of the game Kaboom, could have been done on the 2600. The only thing I noticed was the background behind the guy, there's blue, and grey for buildings being used there. But the width is almost (if not exactly) perfect to reproduce the same thing on the 2600. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougy76 Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 You know what's funny? The only difference between the 2600, and 5200 version of the game Kaboom, could have been done on the 2600. The only thing I noticed was the background behind the guy, there's blue, and grey for buildings being used there. But the width is almost (if not exactly) perfect to reproduce the same thing on the 2600. There's also the huge addition of the 1812 overture music in the 5200 version... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 The only Activision game I owned back in the day for 5200 was River Raid, and I was 100% happy with the additions of jagged 2-color riverbeds, tanks, balloons, and shooting choppers. Plus you could pick which bridge to start from. Later on, I got an Atari 8bit diskette with all the games on it (remember, the 8bit computers were the same as the 5200 hardware). I guess I was not too impressed with Pitfall and Kaboom's translations, but I don't recall every being disappointed. I liked the visual oomph given to Megamania and H.E.R.O. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougy76 Posted December 2, 2003 Share Posted December 2, 2003 Anyone know why Activision's 5200 titles are so poor? Apart from thebonus level on Pitfall 2 they are pretty close to the 2600 version. Where as Parker Bros. did make their 5200 versions powered up from the 2600 edition. The same complaint can be made for Act's Colecovision versions too. I'd have to say that the bonus level addition on Pitfall II is a tremendous enough improvement to compensate for any lack of improvement on all other 5200 games. The bonus level on 5200 Pitfall II is just too cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted December 3, 2003 Share Posted December 3, 2003 You know what's funny? The only difference between the 2600, and 5200 version of the game Kaboom, could have been done on the 2600. The only thing I noticed was the background behind the guy, there's blue, and grey for buildings being used there. But the width is almost (if not exactly) perfect to reproduce the same thing on the 2600. There's also the huge addition of the 1812 overture music in the 5200 version... A few dozen screenshots from several sites doesn't show music though. In fact, I've never befor now even seen the music mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougy76 Posted December 3, 2003 Share Posted December 3, 2003 You know what's funny? The only difference between the 2600, and 5200 version of the game Kaboom, could have been done on the 2600. The only thing I noticed was the background behind the guy, there's blue, and grey for buildings being used there. But the width is almost (if not exactly) perfect to reproduce the same thing on the 2600. There's also the huge addition of the 1812 overture music in the 5200 version... A few dozen screenshots from several sites doesn't show music though. In fact, I've never befor now even seen the music mentioned. Hey, the was to indicate sarcastically how HUGE the addition of the music was. I wasn't ripping on you for not noticing it. I see how my statement could be interpreted that way now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 LOL, well, I thought it was because you thought I didn't notice it, naw, I just never played the game (though would like to to see if it plays any different with sticks as opposed to paddles) Let me guess, it's the same 1812 as on Battlezone for 2600? Or did they use more than one note at once? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavv Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 couple notes from the activision guys that are about the same topic Al Miller(cge2002 activision panel): "We never had much respect for the 5200, it wasn't compelling enough hardware, it was just a repackaged 400/800" David Crane(retrogaming radio interview): With Pitfall II they tried an experiment, when doing the 400/800 port (and by extension the 5200), the programmer wanted to take the original working code, changing stuff like input and graphic routines, etc, while the programmer on the C64 wanted to start from scratch and recreate the gameplay. They got done at the exact same time. only difference was that the C64 version had to go through a whole phase of debugging while the 400/800 didn't, and hence they decided to create bonus levels for it since they had the time. gavv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian R. Posted December 6, 2003 Share Posted December 6, 2003 http://www.ataritimes.com/classics/features/fea_5200activision.html ... and my words come back to haunt me! One change since that was written - I now have a DVD player and a growing collection. Now, I do know what everyone was talking about on the wonders of DVD. I've been sold for several months now - or rather, buying DVDs for several months now, and like everyone else have spent far more on DVDs than I did on the player! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted December 6, 2003 Share Posted December 6, 2003 Once you go to DVD there is no going back!!! VHS is just so lame compared to DVD on all levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPUWIZ Posted December 6, 2003 Share Posted December 6, 2003 VHS is just so lame compared to DVD on all levels. VHS ? Oh yeah, that weird huge magnetic-tape medium I used 5 years ago, now I remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister VCS Posted December 6, 2003 Share Posted December 6, 2003 I only own the Colecovision-ports of Pitfall and Pitfall II. Pitfall has mildly improved graphics (animated title-screen. background). Pitfall II has total ugly graphics. Bad colors, in some parts less detailed then 2600-Pitfall II. The manual says the game was programmed for the CV by Robert Rudkowski. Did this guy programmed any other Activision-title? I think most Activision programmers didn´t know to programm a Z-80 machine like the Colecovision. Talking about 5200-ports, I think they were a litte bit lazy to improve the games. Mister VCS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted December 6, 2003 Share Posted December 6, 2003 Here is a review from Video Games Magazine of the 400/800 port of Kaboom: "Aside from those details, and a few graphic fillips, this is virtually the same game that's available for the 2600, right down to the ability to reducse the size of the buckets in order to increase difficulty... Kaboom! may be a golden oldie, but it's status as a classic is well deserved. If you don't already own the 2600 version of the game then this adaptation will give you all the challenge and charm of the original while adding a few new touches of it's own. But, now that Acitvision has made their cautious entry into the area of computer games with this title, it is my hope that their next release will be something more original that takes full advantage of the graphic and gaming abilities of the Atari computers. If anyone can do it, Activision can." I mean he was obviously trying to be very diplomatic about it.. but I think it's obvious that even in 1983, the expectations were that there would be something MORE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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