Lord Thag Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Crystal Castles, Jr Pac-man, Defender II/Stargate, millipede and Crossbow are my picks. Crossbow is one that never gets recognition, but is amazingly good given the limits of the 2600. Great stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandmountainslim Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 (edited) When I was around 10 or 11 there was a "Super Value" grocery store we always went to on sundays, it had 3 machines in it Donkey Kong Pac-Man and Vanguard, I played all three like a madman. I am like you I have never tried emulation other than Java games, I am on dialup with a laptop as my main machine so I am afraid to try too much with it Edited May 19, 2005 by sandmountainslim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recycled Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Yea, I'm pretty technologically illiterate when it comes to many of the participants on this board. I played Vanguard at a Fishers Big Wheel store at the time--Pac Man was in there too. Spend alot of quarters there. I may have mentioned this somewhere before, but a couple kids with a hammer handle came in and where getting free pac man games by bashing the coin slot. I squealed on them.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimbasement Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 (edited) Joust is a fairly faithful port too. A couple of my other faves: Mario Bros. Frogger Popeye Front Line Ms. Pac and Jr. Berserk moon patrol missile command Technically just about all early VCS stuff were "Arcade Ports" and most of them were pretty good translations. combat - tank Circus Atari - Circus outlaw - gunfight night driver - night driver indy 500 - sprint the breakout series maze craze Edited May 19, 2005 by grimbasement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atwwong Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Technically just about all early VCS stuff were "Arcade Ports" and most of them were pretty good translations. maze craze What was Maze craze ported from? It vaguely reminds me of Gotcha! I loved watching the demo for that game. I didn't have any quarters to feed it back then. I would love to see a port of Gotcha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 As always, this will help you remember your arcade ports. I think Kangaroo may be my favorite. Not sure why, but I've always liked that game. I guess I just like punching monkeys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feralstorm Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Arcade ports on the 2600 are always special (or crappy) because the hardware dictates there has to be a certain level of sacrifice, or at least difference. A perfect port is pretty much impossible, but good to excellent ports happen pretty often. There seems to be two kinds of good ports: Direct ports with minor concessions (Dig Dug, Both Froggers) Games redesigned somewhat because it's impossible or impractical to port the gameplay or graphic style exactly, but good all the same (Crystal Castles, Battlezone) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kencrisis Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I just picked up Galaxian recently and have really been enjoying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxsolo2000 Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Defender II has to be one of the best arcade ports of all time for the 2600. Berzerk was a very fine conversion as was Battlezone and Missile Command wasn't far behind them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cybergoth Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Hi there! One amazing conversion everyone seems to forget is Commando! Other favourites: Battlezone, Crossbow, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Gravitar, Gyruss Greetings, Manuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandmountainslim Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Hi there! One amazing conversion everyone seems to forget is Commando! Other favourites: Battlezone, Crossbow, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Gravitar, Gyruss Greetings, Manuel 857997[/snapback] And let's not forget another great port Seawolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 One amazing conversion everyone seems to forget is Commando! I didn't think Commando was that amazing. Chunky, flickery... meh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 One of the best close to faithful translations IMHO is Crossbow. I was really impressed with what they were able to achieve on the 2600 with that game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdub_bobby Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 My favorites: Jr. Pac-Man Defender II Battlezone Super Breakout Circus Atari Centipede Moon Patrol Others good ones: Jungle Hunt Star Fire Star Wars: TAG Venture Wizard of Wor Super Breakout Phoenix Pole Position Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimbasement Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Technically just about all early VCS stuff were "Arcade Ports" and most of them were pretty good translations. maze craze What was Maze craze ported from? It vaguely reminds me of Gotcha! I loved watching the demo for that game. I didn't have any quarters to feed it back then. I would love to see a port of Gotcha! 857963[/snapback] It was a port of the arcade game Amazing Maze from Midway Amazing Maze KLOV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FujiSkunk Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Grouping by company (and echoing a lot of what has been said): The best collection of arcade ports comes from Atari during their silver-label and red-label eras. Some titles are better than others, but all demonstrated just how capable the Atari 2600 was in the hands of good programmers. Crystal Castles, Millipede, Stargate, and Jr. Pac-Man stand out in particular, but I really don't think there's a bad one in the bunch. The Atari black-labels run hot and cold, with Asteroids and Berzerk being hot (even hotter with all the hack work going on nowadays) and Pac-Man being cold. Parker Brothers did consistently well with their arcade ports. In particular, the Parker Brothers Trilogy, Frogger, Q*Bert, and Popeye are three of the best non-Atari arcade ports you will find. CBS and Sega generally did good jobs on their arcade ports. Skimpy efforts like Gorf and Tac/Scan were made up for by spectacular releases like Wizard of Wor and Tapper. Activision and Mattel (M-Network) both came into the arcade porting business late in the game. Both companies also had a policy of discouraging programmers' use of the flicker trick, making their games easier on the eyes but often more predictable. Mattel's efforts, including Burger Time and Bump 'n' Jump, generally hold up well. Unfortunately, Activision's ambitions got the better of them, and while ports like Double Dragon and Rampage look and play better than anybody would have expected, they still prove those games just weren't meant for the 2600. The only company to be consistently lackluster was Coleco. Every company released arcade ports that could have been better, and Coleco was no exception, with "just okay" titles like Donkey Kong and Venture. The problem is, unlike other companies, Coleco never produced a really great game to make up for the rest. Instead, they sunk even lower with Zaxxon, a game that is literally unplayable at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recycled Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 Grouping by company (and echoing a lot of what has been said): The best collection of arcade ports comes from Atari during their silver-label and red-label eras. Some titles are better than others, but all demonstrated just how capable the Atari 2600 was in the hands of good programmers. Crystal Castles, Millipede, Stargate, and Jr. Pac-Man stand out in particular, but I really don't think there's a bad one in the bunch. The Atari black-labels run hot and cold, with Asteroids and Berzerk being hot (even hotter with all the hack work going on nowadays) and Pac-Man being cold. 858189[/snapback] Jeeeez. I quit playing the 2600 in '82 because of experiencing the wrong games (ie pac-man) and the feeling that if I didn't have Colecovision, why bother. It amazes me today to see what I missed post '82 for the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uosipa llamxew Posted May 19, 2005 Share Posted May 19, 2005 I didn't think Commando was that amazing. Chunky, flickery... meh. I prefer the VCS version of Commando over any other console port. Sometimes it's funny how widely opinions differ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 At the time I thought Venture was one of the better arcade ports - missing 3rd level but was still good IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recycled Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 At the time I thought Venture was one of the better arcade ports - missing 3rd level but was still good IMHO. 858437[/snapback] I like Venture alot. To bad my cart won't work!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osbo Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 Reactor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.