Arcades you hated till playing original/good port

[masschamber]

One big one for me was burger time , the first port I played was the terrible nes port, thought the game was one of the worst arcade made, then I played the coleco port, change my whole opinion of the game

[dogcorn]

Defender really stands out in my mind. I would insert my quarter at the arcades, last about four seconds and then slap myself for wasting my money. Then my parents got me the 2600 version. Awesome!!! For once I could actually play an actual GAME, rather than "Watch George Disappear."

 

Not quite the same thing, but: I never finished Space Ace in the arcade. Can't say I really hated it. It's just that, after so many allowances down the drain, I got frustrated and gave up. But when I bought the PC version, I played that thing over and over until I finally won. Not having to pop in quarter pair after quarter pair is much less draining on the wallet and the psyche. I think I also set it on Infinite Lives, which is MUCH better than having to start over every time.

[Pixelboy]

I never liked the arcade version of Spy Hunter, but I really enjoyed the ColecoVision version, which I could play hours at a time.

[Lord Helmet]

Crazy Baloon. I didn't really hate it though. I had never played it until the 2600 homebrew came out. Now I love it.

[Tempest]

Defender. I could never handle the controls in the arcade, but I absolutely love the Atari 8-bit version. Why couldn't they just use a normal joystick in the arcade version...

 

Tempest

[mos6507]

Not that I dislike the coinop Joust, but I think Joust on the Atari 8-bit works better than the coinop. In the coinop you have to flap more frantically to get your ostrich to lift off, which is just tiring in a Decathlon sort of way.

 

Also, the sprites are smaller on the A8 so the playfield feels less cramped.

 

I also prefer 2600 Space Invaders to the real thing. Because there are fewer invaders in the 2600 version, you get to play through more waves which I feel makes the game more exciting.

 

It just seems to take forever to clear a wave in the coinop SI.

[Bill Brasky]

Defender and pretty much all other Williams games. Their games were way too hard in the arcade.

[HammR25]

The closest I could come to is I hated all forms of Defender until I played the Atari 2600 "Chopper Command". I love Chopper Command and hate all Defender games.

[Vic George 2K3]

Still won't play arcade Defender due to its complex control panel, but CV Defender I have enjoyed along with (to a lesser degree) the Atari 2600 version.