tdstr
1982
Played as part of Atari 50.
The flashing of the torchlight is still annoying, enemy avoidance is a joke, and most of it is just memorizing a map, but in many ways it's still a much better Adventure. There's no stupid bat that steals your items, the 3 mazes have been replaced with one that actually geometrically makes sense, it's got much more atmosphere and overall cooler theming (80s haunted houses will always BTFO high fantasy). And, most importantly, it doesn't have the gall to ask for more than 5 or 10 minutes of your time.
The flashing of the torchlight is still annoying, enemy avoidance is a joke, and most of it is just memorizing a map, but in many ways it's still a much better Adventure. There's no stupid bat that steals your items, the 3 mazes have been replaced with one that actually geometrically makes sense, it's got much more atmosphere and overall cooler theming (80s haunted houses will always BTFO high fantasy). And, most importantly, it doesn't have the gall to ask for more than 5 or 10 minutes of your time.
1981
1981
Played as part of Atari 50.
About as good as of a port as it could have ever reasonably been, but it's still vastly inferior to the original. The lack of trackball controls (and the overall slowing down of the game to compensate) and the narrowing of the 3 missile bases into one are to be expected but it's still a shame, given that losing both of them decreases the stress level a ton. The cleansing of the explicitly political Cold War themes of the original into just a generic space theme is really disappointing too, but it's not really that surprising. Definitely one of the better options for the 2600, but this was still deep into the era where even middle of the road arcade cabinets were dunking the fuck on top of the line home console games, and with the original Missile Command being one of the best cabinets from the era, there's really no contest here.
About as good as of a port as it could have ever reasonably been, but it's still vastly inferior to the original. The lack of trackball controls (and the overall slowing down of the game to compensate) and the narrowing of the 3 missile bases into one are to be expected but it's still a shame, given that losing both of them decreases the stress level a ton. The cleansing of the explicitly political Cold War themes of the original into just a generic space theme is really disappointing too, but it's not really that surprising. Definitely one of the better options for the 2600, but this was still deep into the era where even middle of the road arcade cabinets were dunking the fuck on top of the line home console games, and with the original Missile Command being one of the best cabinets from the era, there's really no contest here.
1980
Played as part of Atari 50.
It's kinda fun for maybe a minute but once you realize that the computer opponent is deterministic and that the best way to win is to just memorize a path and execute on it, it very quickly lost my interest. Still kinda fun for that minute though!
It's kinda fun for maybe a minute but once you realize that the computer opponent is deterministic and that the best way to win is to just memorize a path and execute on it, it very quickly lost my interest. Still kinda fun for that minute though!
1979
Played as part of Atari 50.
Fuck this game.
Seriously--I think out of all the games I've played so far in this collection this is hands down the worst one. I finally see the origin point of literally everything that can make an adventure game bad (ok, well, maybe this and The Colossal Cave Adventure, which I hope for my own sanity that I never play). Which is bizarre considering it's, like, maybe the only 2600 game in the overall VG canon outside of E.T. (for very different reasons) and mayyyybe Pitfall. But I just cannot get past the fact that literally every design decision made here makes my blood boil and my eyes go red.
Difficulty 1 is fine. It takes like 3 minutes to beat and it's fine. I am assuming most people are playing on difficulty 1, which is the default and (according to the manual) the easy difficulty. Difficulty 2 is the normal difficulty, and is seemingly the full game, but when you get to see all of it designed as intended, everything falls apart.
The literal nadir of "Adventure Game bullshit". You know how lots of adventure games have "that part that sucks" in them? Maybe it's a really long and frustrating maze with lots of warp points, maybe it's just an area with a lot of annoying enemies and the only save point you have is one where you've lost your sword. Well, if you're expecting anything other than those two things here you're in the wrong place. I cannot fathom anyone designing that fucking bat that steals your shit and thinking it was a worthwhile addition. And even when you are allowed to carry your single item to the spot it needs to go, have fun running through maze, after maze, after maze. That's literally the entire game.
Which doesn't even begin to mention how ill-fitted for the Atari this game is. I think a lot of the above elements would be annoying but bearable through gritted teeth on, say, an NES game of the same length, but the constant headache-inducing flashing of the 2600, the slowdown when too many things show up on screen, and items constantly glitching into walls makes this terrible in a way I have scarcely seen from any other game. It's very innovative for the time, yes, but in the end it's attempting to fit a big grand quest down on a console which was made to play Pong and other simple infinitely looping single-screen arcade games.
It doesn't work in the slightest and I'm baffled that the general consensus seems to be that it's even remotely good. Influential, yes, but good??? Even for the time, every single other 2600 game I have played in this collection is more fun to play, which includes games that are nothing more than button mashers. It takes like 30 minutes to beat this legit without savestates and it is one of the toughest slogs I have ever gotten through with any video game. Just completely mentally stunlocked here
Fuck this game.
Seriously--I think out of all the games I've played so far in this collection this is hands down the worst one. I finally see the origin point of literally everything that can make an adventure game bad (ok, well, maybe this and The Colossal Cave Adventure, which I hope for my own sanity that I never play). Which is bizarre considering it's, like, maybe the only 2600 game in the overall VG canon outside of E.T. (for very different reasons) and mayyyybe Pitfall. But I just cannot get past the fact that literally every design decision made here makes my blood boil and my eyes go red.
Difficulty 1 is fine. It takes like 3 minutes to beat and it's fine. I am assuming most people are playing on difficulty 1, which is the default and (according to the manual) the easy difficulty. Difficulty 2 is the normal difficulty, and is seemingly the full game, but when you get to see all of it designed as intended, everything falls apart.
The literal nadir of "Adventure Game bullshit". You know how lots of adventure games have "that part that sucks" in them? Maybe it's a really long and frustrating maze with lots of warp points, maybe it's just an area with a lot of annoying enemies and the only save point you have is one where you've lost your sword. Well, if you're expecting anything other than those two things here you're in the wrong place. I cannot fathom anyone designing that fucking bat that steals your shit and thinking it was a worthwhile addition. And even when you are allowed to carry your single item to the spot it needs to go, have fun running through maze, after maze, after maze. That's literally the entire game.
Which doesn't even begin to mention how ill-fitted for the Atari this game is. I think a lot of the above elements would be annoying but bearable through gritted teeth on, say, an NES game of the same length, but the constant headache-inducing flashing of the 2600, the slowdown when too many things show up on screen, and items constantly glitching into walls makes this terrible in a way I have scarcely seen from any other game. It's very innovative for the time, yes, but in the end it's attempting to fit a big grand quest down on a console which was made to play Pong and other simple infinitely looping single-screen arcade games.
It doesn't work in the slightest and I'm baffled that the general consensus seems to be that it's even remotely good. Influential, yes, but good??? Even for the time, every single other 2600 game I have played in this collection is more fun to play, which includes games that are nothing more than button mashers. It takes like 30 minutes to beat this legit without savestates and it is one of the toughest slogs I have ever gotten through with any video game. Just completely mentally stunlocked here
1982
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
As much as something as pointless as the card game War can kinda be marginally entertaining with a friend, RealSports Baseball can be as well. But even after reading the manual it's nigh impossible to actually play it. Most sports games are going to be way too complicated for the 2600 to be able to handle them without deep abstraction and this is no exception. The batting is weird and inconsistent, alternate pitching modes either don't appear to do anything or don't work at all, on multiple occasions the baserunning glitched out and allowed someone to run in the middle of a pitch, just kind of a total mess. The only reason my score isn't lower is because there is a novelty in fumbling around with it and not immediately seeing everything laid bare, as is the case with something like Outlaw. No more than 10 minutes or so, but that's more than plenty of other 2600 games!
As much as something as pointless as the card game War can kinda be marginally entertaining with a friend, RealSports Baseball can be as well. But even after reading the manual it's nigh impossible to actually play it. Most sports games are going to be way too complicated for the 2600 to be able to handle them without deep abstraction and this is no exception. The batting is weird and inconsistent, alternate pitching modes either don't appear to do anything or don't work at all, on multiple occasions the baserunning glitched out and allowed someone to run in the middle of a pitch, just kind of a total mess. The only reason my score isn't lower is because there is a novelty in fumbling around with it and not immediately seeing everything laid bare, as is the case with something like Outlaw. No more than 10 minutes or so, but that's more than plenty of other 2600 games!
1981
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Well, I guess they tried. Again, it's missing literally anything aesthetically interesting about the original and there's still not much of a reason to move around. All the flashing and that horrendous audio track is really nauseating tbh, pretty much no reason to come back to this over any of the several better versions in this pack.
Well, I guess they tried. Again, it's missing literally anything aesthetically interesting about the original and there's still not much of a reason to move around. All the flashing and that horrendous audio track is really nauseating tbh, pretty much no reason to come back to this over any of the several better versions in this pack.
1981
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Surprisingly well-done port of a pretty solid arcade game. Rounding the corner still isn't great but you get used to it. Doubles mode is really fun and I wish it was part of the arcade version.
Surprisingly well-done port of a pretty solid arcade game. Rounding the corner still isn't great but you get used to it. Doubles mode is really fun and I wish it was part of the arcade version.
1979
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Dangerously high novelty value. Finding weird hidden 4-in-a-rows is very fun, but I imagine literally any 2 players playing more than like 30 minutes would probably be able to play perfectly. The computer thinking for 20 minutes on the highest difficulty mode is crazy though lmao
Dangerously high novelty value. Finding weird hidden 4-in-a-rows is very fun, but I imagine literally any 2 players playing more than like 30 minutes would probably be able to play perfectly. The computer thinking for 20 minutes on the highest difficulty mode is crazy though lmao
1979
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
First clicker game ever created. Press A to win. There's a lot more going on in the sea bomber mode, where you actually have to time and somewhat aim attacks, but it's about the same level as the best modes in Air-Sea Battle which really isn't saying much.
First clicker game ever created. Press A to win. There's a lot more going on in the sea bomber mode, where you actually have to time and somewhat aim attacks, but it's about the same level as the best modes in Air-Sea Battle which really isn't saying much.
1978
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Lmao. Even with a friend this is a complete nothing of a spam-fest. This has to be one of the most boring and barebones shooters on the console right
Lmao. Even with a friend this is a complete nothing of a spam-fest. This has to be one of the most boring and barebones shooters on the console right
1977
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Tron video game. They told me it was snake and it's not really snake, biggest disappointment in the world. It's okay for a little bit with a friend, I guess.
Tron video game. They told me it was snake and it's not really snake, biggest disappointment in the world. It's okay for a little bit with a friend, I guess.
1977
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Dull even with a friend. Just a bunch of different kinds of shooting galleries with really weak and unsatisfying shooting.
These early 2600 games listing "27 DIFFERENT VIDEO GAMES!!" on their boxes is very funny, and even still this is one of the only games where there being more than 1 video game is even vaguely true lol
Dull even with a friend. Just a bunch of different kinds of shooting galleries with really weak and unsatisfying shooting.
These early 2600 games listing "27 DIFFERENT VIDEO GAMES!!" on their boxes is very funny, and even still this is one of the only games where there being more than 1 video game is even vaguely true lol
1977
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
Honestly? Not bad, for a 2600 game. Obviously your enjoyment of this is entirely predicated on finding someone who will play an Atari 2600 launch title with you (thanks, @saturday), but the tank game is perfectly competent. Bare-bones, yes, but it plays better than the 2022 Quadratank also in this collection (which probably says more about Quadratank than anything, but still). Plane games aren't as good, but they're still kinda novel for a couple minutes I guess. Really nothing here if you're trying to play it solo, though.
Honestly? Not bad, for a 2600 game. Obviously your enjoyment of this is entirely predicated on finding someone who will play an Atari 2600 launch title with you (thanks, @saturday), but the tank game is perfectly competent. Bare-bones, yes, but it plays better than the 2022 Quadratank also in this collection (which probably says more about Quadratank than anything, but still). Plane games aren't as good, but they're still kinda novel for a couple minutes I guess. Really nothing here if you're trying to play it solo, though.
1982
Played (with a friend) as part of Atari 50.
It's Asteroids again. Like actually the same exact thing but less cool looking. Docking half a star for being incredibly lazy. Playing the 2p modes with a friend is kind of interesting, but really nothing to last more than a few minutes.
It's Asteroids again. Like actually the same exact thing but less cool looking. Docking half a star for being incredibly lazy. Playing the 2p modes with a friend is kind of interesting, but really nothing to last more than a few minutes.