Previous thread: >>11925532Rules of the thread are simple:>You can only talk about games and systems made before the US release of the NES (1985). Everything before it from the CRT Amusement Device to stuff like Marble Madness and Kung Fu Master is cool here. Later and homebrew ports for Pre-NES games on Pre-NES systems are allowed (e.g. Jr. Pac-Man was released in arcades in 1983 but the 2600 port came out in 1986)>That's it.I'm currently holding a poll on 2600 games you'd recommend to newcomers. The results will be made into a little pastebin. If you'd like to contribute a vote or write in a game here's the link: https://strawpoll.com/XmZRQv2X3gdWhat's the oldest game you've played on real hardware? I live in bumfuck nowhere so the oldest I've played is my Atari Pong Consoles from 1976.
>>11948358Entombed is pretty cool, managed to do procedural generation long before nVidia turned it into a grift.
Who /BERZERK/ here?
>>11949431I fucking love Berzerk. Every port I've played has been exceptional.
Im in ur base, flaming ur doodz.You know? Probably not one of the most known games of Jaleco, but Pop Flamer is a good one imho.Another good one i've played today, although we are on the verge of 1985 and i'm using save states to pause a bit from one play to the other, it's The Fairyland Story. One of those lesser-known Taito games, but a good one.
Atari 8-bit computers all the way for me. Atari 800XL Montezumas Revenge and Bounty Bob Strikes Back
>>11949784Played the only port of it relatively recently, Sega didn't what Jaleco did. Obviously downgraded, but the worst part is that popping the balloons is a crapshoot. You'll need to very deliberately approach them or else they just won't pop at all.
>>11949784Springer, 1982.This one would have been a better game, with less wonky jump mechanics and more fleshed out gameplay. It's not bad, but could have been better. But, hey, it's an Orca game. You can't really pretend masterpieces.
>>11949887Judging by some gameplay videos it doesn't seem that hard, although i've seen (rarely) some cases of passing through balloons. Obviously playing it should be very different than just watching a video (not really interested in the SG-1000 system, but maybe i should give it a try).Looks worse, though. I mean there are graphical downgrades, but it also looks more stiffy.
Managed to complete the first loop in The Battle Road. Classic 80s game ending, but that was an experience!Never managed to "beat" it before.
>>11949810NuAtari has been milking the 2600 a lot but I wonder if they'll attempt to do a new model of the 8-bit computers because of the Commodore 64 Ultimate? I know The 400 Mini exists but if the C64U does well and NuAtari can sell their system cheaper then a revamped 8-bit computer would be neat.
>>11951029correct me if I'm wrong but isnt the 800XL and the Atari 7800 console the same machine just in a different shell?either way its peak Atari and needs to be milked for all its worth
>>11951036Close, the 5200 is essentially a consolized 8-bit computer, which I think perfectly encapsulates Atari management's incompetence. They had some good hardware but then fucked it up by greenlighting shitty controllers and gave the system no compatibility with the computers the hardware was obviously based on.
>>11949784>The Fairyland StoryManaged to reach the last level with the abuse of save states. Gave up on the boss.It isn't a bad game, but it's very frustrating in terms of difficulty.
Zippy Race/Traverse USA is probably more famous as its NES/Famicom counterpart, but in my opinion the arcade version it's a little more better.
>>11952597*in its NES/Famicom counterpart.Same thing for Kung Fu Master. The NES version is more famous and it also has lower difficulty and less clunky controls, but once you get the hang on the arcade one, at least for me, it becomes better than the console conversion.
>>11952606>Kung Fu MasterGreat game but I'll be eternally confused as to why it's named after that Jackie Chan movie. It has more to do with Game of Death than Wheels on Meals. Anyway, it's one of the few games where the arcade version isn't the best in my opinion. Difficulty aside, the controls feel really unresponsive to me.
>>11953841Jackie Chan was popular in Japan in the same way Arnold was. Some IPs got videogame adaptations merely through his existence in them (and he isn't even visible in some). Lee's IP are probably more influential (even in this specific game), but he's been dead for a decade at that point and the primary audience for videogames like this in Japan were kids and teenagers which are less likely to know of him rather than Chan. Just marketing really.
Dock Man. One of the lesser known Taito games, but not a bad one for 1982.
I just looped back, but I haven't quite played some qualified games yet. So witness the power of the Bandai Super Vision 8000, the ultimate in the TV Jack line. iirc it was the first Japanese proper CPU & cartridge based system, but we're end of page 10 so I'm not doublechecking.
Played some Sharp X1 games, most being on the cusp of NES. Tritorn released in the same month, so that's not on. Nothing lost there as it's a bit bad.Other disappointments were: Super Dimension Fortress Macross - Countdown, a simple but decent horizontal shooter where you can change into 3 forms which affect speed mostly, one even gives you a simple auto-aim. It goes on though and there isn't much variety. Seems they messed up stage 27 on this port as I could not pass an obstacle, other ports have a wider passage.Hang On is inspired by, but not a port of, Hang-On. It's more like Pole Position. It has a construction kit which I assume was used on the copy I found as the ?final? race did not have a start/finish line.Also got some ports for Nintendo's Golf, Penguin-kun Wars and Cannon Ball (the original Buster Bros/Pang). All fine, except PK wars is a bit flickery.
>>11959047I love the graphics on these old Japanese computers. There's something about them that's appealing to me. I think it's how transparent they look sometimes. It's a shame they never really got a market outside of Japan, but at least we can emulate them now.
Got a new PB in Ms. Pac-Man. Original Pac-Man feels harder to me desu. Ms feels faster and the maze variety ironically makes things simpler because I don't overthink my strategy. Still a really fun game though.
>get to play some Atari Today>Airlock is the openerNow I don't want to be overly negative about simple games, but this is a good example of why the 2600 crashed. I don't quite get the complaints about its difficulty, the only unusually tight bit is the 1st floor. The hard difficulty switch is in the position that is generally the beginner setting (and is the default for emulators). All this really means is that you can't get hit on the 1st floor and need to keep moving. The only other challenge, which is a stretch, comes in the final 2 floors via enemies that move back quickly. The extra floors in the 2nd difficulty tend to be reached with plenty of time to spare, so now you just need to get accostumed to jumping between 2 barriers if the game doesn't just push you out on the correct side if you land on one of the barriers anyway.The game ends, you do get an endscreen. No time shown, no score, you'll have to reset your system if for some reason you want to replay this movement test. I don't know the price, but I can only imagine it was too much for the literal minute of content.
The rest wasn't particularly good either. All 3rd party, except 1 proto.Got 3 Xonox titles. Artillery duel, the typical dueling artilleries game. Chuck Norris Superkicks, which has you beat/kick martial artists (it depends on the enemy) so you can continue doing that in a temple until time runs out, sort of has an overworld I guess. Finally there's Tomarc the Barbarian, where Tomarc has to stiffly jump in caves to find his sword to save Senta, but you also control Senta (by switching) as she fends off bats. The latter is the worst, but it functions and the idea is neat which seems to be a theme with Xonox.The rest is all made by different devs. Name This Game is an unimaginative fixed screen shooter for '83 where you deal with an octopus' tentacles, a shark and your oxygen bar, it never got named as the company died. Racquetball is exactly what it says with an easily exploitable AI to boot, it tries to go for a 3D effect that does sort of work, but the ball shadow can appear on the walls/ceiling which is a bit confusing. Seahawk is a defender-like shooter where you have a torpedo and regular shot and need to kill helicopters/ships, when shot you can recover if you are near a friendly ship. Pesco is homebrew Pac-Man that got reskinned so they could sell it. Wizard is a proto (got released on Flashback) that is a simple 2K game, shoot the vortex (supposed to be a gremlin) that is only visible up close until its damage points are full, too much downtime though.The best of the bunch is a simulator (for a 2600), Space Shuttle. It's a bit easier on a real system as you get overlays for it as it uses the console switches as part of the controls. You get to launch, orbit, couple with a satellite, re-enter and then land. A bonus is that it has some modes that assist you (thoroughly or mildly) aside from just the full simulation experience.
A bump with a handful of arcade games.For the bad, 2 basic mahjong games (Royal King Jang Oh 2 and Royal Queen) and Royal Casino (multigambler). Scrum Try is the only actual game which is another late DECOsette game that tries to emulate rugby which just turns into you pressing the dive/kick button as that's just faster than passing for an opening. The kick is there and you can aim, but the system is showing its age quite a lot.For the decent, Revenger '84. despite the marketing it seems to just be an expanded version of Drakton (or it is a reduced version). It's a simple multidirectional shooter with quite a lot of mazelike rooms. There's an enemy that doesn't fire, but turns enemies that touch it into mutants that can pass through walls. Go and kill the boss and do it again, you don't get anything special for cleaning out all rooms. The 2nd is Scion, a Xeviousesque vertical SHMUP with small levels. The gimmick here is that you need to shoot out ground targets to advance the stage/beat the boss.Roller Jammer is a simple rollerskating game which isn't a common genre. It's a chasecam racer where you can punch opponents out of the way and jump (generally used for time trials).For the good (and generally familiar), Return of the Jedi is nice and a fast paced isometric SHMUP, though the different scenes are technically very similar. Road Fighter is a nice and fast topdown racer where you don't instantly die if you hit another car, you can correct your skid. Enemies can purposefully get in the way though.Picrel is Rumba Lumber has a bit of a strange theme, but it plays nicely. It's one of the few woodcut-em-ups out there, except here your goal is to trap the flying creature in a small section of wood or hit it with a stone wheel. A few enemies will harass you, which in later stages just beeline towards you directly, bit of a shame.
>>11948358DUHFENDUR
Who has beaten Eminem's DK score?
>>11949431i like robotronbut yea berserk rules too i had it on 2600
>>11965463half a mill is no joke
>>11965832Did you know Robotron was supposed to be on the 2600 but apparently ran so bad they shitcanned it? I hope a prototype resurfaces someday because I wanna see how bad it flickers.
>>11965894>how bad it flickersi can imaginethat said, everyone always clowns on the 2600 pacman port, but it actually doesnt rly look that bad on an old TV thru RF ime. it only becomes brutally apparent in emulation, where its all just laid bareand in either case, it was some pretty crafty programming that got it to run on 2600 in the first placebut yea. robotron seems like itd be fucking impossible without just nerfing the enemy amounts by a factor. in which case, just go play berserk
I know picrel and Journey arcade are different games but it's still amazing at how much better the Atari game is. It's a little confusing without the manual and the sound effects can be grating but it's still a funny runner game and aiming for a high score is addicting. Journey arcade looks and sounds cool but the gameplay is just not fun for me. Data Age didn't stop believing in making a Journey game even though they could've gone separate ways from the band and made an original IP.
I'm already in post-NES territory right now, but I got some homebrew which qualifies. Snuck into later system lists due to compatibility.It is Tales of Popolon for any MSX with at least 16KB of RAM. A raycasted action-adventure game taking place in an evil fortress, the usual really. You get a main weapon to punch/stab creatures with an various secondary weapons that are powered by your god-o-meter. You'll find those in chests. Enemies generally walk up to you to try and hit you, but some enemies will also fire balls at you to actually force you to dodge.It controls nicely, if a bit tanky. The one lever puzzle seems to have a set solution as you can get the same lever positions in other ways, but it won't open the grate. The gorgon is the only boss that does something different, in that it turns itself to stone and drops a snake before chasing after you again. The game itself is rather short, but iirc it was homebrew made for a contest.It runs about as fast as you can expect from a regular MSX, but if you have a higher model (MSX2+ or Turbo R) you can pick a faster CPU mode or even a far smoother framerate (Turbo R only). You can also reduce the viewport size to help an original MSX along. The screenshots are the big size.
>>11968337Or it might not, I guess it isn't a port of a pre-nes game. Oh well.
Boomer Rang'r (1983).Don't know if there was also a DECO Cassette System version (which is still undumped), but anyway it's a pretty good game.Gets difficult pretty soon, though.
Still had some Videopac+ G7400 games lying around for a bump. Problem with this system is that the vast majority of games are just Videopac/Odyssey 2 games with a background slapped on it for cross-compatibility reasons (generally indicated with a +). Very few exclusives on it, most homebrews target both systems as well.The worst were probably the 2 sports games, both + titles. Baseball+ was a proto for the American Videopac+ that never got released and is just basic 2P baseball. Billiard+ (it is a sport) which iirc was only released in France which gives you 8-ball and rotation game modes. Both function, don't quite like the ball physics on Billiard.2 others were homebrew. 1 of them somewhat original, so it's out (Kill the Attacking Alien). The other is Puzzle Piece Panic which is Tetris. A solid version for this type of system too. Interesting game mode where lines don't drop on clear. Can't say I've played a version with that mode.The only other official release I played was picrel, Cosmic Conflict+. A cockpit shooter where you get to shoot 15 enemies and that's it. Most of the enemies will actually be non-combatants and are easy targets, the ones that do fight back slowly come into view and you need to shoot them before they get close. Always just 1 enemy on screen, your goal is to expend as little energy as possible. Minutes of gameplay.
Dungeons and dragons (don't remember which one) for the intellivision. It had some monster that made a loud, terrifying noise and then chased you down with lightning speed. Scared the shit out of me as a six year old.
>>11970536Cloudy Mountain, that’s a great one. I’ve been playing a lot of Treasure of Tarmin on Intellivision recently. Probably the first console dungeon crawler, even has a in-game map. Engaging in battle feels kind of pointless though, except the Minotaur, because there’s no experience points and enemies don’t drop items. I avoid fighting whenever possible annd enjoy exploring and finding new gear. Incredible what they managed to do with 70s hardware.
>>11970557>>11970536A lot of people recommend these games and they're clearly pretty sophisticated for the time but I just can't figure out how to play them properly with the Intellivison Lives instructions. Are the real manuals any better? Know any websites that explain what to do?
>>11970723I used the original manual for Tarmin, and I was able to understand it pretty fast. The only tricky part is finding out which buttons on your control pad corresponds to each key on the Intellivision number pad, but FreeIntv makes that really clear.
A bump with one of the original versions of Sokoban. You probably played some version of it, but the original version has a curveball in their level design. There's also an extra edition with 10 more levels published in a magazine, but when I played it the dump was broken and the magazine itself undumped.This version is still very simple: you don't even have a step counter and just 20 levels but you do get a reset stage button. The first 10 levels are as you'd expect, the last 10 will require you to find hidden paths as you can see in picrel. I don't think this feature ever returned in any "official" sokoban game, which is probably for the best. Another issue is a bug with the target area for the boxes as they can disappear if you move over them. They still function iirc.
Managed to complete one loop in Jumping Jack. Not a bad, but the end/bonus stage in underwhelming at best.
>>11970536As good as it gets on the 2nd gen consoles. Amazing game. Dragonstomper on the VCS was also pretty impressive, being the first turn-based RPG on a console.
>>11974234If you have Atari 50 (since the ROM hasn't been dumped outside of that yet) I'd recommend the Tower of Mystery port that was intended to come out on the 2600. It's a really fun adventure game and I can't get over the little cutscene they added when you go to a different floor. Hopefully someone will get the ROM out of that compilation eventually.
>>11949431>Who /BERZERK/ here?Gotta love a classic arcade cab with an actual bodycount, perfect fit with theme of game. Don't fuck with Evil Otto. https://retro-bitch.com/2015/11/04/dying-to-play-the-berzerk-curse-fact-or-fiction/
What do you use for logging high scores? Personally I mainly use Arcade Sidekick (It's paid so if you're not retarded then I wouldn't recommend it) for casual logging but lvlupscore seems good for more competitive scores.
Also did anybody see the Vectrex mini prototype news? It's hard to tell from the videos but I hope it's actually playable and isn't some knick knack bullshit.
>>11975821Why did they shrink it? It's not exactly a big system to begin with. This is 100% gaymer cabinet bait.
>>11975828Oh I didn't see that image... What a waste. It apparently has HDMI out, but the whole point of the Vectrex is that it's all in one.
What's your favorite 2600 developer/publisher? I feel like Activision is the objective correct answer desu but I gotta respect Parker Bros for all the interesting ports they did. No other publisher would have released Sky Skipper for example.
>>11970245This looks cool.
>>11977529Imagic and Starpath were great.
Have you played a computer game called Diablo?Pic related is a TI-99/4A version.
Finally broke 50k in arcade Donkey Kong the other day. I found that the only way to make progress is to just let instinct take over and to not overthink things.
>>11980493Nice, I'm still stuck at around 38k range. I learned some tricks so I got a lot more consistent but I can't beat that score yet.
>>11980493Congratulations
>>11949498What about frenzy? Why does noone care :'(
>>11975546Is that even true, or just urban legend?
>>11982867I absolutely loved Frenzy, but I had the colecovision version. Never did get to play the arcade version
>>11982867Frenzy is based but being able to kill Evil Otto feels wrong desu.
>>11968462Oh fuck this game.
