Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Death Star Battle

The best Star Wars game for the 2600 lets you pilot the Millennium Falcon as Nien Nunb = Star Wars games for the 2600 pretty much sucked.

Star Wars: Jedi Arena

I don't remember who had this one, but after word got around nobody else bothered to pick it up.  No one could muster the amount of imagination required to make this game seem ok.  This one makes the Raiders game seem like a shining example of Blizzard polish and design perfection.  The paddle controller moved your lightsaber...ok....bad start there.  A training drone fired lasers at your shields...apparently your jedi shields or....something...I'm not too sure, strike two. Two strikes is plenty and this game is out.  Star Wars gaming at it's worst.

The Jimdex = (Jim's Love + Jim's Desire to Play this Game Today/ 2) = (1 + 1)/2 = 1

Tempest

Fast and Frantic gameplay, novel forced 3D perspective and eye popping color vector graphics made Tempest a head turner when it arrived in arcades.  I think I first played it at a Showbiz pizza.  I really enjoyed this game but I was also frustrated by the difficulty, and I recall really hating the crazy enemies that got to the top of the "tube" I was shooting down and then started flipping along the top rim to eat me.  Those guys were NOT cool.

Gauntlet Victorious! Atari Basketball Savaged!

Four Games currently lead the list of Most played games by readers of Games Jim Played.  With three votes each

1. Gauntlet, 
2. Adventure,
3. Atari Basketball
4. Pitfall 

Gauntlet has the distinction of having each person that played it mark also that it was Great! VICTORY!
Atari Basketball has the honor of having had all three of it's players mark it as Horrible (Ouch)!
Star Wars, Pitfall, BreakOut, and Track & Field all had two people rate them as Great!
Intellivision Baseball is a split decision with 1 person finding it Great! and 1 person finding it Horrible!

Sinistar

Few games have made as big of an impression in as little time as Sinistar did on me.  The sound in this game was unparalleled.  All of Sinistar's dialog was great, and his bug nuts crazy roar as he began his relentless pursuit of you was a true horror of the Pizza Man experience.  This is a game that understood (much like X-com) that the imagination is far scarier than what can be depicted.  So Sinistar did the great majority of his smack talking off screen.  Even though the gameplay was kind of pedestrian, this game is a classics classic based on its presentation alone.

Satan's Hollow

I remember thinking that this game was equal parts awesome and insane.  Didn't they know that we were already taking heat on the D&D front about the devil?  I didn't need to hear about how a Galaxians variant shooter with an awesome joystick controller was going to turn me into the prince of darkness too.  Sweet cabinet art on this one but help a guy out there Bally Midway, my copy of the Fiend Folio was already causing trouble.

Star Raiders

On the road to Elite and Privateer was a classic called Star Raiders.  I played the version for the 2600, but apparently that was a port of a superior version for Atari computers.  This was still really fun and scratched the Trek itch instead of the Wars itch.  This also foretold the gameplay that would waste a billion hours in minesweeper, this game include lots of scanning.

Yie Ar Kung-Fu

After Karate Champ there was Yie Ar Kung-Fu.  With a series of enemy characters with different fighting styles and weapons and what at the time seemed like totally over the top action Yie Ar Kung-Fu showed the way toward the fighting games that would follow.  Another gem from the Tilt at the mall, I remember this game seeming punitively hard...I liked that.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Nothing says Star Wars more than three purple bars in a bad Defender clone, except for three purple bars and a gray dog in a bad Defender Clone.  The imagination is a powerful thing and all of the brilliance that we incorrectly imagined rested in the mind of George Lucas we also imagined rested in this cartridge.  I'm hoping for better things from The Old Republic.  I'm an eternal optimist and/or I am experiencing battered nerd syndrome.

Defender

I loved CHiPs, and the cops on CHiPs loved defender. Therefore I loved Defender. I didnt hurt that the gameplay was incredibly fast and responsive and explosive.  Defender took many of the limitations of the era and made them into spectacular fun. Even the vastly inferior 2600 version was worth playing.  I really would love to find an arcade machine of Defender right this minute and unleash a smart bomb.

Gauntlet

I heard about the existence of Gauntlet before I got to play it.  The time period between these two events seemed extremely long. Nerd needs to play game....badly. Nerd is about to die.  Gauntlet was awesome for its class based dungeon crawling design.  It had amazing use of voice, but the constantly draining health was a pretty lame and inelegant quarter grabber.  The multi-player, party based component is what really took this one over the top.  There is controversy about the origins of the design that lead to gauntlet.  I went to the web to try to confirm the story I heard out of wotc that Richard Garfield had designed gauntlet, but the controversy I found there did not include him....the mystery remains.  Gauntlet is a certifiable classic.

Gorf

Galactic Orbiting Robot Force had an amazing synthesized attract voice.  I remember this game from some random trip to the Pizza Hut in Champaign-Urbana for god knows what.  It would periodically retort "Space Cadet". It sounded like SPAYZE CADUT but that was still pretty cool.  This game added several variations to the space invaders shooting formula with 5 separate play modes.  Laser attack and Flagship were both cool and the galaxians mode is well galaxians.

Berzerk

Three great things about Berzerk.  It was a shooter, it had speech synthesis, and it had a crazy bouncing smiley face of destruction that would chase you out of each level if you dawdled. Apparently it had 64,000 mazes.  I'm pretty sure I never got past about 10.  I really thought the bouncing smiley was cool even though I was not yet aware of the Prisoner and the smoke monster had not yet been conceived.

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Pac-Man

An epic disappointment on the 2600, this wrote the book on how not to adapt an arcade classic. Sad really.  I was never a huge fan of Puck Man in the arcade but this adaptation really sealed the deal.

 

VS

Tutankham

This was a really fun arcade maze game.  The explorer could move in four directions but only fire right and left.  Fun often arises from restrictions.  I never noticed at the time that they had screwed up the name of the game, apparently Tutankhamen was too long to fit on the cabinet.  This game was about getting the keys to open the doors and advance long before that formula had every last bit of potential wrung from it's dry and lifeless husk.
Great Game.

Track and Field

It was hard for me to decide which platform to address first on Track and Field.  I've decided to talk about the arcade version.  The real draw of the arcade version was all the various kinds of cheats that could be perpetrated to get super fast button presses....the golf ball method, the plastic comb method, etc.
Great graphics style for its time.  Lots of challenge and competitive play.
Loved it.

Atari Basketball

Apparently they were serious.  This game really made the case for Intellivision.  The leg kick animation that I believe was supposed to simulate running was great in a Manos: Hands of Fate kind of so bad it's bad kind of way.  Somehow we were still able to play quite a bit of this. Further proof that PvP can elevate any kind of weak crap.

This is also a candidate for the greatest box art to gameplay graphics delta of all time, stark.

Breakout

The paddle controller for the 2600 is for Breakout.  Apparently there was an arcade version of this, but Breakout didn't mean anything to me in the arcade until Arkanoid hit.  However, Breakout was HUGE on the 2600.  This game is just fun...meditation in motion...a good Breakout groove is really satisfying. Loved it.

UFO!

The Odyssey also had a great asteroids clone. You will also notice that Magnavox overuses the exclamation point even more than I do!

(I couldn't come up with a good still image so we get a little video)
UFO video on some random site

K.C. Munchkin!

My grandma had the first game console I knew about. She called it an odyssey (Magnavox Odyssey 2) and she had some great games for it. One of the most fun was K.C. Munchkin! It was pretty much just a pac man clone, but it was far superior to the 2600 version. When we visited her I played this well after my regular bedtime.

Spy Hunter

Dun dun dah duh dah duh dah Dun....Is that the Peter Gunn theme or did they change it enough to pretend it's an original composition.  Who didn't want to pretend that they were in a James Bond car chase.  Apparently Midway used the Bond theme on the initial run of Spy Hunter but was never able to get the rights, so we got the music that really makes this game. The Weapons Van also added a bit of a Knight Rider flair as well.  This game had cool power-ups and a weight to the steering and collisions that really sold the action. Watch out for those 'copters.

Lunar Lander

A simple idea, but a brutally hard game for children with dire fiery astronaut ending consequences.  You get 900 fuel units for your quarter and the lives of the crew of the lunar lander in your hands.  I remember being fascinated by this game but never really finding it to be that fun.  More simulation than game, Lunar Lander is an early warning to game developers to pick fun over reality every time.

Adventure

I could literally play this game with my eyes closed. By sound alone I was able to complete each objective. I know that most often people say literally when they actually mean to say figuratively, but I mean literally. Up for the sword, down and to the right past the first quacking duck dragon and on to victory! If Adventure had been an mmorpg, I would have had 5 level 80's and been supplementing my comic money selling gold. Adventure also contained the first Easter egg that I knew about. By ingenious use of the bridge and the magnet a secret room could be entered. Inside this room was a text message from the developer and the first truly epic item! I of course refer to the Trans-molecular Speck. A tiny black pixel with almost limitless power. I don't clearly remember what it did but I'm pretty sure it was awesome. Did it allow clipping through all walls? I dunno but I loved it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The E.T. game always gets blamed for the crash, and I suppose this game is better but licensed games were not off to a great start all these years ago.  This game did recreate some cool moments from the film and it did have some insane puzzles and riveting parachute and grenade action.  The graphics in this could only be kindly described with the term abstract, and that would clearly be a stretch.  I loved Raiders and I wanted to love this game, but this is more Irina Spalko than Marion Ravenwood.

Spelunker

It's not really time for the NES, but this game has been on my mind.  So we are back in a mine here...I wonder when everything changed from being a mine to a warehouse full of crates and barrels?  A study must be commissioned!  This miner may appear to be a plumber.  You might imagine he can jump like a plumber.  You might suppose that he might be able to fall and survive like a plumber, but you would be wrong.  A one inch fall breaks this guy like Sam Jackson in the last reasonable movie from M. Night.  I know Mario, I have worked with Mario, You sir are no Mario.

Prince of Persia

Jordan Mechner made Karateka and then went on to create a certifiable classic, Prince of Persia.  We debated at length why the animation in PoP was so much better than everything else coming out at the time.  We compared it to the rotoscoped animation in Bakshi movies and that was a pretty good explanation.  With keyframes based on a series of photographs taken of Jordan's brother the little prince ran, climbed, jumped, and died with a fluid grace never before seen. While the trial and error game play could be frustrating the original Prince of Persia was an amazing gaming experience that is still being ported to new platforms today.

Lode Runner

I know that gaming has been stigmatized as a solitary activity, but in the late 70's and early 80's you had to get out and about and meet some people if you wanted to play everything.  George C. had Lode Runner so he was on the circuit.  Was this another game set in a mine?  With lots of ladders to climb and lots of holes to dig for hapless AI miners to fall in Lode Runner was an action puzzler that had lots of levels and lots of challenge.  And it was a good chance to go see George C.

Karateka

This game was brutally hard. A predecessor to brawlers to follow, our hero walked or ran to the right and stopped to fight.  Getting hit while running was instant defeat.  The evil eagle was a classic antagonist.  The animation in this game was a standout amongst its peers.

Pitfall

I saw Pitfall the first time in an appliance store just off the square.  It was a beautiful game for the console hardware of the time with good animation, tight control, and enough challenge to keep it interesting.  I was wild for Indiana Jones and I was wild for Pitfall.  I gathered the Treasures of Enarc (Pitfall was developed by David Crane, get it Enarc cranE) while running to the right, jumping on crocs, swinging on vines, and spelunking through caves for hours.

Huck's Trilogy: Part 3

Light Cycles Turning
Cone, Tower, Tanks, and Grid Bugs
Flynn Kills M.C.P.

Huck's Trilogy: Part 2

Isometric View
Altitude Represented
Plane Battles Dragon

Huck's Trilogy: Part 1

Plumber, Girl, Hammer
Barrell Rolls Down The Girder
Gorilla Escape

Intellivision Major League Baseball

The finest sports game of it's generation. <--note the period

Intellivision Sea Battle

Let the hunt for "The 3 black pixel october" begin!  From the wild controller to games with more depth and sophistication than the norm coming out on the 2600 the intellivision had a lot going for it.  One of those games was Sea Battle.  The first thing I ever played that could be reasonably argued as a computer strategy game was Sea Battle.  Place your fleet and then slowly meander around the map seeking the enemy.  A very fun game, that I played until the kid that had it went to juvie.

Slot Racers

Slot Racers was incredibly fun.  Part Combat, part Pac man, part Bomberman, All awesome.  I'm sure we couldn't go back but it was great at the time.  The varied speed and behavior of the missiles is where the fun really came in.  This would have probably been pretty lame as a single player game, but it was two player only and that insured that the enemy AI was reasonably good.  I think the Landon boys were pretty fierce at this one.

 Which ones are the cars and which ones are the missiles?
And in the words of the immortal Harold W "God wants you to PRAY.....before sports".

River Raid

This game was lots of fun...and that river went on FOREVER.  I'm told that it generated the map algorithmically based on the same seed to a random number generator each time to make it consistent, that's just cool.  Not to be confused with Raid on Bungeling Bay, the first game by Will Wright.  I know not to do that because I have done so in the past, like 5 minutes ago.

Yar's Revenge

I'm pretty sure that we played this over at A Young's house first.  I remember thinking that the game was really fun but must be kind of broken because of its general insanity of presentation.  I see claims about the web that that this was atari's best selling game on the 2600.  Apparently the hippies were starting to get into games.

Video Olympics

Drawn from the Dave remembered it and I didn't know what it was called until he told me file is Video Olympics.  Did you not get enough pong thinly disguised as about 10 other sports?  This mini game collection from the distant past stretched the ball and paddle idea put forth just about as far as it could go.  The box art claims 50 games, dubious.

H.E.R.O.

I think it's time to really start delving into the 2600, but I'm going to skip ahead to the year of the crash for a second and talk about a game that never got the love it deserved. It is hard to count the hours that have spent mining, saving miners, and in other mine related activities in the history of gaming. Suffice to say the number is large.  H.E.R.O. is some of those finest hours. Helicopter backpack, laser, and a limited supply of dynamite in a pitfall perfected multi directional scrolling environment with great control and great action.  The foundations of the gameplay that would make metroid great are being expanded right here.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Obsession thy name is Wizardry.  Arguably I am still playing this evil bastard of a game and with some of the same guys.  Raid time is 9pm server time.  Ok V we are finally going to take Werdna DOWN!

(Wait?!?! this guy had a toon named Legolas too?!?!? What the hell are the odds!?!?!?)

Outlaw

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, in this case I'd say maybe seven words. Two cowboys with guns and a cactus.  This is the screen image that has most defied my recollection of what this game was like.  It is pretty hard to imagine how I ever thought this was ok.

Star Wars

This is a game that other classic games that are called classics by other classic games call a classic.  In the genre of vector graphic simulations this game is the seventh son of a seventh son.  Battle twin ion engined fighters in space and skim along the surface of "that's not a moon" in the trench run.  This game has helped us all stay on target.

Battlezone

From it's funky smelling periscope viewer to it's custom tank controls, battlezone provided an authentic martian wireframe infinite salt flat window shattering tank and grounded ufo combat simulation.  The pacing of this game really provided an exciting experience as enemy tanks slowly turned their cannons to bear and as the ufo raced across the ground to grab your next quarter.