Time Pilot

Having seen many a horrible port onto the 2600, the ports on the ColecoVision looked like gifts from all-father Odin himself.  Time Pilot was no exception.  This game was awesome.  It preserved the multi-screen scrolling and time traveling stages of the arcade version with a visual fidelity that really impressed.  There is not a ton of complexity or depth to the action and some of the challenge came from weakness in the controls, BUT Time Pilot kept us coming back for more.

Venture

Venture took AdVenture up a notch.  The colecovision had screaming hardware, hardware that seemed indistinguishable from arcade hardware to my young eyes, and Venture was a great port on the system.  I believe I heard about Venture from the same sortie that first brought back word of Dig Dug.  Venture included elements of Adventure, multiple enemies of an early Roguelike, and Berzerk and was an absolute blast to play and a blast to talk about. LOVED IT.

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

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.

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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.

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.

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".

Combat

The purest PvP experience in the history of video games.  At some point Grant got a 2600 and everyone would crowd into his room and later his basement for the most local of all local area networks.  Tanks, Jets, and Biplanes were locked in perpetual war.  Pure competition, pure aggression, pure combat.