The Disappointments

by **Dunjohn** on Sun May 18, 2008 11:50 am

I was just re-reading the Top 25 Atari 2600 Games rundown in Issue 46 and one thing struck me; Entry #15, Ms. Pac-Man, begins "After the mess that was Pac-Man on the 2600...," while number twelve, Defender II's, begins "After the bitter disappointment that was 2600 Defender...."

I'd like to hear more about games like this. Not as individual Retro Shamers, but just a thing about the major disappointing games that were released. I'm not entirely sure what I mean, though; the woeful conversions of major arcade games, or the terrible games that spawned excellent sequels (there's one on the Top 25 Racing Games rundown, I forget which one), or the excellent games that spawned terrible sequels. Not all-round crap like E.T., just games that really should have been much better.

Anybody else interested in something like that? Anybody even understand me?

Am I even in the right forum? This feels like a Feedback thread but the description for this place says it belongs here.

by **paranoid marvin** on Sun May 18, 2008 11:58 am

Defender on the 2600 wasn't too bad

When you consider that an arcade game with about 7 buttons came to a 1k machine with only 1 , the conversion really is as good as could be expected

by **TMR** on Sun May 18, 2008 12:07 pm

paranoid marvin wrote:Defender on the 2600 wasn't too bad

When you consider that an arcade game with about 7 buttons came to a 1k machine with only 1

Not disagreeing or anything and just sticking my oar in for the sake of accuracy; the 2600 is a 4K machine... =-)

by **Mayhem** on Sun May 18, 2008 1:00 pm

Well, a 4K machine until you start bankswitching

(but yeah only a 4K block at any moment)

Speaking to Todd Frye at one CGE gave interesting insight into the production and fallout from Pac-man. The game sold an absolute shedload regardless (which is probably why Atari refused his request to make it an 8K game), and Frye personally stated he had many correspondance regarding how great the game was to play.

Think about that for a moment. People out there did love the Pac-man conversion. They may not have known better but they loved the game. In the context of history and hindsight, it's really just us videogame freaks that are the ones making the ruckus regarding its authenticity. The general public out there didn't seem to care as much either way on this matter.

Plus the tools he had available at the time were nothing compared to the knowledge today. Someone has remade Pac-man in 4K for the 2600 and it's quite excellent. Now if THAT version had been the one to be released back then, who knows what the outcome could have been...

by **TMR** on Sun May 18, 2008 1:56 pm

Mayhem wrote:Well, a 4K machine until you start bankswitching

(but yeah only a 4K block at any moment)

Which is how most programmers would see the thing... and bank switching is a pain in the bloody bum! =-)

by **merman** on Sun May 18, 2008 7:33 pm

As Howard Scott Warhsaw points out in the latest gamesTM (#70), ET still sold over a million... the fact Atari needed to sell approximately SEVEN MILLION to break even is neither here nor there.

I think Retro Shamer is enough to highlight bad games... although a one-off "Don't Believe The Hype" article might be quite fun...

by **paranoid marvin** on Sun May 18, 2008 7:51 pm

How were Atari ever going to sell 7 MILLION copies?
Were there even that number of machines?

by **Mayhem** on Mon May 19, 2008 1:23 am

At the time I believe yes, but it would have been a huge majority of the total machines out there (like 80-90% of them).

by **CornerUnitSofa** on Mon May 19, 2008 6:44 am

Deus Ex 2
The Great Space Race
Driv3r

...as far as games which were expected to be great, but were most certainly not, go.

by **Bub&Bob** on Tue May 20, 2008 10:37 am

Lego Star Was DS - coded by a limb-less deaf, dumb and blind monkey I believe.

by **EvilArmourKing** on Wed May 21, 2008 1:47 pm

Surely another contender is Rise of the Robots!

The game was hyped like NOTHING else around at the time.

I also remember after it's release going to work everyday and seeing one wall dedicated to all the reviews that could be found. It may have hurt the company, but none of us could stop laughing when management were not around.

Happy Times :lol:

by **sirclive1** on Wed May 21, 2008 2:48 pm

World cup carnival - shockingly bad.

by **SirClive** on Wed May 21, 2008 4:48 pm

I don't mind that game you know. Its not the worst football game ever. A terrible rip off cash-in though.

by **mohicankid** on Wed May 21, 2008 5:01 pm

merman wrote:As Howard Scott Warhsaw points out in the latest gamesTM (#70), ET still sold over a million... the fact Atari needed to sell approximately SEVEN MILLION to break even is neither here nor there.

I think Retro Shamer is enough to highlight bad games... although a one-off "Don't Believe The Hype" article might be quite fun...

i don't know the exact details but i remember a good while ago reading about a landfill site full of et games for the 2600....dose anyone know any more about this?

by **Dunjohn** on Wed May 21, 2008 6:51 pm

mohicankid wrote:
merman wrote:As Howard Scott Warhsaw points out in the latest gamesTM (#70), ET still sold over a million... the fact Atari needed to sell approximately SEVEN MILLION to break even is neither here nor there.

I think Retro Shamer is enough to highlight bad games... although a one-off "Don't Believe The Hype" article might be quite fun...

i don't know the exact details but i remember a good while ago reading about a landfill site full of et games for the 2600....dose anyone know any more about this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial

The Disappointments

The Disappointments

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