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Classic Arcade To Atari 2600 Conversions Rated

Posted by simoniker on from the good-the-bad-and-the-ugly dept.

Thanks to PeekNPoke for its reviews of the best and worst of classic arcade game conversions on the Atari 2600. The piece looks at which early '80s conversions came off well, and notes Missile Command as one of the best ("Plays even better than the game it tries to emulate, and works very well with the standard joystick"), and Pac Man as less promising ("Usually voted as one of the worst arcade conversions on any system ever, and it is not hard to see why.") Which arcade conversions were you eagerly awaiting, only to find them ruined by classic hardware restrictions?

6 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. yay for pac-man by gasgesgos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know the Atari 2600 pac-man game was pretty bad, I owned it at one point.

    Unfortunately, classic arcade game to home conversions still leave something to be desired. I recently purchased Midway Arcade Treasures, and the steering on some of the games is incredibly touchy... Although I can't really complain when I get 24 great games for $25... (I recommend it! An awesome bundle of games, even supports more than 2 players in the games that originally did!)

    On a more nostalgic note... One of my fonder memories of my Sega Genesis was of the version of Ms Pac-Man available for it. It had all sorts of strange mazes, along with an editor! I wish the Pac-Man Collection for GBA would've had something like that instead of Pac-Attack... Pac-Attack is like Tetris meets Puyo Puyo meets a fresh pile of puppy crap. (although the puzzle mode is kind of enjoyable)

  2. Test Drive by Larry+David · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think it was Test Drive. It was always excellent at the arcades. Basically you start off, and you have two roads to choose from, straight on for a really basic course, and take a slip road on the right for the 'stunt' course.

    When this game made it to consoles, it totally blew. Not just because you had no wheel, but because the graphics were insanely poor.

    As an aside, I'm actually amazed they thought ANY games were good on the Atari 2600. You had to have a serious power of imagination to play ANY game on that thing... :-) Are those three green blocks a tree? Ah, yes...

    1. Re:Test Drive by kisrael · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As an aside, I'm actually amazed they thought ANY games were good on the Atari 2600. You had to have a serious power of imagination to play ANY game on that thing... :-) Are those three green blocks a tree? Ah, yes...

      Nah, some of the games were pretty visually impressive, all things considered. Just browse through the screenshots at...very few block based games...Adventure comes to mind, but that was such a good game in other ways. (And the dragons are ducks, not squares...)

      Overall, my favorite arcade-to-2600 conversion, better than the original, is Battlezone...very pretty looking, they switched to a behind the tank view (the treads move realistically as you go and turn), and though they had to remove the random shapes littering the landscape, they made it so you fight two tanks at once. (Much better 3D model than Robot Tank...in Battlezone you can hear a shot fired offscreen, throw it into reverse, and watch the bullet pass harmlessly in front of you...)

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  3. ColecoVision by molafson · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even back in the day, it was obvious to this youngster that if you wanted decent arcade conversions, you needed a ColecoVision. I mean, for arcade games that were brought to the two systems, compare the quality, e.g.

    -Donkey Kong
    -Frogger
    -Q*Bert
    -Burgertime.

    These were all huge titles that looked and played great on Coleco. However, the 2600 renditions are a sad thing to behold. Check out these screen shots of 2600 Burgertime vs. Coleco Burgertime.

    1. Re:ColecoVision by molafson · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Further to my last post, check out these screenshots.

      Arcade Zaxxon
      ColecoVision Zaxxon
      Atari 2600 Zaxxon

  4. Pac-Man by Ondo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    only to find them ruined by classic hardware restrictions?

    Actually, I believe someone demonstrated that the Atari 2600 hardware was capable of running an perfect port of the arcade version of Pac-Man by writing one for it. The problem was with the original programmers, not the hardware.