All I can remember about E.T. is you could walk in the 4 cardinal directions and solve stupid puzzles in the instruction manual. I bought for less than 3 bucks at a drugstore. Many worse, of that I am sure. There was some real GARBAGE on 2600 but a lot had E.T. Great movie, s@@@ game.👽🛸🤘
I can't say I was familiar with the game, but when I saw the title and box art my first thought is "What the hell is this? Some kind of 2600 game like Night Trap or something?" I realize that's not really "adult" but that was my assumption of what it was going to be. (Then again who would guess "virtual hide and seek" anyway)
Funny. The opening shot was a house I thought you'd Sneak 'n' Peek inside! After reading your comment, I looked at it again, and you're right, his hand is a little low.
Nice video. I totally agree with your list of bad Atari games. But there's at least one game that is known to be very bad and that I love a lot. And that's ET. I actually enjoy that game and play it regularly.
Mr. Do's Castle was a great arcade game. There are some 2600 games that I really like: Battlezone, Boing!, Jr. Pacman, Pole Position, Tapper, Carnival, and Berzerk. Honorable mentions: Haunted House, Adventure, Pitfall 2, and Ms. Pacman.
@@KC9UDX I don't dislike Pitfall 2. I have only played it a little. My biggest problem with Pitfall is that I don't think that it is that interesting of a game. You have to time some jumps to be pixel perfect and this gets frustrating, making it difficult to complete the game, and the game overall is pretty repetitive. I assumed that Pitfall 2 would have some of the same problems, while also assuming that it would be an improvement. What little I saw I liked so I included it on this list. I need to play it more.
@@john2001plus I've only played it on Commodore 64. Frankly, it's always been one of my favourite games. Original Pitfall (only played on 2600 and Intellivision) has always irritated me because the map is nonsensical. It turns out that it is contiguous, which back when I played it, I didn't realise. But the reason I didn't realise it is the silly fact that the top and bottom are in fact two different contiguous maps. The two don't align, and that drives me insane.
Double Dragon on the Atari 2600 is a perfect example of this one quote from Jurassic Park: "They Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should."
For me the truly underwhelming games were: E.T.; Pac Man; Canyon Bomber; and Spectravision’s Hogan’s Alley and Master Builder. If Xonox’s double ender carts would’ve been better developed, they would’ve been excellent instead of tolerable.
Pac-man on the 2600 was the very definition of disappointment. I remember wondering why he was square when I first played it thirty-something years. I might've been three years old at the time. It was just a terrible port. Even the cover art was a poor "Americanized" airbrush job, completely abandoning the stylish graphic designs of the original Namco art. Luckily Ms. Pac was orders of magnitude better.
Probably the worst one I actually had back in the 2600's day was Home Run, the first Atari baseball game (I had the Sears version, called "Baseball"). That was *the* cartridge most often used in Intellivision ads to demonstrate how much worse Atari's games were, since the Intellivision baseball game was much better-looking. And even so, I did have some fun playing Baseball--they got a lot worse than that. I remember being fascinated by the catalog entries for Star Ship (a first-person space game? Wow!), but I never had the cartridge. Many years later, through the magic of emulation, I eventually did play it and learned it was pretty bad. I had the 2600 Donkey Kong, which got a lot of flak for looking worse than other versions, but really for a 2600 arcade port that was not too bad.
Disagree on Space Jockey. I think the reason you can shoot trees and houses is because you're actually playing a invader from space attacking earth. It controls fairly smooth too. Has different game variations too. I like it and there is much worse games on 2600. To each their own i guess. I think ET, and Bugs is much worse.
@@johnhancockretro ok. I know its not the best game, but worse is out there like ET and Bugs. Nice video John. Hope you and your family are doing well and are safe.
I wish I could go back in time. I would have collected NES, SNES, Genesis, etc when they were on sale in rental stores. You were a smart man Mr. Hancock. That's why you are Immortal!
I feel bad for Atari forcing Nintendo to censor games by third parties. It's no wonder gamers got impatient with video games released on consoles until Nintendo invented the NES. Nintendo didn't want to associate with Atari, so all this crazy censorship was out of concerns with offending the American video game industry.
I’m currently in love with the Sega SG-1000 version of Galaga. Something about the colors and movements is really enjoyable to me. I’m playing it on my Wii with a Master System emulator.
Two of my favorite TH-camrs in one video! A+. Willie and John Hancock, that you for doing this. I'd say the Swordquest games are the most terrible. Mostly because they were so hyped.
Most on the 2 Atari comps for ps4 etc are 2 minute wonders at best that you'd never go back to. Nostalgia is all well and good but it only stretches so far.
@@hazy33 I guess you'd have had to have been around during the 2600's heyday. I still play games on my real 2600 here and there. Though my favorite Pre-NES system is the commodore 64.
I used to think there were no bad games. Then I played some totally terrible crap my friends had uncovered and I realised I’d just been insulated thanks to magazines and reviews. Some of these look atrocious!
@@maxxdahl6062 I preferred the action games that were more straightforward to understand on the console. Watching others play has helped me understand a few better.
Haven't played any of these but watched the video out of curiosity. I could tell John's reaction to that one was... "Really?" before I saw your comment!
I agree with your selection of games there. The only one I give a pass is Mr. Do's Castle because it looks and sounds good and I have learned how to position Mr. Do to drop the blocks. :) I only own one Mythicon game, Star Fox. I remember paying $5 for it. My sister and I enjoyed. We got the $5 out of it! LOL
I never played any 2600 games. I seen there was a collection on the Switch though. You guys are making me wanna pick it up just to see how bad these games really are. And also wanna check out the good ones.
10:44 when I lived in California in the early 80sI remember the stores, even some grocery stores having isles and isles of tables with 2600 systems and games on them, most games for well under $1 (many for only 25 cents), and systems for around $5.
Wow, I grew up with the Atari 2600 and never heard of half of these games on the list. My pick for bad 2600 games would be anything in the "Real Sports" series, especially football with vaguely human-shaped blobs running into each other. Tempest is pretty unplayable too.
I got an Atari 2600 for Christmas from my grandma back in 1980 and have loved it ever since. I have to admit that there are quite a few games for it that aren't fantastic. Some are just ok. A few are just terrible. I think in Space Jockey, you are supposed to be the alien invading Earth. I haven't read the manual yet, so I'm not sure. It's an early example of getting to be the 'bad guys' like Dungeons for the PC later on. Yes, I agree. Sometimes, games are so bad they are funny and you can riff on them kind of like riffing on bad movies MST3K style. Other games are just so bad that they aren't even funny. It's a shame about Mr. Do's Castle because it is a great game when it is ported well on other systems. King Kong is like a really bad mashup of Donkey Kong and Kangaroo, both are much better. Most Atari 2600 games have cool boxes that make you want to try the game. Some are outright artwork that you want to put on a shelf. Not Sneak and Peek. It's awful in every way. I forgot about Firefly flipping you off when you lost. Amazing that they got away with that back then. There really wasn't much quality assurance testing going on at all in those days. No wonder Nintendo came out with their 'Seal of Approval' for the NES games. Not that all of the games that got the seal were anywhere near perfect, but I'm pretty sure none of them had characters giving you the 'bird'. :) Atari Starfox is not to be confused with Nintendo Starfox that's for sure. Atari's Starfox is not a very good game. I have a Hyperkin Retron77, so I can play almost every Atari 2600 game, even PAL and prototypes, with the microSD card loaded up with bin files from AtariMania. I still love finding games on cartridge that I never got as a kid. I think I'll avoid buying the ones featured in this video on cartridge though. I have thirty Atari 2600 games, twenty of which were ones given to me as a kid in the 80's when the Atari 2600 was a new system. I somehow lucked out on not being given all of the games mentioned in this video and have only experienced most of them thanks to AtariMania's website. I do have Sneak and Peek though. You are so right. It is pretty awful. Not even one of those games that is fun to riff on. I do have a few on cartridge that I consider to be pretty bad games though. I won't list ones that I'm just bad at because I don't have the world's fastest reflexes so there are even very good games that I struggle with. I'll stick to games that I consider to be poorly made. Maybe not quite as terrible as the 'gems' mentioned in the video, but ones that I wouldn't buy from a shop or website today if I didn't already have them: Sneak and Peek, Adventure, Wizard of Wor, Night Driver and Venture. You described what is wrong with Sneak and Peek very well in the video. I'm surprised that my grandparents got me this game. I guess they figured it ought to be a way for me to play hide and seek when I wasn't on the grade school playground. I didn't enjoy it as a kid and still don't. Night Driver is one that we got thinking that it would be like the driving games in the arcade. It is not. Either the cars in the game have very faint headlights or you are driving in nearly pea soup thick fog because you really can't see much. The road is crazily curved too with sudden turns that are really hard to prepare for, especially if your paddle controller is a bit wonky. Were there any original Atari 2600 paddles that weren't wonky? :) I think my family got me Adventure, Venture and Wizard of Wor because they knew I loved reading European Medieval fairy tales and fantasy stories as a kid and still do. I realize that the 2600 has limitations, and I have a pretty active imagination, but dang is it hard to tell what you are supposed to be doing in these games. Especially in Adventure where almost nothing looks anything like what it is supposed to be. I have tried to play all three of them at least once a year since I got them back in the 80's and I have yet to win any of them. I did finally figure out what I'm supposed to be doing a little bit in Venture, but what ruins that game for me is how you can't get very far without being attacked by the almost godlike Hallmonster that can swoop in and get you whenever you manage to grab a treasure or linger too long in a spot. If there is a way to avoid or defeat Hallmonster, I haven't figured it out yet. I really don't like it when a game has an undefeatable or unavoidable enemy. Just not fun. Evil Otto almost ruins Berserk except it is enough fun to try to outsmart the other enemies in the game that I can put up with Otto ending the game for me. Venture just isn't enough fun for me to put up with Hallmonster. I can't figure out how to even start getting anywhere in Wizard of Wor. My character just stands there and gets hit by enemies no matter what I do. Maybe I'm incapable of pulling off the trick of controlling him. I don't know. Very fun video to watch. I really enjoy reviews of bad games. They are more entertaining sometimes than reviews of good games.
There are alot of games on the 2600 that lacked in areas. I have so many systems one day I went thru them and played the same games on the systems as technology upgraded obviously the games did as well but keep in mind they only had so much to work with at the time. I was lmao when I started out playing Ice hockey on the 2600 and compared it on the systems up to Xbox 360, it began with a player and a goalie stick figures on 2600 with just shoot to real life looking players that can do just about anything you can playing real hockey. Love the videos keep up the great work!
For me, the one that really disppointed me was the 2600 version of Zaxxon, but then again, I was probably too spoiled on the arcade version to really like this version at all.
I remember playing it on a Coleco at a friend's house and enjoyed the game alot. A year or 2 after, I saw Zaxxon on Atari at a shop and finally decided to buy it with my hard earned money (30$). When I started the game, my jaw dropped...omg worst 30$ spent ever.
Fathom from Imagic. This was the last 2600 cartridge I ever purchased in 1984 for my colecovision expansion module #1. I played this game, which makes absolutely no sense. I couldn't get anywhere even though I had the instruction booklet that sort of worked as a guide. For a 2600 title, it was pretty and very responsive controls. But, what at in the heck do you do? How do you complete anything? Also, Demons to Diamonds by Atari. This game was just dumb. I got bored of this 25 dollar game quickly. After this, I only bought 2600 games at flea markets.
I can't argue with any of these. Mr. Do's Castle especially made me feel like a dog peed on my leg. My personal least favorite would probably be Custer's Revenge. I also loathed E.T., Laser Blast, 3D Tic Tac Toe, Basic Programming, Home Run and Flag Capture. Any other "adult" game or one based on a horror film was usually really bad.
Despite it being a good looking game and an Activision game, at that!.... Laser Blast was a bore of a game. It seemed good, at first... and then when you play it for a bit, you learn the pattern and you discover the game is the same rote shooting of three tanks/cannons on the ground from your flying saucer. Over and over and over. I could get into a groove in that game where I would lie back with my eyes closed and clear level after level because I got the pattern down. Uber-dull game... despite its pedigree and nice graphics and sound. Prettiest, bad Atari game there is. I still love ya, David Crane!
I remember there was what they called a "Driving Game" for the Atari 2600 by Coleco or Activision...I can't remember. I do remember that it was nothing more than blocks coming down from the top of the screen and you had to dodge them with your block. It was absolutely awful!!
OMG!! yeah Double Dragon was one of those Grandma birthday games for me, as she did not know the difference between Atari, Intellivision, or Nintendo at the time, and some guy behind the electronics counter at Rose's Department Store conned her into buying the 2600 version, as I'm sure they had a glut of Atari games in their backroom at the time, and my mother gave me the angry look when I opened it like you best be thankful, so I just gave a fake smile, and said thanks grandma. I still have the cart, but the box, and manual are long gone(Thanks mom). Thankfully my dad got me Double Dragon on the NES for Christmas that year.
My buddy and I found Sorcerer in a bargain bin around '84 for a buck or two. I can't remember which of us paid for it, but somehow I ended up with it. Still have it. It's absolutely terrible yet somehow, I still come back to it every once in a while...maybe it's just to hear that nerve-grating music.
Willie should have been like, "uhhh...Air Raid, Pepsi Invaders, Gauntlet, Birthday Mania, Red Sea Crossing, and Video Life were all awful..." (Waits in anticipation for box reveals).
Atari is one of the systems where I even like the bad games. I’ve had an Atari since a kid in the mid 90s and always found it a fascination from a bygone era, the good and the bad. Newer consoles I get angrier at bad games because they should’ve and even could’ve done better.
John, Willie, there are bound to be other really bad 2600 games; why not consider doing a second installment? "10 MORE Bad Atari 2600 Games You Should Avoid" is possible, given the vast glut of low quality games that acted as one of the causes of the video game market crash (1984).
I loved Space Jockey back then. You shouldn't judge 2600 games because of them being repetitive, most would fail that test. The way I played Atari back then was to pile up a stack of favorites and play them for about five or ten minutes then swap out another cart.
Sneak n Peek looks like an adult game that was changed at the last minute. Too bad the developers forgot to remove a few pixels from the side facing sprites.
I actually like Fire Fly. The music was pretty cool even though it repeated and it was the game that made my dad cringe when he heard it LOL. So play a fun game, drive my dad crazy.. total win. A game you left off was Fun with numbers. It was math flashcards and thats it.. thats not a game or fun LOL. I would also put the original Atari Golf on the list as a sleeper for bad games.
Laser blast is repetitive and boring but I find it a good title to just get into a total Zen state with, because you can almost play indefinitely when you get a rhythm down.
There was a game that was in a maze. I think it was called Wizard of Wor. I never could figure out the 2600 version. I played it later on an emulator site and it mustve been a better version because the graphics were better and I could actually make my character move. Another one is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Its such a bad game because it gets your hopes up. The box looks great with the movie poster on there. The great theme music plays when you start the game. But then thats it. I still cant make Indy do anything and Ive read the book, looked up walk throughs, and watched videos on it. The secret of making anything happen still eludes me. For me, Pitfall 2 is the closest thing to an Indy game on the 2600. I know this next one is supposed to be a classic and not liking it is like hating The Day The Earth Stood Still or something, but I say Adventure is a bad game. I have a vivid imagination but I cant tell where I am, what things are without looking at the book, nor how to use the inventory. I sold my childhood copy of it a while ago to someone who was glad to get a complete game of it and he was baffled that I was glad to be rid of it. Dark Caverns and Dragonfire are much better games for scratching that fantasy quest itch with.
E.T isn't actually the #1 worst game, there are plenty of Atari games that even put the E.T game to shame, not defending it, but im giving it a fair stance to stand on for comparisons
The Donkey Kong & DK Jr. ports for the 2600 were awful. That system did NOT do sports games very well, either. Also, I know it's trite to mention this title but, ET... Yeah... That game definitely needed more development time. The game we got at retail was an Alpha Stage build at best.
OHHH... Pac kong. I got pac kong as a kid and it was SOOOO bad. It has bad physics and the song was out of tune but the worst part was I had a NTSC atari 7800 and the screen was unstable since it was a PAL only game; I was very sad.
Haven’t played 2600 Double Dragon but for late releases with NES alternatives Kung Fu (Master) is actually good, better on NES obviously, but Activision did a great job on the 2600 port.
Activision is my favourite games company for the 2600 but an early title 'boxing' has got to be the worst title of theirs I have played, equal to double dragon :)
I have never liked the Atari 2600 and despite some nostalgia for it, I still can’t find a soft spot for it. Colecovision was the much better alternative.
John, I’m really enjoying the interview/discussion format of your recent videos. Keep up the great work.
Thank you very much!
@@johnhancockretro look forward to seeing who is next. Retro Bird has a nice channel worthy of this.
@@johnhancockretro hey John can I ask you a question that anybody can answer but nobody on TH-cam does?
I love how John tried to act all surprised at Willie’s picks yet had all Willie’s picks right next to him ready to show to the camera. LOL
Some people think ET is bad, but when they say that I assume they haven't seen the Atari football game (1978)
I almost chose football.
I kinda liked it.🏈
I played a lot of Pac-Man 2600 as a kid, I never knew it was bad until years later lol.
There were many worse games than ET. I think ET gets much more attention because there were such high expectations for the game.
All I can remember about E.T. is you could walk in the 4 cardinal directions and solve stupid puzzles in the instruction manual. I bought for less than 3 bucks at a drugstore. Many worse, of that I am sure. There was some real GARBAGE on 2600 but a lot had E.T. Great movie, s@@@ game.👽🛸🤘
Two of the nicest, most normal and honest good guys in the "retro-gaming" community. ..
Thank you!
Thanks :)
Add Metal Jesus and you've got the trio
Most definitely.
@@Miakel Also Sega Lord X.
This is incredibly wholesome :)
Consider me very subscribed, thanks for sharing this with us
I totally thought Sneak n Peek was an adult title too. Look at the sprite, dude has a little rager while he's walkin around.
Yeah what is it supposed to be I'm confused😅
I can't say I was familiar with the game, but when I saw the title and box art my first thought is "What the hell is this? Some kind of 2600 game like Night Trap or something?" I realize that's not really "adult" but that was my assumption of what it was going to be. (Then again who would guess "virtual hide and seek" anyway)
Funny. The opening shot was a house I thought you'd Sneak 'n' Peek inside! After reading your comment, I looked at it again, and you're right, his hand is a little low.
Yeah, Im trying to figure out what it else could be but Im drawing blanks. Dudes got a boner. Case closed.
That's his arms dude
My 2 worst Atari 2600 games ever were ET and Raiders of the Lost Arc. What do you think of them ? Thanks.
Nice video. I totally agree with your list of bad Atari games. But there's at least one game that is known to be very bad and that I love a lot. And that's ET. I actually enjoy that game and play it regularly.
Mr. Do's Castle was a great arcade game.
There are some 2600 games that I really like: Battlezone, Boing!, Jr. Pacman, Pole Position, Tapper, Carnival, and Berzerk. Honorable mentions: Haunted House, Adventure, Pitfall 2, and Ms. Pacman.
What don't you like about Pitfall 2? (I've never played it for 2600 but I thought it was the same as other platforms)
@@KC9UDX I don't dislike Pitfall 2. I have only played it a little. My biggest problem with Pitfall is that I don't think that it is that interesting of a game. You have to time some jumps to be pixel perfect and this gets frustrating, making it difficult to complete the game, and the game overall is pretty repetitive. I assumed that Pitfall 2 would have some of the same problems, while also assuming that it would be an improvement. What little I saw I liked so I included it on this list. I need to play it more.
@@john2001plus I've only played it on Commodore 64. Frankly, it's always been one of my favourite games. Original Pitfall (only played on 2600 and Intellivision) has always irritated me because the map is nonsensical. It turns out that it is contiguous, which back when I played it, I didn't realise. But the reason I didn't realise it is the silly fact that the top and bottom are in fact two different contiguous maps. The two don't align, and that drives me insane.
@@KC9UDX actually the 5200 version has a whole other level after you rescue Quickclaw which was the end of the 2600 version..
@@jamespaterson503 interesting! I'll have to check that out. Thanks
Double Dragon on the Atari 2600 is a perfect example of this one quote from Jurassic Park: "They Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should."
great points about Parker Brothers on the 2600. I was a massive Reactor fan
A very under appreciated game
Yes, Reactor was awesome! Also one of my favorites back in the day.
For me the truly underwhelming games were: E.T.; Pac Man; Canyon Bomber; and Spectravision’s Hogan’s Alley and Master Builder. If Xonox’s double ender carts would’ve been better developed, they would’ve been excellent instead of tolerable.
You mean Spectravision’s Gangster Alley
Good video! Nice comparison of the not so good games for the Atari 2600! Hope to see more videos like this!
Pac-man on the 2600 was the very definition of disappointment. I remember wondering why he was square when I first played it thirty-something years. I might've been three years old at the time. It was just a terrible port. Even the cover art was a poor "Americanized" airbrush job, completely abandoning the stylish graphic designs of the original Namco art. Luckily Ms. Pac was orders of magnitude better.
Yep. I went for other picks that have not been done to death already as I was limited to 5 :)
“Dishaster”: when I don’t do the dang dishes
dissing a bad game lol
I love these TH-camr cross-overs and I watch both of you all of the time . Willie is AWESOME !!!!
Do Erin plays she's hot
Probably the worst one I actually had back in the 2600's day was Home Run, the first Atari baseball game (I had the Sears version, called "Baseball"). That was *the* cartridge most often used in Intellivision ads to demonstrate how much worse Atari's games were, since the Intellivision baseball game was much better-looking. And even so, I did have some fun playing Baseball--they got a lot worse than that.
I remember being fascinated by the catalog entries for Star Ship (a first-person space game? Wow!), but I never had the cartridge. Many years later, through the magic of emulation, I eventually did play it and learned it was pretty bad.
I had the 2600 Donkey Kong, which got a lot of flak for looking worse than other versions, but really for a 2600 arcade port that was not too bad.
Such an amazing collab! Awesome top 10 video guys 😀
I really enjoy this video format wish you would do this again with arcade usa or even other gaming TH-camrs that would be awesome!
Disagree on Space Jockey. I think the reason you can shoot trees and houses is because you're actually playing a invader from space attacking earth. It controls fairly smooth too. Has different game variations too. I like it and there is much worse games on 2600. To each their own i guess. I think ET, and Bugs is much worse.
I think Willie commented to the grating sound the laser fire makes.
@@johnhancockretro ok. I know its not the best game, but worse is out there like ET and Bugs. Nice video John. Hope you and your family are doing well and are safe.
The recent Pooyan homebrew for the VIC-20 was far superior. If the 2600 version had been more like the VIC 20 , it would have been GREAT!!
I almost want to say Burger time for the Atari 2600, I find Peter Pepper moves too slow and some of the enemies look weird!
Almost picked that one.
Me to :p
This is awesome! Great one for Willie to be on :D
I wish I could go back in time. I would have collected NES, SNES, Genesis, etc when they were on sale in rental stores. You were a smart man Mr. Hancock. That's why you are Immortal!
Great to see you both together!
I feel bad for Atari forcing Nintendo to censor games by third parties. It's no wonder gamers got impatient with video games released on consoles until Nintendo invented the NES. Nintendo didn't want to associate with Atari, so all this crazy censorship was out of concerns with offending the American video game industry.
I’m currently in love with the Sega SG-1000 version of Galaga. Something about the colors and movements is really enjoyable to me. I’m playing it on my Wii with a Master System emulator.
Just bought an Atari yesterday can’t wait to hook it up
Two of my favorite TH-camrs in one video! A+. Willie and John Hancock, that you for doing this.
I'd say the Swordquest games are the most terrible. Mostly because they were so hyped.
True, was limited to 5 picks though :)
Basically anything not made by Atari, Activision or Imagic. lol
There are other companies that made some decent games. Parker Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and CBS Games made some good games.
@@johnhancockretro Good point.
Most on the 2 Atari comps for ps4 etc are 2 minute wonders at best that you'd never go back to. Nostalgia is all well and good but it only stretches so far.
@@hazy33 I guess you'd have had to have been around during the 2600's heyday. I still play games on my real 2600 here and there. Though my favorite Pre-NES system is the commodore 64.
@@maxxdahl6062 I was, and I agree on the c64.
Great video, addictive format, more please!
I used to think there were no bad games. Then I played some totally terrible crap my friends had uncovered and I realised I’d just been insulated thanks to magazines and reviews. Some of these look atrocious!
I can get over bad graphics, but bad gameplay is where I nope out.
maxx dahl it depends on how bad the graphics are. If I’m unable to tell what’s going on, I’m going to hate the game for its graphics.
@@GameHammerCG Agree, I have to understand what is going on at least. Centipede is a good example of a game that uses simple graphics that works.
@@GameHammerCG usually not a problem with Atari. As long as you have access to the game manuals.
@@maxxdahl6062 I preferred the action games that were more straightforward to understand on the console. Watching others play has helped me understand a few better.
Great video guys. I enjoy watching both of your channels. Keep up the good work and thank you.
My grandmother got me Karate as a gift because I was starting to train it when I was like 6 years old in the early 80s. I still have nightmares.
I have to really disagree about double dragon. Once you get the hang of the elbow smash, I find it pretty enjoyable and have beaten it several times.
Fire Fly is the worst game I have ever played. Even worse than each of the Swordquest games combined.
At least swordquest was moreso designed as a contest rather than a replayable game. Firefly is just trash.
I thought DK Jr was a pretty weak attempt to port an arcade game...
Although I did enjoy the DK port
I recently played that and agree about DK jr.
Great video guys! Love these discussions!
I agree with you on 9 of these, but Space Jockey is a fun game.
Haven't played any of these but watched the video out of curiosity. I could tell John's reaction to that one was... "Really?" before I saw your comment!
Starship ? Stellar Track ? "adult" games ! (you know the ones!)
I agree with your selection of games there. The only one I give a pass is Mr. Do's Castle because it looks and sounds good and I have learned how to position Mr. Do to drop the blocks. :) I only own one Mythicon game, Star Fox. I remember paying $5 for it. My sister and I enjoyed. We got the $5 out of it! LOL
Great video. Keep up the good work! :)
I never played any 2600 games. I seen there was a collection on the Switch though. You guys are making me wanna pick it up just to see how bad these games really are. And also wanna check out the good ones.
The best 2600 game is pitfall 2. The worst is ET but it has an actual ending.
10:44 when I lived in California in the early 80sI remember the stores, even some grocery stores having isles and isles of tables with 2600 systems and games on them, most games for well under $1 (many for only 25 cents), and systems for around $5.
I like your guest, cool dude!
Wow, I grew up with the Atari 2600 and never heard of half of these games on the list. My pick for bad 2600 games would be anything in the "Real Sports" series, especially football with vaguely human-shaped blobs running into each other. Tempest is pretty unplayable too.
Anytime you do Atari 2600 content I know I'm in for a good time John.
How about the 5200? The only reason it's bad cause of the controlers broke easy. But the games were really good.
IMO, Pac-Kong (AKA Spider Kong or Inca Gold) is worse than ET or 2600 Pac-Man.
I got an Atari 2600 for Christmas from my grandma back in 1980 and have loved it ever since. I have to admit that there are quite a few games for it that aren't fantastic. Some are just ok. A few are just terrible.
I think in Space Jockey, you are supposed to be the alien invading Earth. I haven't read the manual yet, so I'm not sure. It's an early example of getting to be the 'bad guys' like Dungeons for the PC later on.
Yes, I agree. Sometimes, games are so bad they are funny and you can riff on them kind of like riffing on bad movies MST3K style. Other games are just so bad that they aren't even funny.
It's a shame about Mr. Do's Castle because it is a great game when it is ported well on other systems.
King Kong is like a really bad mashup of Donkey Kong and Kangaroo, both are much better.
Most Atari 2600 games have cool boxes that make you want to try the game. Some are outright artwork that you want to put on a shelf. Not Sneak and Peek. It's awful in every way.
I forgot about Firefly flipping you off when you lost. Amazing that they got away with that back then. There really wasn't much quality assurance testing going on at all in those days. No wonder Nintendo came out with their 'Seal of Approval' for the NES games. Not that all of the games that got the seal were anywhere near perfect, but I'm pretty sure none of them had characters giving you the 'bird'. :)
Atari Starfox is not to be confused with Nintendo Starfox that's for sure. Atari's Starfox is not a very good game.
I have a Hyperkin Retron77, so I can play almost every Atari 2600 game, even PAL and prototypes, with the microSD card loaded up with bin files from AtariMania. I still love finding games on cartridge that I never got as a kid. I think I'll avoid buying the ones featured in this video on cartridge though.
I have thirty Atari 2600 games, twenty of which were ones given to me as a kid in the 80's when the Atari 2600 was a new system. I somehow lucked out on not being given all of the games mentioned in this video and have only experienced most of them thanks to AtariMania's website. I do have Sneak and Peek though. You are so right. It is pretty awful. Not even one of those games that is fun to riff on.
I do have a few on cartridge that I consider to be pretty bad games though. I won't list ones that I'm just bad at because I don't have the world's fastest reflexes so there are even very good games that I struggle with. I'll stick to games that I consider to be poorly made. Maybe not quite as terrible as the 'gems' mentioned in the video, but ones that I wouldn't buy from a shop or website today if I didn't already have them: Sneak and Peek, Adventure, Wizard of Wor, Night Driver and Venture.
You described what is wrong with Sneak and Peek very well in the video. I'm surprised that my grandparents got me this game. I guess they figured it ought to be a way for me to play hide and seek when I wasn't on the grade school playground. I didn't enjoy it as a kid and still don't.
Night Driver is one that we got thinking that it would be like the driving games in the arcade. It is not. Either the cars in the game have very faint headlights or you are driving in nearly pea soup thick fog because you really can't see much. The road is crazily curved too with sudden turns that are really hard to prepare for, especially if your paddle controller is a bit wonky. Were there any original Atari 2600 paddles that weren't wonky? :)
I think my family got me Adventure, Venture and Wizard of Wor because they knew I loved reading European Medieval fairy tales and fantasy stories as a kid and still do. I realize that the 2600 has limitations, and I have a pretty active imagination, but dang is it hard to tell what you are supposed to be doing in these games. Especially in Adventure where almost nothing looks anything like what it is supposed to be. I have tried to play all three of them at least once a year since I got them back in the 80's and I have yet to win any of them.
I did finally figure out what I'm supposed to be doing a little bit in Venture, but what ruins that game for me is how you can't get very far without being attacked by the almost godlike Hallmonster that can swoop in and get you whenever you manage to grab a treasure or linger too long in a spot. If there is a way to avoid or defeat Hallmonster, I haven't figured it out yet. I really don't like it when a game has an undefeatable or unavoidable enemy. Just not fun. Evil Otto almost ruins Berserk except it is enough fun to try to outsmart the other enemies in the game that I can put up with Otto ending the game for me. Venture just isn't enough fun for me to put up with Hallmonster.
I can't figure out how to even start getting anywhere in Wizard of Wor. My character just stands there and gets hit by enemies no matter what I do. Maybe I'm incapable of pulling off the trick of controlling him. I don't know.
Very fun video to watch. I really enjoy reviews of bad games. They are more entertaining sometimes than reviews of good games.
You are most welcome and Merry Christmas!
That Space Invader hat is awesome!
Willie is a national treasure. I don't think there's a better guest you can get!
There are alot of games on the 2600 that lacked in areas. I have so many systems one day I went thru them and played the same games on the systems as technology upgraded obviously the games did as well but keep in mind they only had so much to work with at the time. I was lmao when I started out playing Ice hockey on the 2600 and compared it on the systems up to Xbox 360, it began with a player and a goalie stick figures on 2600 with just shoot to real life looking players that can do just about anything you can playing real hockey. Love the videos keep up the great work!
Loves these chats with Willie, more please!
John Please do a comparison video with arcade ports between the Atari 2600 and commodore vic-20??
Keep up the great work
That overhead view boxing was kinda fun to see the nose smashed in
two of the nicest gamers ever :)
For me, the one that really disppointed me was the 2600 version of Zaxxon, but then again, I was probably too spoiled on the arcade version to really like this version at all.
Another bad one indeed.
Yes Zaxxon was pathetic. Lol
I remember playing it on a Coleco at a friend's house and enjoyed the game alot.
A year or 2 after, I saw Zaxxon on Atari at a shop and finally decided to buy it with my hard earned money (30$). When I started the game, my jaw dropped...omg worst 30$ spent ever.
Fathom from Imagic. This was the last 2600 cartridge I ever purchased in 1984 for my colecovision expansion module #1. I played this game, which makes absolutely no sense. I couldn't get anywhere even though I had the instruction booklet that sort of worked as a guide. For a 2600 title, it was pretty and very responsive controls. But, what at in the heck do you do? How do you complete anything?
Also, Demons to Diamonds by Atari. This game was just dumb. I got bored of this 25 dollar game quickly. After this, I only bought 2600 games at flea markets.
Someone should remake Pooyan with a paddle controller and corrected mechanics.
I can't argue with any of these. Mr. Do's Castle especially made me feel like a dog peed on my leg. My personal least favorite would probably be Custer's Revenge. I also loathed E.T., Laser Blast, 3D Tic Tac Toe, Basic Programming, Home Run and Flag Capture. Any other "adult" game or one based on a horror film was usually really bad.
I'm glad you didn't just go with the obvious (E.T.)
I had the 2600jr, and then i saw a new game. Xenophobe. It was so much more game then i knew an atari could handle!
How about Indiana Jones? It's really hard to figure out. But it does have an ending.
Despite it being a good looking game and an Activision game, at that!.... Laser Blast was a bore of a game. It seemed good, at first... and then when you play it for a bit, you learn the pattern and you discover the game is the same rote shooting of three tanks/cannons on the ground from your flying saucer. Over and over and over. I could get into a groove in that game where I would lie back with my eyes closed and clear level after level because I got the pattern down. Uber-dull game... despite its pedigree and nice graphics and sound. Prettiest, bad Atari game there is. I still love ya, David Crane!
I remember there was what they called a "Driving Game" for the Atari 2600 by Coleco or Activision...I can't remember. I do remember that it was nothing more than blocks coming down from the top of the screen and you had to dodge them with your block. It was absolutely awful!!
Laser Blast
Yeah that was one of Activision’s weaker titles.
sneak n' peek is horrible, there's like 3 places to hide and the computer finds you *every time*
OMG!! yeah Double Dragon was one of those Grandma birthday games for me, as she did not know the difference between Atari, Intellivision, or Nintendo at the time, and some guy behind the electronics counter at Rose's Department Store conned her into buying the 2600 version, as I'm sure they had a glut of Atari games in their backroom at the time, and my mother gave me the angry look when I opened it like you best be thankful, so I just gave a fake smile, and said thanks grandma. I still have the cart, but the box, and manual are long gone(Thanks mom). Thankfully my dad got me Double Dragon on the NES for Christmas that year.
My buddy and I found Sorcerer in a bargain bin around '84 for a buck or two. I can't remember which of us paid for it, but somehow I ended up with it. Still have it. It's absolutely terrible yet somehow, I still come back to it every once in a while...maybe it's just to hear that nerve-grating music.
Willie should have been like, "uhhh...Air Raid, Pepsi Invaders, Gauntlet, Birthday Mania, Red Sea Crossing, and Video Life were all awful..." (Waits in anticipation for box reveals).
Atari is one of the systems where I even like the bad games. I’ve had an Atari since a kid in the mid 90s and always found it a fascination from a bygone era, the good and the bad. Newer consoles I get angrier at bad games because they should’ve and even could’ve done better.
John, Willie, there are bound to be other really bad 2600 games; why not consider doing a second installment? "10 MORE Bad Atari 2600 Games You Should Avoid" is possible, given the vast glut of low quality games that acted as one of the causes of the video game market crash (1984).
Skeet Shoot would get my vote, especially as it came out four years after the far superior Air Sea Battle.
I loved Space Jockey back then. You shouldn't judge 2600 games because of them being repetitive, most would fail that test. The way I played Atari back then was to pile up a stack of favorites and play them for about five or ten minutes then swap out another cart.
Everybody is going to have a different opinion on what a bad 2600 game is.
I know it's a infamously bad game but i would have want to see your opinion on E.T. The Extrateressial for Atari.
Sneak n Peek looks like an adult game that was changed at the last minute. Too bad the developers forgot to remove a few pixels from the side facing sprites.
Racquetball by Apollo games is another piss poor game for the 2600. If you can hit the ball more than once you're a gaming GOD!!!
You guys are lucky I never played Atari in my life
I actually like Fire Fly. The music was pretty cool even though it repeated and it was the game that made my dad cringe when he heard it LOL. So play a fun game, drive my dad crazy.. total win. A game you left off was Fun with numbers. It was math flashcards and thats it.. thats not a game or fun LOL. I would also put the original Atari Golf on the list as a sleeper for bad games.
I didn't know zimag ever made games. I only remember their terrible blank VHS tapes.
Mountain King Was A Game We Could Never Figure Out!!!
The reaction of Arcade USA when John mentions one of the worst (or the worst) fighting games on the Atari 2600, "Karate" :)
I also have Mr Do! Castle I loved the music but it years since I played it
Back in the early 80's I owned around 30 games...but two bad games that I had were LASER BLAST and NIGHT DRIVER. Both were just boring.
Laser blast is repetitive and boring but I find it a good title to just get into a total Zen state with, because you can almost play indefinitely when you get a rhythm down.
Dishaster is great
There was a game that was in a maze. I think it was called Wizard of Wor. I never could figure out the 2600 version. I played it later on an emulator site and it mustve been a better version because the graphics were better and I could actually make my character move.
Another one is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Its such a bad game because it gets your hopes up. The box looks great with the movie poster on there. The great theme music plays when you start the game. But then thats it. I still cant make Indy do anything and Ive read the book, looked up walk throughs, and watched videos on it. The secret of making anything happen still eludes me. For me, Pitfall 2 is the closest thing to an Indy game on the 2600.
I know this next one is supposed to be a classic and not liking it is like hating The Day The Earth Stood Still or something, but I say Adventure is a bad game. I have a vivid imagination but I cant tell where I am, what things are without looking at the book, nor how to use the inventory. I sold my childhood copy of it a while ago to someone who was glad to get a complete game of it and he was baffled that I was glad to be rid of it. Dark Caverns and Dragonfire are much better games for scratching that fantasy quest itch with.
E.T isn't actually the #1 worst game, there are plenty of Atari games that even put the E.T game to shame, not defending it, but im giving it a fair stance to stand on for comparisons
The Donkey Kong & DK Jr. ports for the 2600 were awful. That system did NOT do sports games very well, either. Also, I know it's trite to mention this title but, ET... Yeah... That game definitely needed more development time. The game we got at retail was an Alpha Stage build at best.
You forgot that great dumpster fire known as E.T.
There is no E.T. or Pac-Man?
"Games got an attitude " 🤣
I was surprised not to hear tax avoiders
OHHH... Pac kong. I got pac kong as a kid and it was SOOOO bad. It has bad physics and the song was out of tune but the worst part was I had a NTSC atari 7800 and the screen was unstable since it was a PAL only game; I was very sad.
Infiltrate. Spacechase. Actually, most Apollo games. More like appall*ING* games.
Haven’t played 2600 Double Dragon but for late releases with NES alternatives Kung Fu (Master) is actually good, better on NES obviously, but Activision did a great job on the 2600 port.
I'm surprised E.T. isn't on this list considering that game went down in infamy. E.T. is a pretty bad game, but some games are even worse than E.T.
Activision is my favourite games company for the 2600 but an early title 'boxing' has got to be the worst title of theirs I have played, equal to double dragon :)
Peek a boo is actually a high end game because it's littery a open world 3d attempt.
I have never liked the Atari 2600 and despite some nostalgia for it, I still can’t find a soft spot for it. Colecovision was the much better alternative.
A crossover!? YAY!