Rank the best 2600 arcade conversions

[Sabertooth]

Of the arcade titles, I have always been fond of the 2600 versions of Ms. Pac-Man, Moon Patrol, Joust, Dig Dug, Q-bert and Frogger.  I also really like Mousetrap even though it is a far cry from its arcade inspiration.  Battlezone is a favorite too, but as others have said its much more a remake than a conversion.  I actually prefer it to the vector original.

[HDN]

This was a bit of a hard one for me. Many of my favorite arcade conversions for the system, while not near as arcade perfect as the games on this list are very fun. I'd say of the ones here, I will have to go with Space Invaders along with a few others that are both faithful and ones that I personally enjoy.

My favorite arcade ports? To name a few: Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Venture, Galaxian, Moon Patrol, Space Invaders, Missile Command, Defender, and Q*Bert.

[DegasElite]

Another good arcade port, at least in my opinion, is Star Wars: The Arcade Game for the A2600. Although it does have limitations, it does a good job for the system's abilities. I have it and I like it. It's interesting, to say the least.

Edited November 29, 2020 by DegasElite

[TrekMD]

The Official Frogger by Starpath is THE version of Frogger to play and it beats even versions in more advanced systems in various aspects.  I actually created a thread talking about the differences between it and the Parker Bros. version as I've heard podcasters minimize the differences between the two.  It's over at RVG, if you want to see the thread (Starpath's The Official Frogger).  I don't want to recreate it here.  🙂

Stargate/Defender II I also think is awesome!

Edited November 29, 2020 by TrekMD

[HDN]

As a lot of you know, I have been collecting lots of Atari 2600 arcade ports over the past few months, hoping to build a sizable "Ataricade", @Willie!-style.

I still like collecting the arcade games, but I think I would like to collect some other styles of games, too. I was thinking of collecting some of Atari's earlier offerings, like Video Chess, Sky Diver, Surround, Star Ship, Bowling, Golf, and some other early games like that. Particulary the less action oriented ones, like Hangman or Video Chess. I still will buy some more arcade games as I find them, but I'm pretty content with my library right now. @socrates63 sent me most of the top games on my list.

What types of 2600 games are you all collecting right now?

[socrates63]

1 hour ago, HDN said:

What types of 2600 games are you all collecting right now?

 

Looking at this thread, it's amazing the number of arcade games the 2600 enjoyed. I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise given the 2600 enjoyed popularity when coin-op video games were king. Still, the sheer number is quite astounding. There are 2600 games listed in Ballblazer's post that I did not know were arcade games.

As far as collecting for the 2600 is concerned, I mostly buy homebrews and hacks. I started collecting because of the box artwork on games by Atari. I probably have around 150 by Atari. With lack of space, I'm pretty much done buying 2600 games as I primarily play rom files with the Harmony Encore cartridge. I recently bought a few loose cartridges (waiting for delivery) to have some for future trades. The one subset of my 2600 games that I intentionally sought were games by Activision. I believe I am only missing H.E.R.O. and Cosmic Commuter. They're both very expensive, so I may call it good (enough).

[HDN]

You know, not many people talk about the REALLY old 2600 arcade ports. Many of Atari's 1970's coin-op releases are very obscure nowadays. Some of Atari's pre-Golden Age ports include Anti Aircraft (Air/Sea Battle), Tank and Jet Fighter (Combat), Canyon Bomber, Sky Diver, and Night Driver. Many of these games are much better known nowadays by their VCS adaptations.

I'm sure the vast majority knew about these games, but I find it interesting. Not many talk about how these games originated in the arcade.

[TrekMD]

Among those really old one is Dodge'Em.  I didn't even know it was an arcade port at the time.  It's an excellent game.

[CrossBow]

What about Kangaroo? At the time it was pretty close in capturing the gameplay of the arcade. And I see that Star Wars: TAG was mentioned and it should be because it is a technical marvel to see all of the arcade elements of that game running on a 2600.

But I voted for the Official Frogger as it is just an amazing port in ever aspect to see running on the 2600 hardware! You have to realize that the Supercharger was only adding RAM for the system to work with that it didn't possess internally. So realizing that, and seeing what the 2600 can do with more RAM to work with, can you even begin to imagine some of the amazing stuff that would have come out back then? It would have taken until the NES to possibly really dethrone it back then.

 

[RickR]

Kangaroo is in the poll, but no votes.  I agree that it's excellent. 

[socrates63]

On 11/29/2020 at 8:41 PM, HDN said:

You know, not many people talk about the REALLY old 2600 arcade ports. Many of Atari's 1970's coin-op releases are very obscure nowadays. Some of Atari's pre-Golden Age ports include Anti Aircraft (Air/Sea Battle), Tank and Jet Fighter (Combat), Canyon Bomber, Sky Diver, and Night Driver. Many of these games are much better known nowadays by their VCS adaptations.

I'm sure the vast majority knew about these games, but I find it interesting. Not many talk about how these games originated in the arcade.

You're totally right, Harry. I didn't realize many of the VCS games were adaptations of 70s coin-op games. I think Night Driver is the only one that you've listed that I remember seeing or playing in the arcades.

[RickR]

Also Indy 500.  Not only is it an arcade port, but it should be considered as one of the very best home ports on the system.

[TrekMD]

Kangaroo is well done on the 2600 but I wish they had used a black background for it.  There actually is a hack of it that does just that and it looks better. 

[CrossBow]

11 hours ago, TrekMD said:

Kangaroo is well done on the 2600 but I wish they had used a black background for it.  There actually is a hack of it that does just that and it looks better. 

I seem to recall that Atari higher ups had a thing against the games having black backgrounds. That is one of the reasons why the actual 2600 Pac-Man release has a blue background instead of black. I think I read that from Todd Frye somewhere?

 

[DegasElite]

Another good arcade conversion is Crazy Climber, but it's extremely rare. I would like to see how it works. It's a funny game. :O)

[TrekMD]

11 hours ago, CrossBow said:

I seem to recall that Atari higher ups had a thing against the games having black backgrounds. That is one of the reasons why the actual 2600 Pac-Man release has a blue background instead of black. I think I read that from Todd Frye somewhere?

 

Yes, that is something I have heard as well.  They wanted to display the colors the system could have, so they were against black backgrounds.  Yet, look how much better Kangaroo looks!

[RickR]

26 minutes ago, TrekMD said:

look how much better Kangaroo looks!

The arcade version has a black background.  WHAT WERE THEY THINKING????

[HDN]

I think the game that suffers the most without a black background is Space War. Instead of looking like—well, a war in space, this game reminds me more of two pizza slices shooting each other on a pool table! And if I remember correctly, Atari didn’t like their black backgrounds on non-space games. Is this even a space game, who knows? 
It is also home to the worst mock-up screenshot in Atari history, and they had some pretty bad ones.

[Rocker67]

I would have had trouble voting here if Reactor or Venture had been on the list as they were some of my favorite games to play. I did have to vote for Berzerk as I loved playing this one the most out of the list shown.

[RickR]

I added Venture and Reactor just to give @Rocker67 trouble

Venture is a good one for sure.  It does capture the arcade game pretty well. 

Reactor - I can't say I've ever seen or played the arcade version, so I'll take your word for it.

 

 

[Rocker67]

27 minutes ago, RickR said:

I added Venture and Reactor just to give @Rocker67 trouble

Venture is a good one for sure.  It does capture the arcade game pretty well. 

Reactor - I can't say I've ever seen or played the arcade version, so I'll take your word for it.

 

 

Thanks a lot for the trouble........

Too bad I had already voted so I do not have that problem now.

Actually, I have never played the arcade version of Reactor, or even seen it. In fact, I never knew it was an actual arcade conversion till years later. I just loved playing it and always enjoyed playing it for hours.

[Scott Stilphen]

Here's a near-complete list of all the VCS arcade conversions:

http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/arcade_ports.html