Would David Crane's, A Boy and his Blob, have been more successful as an Atari 7800 game?

[Chubbz]

A Boy and his Blob and its sequel were fantastic NES games, but they never felt right on a Nintendo system to me.

As these games are now published by Ziggurat Software (which is owned by Atari's current C.E.O), it would great to see these games on their rightful home: The Atari 7800.

Comment or like if you agree.

 

 

[alucardx]

Something like this on the 7800 would be great to see.

[ColecoGamer]

3 hours ago, Chubbz said:

A Boy and his Blob and its sequel were fantastic N.E.S games, but they never felt right on a Nintendo system to me.

As these games are now published by Ziggurat Software (which is owned by ATARI's current C.E.O), it would great to see these games on their rightful home: The 7800.

Comment or like if you agree.

#Ziggurat

#LimitedRunGames.com

 

I would LOVE to have these games on the Atari 7800! Please make it happen!

[TrekMD]

Those would be fun games on the 7800, particularly if you take advantage of added memory and POKEY sound.

Edited February 14, 2022 by TrekMD

[DegasElite]

I think it would be great to see these games on the A7800. They might graphically put the NES versions to shame, but I don't know either. Just a wish, anyway. :O)

Edited February 14, 2022 by DegasElite

[DegasElite]

Also, Ziggurat Games are rehashing the FMV game "American Hero" for the PC and consoles. This was a lost game which was going to be made for the Atari Jaguar CD unit. I hope they make a limited edition for the Atari Jaguar CD. Interesting stuff. :O)

[DegasElite]

It looks like American Hero has been released on Windows by gog.com.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for letting me share. :O)

[Chubbz]

On 2/14/2022 at 10:40 PM, DegasElite said:

Also, Ziggurat Games are rehashing the FMV game "American Hero" for the PC and consoles. This was a lost game which was going to be made for the Atari Jaguar CD unit. I hope they make a limited edition for the Atari Jaguar CD. Interesting stuff. :O)

I haven't heard anything about American Hero since it was announced for the VCS.

It's a prime candidate for the ATARI XP intiative though as it was a lost game. It'll be interesting to see of that'll be the case for the game; as long as ATARI include a digital-rom for Gamedrive/Skunkboard etc.

Yars' Return has had some enhancements and been debugged according to the website - no idea about Saboteur or Aquaventure though.

[DegasElite]

17 minutes ago, Chubbz said:

I haven't heard anything about American Hero since it was announced for the VCS.

It's a prime candidate for the ATARI XP initiative though as it was a lost game. It'll be interesting to see of that'll be the case for the game; as long as ATARI include a digital-rom for Gamedrive/Skunkboard etc.

Yars' Return has had some enhancements and been debugged according to the website - no idea about Saboteur or Aquaventure though.

That would be nice, considering. I wish they would revive Black Ice/White Noise for the Jaguar, too. That would be really cool as well. But, BJ West won't revive his BI/WN project. Oh, well, just wishful thinking. :O)

[Chubbz]

I think if ABAHB and its sequel had been commercial 7800 games then we'd be talking about them now as the system's finest games.

I believe they would have had a high attachment rate with 7800 owners.

[DegasElite]

Especially if David Crane would have produced them for the 7800. That would have been an achievement for sure.

[TrekMD]

38 minutes ago, DegasElite said:

Especially if David Crane would have produced them for the 7800. That would have been an achievement for sure.

Agreed!

[Silver Back]

I don't think there's any doubt that a boy and his blob and any sequels would've done fantastic by 7800 standards.  The 7800 desperately needed platformers and adventure games as that's what was really selling at the time. 

I grew up with the 7800 and I loved it, but when my friends came over they always seems disappointed that I didn't have any super Mario or MegaMan style games for it. Of course a few adventure games and platformers existed but I didn't have them. 

In short, yes it would've done excellent, but excellent on the 7800 is still probably worse than mediocre on the NES as far as profits go. 

[Chubbz]

Although the accuracy is questionable, from what I can find, less than 300,000 copies were sold for the N.E.S.

 

[Chubbz]

Facebook Post regarding the games:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/673569859346946/permalink/4833354406701783/?m_entstream_source=feed_mobile

Edited February 27, 2022 by Chubbz

[Silver Back]

I did some research and here's what I found out. I'm impartial but I've seen this posted multiple places and wanted to do a little research. Here's my findings. 

I just don't see A Boy and his Blob selling more than 300k on the 7800. Look up Curt Vendels 7800 game sales figure (available on atariage) and download the zip file.  You can view the data through notepad if need be (I looked through the sales myself to make sure) and you'll see that the games that had been out the longest barely broke 300k in sales.  This includes classics like Ms pac man. 

A boy and his blob release on NES in 89. The best 7800 game between 89 to 90 sold roughly 50k units. Even if you gave it an 88 release and gave it the best numbers possible, I only see it doing 150k tops. 

But as a 7800 kid who grew up with the console and loves it with all my heart, I would've loved this game to be on our system. But the sales number argument isn't there according to what I've found. 

[Silver Back]

Oh and I only mention this because I had some messages about sales figures and a few people seemed keen on making this a cornerstone of their argument. I just don't think that's the best way to go but I absolutely want to see a boy and his blob on the 7800.

I think it would be better to prove somehow that homebrew is a much larger thing in the 7800 community today than others. And that there is a demand for it worthy of the effort of porting it. 

[Chubbz]

I've done this because a poster on the ATARI Age forum berated me about it even though I didn't mention anything about sales figures or that a 7800 version would sell more copies; just that I thought it would make a great 7800 game.

There were enough 7800's to sell that many copies regardless of any figures; It's a what-if after all.

Again, I just wanted to see if the game would be of interest to 7800 owners. 

I posted the figures in a hope that someone may have more accurate numbers.

 

7800's were quite common in the U.K and Europe, only losing its position to the N.E.S after the release of SMB3 and the Wizard movie.

Even then, the N.E.S was heavily outsold by the Master System and the Genesis - no one cared about the N.E.S here.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Chubbz

[Silver Back]

It's crazy how different the world of gaming was in Europe. Over here if it wasn't NES it wasn't really known until the genesis (mega drive) started shipping with sonic the hedgehog. I was the only kid with a 7800 in my whole class it seemed. 

Like you said A Boy and his Blob definitely would've been more fondly remember for the 7800 and I'd be willing to sign any petition or whatever support is being generated to get a port done for our console. 

[Chubbz]

There's a Facebook post for it:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/673569859346946/permalink/4833354406701783/?m_entstream_source=group&ref=m_notif&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

 

Pretty much everyone had a micro in the U.K, but the Master System was the console everyone wanted.

The 7800 was lucky in that it was much cheaper than the Master System and the N.E.S which delighted parents, especially the cost of games.

It did really well in France, Germany too.

 

[Chubbz]

But, my intentions are the same as yours.

I would absolutely love to see this come to the 7800.

[Chubbz]

By the time we got the 7800 games like Commando, Ikari Warriors, Rampage, and Double Dragon were available, so the 7800 looked promising to us.

If ATARI had only released the 7800 instead of launching it with the 2600Jr, the 7800 would have likely got a real foot-hold in Europe as console gaming was beginning to take over. 

The 8-bit consoles lasted deep into the 90's in the U.K and Europe.

ATARI could have used all the franchises it put together for the 2600 re-release on the 7800 instead.

Shame really, as the 7800 homebrew scene is really starting to show-off what the 7800 is actually capable of.

One similarity the 7800 had both in Europe and the U.S is that it was really hard to find games outside of stores in select big cities.

Mail Order was the best way.

ATARI seemingly didn't like making anything too easy.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Chubbz

[Silver Back]

I was too young to really remember what buying 7800 games was like. I just remember them being there lol.  But I asked my mom a lot of questions when I was considering opening a website, and she said she ordered our 7800 from sears with a few games. She also said she found some at Bargain City, but for the titles she wanted from Activision (rampage and double dragon) she had to order them direct. 

I did a little research regarding the US market and there seemed to be a few issues keeping Atari off of store shelves.  At least to the extent that Nintendo was.  It seemed like ordering from Atari was the way to go, especially for the really late releases like Alien Brigade. 

[Chubbz]

Alien Brigade was released pretty much alongside the 7800 here.

The graphics of those games were much better than the home micros of the time to us.

[DegasElite]

17 minutes ago, Chubbz said:

Alien Brigade was released pretty much alongside the 7800 here.

The graphics of those games were much better than the home micros of the time to us.

This is true about the graphics. I thought Alien Brigade was great and I have it in my A7800 collection. :O)

Edited February 28, 2022 by DegasElite