Best of the best

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Vic 2000
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Re: Best of the best

Post by Vic 2000 »

Another good shooter that was plenty of fun was Space Phreeks from Rabbit. Gorf is a fun shooter too. :)
Vic20-Ian
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Re: Best of the best

Post by Vic20-Ian »

I play mostly shoot em ups on the Vic

Old classics:

Myriad is brilliant - probably my favourite

Skyhawk rarely gets a mention but I loved that game

ACE by Cascade - I thought that was unbelievable when I first saw it, 3d flight sim

Star Defence by Anirog - my second favourite

Arcadia by Imagine - lot's of Alien types like Myriad but harder

Frantic by Imagine - repetitive but good back story and controls and radar

Choplifter is good

Gridrunner, Matrix and Laserzone are all great, Hellgate a bit too hard with 4 ships to control

Metagalactic LLamas Battle at the Edge of Time - for best title

Abductor is also a nice unexpanded shooter.


I am sure there are many more contenders


Modern Games - developed with the benefit of having seen the future first ;-)

I am very impressed with Berzerk MMX - would love Robert to add speech to the Gorf cart

I think Doom is a fantastic achievement - would anyone else like Wolfenstein with the speech next?

I just tried Pulse - very good Scramble meets Nemesis = ;-), seemed a bit easy though with the fast shooting

I just tried Panicman, that is very good and true to the original sounds etc.


Thoroughly impressed that the Vic-20 is still impressing me so much and is more playable than many other systems.
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Vic 2000
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Re: Best of the best

Post by Vic 2000 »

You're right, Choplifter is up there with the best. I never forget how impressed i was when playing Choplifter for the first time in early 80's. Great graphics, smooth scrolling and a real fun game.
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Re: Best of the best

Post by rhurst »

Vic 2000 wrote:Shamus ... but more an good action game than a straight copy of Berzerk?
IMO again, I've always took issue of "straight copy" needs or must-haves, when a VIC implementation of an arcade game is being assessed. First, it cannot, simply "because", so why bother sizing it up? Match it with game playability, eh? Shamus game is different than Berzerk, but its core action elements are exactly Berzerk's. The only required variation, if you can survive to complete the game, is that you pickup all the keys enroute to the last room and to take on its boss. That said, one could say GORF is another implementation of Phoenix -- is one better than the other? Are they really any different?

When I wrote Sprite Invaders as a demo to show off another feature in VIC-SSS, I thought exactly about this "straight copy" preference versus VIC 20: the friendly and first $300 color computer. So much so, there is a CLASSIC and VIC 20 game option to play the same game. I even have CLASSIC reproduce the cellophane RED and GREEN strips to enhance the B&W play, but seriously, does that really make it any better? Rhetorical, Mr. Vic 2000! ;)
Vic 2000 wrote:Ms. Pac-Man from Atarisoft could have been up on the list there too, even if it's a bit blocky.
I think Atarisoft's Ms. Pac-Man for VIC is one of the best "straight copy" implementations, with GORF, Omega Race, and Avenger (Space Invaders) following suit. And I have no soft spot (but a great pun) for Jelly Monsters -- it sits in the same landfill as Atari 2600 Pac-Man. Both consoles got it right later with their Ms. version :P
orion70 wrote:05.Panicman (Bills442) sorry, Robert :mrgreen:
:lol: no worries, I love you man! And I love Panicman, too, it's another wonderful translation that does not require quarters. :)
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Vic 2000
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Re: Best of the best

Post by Vic 2000 »

I agree in most of what you say Robert.

A real good spin off was Galaxians and later Galaga. First came Space Invaders from Taito. A quite static game containing invading aliens who moves faster and faster while shooting at you. The player must be good at timing his shots. I have never liked that stress element you get when there's only a few invaders left while the last invaders moves at insane speed.

Namco copied the concept and made it much more fun by letting the invaders attack you while shooting at you. First they got rid of the shields that both protects you and at the same time get in the way from shooting aliens. The required timing and split vision is still there and the fun at least tripled. One of the most saisfying things you can feel is when a bunch of galaxians attack you and you wipe out all of them in close range with some well aimed shots.

I'm no big fan of Space Invaders, and have never been, not to say that Space Invaders isn't a good game. But i'm a real Galaxian nut and always try out every new Galaxian game. I just love Galaxian and Galaga.

Centipede/Millipede was a unique shoot'em up's for their time too. Quite advanced game engine for such early shoot'em up. I just love Millipede and there's always things to do all the time when clearing mushrooms, shoot DDT, spiders, flies and much more in this excellent fun shooter from the past. :)
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Re: Best of the best

Post by beamrider »

so what do we think are the most accurate straight arcade conversion I would nominate Commodore Avenger, Frogger 07 and perhaps Atari donkey Kong. I don't think the vic really has decent versions of glaxians or scramble and of the pacman conversions I'd like a to see a mix of panicman/quickman but with the larger sprites of Jelly Monsters ;)

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beamrider
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Re: Best of the best

Post by beamrider »

....but without the flicker of Jelly Monsters...

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Vic 2000
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Re: Best of the best

Post by Vic 2000 »

beamrider wrote:....but without the flicker of Jelly Monsters...
Speaking of flickering ghosts...

The Atari 2600 version of Pac Man was real bad, a real disaster with it's flickering ghosts and bad design. One of the worst games for the console. Yet it was the biggest selling game of all time for Atari 2600. Ms Pac Man was much better done.
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beamrider
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Re: Best of the best

Post by beamrider »

Yes. I think the fact that they are ghosts and therefore supposed to be slightly transparent is the only reason jelly monsters gets away with using that technique.

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Re: Best of the best

Post by Jeff-20 »

I think many are too hard on the Atari port of Pacman. I had never played the arcade or any other version before it, and I found the game to be very enjoyable. I would argue it is a bad port, but it's actually not a bad game.


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