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I'd say the Atari 2600 was probably the first (in my experience) home games console with games that are legitimately fun to play. Games like Combat, Air/Sea bat

by iuguy 15y ago

I'd say the Atari 2600 was probably the first (in my experience) home games console with games that are legitimately fun to play. Games like Combat, Air/Sea battle and Snoopy and the Red Baron were great games on the 2600. I'm not saying all the 2600 games were great, nor that it was technically better than the NES, but the core ability was there around the time of the 2600.

georgemcbay 15y ago
"Games like Combat, Air/Sea battle and Snoopy and the Red Baron were great games on the 2600." I don't disagree that those were great games. But I don't think they are great games (today), which is the difference I was trying to get at. Super Mario Brothers was a great game, and IMO is still a great game when I play it. All the old 2600 games that I played for hours and hours and had great fun with back in the very late 70s/early 80s were great when I played them then, but they are not actually fun for me to go back and play now... the core game mechanics of that era can be tweaked to be fun but the originals are still just too raw or repetitive to be fun IMO. eg. I really liked the Pac Man Championship Edition game that came out a few years ago though I don't really enjoy playing the original Pac Man much these days. Obviously there is some subjective bias here and each individual's views on this are probably colored by how much gaming they've done in the intermediate years, etc.
- iuguy 15y ago
  I see where you're coming from, but I still occasionally play Red Baron, Pitfall and Combat on emulators. Crystal Castles for me was another good one on Atari 2600, but I think this was after Super Mario Bros. I agree that it's a largely subjective thing, and I would say Super Mario Bros 3 is a great game, SMB 1 is a good (and clearly game changing if you'll pardon the pun) game. Donkey Kong is another example from earlier, but I won't pretend that it was a good port to the 2600 that stands the test of time. I also see your point about games that were good then versus now, but I have to say that Pong was only good because there wasn't anything else around. Space invaders, Galaxian and co are still playable today. Still, endless examples and counterexamples abound and there'll never be a definitive conclusion for the reasons you mentioned. Still, it's good to take a trip down memory lane now and again. Out of interest, what was your favourite Mario game of all time, and how did it compare to SMB1?

by iuguy 15y ago

georgemcbay 15y ago

"Games like Combat, Air/Sea battle and Snoopy and the Red Baron were great games on the 2600." I don't disagree that those were great games. But I don't think they are great games (today), which is the difference I was trying to get at. Super Mario Brothers was a great game, and IMO is still a great game when I play it. All the old 2600 games that I played for hours and hours and had great fun with back in the very late 70s/early 80s were great when I played them then, but they are not actually fun for me to go back and play now... the core game mechanics of that era can be tweaked to be fun but the originals are still just too raw or repetitive to be fun IMO. eg. I really liked the Pac Man Championship Edition game that came out a few years ago though I don't really enjoy playing the original Pac Man much these days. Obviously there is some subjective bias here and each individual's views on this are probably colored by how much gaming they've done in the intermediate years, etc.

iuguy 15y ago
I see where you're coming from, but I still occasionally play Red Baron, Pitfall and Combat on emulators. Crystal Castles for me was another good one on Atari 2600, but I think this was after Super Mario Bros. I agree that it's a largely subjective thing, and I would say Super Mario Bros 3 is a great game, SMB 1 is a good (and clearly game changing if you'll pardon the pun) game. Donkey Kong is another example from earlier, but I won't pretend that it was a good port to the 2600 that stands the test of time. I also see your point about games that were good then versus now, but I have to say that Pong was only good because there wasn't anything else around. Space invaders, Galaxian and co are still playable today. Still, endless examples and counterexamples abound and there'll never be a definitive conclusion for the reasons you mentioned. Still, it's good to take a trip down memory lane now and again. Out of interest, what was your favourite Mario game of all time, and how did it compare to SMB1?