These might actually make good games. I own The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween games for Atari 2600 and the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street games for Nintendo; they aren't bad.
Treecat
3 years ago
The SOCIETY game would be so nasty!
SmallDarkCloud
3 years ago
The Atari 2600 series offered a fun game called Haunted House. You wander around an old dark house, looking for the three pieces of an urn in order to reassemble it. The screen is mostly dark, so you can’t see the bats and ghosts threatening you, unless you light a match (which lasts for only a few seconds, and the monsters could extinguish the match, too).
I played that game endlessly as a kid. By the primitive standards of the 2600, it was pretty inventive. The cover art on the box was terrific (as was the art for most of the 2600’s games).
chainman
3 years ago
I want to play The Bishop of Battle 1983.
DekesYellowBikini
3 years ago
SmallDarkCloud, I had that Haunted House game and loved it – even if it didn't quite live up to the awesome cover art. It was similar to Adventure, one of my other favorite games.
A video game adaptation of The Funhouse would have been amazing!
bdwilcox
3 years ago
That was the upside/downside of Atari 2600 games. Their box's amazing cover-art was colorful, epic, exciting and full of wonder but when you booted up the game it was like three colored dots and a smaller white dot that represented the player. Don't get me wrong, there were fantastic 2600 games I loved like Pitfall, Adventure, Demon Attack, H.E.R.O., River Raid, etc. but most were total buzz-kills if you bought them because of their box's cover art.
BTW, it was amazing what programmer's were able to do with the ridiculously constricted resources of the 2600. There's a fascinating documentary book for the technically inclined called "Racing the Beam" that shows what wizards these early programmers/game-designers truly were.
popcornmonster
3 years ago
Warren Beatty is Jack Torrence in The Shining!
SmallDarkCloud
3 years ago
Popcornmonster – that's the artwork from the original hardcover edition of The Shining. I'm old enough that my childhood library had a copy of it – I talked my mom into borrowing it for me, as I was too young to check it out. That rendition of Danny really freaked me out.
SmallDarkCloud
3 years ago
Geoff, bdwilcox – I loved Adventure! That game was tough if you selected the advance level. Plus, the sound the dragon made when it devoured you was really disturbing – and you could see your little dot self in the dragon's stomach.
Another favorite of mine was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was one of the earliest home video games to not give you a full explanation of game play in the instructions – you had to figure out part of it on your own. If you hadn't seen the movie, you'd probably never figure it out (you had to find the Map roomand use the sun to locate the Ark, just like in the movie, but this was left out of the booklet).
I would have been all over a Funhouse game.
popcornmonster
3 years ago
SmallDarkCloud, I know. I've seen that cover before and read the book but it just occurred to me that the artwork resembles Warren Beatty. And yes, Danny does look pretty freaky there.
bdwilcox
3 years ago
SmallDarkCloud – Adventure was also the first game that had a secret room as an Easter Egg, Since Atari treated the programmers like peasants, they wouldn't let them put their name on the game so he snuck in a secret room that said he designed and programmed it. Hah! Suck it, Atari. Atari's boorish behavior became so intolerable that the best programmers eventually revolted, quit and formed their own game company that would give them credit…that company was Activision.
Dang! Why aren't these real! I'd give anything to play SOCIETY on Nintendo.
These might actually make good games. I own The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween games for Atari 2600 and the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street games for Nintendo; they aren't bad.
The SOCIETY game would be so nasty!
The Atari 2600 series offered a fun game called Haunted House. You wander around an old dark house, looking for the three pieces of an urn in order to reassemble it. The screen is mostly dark, so you can’t see the bats and ghosts threatening you, unless you light a match (which lasts for only a few seconds, and the monsters could extinguish the match, too).
I played that game endlessly as a kid. By the primitive standards of the 2600, it was pretty inventive. The cover art on the box was terrific (as was the art for most of the 2600’s games).
I want to play The Bishop of Battle 1983.
SmallDarkCloud, I had that Haunted House game and loved it – even if it didn't quite live up to the awesome cover art. It was similar to Adventure, one of my other favorite games.
A video game adaptation of The Funhouse would have been amazing!
That was the upside/downside of Atari 2600 games. Their box's amazing cover-art was colorful, epic, exciting and full of wonder but when you booted up the game it was like three colored dots and a smaller white dot that represented the player. Don't get me wrong, there were fantastic 2600 games I loved like Pitfall, Adventure, Demon Attack, H.E.R.O., River Raid, etc. but most were total buzz-kills if you bought them because of their box's cover art.
BTW, it was amazing what programmer's were able to do with the ridiculously constricted resources of the 2600. There's a fascinating documentary book for the technically inclined called "Racing the Beam" that shows what wizards these early programmers/game-designers truly were.
Warren Beatty is Jack Torrence in The Shining!
Popcornmonster – that's the artwork from the original hardcover edition of The Shining. I'm old enough that my childhood library had a copy of it – I talked my mom into borrowing it for me, as I was too young to check it out. That rendition of Danny really freaked me out.
Geoff, bdwilcox – I loved Adventure! That game was tough if you selected the advance level. Plus, the sound the dragon made when it devoured you was really disturbing – and you could see your little dot self in the dragon's stomach.
Another favorite of mine was Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was one of the earliest home video games to not give you a full explanation of game play in the instructions – you had to figure out part of it on your own. If you hadn't seen the movie, you'd probably never figure it out (you had to find the Map room and use the sun to locate the Ark, just like in the movie, but this was left out of the booklet).
I would have been all over a Funhouse game.
SmallDarkCloud, I know. I've seen that cover before and read the book but it just occurred to me that the artwork resembles Warren Beatty. And yes, Danny does look pretty freaky there.
SmallDarkCloud – Adventure was also the first game that had a secret room as an Easter Egg, Since Atari treated the programmers like peasants, they wouldn't let them put their name on the game so he snuck in a secret room that said he designed and programmed it. Hah! Suck it, Atari. Atari's boorish behavior became so intolerable that the best programmers eventually revolted, quit and formed their own game company that would give them credit…that company was Activision.