Games That Suck That Could Have Been So Much Better

It should have looked like this:

http://urbaninteractive.wordpress.com/

just scroll down the page a bit :)

That's flipping cool!


DK3 -Is an ok-fine shooter. I find it entertaining. I can understand all the hate though, it doesn't play like DK or DKjr at all.
DK - 4 screens, no variation, ends up being repetitive. DK Remix is more my thing.
Pacman - Most pacman titles could fall under this. Ms.Pac/Pacmania are the more interesting ones.
Zaxxon - The isometric perspective, is un-immersive and disorienting. It's gimmick didn't age well with time.
Tron, I used to hate it. But I've grow to like it more. It's better than most movie games out there. Still a let down if you get hyped up from the cabinets appearance.
Satan's Hollow - On the same level as Tron for me. Movement feels sluggish.
Escape ft Planet ot Robot Monsters - Needs tighter controls, more intelligent enemies. Boring after a while even in 2P mode.
Tetris - I love the music. I think the gameplay is acceptable, needs to be re-amped with game polish. It's unacceptable it takes up a arcade machine space, when its competing ports are superior.
Dragon's Lair - I find it entertaining to watch the animation. As a game.. it fails.
Major Havoc - Shooting in space could be longer. Levels feel empty. I'm guessing technical limitations made this game suffer. Don't get me wrong, I think MH is a neat game. I guess it's just preference.
StarWurz - Sweet controls and music. Sh!t gameplay.
 
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Name some games that didn't live up to their potential.

Cool premise, cool name, cool artwork, crappy gameplay.

What comes to mind?

Xevious doesn't count! Great gameplay! Just crappy music...

Hands down .. Journey
Awesome cab, Awesome band... crappy game .
Didnt even look to see if anybody else said journey ,, just first game to came to mind.
 
Was recently discussing Gyruss with some gamers and how it's Tempest meets Galaga. I wondered what Gyruss gameplay would be like with a Tempest spinner versus the Monroe stick. IMO better.

and also wonder about hacking one of these in...

Im sure stuff like this gotta be possible.
 
Tron is actually one of my favorite games, although it was one of the ones I played a lot as a kid so the nostalgia probably has some impact on my perspective.
 
I wonder if this could be hacked into the game ?

Drill CP, insert button. Wire button to 'up' switch on joystick. Done.

Yeah, pressing up on the joystick will still make you jump, but short of hacking the game to recognise a second button there's no good way around that - you still need the 'up' position to be recognised in order to climb ladders.
 
Drill CP, insert button. Wire button to 'up' switch on joystick. Done.

Yeah, pressing up on the joystick will still make you jump, but short of hacking the game to recognise a second button there's no good way around that - you still need the 'up' position to be recognised in order to climb ladders.
That's actually an easy enough adaptation.
 
Has anyone actually tried the Kangaroo jump hack?

The game sees up+diagonal as a forward jump. I'm not sure how the game would react to a horizontal left/right plus the Up command since it wasn't possibility in the games original programming. If you can only use the button to jump in place with the hack, it doesn't help the main issue with jumping in the game -the forward jumps.
 
I wonder if this could be hacked into the game ?
Easily. Just wire a button to those two joystick posts. My thinking is the game will interpret it as if the player quickly pushed the joystick up/right, then went back to left or right.

It should also be doable to hack it into the code, assuming a few things.

Scott C.
 
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Superman by Taito could of been way better.

Robocop is also a letdown.

And there is nothing super about Super Pac-Man. Nice cab I guess.

Spider-Man by SEGA is lackluster and is annoying with those enemies that squeal.

1942 is a pain with that screeching sound. One person on youtube made a comment "Love the music. It's what I play when I make love to my wife!".:eek:
 
Tron is actually one of my favorite games, although it was one of the ones I played a lot as a kid so the nostalgia probably has some impact on my perspective.

Most people loved Tron back in the day. It only really gets hated on now that we look back on it.

I loved Tron and still do.
 
I think Journey is an overrated piece of garbage.

I also think if people hated Tron that it wouldn't command the kind of money it does.

probably in agreement on DK3. it was so far outside the scope of anything that had already been established. disagree on Sinistar, absurd difficulty aside, every game Williams was making back then was next to impossible to play. :p
 
Donkey kong 3...tron..spy hunter 2...journey..mad planets

All five suck...

Dk 3...what were they thinking????

Tron...awsome cab....horrible game play (yet i own one)

Spy hunter 2...if there was ever a game that zero thought went into its this one...and the worst graphics

Journey...nothing about the game play appeals to me...lame idea...horrible graphics

Mad planets...much like tapper, i cant wrap my head around why this game is desirerable....its planets?...and they are mad?...planets?????
 
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Time Pilot '84 - what happened?

Double Dragon - Nostalgia carries this game and its sequels. Now I find the slowdown simply unbearable.

Spy Hunter II - so much potential, just shit on.

Gauntlet II - more of the same. Blah.

1942 - god awful music, just boring.

1943 - I actually love this game, but the power up selection is the worst ever. Could be way better.
 
Empire Strikes Back, Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Vindicators... actually I could probably list more Atari games that needed tweaking than great ones. :/

Totally agree. Empire Strikes Back could have been soooo much better. It was a big disappointment compared to the awesome gameplay of Star Wars.

Also, Return of the Jedi was a complete disappointment.
 
Totally agree. Empire Strikes Back could have been soooo much better. It was a big disappointment compared to the awesome gameplay of Star Wars.

Also, Return of the Jedi was a complete disappointment.

Vindicators is actually a pretty fun game with 2 players. But it's very meh with 1 player.
 
Has anyone actually tried the Kangaroo jump hack?

Just now, yes - in MAME. More on that below:

The game sees up+diagonal as a forward jump.

This is a good point, and one I hadn't considered when making the original button wiring suggestion. However:

I'm not sure how the game would react to a horizontal left/right plus the Up command since it wasn't possibility in the games original programming.

Technically, the diagonal movement is achieved by combining a horizontal position plus the 'up' position - so all you're really doing by adding the button is sending the game exactly the same signal it would have received from the controls for a diagonal movement. In other words, the behaviour is exactly the same.

If you can only use the button to jump in place with the hack, it doesn't help the main issue with jumping in the game -the forward jumps.

So, to simulate this in MAME, I mapped the left ALT key as an additional input for the joystick 'up' position - that is, I retained the stock input of up-arrow and added the ALT key to it to perform the same function.

Playing through the game, the ALT key addition worked as expected: it's a jump button. No horizontal movement on the stick and you jump straight up; move the stick left or right then hit the ALT key and you get the forward-moving jumps. Basically, it plays almost exactly as a stock game would - and the reason why I say 'almost exactly' is that you can now use your newfound jump button to climb the ladders as well :D

This could also make for an interesting change to Arabian given its similarities in gameplay to Kangaroo, but it seems less-useful to me for that game.

Anyway, wiring a button to the stick 'up' position should be fine. Obviously, I haven't tested this on real hardware so YMMV, but I can't see why it wouldn't work.
 
I always wondered if Quantum would be easier with a joystick.

Joust 2 -- using the vertical monitor orientation made it way harder than it needs to be IMO.

And, as mentioned previously, Zaxxon 2 was way too fast.
 
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