The Ultimate Parker Brothers/Atari 2600 Tier List - ALL RELEASED GAMES RANKED

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Welcome to our nostalgic journey through the golden age of gaming as we dive into the captivating world of Atari 2600 games published by Parker Brothers! Join us as we dust off our vintage consoles, plug in those iconic joystick controllers, and relive the magic of some of the most beloved titles ever released, and rank each one of them on a quality tier!
In this video, we'll be revisiting a selection of timeless classics brought to us by Parker Brothers, one of the pioneering game publishers of the era. From exciting action-packed adventures to mind-bending puzzles, Parker Brothers left an indelible mark on the Atari 2600 library.
Prepare to embark on an unforgettable gaming adventure as we delve into iconic titles such as:
Frogger: Guide your fearless frog across treacherous roads and hazardous waters, avoiding perils and aiming for that elusive high score. Will you be able to conquer the traffic and reach the safety of the lily pad?
Qbert: Join the lovable orange creature, Qbert, as he jumps his way through an isometric pyramid of blocks, avoiding enemy creatures and changing colors along the way. Can you complete each level and unlock the mysteries of the pyramid?
Star Wars: Battle through a galaxy far, far away in this epic space shooter. Pilot your X-wing and engage in intense dogfights against the Imperial forces. Can you destroy the Death Star and save the Rebellion?
Join us as we explore the gameplay mechanics, graphics, and sound design that made these games so memorable. We'll also share fascinating anecdotes about their development and the impact they had on the gaming industry as a whole.
Whether you're a seasoned Atari enthusiast or a curious gamer looking to learn about the pioneers of video game history, this video will transport you back in time to an era of pixelated joy and endless entertainment.
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00:00 Parker Brothers
00:42 The Criteria
13:57 Halfway Point
24:56 Summary

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8 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 344

@geekwithsocialskills Год назад

Frogger, Popeye and Gyrus were amazing on the 2600 back in the day and IMHO they still hold up great in 2023.

@darkridearts 8 месяцев назад

The only three on this list I would bother playing I think. Gyruss is a personal favorite Oh and Montezumas Revenge

@PCKid32 Год назад

Nailed it again Jon. Amazing how the programmer of Frogger managed to get it so much better than Atari did.

@GenXGrownUp 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for watching!

@neugey Год назад

I'm not a retro gamer, or much of a gamer at all anymore. But these videos bring back fond memories of saving up my allowance to buy more 2600 games. And then when I got bored with the games I had, I pulled out a large notebook of paper and colored pencils and wrote down and drew so many of my own game ideas! Now today all these years later I'm developing my own online game project. Things have come full circle! Thanks for these videos and putting a smile on my face!

@originalfred66 Год назад

These ranking videos are so much fun to watch. The game play video is just right for giving a good view of the game play in a short time, and the commentary is great. There was no way for me to try all these games when I was a kid, so I really enjoy getting to see what I missed.

@MrClawt Год назад

Man Parker brothers really had a good lineup. Empire Strikes back was so good.

@SoulforSale 10 месяцев назад

Spent hours of my life on this game

@Musicradio77Network 9 месяцев назад

That’s why, “Empire Strikes Back” was made by Hasbro for the Atari 2600. Parker Brothers which was at the time, now known as Hasbro put out really good games for the Atari 2600. They also co-produced the mobile game “My Little Pony: Magic Princess (aka ‘Friendship Is Magic’) for Gameloft.

@jabbadac Год назад

I love Qberts Qubes. You have to get past the learning curve before you really start to enjoy it. Also, they got the difficulty switches screwed up and you have to set it to 'A' to start at the beginner levels.

@McLovin_2007 Год назад

Today Parker Brothers is known more for board games rather than video games. What makes Atari collecting interesting is that there are so many brand names on the carts. Everything from Parker Brothers, Mattel, CBS, Sears, Sega, Nintendo, and Coleco. The 2600 was the most popular system of the early 80's, and everyone wanted to cash in.

@JustMe99999 Год назад

They were known for board games and toys well before the video games.

@Musicradio77Network 9 месяцев назад

Not anymore! Hasbro took over by 2009 and Parker Brothers no longer made board games, same goes with Milton Bradley. Hasbro is the one that made board games under the Hasbro Gaming brand. I wonder if Hasbro might be acquiring the Atari 2600 library of games that was made by the defunct Parker Brothers long before the Hasbro deal. Hasbro is the company that made “Transformers”, “GI Joe” and “My Little Pony”.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

After mistreating its console game programmers who left, Atari VCS deserved to fail and probably would have if Mattel had licensed _Space Invaders_ before them in 1980 and if they then sold 10 million Intellivision consoles by the end of 1981 instead of 2 million, as Atari did after licensing it. Intellivision's ad "We have space games too," after _Asteroids_ and _Missile Command_ were released for the 2600, was pathetic. They had a couple last chances. Mattel could have ported their Intellivsion games to Atari in 1981, but instead their M-Network games in 1982 got lost in the glut. They also could have licensed _Pac-Man_ which was the first must-have game of 1982 (before Donkey Kong, which Coleco shipped with their system).

@Chris_Longstreet Год назад

Montezuma’s Revenge is one of my all time favorites on the Atari 2600. Glad you liked it too. I think the other rankings are pretty spot on.

@matthewbarry4464 Год назад

Reactor should get bumped up to a B based on the soundtrack alone. I enjoyed the game because it was one of the few games where you felt like your character was being pushed around by the particles instead of either being destroyed or destroying them. I recommend people look up the Arcade version of Gottlieb's Reactor soundtrack.

@createurmalheur54 9 месяцев назад

100% so true, back in the days I loved the soundtrack too, and it's still amazing today. Also the smooth animation was (and still is) rocking hard. Don't get it why reactor always gets mediocre ratings

@jonathanross149 7 месяцев назад

It was one of my favorite VCS games from any company. Rotating around the open core. Hiding inside a side pocket. Timing a hit. Game progression into higher levels. It is a very good game.

@johnm5131 Год назад

100% agree, Especially Montezuma's Revenge. It was far more than just a platformer.

@CineG Год назад

I remembered playing the Empire Strikes Back and was immediately drawn in by the music and the graphics. "Graphics" as in getting the shape of the AT-AT reasonably close considering the limitations of the time. Looking back it reminds me of Defender but themed wonderfully.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

Great game that was still fun to play in 2020 when I was home during the Pandemic. Better than _Defender_ and _Chopper Command._

@andyauthor2007 Год назад

Little Andy had a few of these, and some of Andy's friends also had a few of these. Sleepovers were Activision and Parker Brothers themed parties. Playing Atari until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. Ahh the memories!

@dansmith1661 Год назад

The theme of Frogger is based on a Japanese kids song Inu no Omawarisan. It is a police dog who returns a lost kitten to its mom.

@danielespeziari5545 Год назад

Great video, I didn't know some of these games but now I want to add them to my collection. From what I saw on other channels, I thought The Empire Strikes Back was just boring and repetitive, but you convinced me there's actually a lot more going on. Frogger and Q-Bert are just amazing and I could play them endlessly. Amidar, on the other hand, would be much better if you could move a little faster. As it is, it's a slog

@DLoc567 Год назад

Thanks for another ranking video, they are very entertaining. We had only Q-Bert and Sky Skipper from Parker Brothers. As far as I remember I did't really like Sky Skipper the first few times I played it, felt a bit like a bad buy but after playing it more I started to like it.

@BBfanfun Год назад

Parker Bros understood the power of Licensed games : easy sales. Homebrew re-makes of these games are great though : Q*Bert, Scramble/Super Cobra , Tutankham (Champ prototype) ... maybe CrushRoller/Amidar or Gyruss in the future.

@jimwright4163 Год назад

Always found it funny as a kid that Atari created Star Wars the Arcade game, but couldn’t put it out on the 2600. I loved Super Cobra, because of the variety of levels.

@JustMe99999 Год назад

It's amazing that ANYONE was able to get the Star Wars arcade game onto the VCS!

@oaf-77 11 месяцев назад

I have star wars arcade for the Colecovision, it plays amazing

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

Too bad it's rated poorly, as I haven't played it for the 2600. I liked it in the arcade the few times I played and got its sister _Scramble_ for the VIC-20 on cassette which was pretty bad and takes awhile to load. _Vanguard_ was similar, but I could only get to the second Gond.

@MetalJesusRocks Год назад

Fun video! Reminds me I wanna find a complete copy of Frogger II for the collection. Loved that game as a kid!

@drno-xc1yt Год назад

Hard disagree with the Reactor ranking - that's quite a fun game once you learn all the little nuances, like trapping the enemy particles in the bounce rooms to rack up big points. Quite challenging too in later levels where the reactor turns into a swirling vortex and the walls turn invisible.

@PeBoVision Год назад

Back in the day, Parker Brothers was the premiere arcade game porting company. They pushed the hardware limitations of every system they released cartridges for. Their versions of Popeye, Q-bert & Frogger on my Ti-99 were not only the most fun games to play on the TI (until Atarisoft Centipede & Moon Patrol), easily passing the criteria of this video, but the release of Tutankham (40 years late) continued the tradition of kick-ass games (WAY better than the VCS version). And since they decided to do an end-run around TI GRom licensing, they created every TI port in only 8K!!!!) I know they were every bit as good on the Atari 800, and from this video, it looks like they knocked their VCS games out of the park in a few cases. I'm just jealous that you guys got such a bigger library from them. They were not just ourtstanding ports, but also GREAT games. And every TI release was worth owning.

@Musicradio77Network 11 месяцев назад

As you know, all of the 21 Atari 2600 games made by Parker Brothers were now made by Hasbro under Hasbro Gaming.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

_Popeye_ looked so bad for the 2600 in comic book ads that much as I liked the arcade, I didn't get it. What's amazing is they made a decent version for the Odyssey² which had some games that looked better than some of Atari's 1977-8 games, but theirs didn't get any better, while Atari's did. Around 1983, kids were wising up to the idea that they should play or tryout a game before buying it to avoid stinkers. But that wasn't an option, unless you were ready to take it back to the store in a week. If I buy more Atari carts on eBay, I'll put it on my want list.

@TheLostSquadron Год назад

I remembered 007 as a much better game with the ability to kill enemies, and just realized why... The version I remembered was for ColecoVision. Solid list!

@razorpit Год назад

I had the Commodore version and loved it.

@cmore1 Год назад

One of the best "frying" games was Frogger. It looked like you were in the Atari Twilight Zone. 😁

@josepha3805 2 месяца назад

I want to live in the Atari Twilight zone

@jimgoebel5348 Год назад

The Trak Ball hack for the Star Wars Arcade game makes it much more playable.

@retrojoe85 Год назад

I grew up with Q-Bert, despite my version was the Red Label box for the 2600. The first time I played Montezuma's Revenge was shocked by the graphics and the sense of exploration! It was kinda unique among the 2600 library, it gave me a lot of satisfaction.

@CMRetroGaming Год назад

great stuff. I always thought that Frogger was perfect and I didn't really like the second game, but I get it they were trying to create a new experience.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

That was another game that was fun to play 3 years ago when I was home during the Pandemic. It sold about 4 million, making the 5th most-selling game for the Atari 2600. That this and _Donkey Kong_ were successfully sold by third parties ate into Atari's profits and likely eroded investor confidence. _Frogger_ was also the only game on the Supercharger I recognized, but do you need better graphics to play it? Don't think it would be worth the time loading it from tape. I think you can load it from CD in the advanced version, but still....

@Carlb328 Год назад

I LOVE Montezuma's revenge, if only it wasn't so easy to die.

@GenXGrownUp 11 месяцев назад

Oh, my goodness it is SOOOOO easy to die!

@googaagoogaa12345678 6 месяцев назад

The problem I always had (on the SMS don't know if the 2600 does it) was the dying from falling especially with the wonky jumping.

@ButterSpider3 Год назад

It’s weird. The only exposure I had to Parker Bros games as a kid was Frogger and Empire. I played TONS of marathon AT-AT busting runs. But, i never really saw the other titles. Even to this day, I have inly played a couple on emulation. Now I know which ones to look for first. Thanks, Jon. This has been a great ranking rundown of a provider that is a little enigmatic to me. 😎👍🏻

@JustMe99999 Год назад

Montezuma's Revenge was indeed a great game, and it still holds up well today.

@basketballsteve54 Год назад

Great set of videos covering these different game publishers love this series.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Glad you like them! Thanks for watching.

@leokirschner8525 Год назад

As a huge SW fan, I so wanted to love the Empire Strikes Back game, but I sucked at it and usually gave up after 2 minutes. 40 years later, I'm still bad at it.😅

@scotty-smith Год назад

This was great. Wish you would do an evaluation of the Parker Brothers games for the ColecoVision.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Thanks. Good suggestion.

@StewartyMac Год назад

I loved Super Cobra, Spiderman, and Frogger. I actually didn't mind Tutankhamum, despite its flaws. And I always found Empire Strikes Back boring, but I was today years old when I realised you could slow the herd down by keeping the injured front walker alive!! I might have to play this again now!

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

I love the character Spider-Man and used to see ads for the game in the comic books, piquing my interest. But it wasn't as good as _Superman._ I just realized that him falling reminds me of E.T. falling back in the pit. Tried playing it again a few years ago, but didn't get far and lost interest.

@billschlafly4107 Год назад

Frogger is Top Shelf in my book because of the music and the game play. Empire is a close second but in there's nearly zero variation from level to level. I loved Qbert too. The only one worth playing today IMO is Frogger.

@BuzzGarwood Год назад

Outstanding reviews, Jon!🎉

@TheMultiGunMan Год назад

These ranking videos are a lot of fun. Please keep making them.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Glad you like them! I will keep them up.

@Randy_Powell Год назад

Great ranking video. Good to see these games again, and enjoyed the Empire game the most back in the day. Looking forward to the next one.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Glad you enjoyed!

@jedshaffer5956 Год назад

I played Tutankham on the Intellivision as a kid. I could never figure that thing out. It really disappointed me because I was an Egypt nut. Glad to know 5 year old me wasn’t crazy.

@tomz500 Год назад

The Empire Strikes Back, I remember going to my friends birthday party and spending the night. He got this game and we all loved it and had a blast. I never got it myself. The last time I saw it was his birthday and it was fun to see you play it again. But, what surprised me is I thought it came out when the movie came out. I was shocked to see it's listed from 1983 on your video. On Wikipedia, its says it's from 1982. That seems better time wise. But as usual with early games, the exact release date is probably not known. Now I'm going to have to find out when my friends birthday is to place the game release before it.

@taylerannsupergirl5587 Год назад

I find your channel fun and very relaxing. Ty

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Thank you for watching and for the kind words! 😁

@dad7275 Год назад

Great ranking list. Out of all of these I played Qbert is my favorite with Frogger a close second.

@johneygd Год назад

I do own qbert,frogger,popeye and sky skipper and those games are just awesome😁

@JohnHenrySheridan Год назад

Fun, thanks Jon! I've been enjoying watching your Atari 2600 (and other) videos with my soon-to-be 8 y/o son. He too really appreciates retro gaming / classic consoles. :)

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

That is awesome!

@DarksladeDiaries Месяц назад

I totally enjoy your videos, and even agree with your tier list on occasion... well some of it... on rare occasions. But I gotta say that every time one of your vids start, my eyes get drawn to the 2XL on your shelf. That thing holds more memories for me from when my kids were young, it almost brings a tear to my eye.

@GenXGrownUp Месяц назад

I do get the occasional comment about some little trinket on my set sparking someone's childhood memories, and it always makes me smile.

@derekwhidden9730 Год назад

Man I used to play Tutankhamun a lot back in the day. I considered it to be a more challenging game but it was pretty compelling to get through the levels just to see what colors you get next. Then something I played even more was Reactor. Please give it another shot after you learn these two mechanics. First off you have the two chambers at the bottom of the screen. Im not sure what purpose those chambers are supposed to serve as far as a Reactor is concerned but you can knock particles into them. They kind of get trapped in there, they might escape and if there are no other particles in either chamber at that time they flip fo the top of the screen. Now every time a particle bounces inside a chamber it rolls an invisible counter. When you die that counter rolls back and you get a bonus score. I rolled the counter so far once it took about five minutes (so it seemed) to count my bonus. There's two other things you should know, the first is the fire button deploys a decoy. You can also enter one of those chambers and deploy a decoy then get out. The particles will try like hell to get in there. The other thing is the control rods on the sides. If you knocked all of the rods off one side the core will shrink. Oh and after about ten levels or sho the core turns into a vortex, which has GRAVITY that tries to suck you in and kill you. After ten levels with the vortex you get the core again but the walls are invisible, then ten levels and an invisible vortex. This game is super challenging. My highest score I got was +400k. I finally turned it off I was bored.

@Boswd Год назад

Was just up in Salem Ma, and went by the original Parker Brothers Factory, super cool. Great video as always.

@GenXGrownUp 11 месяцев назад

Oh, nice! Thanks for the kind words and for watching. 😀

@Musicradio77Network 9 месяцев назад

That’s because the fame Parker Brothers building is in Salem, MA, and it has been a landmarks for centuries. But now, they torn down after Hasbro took over the business. Hasbro headquarters is now in Pawtucket, RI. I wonder if Hasbro might have the rights to the entire catalogue of Parker Brothers video games from the Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision and more.

@saylorchibi Год назад

The Empire Strikes Back was THE game back in the day. But I have to admit I have fond memories of Strawberry Shortcake. Tutankham was the game I wanted but never got.

@jonathanjohnston1064 10 месяцев назад

Having had both empire strikes back and Jedi lightsaber battles, you nailed it. Empire was tough but fun. Lightsaber battles was just weird and difficult to control. Of course, I didn't really like any paddle games because of how they worked

@fredthornley4425 Год назад

All in all Parker bros games were fairly good and fun to play and to me right bellow Activision quality games. I had about 10 in my collection. By the way Amidar was my favorite of the bunch followed by qbert and Popeye. I was a Star Wars fanatic like all of us and the Star Wars game was my favorite in the arcade and I remember searching all over the house during holiday time to see if I was getting the home version game as a gift. Oh I did get it but only found carnival, another game I loved.

@morbidsnails1913 10 месяцев назад

Great video mate, so many memories came flooding back 😁 I remember one Christmas day in the early 80's, I received Super Cobra, Amidar, Frogger, Popeye and Q-Bert for my 2600. I was only expecting 1 game, to this day I can vividly remember the utter excitement and disbelief at opening all these games and then walking into the kitchen to see a shiny new Mongoose BMX. I almost exploded with excitement, I must have been the happiest kid in England that day 😂😂 The 80's was a fantastic time to be a kid. I'm almost sure I had Reactor too, it seems so familiar from the video.

@GenXGrownUp 10 месяцев назад

That's a nice Christmas morning memory - thanks for sharing, and thanks too for watching! 😀

@Musicradio77Network 9 месяцев назад

As you know, Parker Brothers was founded the same year that the Brooklyn Bridge opened which was 1883 where it remains as an icon. “Banking” was the first game ever created. Parker Brothers ran from 1883 right up until 2009 where it got folded into Hasbro where Parker Brothers ended after 125 years of making board games. “Monopoly” is still a iconic board game since Parker Brothers introduced in 1935, and it became an runaway success.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

There's a book on the subject of Monopoly. They bought it from a guy who stole it from the Quakers (and the lady who made it) and passed it off as his own. It should have been public domain, like chess, but because they did the artwork for Mr. Monopoly (a.k.a. "Rich Uncle" Pennybags) and others which they copyrighted, it seemed like they had copyrights for the whole game.

@handyhank1967 Год назад

Thank you for this. I forgot about some of these games. Wish I still had them like Sky Skipper.

@trepaning Год назад

I never played much atari but watch your channel the same reason I watch Jay's Garage, for interesting historic info by enthusiastic pro hosts.

@GenXGrownUp 11 месяцев назад

Wow. Holy Toledo, Brian. That's high praise and your kindness is so much appreciated. I will continue to do my best to deserve your viewership.

@RandomBitzzz 8 месяцев назад

Frogger and Popeye were two of my PB favs back in the day. We had Q-Bert's Cubes because I think my parents thought it was the original q-bert game and bought it by mistake. It was fun-ish but we didn't play it much. We lucked out in the late 80s and scored my aunt's collection of 2600 games, including Q-Bert. It didn't disappoint.

@jwprimetime9795 Год назад

LOVING this series!!!

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Thanks for watching and for the encouragement. More on the way!

@jeddis92 Год назад

I mean 10 year old me would have given Spiderman an "A", one of my favorite games on the 2600.

@Cafeman_2D Год назад

Several of these games I had on 5200 and there is a huge A/V improvement on 5200. Except crappy James Bond, also an F. But I did enjoy 2600 Frogger, Spider-Man, TESB, and Reactor. I liked the cool boxes that PB games came in. Thanks for the content!

@jayme69 Год назад

Great video as always Jon and thank goodness Empire made the "S" rank ;-) Keep up the awesome work!

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Thanks! Will do!

@sidneyvandykeii3169 Год назад

Tutankham was a great arcade game. I dont think i ever played 2600 version though. I am glad you at least gave Reactor a "C". I actually enjoyed that game as a kid.

@lurkerrekrul Год назад

Reactor - This is actually an arcade port, although it differs from the arcade version in that the two compartments are on the same side, rather than being diagonally opposite each other. I never thought it was a great game, but I enjoyed it in short bursts. There's a semi-clone of this on the Amiga called Vortex. Spider-Man - I would like this game, but the web mechanic is too damn finicky. Half the time I fall, even though the end of my web was clearly on a solid part of the building. Sometimes it seems like it has a stickiness problem and just doesn't stick. Star Wars Jedi Arena - I kind of like this one. It's better with a second player, although I could rarely get anyone to play it with me. Most people didn't understand the controls, even after I explained them. Star Wars The Arcade Game - The one thing I never liked about this game is that you move the crosshairs around the screen, but that also steers your ship. It should be one or the other. If it's going to steer the ship, the crosshairs should stay in the center of the screen. If it's going to move the crosshairs, you shouldn't need to steer as well. I never liked this about the original arcade game either.

@tomsuzyinfluencerinfj2712 Год назад

Love Sky Skipper, a little known Nintendo gem

@michaellarocca1435 Год назад

🎉Great episode, as always, Jon! Empire Strikes Back is still one of my favorites! However, I must disagree with the rating for the Star Wars vector port! Ok, I did not even know about the 2600 version of the vector port until recently, and as a kid, I fondly remember playing it in the arcade. When I discovered and played the vector port via emulation, inadequate controls, sounds, graphics, and any other shortcomings, I can confidently say, as a 10-year-old Michael, I would have lost my mind owning this game!!! Thanks again, Jon, for creating these fantastic videos and bringing a community of people together to enjoy the nostalgia! 👏🏻

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Thanks for watching and sharing your GenX memories, Michael!

@DoubleDguitar Год назад

Gotta shout out Montezuma’s Revenge. And now gotta keep an eye out for GI Joe. Good stuff, man.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Good call!

@marshallmcclurg1168 Год назад

SWEET SHIRT! You wore a Yaris Revenge last time but it was visible. Great video too

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Yes! Thank you!

@philipatkinson843 25 дней назад

I had a TANDY RADIO SHACK COBRA SUPER COPTER ELECTRONIC TABLETOP GAME that I enjoyed playing more than the Atari version of the game. I never even knew it was an actual arcade game because in my small town the only machines you saw were the one or two they had at the Fast Fair convenience store.

@GAMECLOSET Год назад

Parker Brothers had a couple of great titles that showed real quality. I still have all of the PB titles from my childhood, but there’s a couple I need to grab still and your video is a great reminder of the titles I need, like Popeye… can’t find mine! Haha! Thanks, Jon! 😁

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Heck, yeah. Thanks for watching! 😀

@tschak909 5 месяцев назад

re: Super Cobra, I can say, having programmed the 2600, that smooth horizontal scrolling is _VERY_ difficult without extra RAM due to the fact that the three playfield registers (PF0-PF2) are not only only 4 color clocks wide on screen, not only do you have to update them mid-screen if you want something different on the right hand side, but they are also arranged in a serpentine pattern, that is, left-to-right, right-to-left, then left to left-to-right. This means that if you want a pattern to scroll across the screen, you have to quickly exclusive-or the bit pattern at exactly the right time on screen (you have 76 CPU cycles to do any register changes, which must be done before the electron gun on the display is at said point).

@Hologhoul 11 месяцев назад

This gets off to a great start by referring to it as the 'VCS' - good work! Reactor: I've heard other people say they loved it after a while, but you did give it a fair go so I guess it's one of those games, not for everyone. Frogger was nicely done, very playable. Nice vid!

@GenXGrownUp 11 месяцев назад

Thank you for watching! 😀

@jonathanross149 7 месяцев назад

Reactor had a real sense of progression for me, and a lot of clever game play if you were open to it.

@WillWatchAnything 8 месяцев назад

The Parker Brother games get an A for their unique style of cartridge which is instantly recognizable. They used modified forms of this style for other platforms most notably ColecoVision. Had quite a few of these games growing up and now some are even in my archives today.

@cicerothenekoknightplaysall Месяц назад

You can't go wrong with frogger 🐸

@rhydean693 Год назад

Just found your channel John. Looks like you had the same childhood I had. I was playing my 2600 almost until 1990 before I got my NES. Definitely giving you a subscribe.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

I'm so glad you found me! Thanks for the sub, and I look forward to seeing you in the comments. 😀

@rhydean693 Год назад

@@GenXGrownUp I like how you rate the games as little Johnnie. I was about 8 years old when I started playing 2600(1984). I knew nothing of a video game crash. I had 2 of the worst games ever, Pac-Man and E.T., and I didn't know they were bad until decades later. I liked them, played them all the time. But looking back now, they don't seem that great.

@kbrsretrogameroom327 Год назад

I pretty much agree with your scoring. Montezuma's Revenge was one of my favorite games back in the day. Though I've played it on a lot of different systems, my personal favorite version was the disk version that came out for the Atari 8-bit computers. A little bit of trivia about this version was that it actually looks better when played on an original 800 as it makes use of the artifacting in the graphic chip to improve detail in the background bricks. This artifacting feature was removed from later chips and is missing in from the XL and XE lines.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

That's exactly how I played most. On my Atari 800!

@ctbinary42 Год назад

Parker Bros did have some good games I remember. I thought Popeye and Frogger were the best closely followed by Qbert and Empire

@Musicradio77Network 11 месяцев назад

Thanks to Hasbro, under the Hasbro Gaming brand, a lot of great games for the Atari 2600 are really darn good. I hope Hasbro should re-release a compilation of all of Parker Brothers video games for the Atari 2600 which is going to be for the Nintendo Switch, XBox One and PS5.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

If I ever play this version of Popeye, I may agree with you. But I agree that _Frogger, Qbert_ and _The Empire Strikes Back_ were their best games and still worth playing when I was home during the Pandemic in 2020.

@doctorclu 10 месяцев назад

The rankings lined up with what I remember. I got four parker brothers games from cereal promotions which I want to say were Sky Skipper, Amadar, Spider Man, and Reactor. Naturally in time got Star Wars, Frogger, Empire Strikes back and Popeye. I have tried others since that time. The main plays in the day were Frogger, Empire Strikes Back, Popeye, and Spider Man. So as said, the ratings seem to say what you mentioned. I played Frogger II on the Atari 800 version and it was a fun but frustrating game always getting knocked back a level if you missed something on the higher levels. But Frogger II was a good progression for sure! I do remember Reactor being confusing, and Sky Skipper being slow but fun. Amadar probably got played twice.

@QualityModelRailroad 4 месяца назад

Reactor was one of the best games in the arcade. The coin op was one of my all time fav. Don't know about the home version, besides you needed a trackball to have the best control

@ecwnikos Год назад

Jon love that masters of the universe tee shirt.

@mcd8732 Год назад

Great video...would love a 7800 tier vid from u

@GenXGrownUp 11 месяцев назад

I'll keep it in mind. Thanks for the suggestion.

@jackalope70 11 месяцев назад

So happy to see Montezuma's Revenge get an S. It was always one of my favorites and so many people have never even heard of it. I loved this game.

@sandal_thong8631 8 месяцев назад

I always thought "Montezuma's Revenge" was diarrhea. Not the game, just the original term. But still, who wants to play a game titled "Diarrhea?" Maybe _Fantastic Voyage_ in the colon?

@pauldee1939 Год назад

I miss Electronics Boutique 😢. I used to go almost every week.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Ditto.

@Dervraka 11 месяцев назад

Dang, I wish I had all the hours back I put into "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" on the 2600 back in the day. It was strangely addictive for pretty straightforward game.

@jeremiahthomas8140 Год назад

S-Q*bert and Montezuma's Revenge A-Amidar, Star Wars: The Arcade Game, Frogger, and Popeye B-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Gyruss, G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike, Spider-Man, and Sky Skipper C-Tutankham, Star Wars: RotJ: DSB, Star Wars: Jedi Arena, Frogger II, and James Bond 007 D-Q*Bert's Qubes, Strawberry Shortcake, Reactor, and Super Cobra F-Mr Do!'s Castle

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

James Bond a C? Wow! 😁

@jeremiahthomas8140 Год назад

@@GenXGrownUp I recall having some fun with it. Being a James Bond fan probably helps.

@jeremiahthomas8140 Год назад

Q*bert, Frogger, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Spider-Man, and Amidar I had as a kid, so it is possible there is some nostalgia there. I still play all of those though, so I do not think so.

@tomz500 Год назад

When I get things more aligned in my life I might buy some of these games for my old Atari, including the new vesions of Pac Man 8K and Donkey Kong VCS 32K if cartridges can be had. Plus, I might have to get the TI-99/4A version of Donkey Kong. I might still have that computer. Hopefully my parents didn't throw that away too. And the Amstrad CPC version is in stereo! And I didn't even know they put out a N64 version. I'll have to get that too. Looks awesome!

@johnenoch6222 Год назад

Another great list. Loved Empire Strikes Back, Frogger, Montezumas Revenge. Did I hear you admit to reading a manual?😂

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

Shhhhhhhh... 😉

@JoeSiegler Год назад

BTW, I knew you wouldn't like it from watching your other videos, but I loved Amidar. I never played the arcade, just this. And I loved the game. "Little me" adored this, and I still sneak in a round from time to time on Stella on my Mac. :)

@cryptocoffee13 Год назад

I think most 10yr old boys would have ranked GI Joe a D, at least this 10yr old at heart does. I was highly disappointed when I played it as a kid, I was expecting a more action packed GI Joe game, not what we got. James Bond is definitely an F! Popeye is and A for sure. Q-Bert and Frogger are awesome too, same with Montezuma's Revenge as they all belong on the S tier. Star Wars Jedi Arena was a fun two player game more than a single player game. I never tired from playing Empire Strikes Back! A fair assessment to me of Parker Bros Atari titles.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

I wondered how affinity for the G.I. Joe franchise might affect someone else's ranking. I wonder, do you think you'd have enjoyed it more if it weren't branded that way? (Or mabye you wouldn't have even tried it if not for the license.)

@cryptocoffee13 Год назад

@@GenXGrownUp possibly, if maybe the snake was something else and they're was a bit more to it than running back and forth. What were those knock of GI Joe's they used to sell at Kmart? If they called it that, then I'd expect it to suck. Lol

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

@@cryptocoffee13 Hahaha! 😁

@sandmanxo Год назад

I had several of these games and most of them were pretty good. Funny thing is I had never played the original arcades of most of these at the time. My first arcade I bought in 2010 was Frogger and that makes me think the Parker Brothers port was not as good as i thought in the early 80s. Funny thing is that i don't think the same thing with Popeye and Q*Bert and still think they were excellent for the hardware limitations.

@ericspero996 8 месяцев назад

I enjoyed this video. Forgot how many great Parker Brothers titles there were. I have to say I did like Tutenkahem when I was a kid but it has not stood the test of time.

@GenXGrownUp 8 месяцев назад

Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for watching! 😀

@PsychotoasterProd 7 месяцев назад

The reason I have a near complete collection of PB games was that there was a small window of time during the '83 collapse where all the games were selling at Toys R Us for 5 bucks. . . with a five buck rebate. Cant go wrong with free games!

@urbanknish Год назад

Entertaining video. I agree with most of your assessments barring the "Star Wars - Arcade Game". I had much more fun and almost nothing to complain about. But Q*Bert, Popeye, Frogger and Montezuma's Revenge were all stellar - so much fun. It's too bad that Parker Brothers didn't get to do the OG Mr. Do! port. I think they would have done better with it than Coleco.

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

It would've fared a full rank higher for me if my reticle wasn't stuck when I'm shooting. I'm glad you had a blast with it, though. 😁

@jessragan6714 Год назад

Oh, you'll get a reaction, all right! An F for Tutankham? It's weird and flawed and clunky (hold on, I'll get to the defense in a second), but I liked it better than the arcade game. It's got more enemies and more treasures than the original, and doesn't feel quite as cramped. There's no way it's worse than Amidar! Amidar is one of the stinkers of the 2600 library! I also like Reactor. It's got a little more technique than you let on... particles can be forced into pockets in the corners of the screen, to relieve the pressure on you and earn bonus points. Also, when the core turns into a red vortex, you can "surf" around the edges with clockwise sweeps of the joystick. The particles can't kill you, and you can steer your way out either when it's safe or all the control rods on one side of the screen are destroyed. And that soundtrack rocks! Makes me thrash every time I hear it!

@R3troZone 7 месяцев назад

The Atari 2600 version of Q*Bert is actually my favorite version of the game. It just plays so smooth. I like it better than the arcade.

@mariogeraci8186 Год назад

Amidar sort of reminds me of that obscure sega genesis puzzler zoom

@billybollockhead5628 10 месяцев назад

having coded the VCS myself years ago.. Frogger 2 is doing some really clever crap to get that working.. Scrolling lines of background enemies is one thing, having them animated too, I wouldnt have been able to have done that back then..

@vivsavage13 Год назад

My comment is unrelated to the Parker Brother's games. I really enjoyed this video. I was wondering if you have heard of or reviewed an Atari 2600 game called "Pikes Peak"? If you have, please consider a review for it in one of your videos.

@lenny6740 4 месяца назад

Tutankham is my favorite Atari VCS game. Is the reason why I bought the 2600 plus. ❤

@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785 11 месяцев назад

Whew, Q-Bert and Empire made S tier...I have to concur, ROTJ was maybe B on my list...cuz the Deathstar undee construction does look pretty cool, and you can't hate on the Millennium Falcon! Frogger and it's sequel were great. Your review seriously makes me wish I had GIJOE in my collection, that's gotta be a hidden gem. I wanna say you were a bit generous with Spiderman, but like he said..."Everybody gets One". I'm going to have to check out all your vids and see if I have anything you don't from obscure developers. Edit: TutenKam or whatever, I remember playing an arcade version(at church nonetheless!) that was very hard but not so bad...it had that maze game kind of feel like Pac-Man...but with more dynamics. So it can also be placed in that bottom tier of bad DCS ports.

@therealfodder Год назад

Had to do a double take on the GI Joe one - turns out it was called Action Man here in the UK. I remember renting that from a video shop back in the day (for 50p a night!) and being amazed by the snake sprite. Anyway - great video...even if I totally disagree with you on Reactor (I was hooked on this as a kid).

@GenXGrownUp Год назад

I went running to the internet to see whether it was "Action Man" or Action Force" and it turns out, it was both! "Action Man: Action Force" was the name of the G.I. Joe game in Europe. The more you know! 🌈⭐ I have seen that the entire Atari community is very divided on Reactor - either awesome or horrible. It really does nothing for me, but I'd like to understand its appeal for you. What am I missing?

@therealfodder Год назад

@@GenXGrownUp Personally I think it was the 'flow state' of the gameplay. You know all those mobile games who's only gimmick is their physics based motion? Off the top of my head I'm thinking Tiny Wings (not a criticism btw). I think the momentum of your ship (I guess to simulate the trackball of the arcade original) combined with the way the particles loop around gave it a unique 'feel' for the time. I also loved how loud it was!