Classic games with seemingly infinite levels

[Dreamc@sting]

Ok so I was playing Kid Chameleon yesterday and It's been a long time since I beat it. I remember it took me SEVERAL hours to do so in one sitting because the mass amount of levels...that got me thinking...what other games out there never seem to end? I couldn't think of any off the top of my head

[le geek]

River Raid

Cheers,
Ben

[TonyTheTiger]

There are a lot of games that don't really "end" in the classic sense of "beat the game and watch the ending." Sim City and other "God" games come to mind. Technically Pac-Man wasn't designed to "end" it just stops because it wasn't coded to count that high.

[Press_Start]

My first game, Burgertime!

[xdaytime]

Half Life 2. I thought I beat it, but I figured I was only half way through.\

EDIT: I know its not classic, :) couldn't think of anything else.

[emceelokey]

Every Rampage game. Especially the late 90's arcade versions. The original had the excuse of being made in the 80's and most arcade games didn't have endings or definite conclusions back then but the later ones had 100+ levels! And they all played the same.

[Gapporin]

Lemmings and Populous were two that came to my mind right off the bat. They both have 100+ levels.

[Jorpho]

Jumpman feels like it has a lot of levels, though I suppose it's the variety that contributes to that illusion.

[dlopez9069]

Every Rampage game. Especially the late 90's arcade versions. The original had the excuse of being made in the 80's and most arcade games didn't have endings or definite conclusions back then but the later ones had 100+ levels! And they all played the same.

On the NES version there is an ending. It took me and my sister almost 4 hours to beat it but we did. All it says though is congratulations. Really lame for that much effort if you ask me. And do games like frogger and freeway end? Oh and the nes gauntlet.

[debian4life]

Bubble Bobble on the NES.

[NE146]

/And do games like frogger and freeway end?

Of course Freeway ends... it's a timed game :) (The kind I hate by the way LOL)

[DefaultGen]

.....

[FrakAttack]

Tons of classic games like that but the most monotonous one had to be Laser Blast for VCS. Once you got the quick, 3-step rhythm down you just kinda zoned out into a seemingly infinite trance. (Until the screaming thumb cramps woke you up again.)

[JSoup]

Blue Sphere in Sonic & Knuckles.

[exit]

Majority of the Atari games have no ending, most of them (at least the ones I own) are "play until you die" type games.

If you want to consider games you're unable to finish due to whatever reason, Maniac Mansion should be right on the top. If someone dies with an item you need/before their use has run out, Sandy is pretty much boned.

[blue lander]

I remember Round 42 on the PC (sort of a Megamania/Space Invaders clone) seeming endless, although I assume there were only 42 rounds. Never could quite make it to the end..

[heybtbm]

Gauntlet and its sequels.

[Three-P]

Arkista's Ring for the NES.

[tom]

River Raid

Cheers,
Ben

River Raid ends with the score turning into exclamation marks.

[diskoboy]

About 99% of games made before 1983 played forever.

[Sparkster]

A large majority of 2600 games go on forever.

NES...
Chubby Cherub... I believe that it goes on forever, but have never been able to prove it
Bubble Bobble, Gauntlet and Rampage each have high level counts, but they *are* beatable.
Ikari Warriors feels like it goes on forever, but it eventually ends... either when you beat the game, or when you throw it out your window.
Puzzle games like Wrecking Crew and Lode Runner technically go on forever, but they just start you back at level 1 once you've beaten all the levels programmed into the game.
Does anyone know if City Connection ends?
Most ports of Atari games don't end it seems - Donkey Kong, Burger Time, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, etc. Q*Bert does though.

[jb143]

Most every early game was a score based game and could thoretically go on forever or untill the game crashed. After that, most games had an ending and the focus was to beat the game...if there was a score it wasn't the focus.

I just assumed the question was geared towards the later of the two...in which case my vote goes toward gauntlet as well.

And speaking of Rampage...me and a friend of mine wasted an entire night playing the game when it was set on free play. We were determined to get to St. Louis but it was the same as every other city...so we just kept playing but never reached the end. Is there an end to the game? I don't really know. Is there's a point to the game? Not sure on that one either..but it was somehow a pretty fun waste of a night.

[spoon]

Sky Kid? (NES) This came up in another thread. An Ex and I played this game for quite awhile and there seemed to be no end. Damn good game though.

Loop de Loop FTW

[tom]

actually, many games in the 70s ended when a high score was reached (14 points with Pong? cannot remember)

[Nate Nanjo]

Dark Cloud, especially on your first play through.

[JSoup]

Dark Cloud, especially on your first play through.

The leveling alone make that game go on forever.

[Kevin H]

Xenophobe and Mag Max come to mind for NES

[8bitgamer]

Ikari Warriors for the NES.

[unicronQ]

One that comes to mind for me is any of the main Pokemon games. Sure, they have certain goals that give you endings, but the only way it would truely end is if you catch all of the Pokemon available in the game, beat every trainer and challenge (as in the Battle Tower and stuff like that), AND fill up all the boxes with fully leveled Pokemon. I'm assuming some other RPGs and dungeon crawlers are the same way.

[mercarian]

Water World for Virtual Boy
I'm also surprised nobody has mentioned Tetris.