You want this game? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THIS GAME!!!

[ManekiNeko]

I realized while playing Ikaruga the other day that even though it was designed for a next generation system, the underlying concept of switching colors to defend yourself against light and dark bullets could have been done on just about any console.

Any console, that is, but the Vectrex. GCE's portable system was capable of many things, but I couldn't imagine playing a game like Ikaruga, which is entirely dependant on the player's ability to recognize onscreen colors and react accordingly. Sure, you could dim some of the onscreen objects, but the simple fact is, they'd all be white... some of the bullets would just be less white than others, creating no end of confusion.

Can you think of other examples where a game just wouldn't belong on a specific game console? Try to avoid obvious examples where the game in question is so technologically advanced that it couldn't be done on any of the classic systems. Instead, concentrate on each system's specific weaknesses and think of a game that would exploit those weaknesses.

JR

[Cmosfm]

ANIMAL CROSSING! - maybe

[pango]

wow...people have really run out of ideas to start topics about

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Keyboard Creations.

On the Atari 2600.

Now, if you did it Astrocade-style, you could finagle a Keyboard Creations-style thing on the 5200 or the Colecovision. But on the 2600? It's be beyond cumbersome.

[o2william]

Any puzzle game that requires you to match up things based on color (like Bust-A-Move) wouldn't work on the Vectrex or RCA Studio II, since they're B&W only. 'Course, the Studio II is too underpowered to do much anyway.

I'm not that familiar with Channel F sound (since mine is broken), but I believe it lacks the sound capability necessary to play a game like Dolphin on the 2600, where sound is essential to the gameplay.

Text adventures wouldn't work very well on some of the classic systems.

Edit: PDF's post made me think of Type & Tell, Nimble Numbers Ned and Sid the Spellbinder, the three Odyssey2 games where The Voice module is absolutely essential to the gameplay (or non-gameplay in the case of Type & Tell). If a system can't do voice, it can't play these games. Same goes for the Intellivoice games.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Yeah, but what about a text adventure on the O2?

Man, my wheels is turning now. Even if it was a Hunt The Wumpus style thing.

[o2william]

I've often been curious if an O2 text adventure could be done. Or one of the text-mode games like DND. With the O2's built-in character set, it seems like it would be a natural! Of course, memory limitations may come into play.

[Sotenga]

Yeah, but what about a text adventure on the O2?

Man, my wheels is turning now. Even if it was a Hunt The Wumpus style thing.

Hunt The Wumpus? Hey, I'm not adverse to that style of gaming! I love HTW!

Whew... I'll really need to think on this topic...

...

Maybe... Solaris? It seemed to max the potential of the 2600. So did Pitfall 2. It was the only game on the 2600 to have music consistently running all the time. So did Mountain King, but that was only after you got the crown. That's the best I can think of.

[petewhitley]

The rhythm game genre wasn't really (economically) possible on cartridge based systems (though some exceptions exist, DDR on N64 (Japan), Britney on GBA, SC5 on GBA, etc.). Maybe that falls under technologically-possible though, it's hard to differentiate a system's specific weaknesses from technological weaknesses.

[WiseSalesman]

You might be able to do Ikaruga on vectrex. The black bullets would be unfilled white outlined circles.

[Dahne]

Fighting Psycho mantis would be danged hard on, say, a PC.

"Augh! Where's the second controller port?!"

[Ze_ro]

Nethack would certainly suck on a Gameboy... in fact, I don't think Nethack could really be done properly without a keyboard (Maybe on keypad systems like the 5200 or Jaguar).

Quest For The Rings, as well as the other Odyssey^2 games that use extra game tokens probably wouldn't go over very well at all on any new systems.... any game that came with a game board and tokens would probably be ridiculed (Of course, if they worked that stuff into the actual game itself, things might be different... but then the game itself wouldn't really be the same).

Light gun games would obviously not work well on any hand held... at least, not without ditching the light gun for a moving cursor.

There's also lots of arcade games that use odd control systems that can't really be duplicated on console systems without simplifying the control scheme... doing Robotron on the 2600 would be quite tricky with only one button to work with (Of course, there's much harder hurdles to jump before Robotron gets to the 2600 anyways). Doing Zwackery on any home system would be pretty tricky, considering the bizarre controls. And of course, Time Traveller and Holloseum would suck even harder without the hologram effects.

--Zero

[tom]

petewhitley: Rhythm based games are no good on a Cart system?

The VCS even had a Dance mat (ok, jogging mat). Another Rhythm game on VCS: Off your Rocker

[petewhitley]

petewhitley: Rhythm based games are no good on a Cart system?

The VCS even had a Dance mat (ok, jogging mat). Another Rhythm game on VCS: Off your Rocker

Well, I didn't say they aren't good, I just said they aren't really economically feasible (given the amount of memory music takes up vs. the price of cartridge memory). They've been done before, but the low cost of disc-based media made them what they are today.