The Unregarded, Home Systems Edition.

[F-ZeroOne]

The YouTuber "Sebs Place" sparked a dusty memory bank into life when his most recent video looking at C&VGs worst rated games mentioned "Hotshot". I have vague memories of playing this though how I acquired it I've no idea, possibly a cover tape? The robot player design looks familiar, was it used in another game maybe?

[venusian]

It's possible to make any game play badly, of course, but that doesn't look like an awful idea.

[F-ZeroOne]

I may be completely misremembering, but although reviewers did not seem to like it, I recall having fun with it - it may have been a case of getting used to the “physics”. Or it may just be that we were more prepared to put up with a lot back then, I recently watched a review of “Everyone’s A Wally” and though I fondly remember the game, I was shocked at how you were supposed to work out the puzzles and some of the traps that would be unacceptable today outside that sub-genre of games deliberately designed that way.

[Whiteball]

I may be completely misremembering, but although reviewers did not seem to like it, I recall having fun with it - it may have been a case of getting used to the “physics”. Or it may just be that we were more prepared to put up with a lot back then, I recently watched a review of “Everyone’s A Wally” and though I fondly remember the game, I was shocked at how you were supposed to work out the puzzles and some of the traps that would be unacceptable today outside that sub-genre of games deliberately designed that way.

Personally never understood the liking for any of the 'Wally' games, they just deemed very generic and boring. Maybe I just had other better games and I guess it is what you had you get used to?

I had a bunch of games on the C64 that were really good ideas but poorly realised and programmed and that just made them sadly unplayable.

I agree that the premise of that does look fine, just can't really see from the video to well what it plays like. Also, like I say, if you had not much else but this, you would probably love it and play it a lot - faults and all.

[F-ZeroOne]

I have fond memories of them, but thats not quite the same thing as "actually fun to play". Part of it is that they - particularly "Everyones A Wally" - were just so British in a way that could perhaps only have been gotten away with at the time they were made. And as you say, sometimes you played them because there was nothing else. There was also the mystery factor, something that arguably is getting increasingly lost these days - you never entirely knew what would happen on the next screen. Again, and from memory, in "Everyones" if you didn't perform some arcane sequence of actions you could walk right. Forever.

And it had a song! Not a "licenced soundtrack", a song!

[F-ZeroOne]

Sebs Place again, kicking my data recall circuits into life with Oceans "Mailstrom"; not a great game by most accounts:

[F-ZeroOne]

So heres a weird one - "Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator" would probably be a good entry for the "Arcade" version of "The Unregarded" (I get the impression it pretty uncommon in the UK?) but while I was aware of it what I didn't know about was the home versions - the 2600 take is probably the obvious one, but it got way more than I would have suspected:

[Whiteball]

So heres a weird one - "Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator" would probably be a good entry for the "Arcade" version of "The Unregarded" (I get the impression it pretty uncommon in the UK?) but while I was aware of it what I didn't know about was the home versions - the 2600 take is probably the obvious one, but it got way more than I would have suspected:

Never seen that before in arcade or home systems. Will have to go check it out, looks interesting.

[F-ZeroOne]

I get the impression from watching videos one of the issues as to why it wasn't a great success is that it lacked the variety of other vector games like "Star Wars" (granted, "Star Wars" didn't have much to it but it was more than what I've seen with "Strategic Operations Simulator" - and surely Tactical would have been the more suitable word?!).

[SuperMappy]

I got "Astro Climber" about a week ago from itch.io for the Sega Master System.

https://badcomputer0.itch.io/astro-climber

You can get the game free or buy it in the typical itch.io fashion. I got it free to start with but I plan on buying it when I get paid this weekend.

I am playing it on a Model 2 Genesis with a Master System adapter and a SDcard modified SMS cartridge. It is quite fun and a simple challenge.

[r1ckyrock]

So heres a weird one - "Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator" would probably be a good entry for the "Arcade" version of "The Unregarded" (I get the impression it pretty uncommon in the UK?) but while I was aware of it what I didn't know about was the home versions - the 2600 take is probably the obvious one, but it got way more than I would have suspected:

Never seen that before in arcade or home systems. Will have to go check it out, looks interesting.

I used to play the Atari 8 bit version of this back in the day. Little did I know, back then, that the arcade version was a colour vector graphic arcade game. Quite liked it - cheers for the reminder!

[F-ZeroOne]

You're welcome, glad I stirred up a fond memory for you!

[F-ZeroOne]

Kept you waiting, huh? Anyway, was reminded of an entry in the slightly forgotten "French Games Were Weird" section of video gaming lore, "Ranx", based on the "Metal Hurlant" comic strip:

[F-ZeroOne]

Double post, forum gremlins strike again!