More Computer Adventure Game Console Ports - NES and SMS

Home consoles of the third generation, such as the NES ans SMS, were sufficiently popular that computer game makers wanted to get a piece of that action.  While a very successful computer game may sell 100,000 copies across several incompatible computer platforms, a successful cartridge-based game could easily sell five times that number.  That would more than make up for the increase in cost of manufacturing cartridges versus writing to floppy disks.

The adventure game genre was extremely important in the 1980s, one of the prestige computer game genres along with role playing games, flight simulators and turn based wargames.  Most of the adventure games of the 1980s were text-based and used keyboards for input.  This is not well-suited to consoles of the third generation, which generally lacked keyboards.  Some games were beginning to use mice, a peripheral that would only come to consoles in the fourth generation.  Third generation consoles used D-pads and joysticks for the most part.  

Maniac Mansion

 The gold standard for adventure game ports for the third generation undoubtedly was the NES version of Maniac Mansion.  LucasArts developed Maniac Mansion for NES in close conjunction with Realtime Associates and it was published by Jaleco.  Despite the heavy censoring hand of Nintendo of America, the published cartridge does justice to the original Commodore 64 game and works very well as a NES game.  Play the prototype version and you can bypass almost all the censorship.  LucasArts did a great job stuffing the entire game into a 256KB cartridge.  This was by far the best showing LucasArts made for the NES.  Its other games' simply failed to meet the high standard of this port. 

The C64 used a joystick to move the cursor, it was the PC port that added mouse support.  Compared to the original, the NES input was not a real step down.  The low resolution PC port has a rather coarse mouse granularity which makes it a bit less than a perfect input device.  Graphically the game falls in between the low (160x200) and high (320x200) resolution computer versions.  The characters are very recognizable, the backgrounds are generally distinct and the objects can be made out, if a bit small.  Sound wise, the original had little music but what it did have was well done on the NES's 2A03 APU.  LucasArts made the good move of giving each character a portable CD player they could use to turn on or off the character's individual theme songs. They did a great job with these pieces.  It also wisely cut down on the number of verbs to eliminate Fix, What is and Unlock.  

Most importantly, Maniac Mansion had a battery backed save system, even if it only supported one save game at a time.  The C64 and Apple II versions of Maniac Mansion also supported one save, but that was per disk.  

Maniac Mansion was also ported to the Famicom by Jaleco before LucasArts released its version.  The Japanese version looks completely different from the US/European version.  Unfortunately, the Japanese version uses a ludicrously long 83-character password system with the 46 core Japanese hiragana characters and English letters A-T.  The screen does not scroll in this version, just like the Apple II version.  More space is taken up by the various menus, leaving the backgrounds and sprites smaller and less detailed than the US/European version.  The main theme was retained, but there is new background music in the game.  In isolation, it is not a bad port, but it pales in comparison to the LucasArts-led effort.

Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited

Also of note, the NES ports of the ICOM Simulations MacVenture games, Shadowgate, Deja Vu, and Uninvited also had battery backed saves.  These games were originally published for the B&W Apple Macintosh computers.  The Macintosh popularized the graphical user interface and multiple "windows", and native-Macintosh games generally used the high resolution to use implement the game using multiple windows.  The ICOM games, using the MacVenture engine, are no exception.  When ported to other computers, these windows were generally retained.  The windows had the benefit of being repositioned anywhere on the screen.  Some of the windows, like the inventory window, could be resized.  

The NES versions of these games were ported by the Japanese company Kemco/Seika.  K/S was never a top-tier NES developer and these games may be the best representatives of its cartridge output on the NES. These games used a small main graphics window and little animation, making those graphics easy to redraw for the NES.    They consolidated the command window and the description window so that the descriptions would appear when you do something, otherwise you would see the commands, exits and the functions to save.  

Instead of using an icon-based inventory, K/S used a text-based inventory.  The windows in the NES games cannot be resized, making an alternative necessary.  Otherwise, inventory objects would quickly overlap each other.  However, K/S could have used a simple scrollable inventory window like the DOS and C64 versions.  By using text, K/S did not have to draw the graphics for those items.  While it makes inventory management a bit simpler, it can be time consuming to go through multiple pages of item listings.  

While the PC versions are generally silent, the NES versions have music throughout.  The music in these ports is generally appropriate but somewhat simplistic.   There was also some censoring going on, as the descriptions of when you die are sometimes less graphic in the NES versions compared to the Mac originals

King's Quest V

King's Quest V was released in 1990 for MS-DOS.  It came in a 256 color version or a converted 16 color version and used 320x200 resolution graphics.  It also supported Adlib FM Synthesis and Roland MT-32 LA Synthesis.  The 256 color floppy version takes 8.64MB of hard drive space and the 16 color version 5.05MB.  It also is intended to work with a mouse on a PC with 640KB of RAM and a 16-bit 80286 running at 10MHz or better.

Sierra thought it was a good idea to port this popular PC game to the NES.  The port was done by the Hungarian company Novotrade, more famous for its Ecco the Dolphin series.  The game was distributed by Konami.  The NES KQ5 cartridge had only 512KB of ROM and an extra 8KB of RAM.  It is no joke to say that porting this game to the NES would prove very challenging.  The NES had an 8-bit 6502-based CPU running at 1.79MHz, 2KB of RAM and 5 PSG-style audio channels.  Graphically, the NES PPU could support a 256x240 resolution (no more than 224 lines were generally used) with no more than 25 colors on display from an effective palette of 54 colors.  The NES uses a 8x8 tile-based graphical display with sprites.  There were substantial limitations on the colors used for the background tiles and sprites.

The PC graphics adapters generally had no limitations on what colors could be used at what locations on the screen.  As bitmapped displays, they did not need to breakup images into tiles.  When Sierra was making KQ5, it turned to artists to make real art with paint and canvas which Sierra scanned and converted to 320x200x256 color images.  Its previous games had relied to no small extent on computer-drawn line art.  Sierra's use of hand-drawn images is one reason why the PC version of KQ5 still looks good today.  At the time it was a revelation.  

The NES shows KQ5's graphics in a 224x208 resolution, leaving borders on all four sides of the screen. Even though these are visible on a TV screen, it is generally not a distraction.  However, what is distracting is the background graphics.  Since the NES uses tile-based graphics, tiles are frequently reused to save space in the ROM.  In KQ5's case, this reuse is often noticeable because the tiles just do not seem to match up as you would expect them to match up.  The result is rather ugly looking and can make images hard to make out without staring at them.  Also, there is a substantial lack of color in the backgrounds with simple red, blue, green, yellow and brown predominating.  Some of the talking head portraits, like King Graham's, are very ugly.  All-in-all, this makes for an ugly game compared to the 256 color or even the 16 color PC versions.  

Much of the music from the PC version is included, and while the music is recognizable, the style is not well-suited to the NES APU.  A lot of ambient background animation and sound effects are lost, giving the world of Serenia a rather empty, lifeless feel.  

The saving system uses a combination of temporary saves and passwords.  The temporary saving feature works similar to the saving on home computers.  You enter a name for your save game and can reload it if you die.  You can also load a game from the menu.  It can hold up to twenty file saves at a time.

Permanent saving is done with a 15 character password, consisting of letters, numbers, space and -.  As far as NES passwords go, there are far, far worse password systems.  However, the need for passwords would have been averted if Sierra or Konami had ponied up the extra quarter per cartridge for a save battery.  The hardware is all there in the cartridge to store the saves permanently except for the battery.  

This port did tone down some of the difficulty and unfairness of the PC original.  You cannot walk into the river that runs by the Pie Shop, Inn or Town.  The maze-like desert area has been made smaller.  It also cut out some of the more unnecessary elements like being able to enter Crispin's house after the game starts.  However, most of the text dialogue is intact and unchanged.  

The worst part about this port is the truly awful way they implemented the icon interface.  In the PC version, everything is controlled by the mouse icons.  If you want to change the icon, you either right click to select the icon or you move the cursor to the top of the screen and select the icon you want.  The NES version did have the bright idea of using the D-pad to control Graham directly due to the less-than-idea method of using the D-Pad to control a cursor, but that is where the inspiration ended.  

The NES version's controls work like this.  Select makes the icon button appear, start pauses the same, B will allow you to use cycle through the Look, Talk and Action icon, and A will allow you to carry out an action from the icon bar.  The icon bar will allow you to replace D-pad movement with cursor movement via the Quick Travel icon.  This is very confusing from a PC player's perspective.  It leads to a constant struggle to figure out how to select an item from your inventory and how to get rid of the icon bar.  

There is only one cursor, an arrow.  Why Novotrade could not have implemented a look, talk, action and item cursor is beyond me.  Had they have done so, the menu system could have been simplified.  Why couldn't select be used to make the icon bar disappear?  I agree that B to cycle through/cancel and A to confirm is appropriate, but the implementation needed more work.  Ultimately, it is the controls that drive the final nail into this port's coffin.

King's Quest - Quest for the Crown

If you think that the King's Quest series could not have been further sullied on consoles, think again.  Prior to Sierra's dalliance with Nintendo, it teamed up with Parker Bros. to release the original King's Quest for the Sega Master System.  This port was done by Microsmiths,  whose only real claim to fame was the golf simulator Mean 18.  

King's Quest - Quest for the Crown for the Sega Master System comes on a 128KB cartridge.  Despite having less than half the space of a floppy disk, Microsmiths was able to cram just about everything from the PC version into the SMS version.  Saving and restoring a game is done via a 31-character password with A-Z and 1-6 being used.  If you encounter one of the many cheap deaths, you have to input this monstrosity.  Sega did have a 128KB cartridge with battery backed save RAM, but Sierra and Parker Bros. did not want to pay the premium.  

There are new dangers in this version.  If you go to close to the hole with the dagger, you will fall in and die.  Falling off the tree with the golden egg is always fatal.  When you enter the woodcutter's house, you appear on the screen just above a deadly hole.  Some puzzles are handled differently.  You should push the rock in the usual PC way.  You can deal with the witch even if she is at home when you enter her house.  The stairs up the mountain and in the leprechaun's cave are far more deadly than the beanstalk.  Oftentimes you will start on a screen near a fatal area.  Monster pathfinding, however, is comically poor thanks in part to all the obstacles on the screen.  115 points seems to be the maximum for this version vs. 158 points for the computer versions.

Because there is no keyboard, which this game originally used, you have a menu which is opened by pressing Button 1.  This menu will show a selection of verbs in one column and nouns in another column..  Pairing the two and pressing Button 1 again will lead to an action.  The menu will only give potentially valid options based on the room and the items in your inventory.  This eliminates much of the "guess what the designer wanted you to type" aspect of adventure games with text parsers.  Whether this is a good or a bad thing depends on how wedded you are to text parsers, but King's Quest's parser was always rather terse.  The 2 button brings up another menu that lets you duck, swim, climb, look about and jump as well as allowing you to view your inventory, pause the game, see your password and set the movement speed to fast or slow.  

Graphically, things are pretty nondescript.  The backgrounds use the same tiles over and over, so there are screens that look nearly identical.  This can make figuring out where you are confusing.  There is also sometimes an issue about your character overlapping solid boundaries.  It can also be tough to discern exactly where your character is walking.  The graphics are not bad, but they lack the charm of the blocky sprites and line-drawn backgrounds of the PC version.  Sound-wise there is little more sound than in the PC hard disk-installable version.

Larry and the Long Look For A Luscious Lover

I do not discuss homebrew releases often on this blog, but it is not because I am always indifferent to them. In 2014, a homebrew developer called Khan Games (Khan is not a direct reference the Mongol title but short for the programmer, Kevin Hanley, so its pronounced K-Han with a long "a") released a port of the original Sierra AGI version of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Longue Lizards for the NES.  They renamed the game to Larry and the Long Look for a Luscious Lover probably because the name Leisure Suit Larry is trademarked and Khan did not want to attract too much attention.  Like King's Quest above, the developer had to deal with the fact that the NES is controlled by a gamepad, not a keyboard (and the Famicom Keyboard does not count here).  I only played the demo but I washed a full playthrough on Youtube, so I can give impressions on what I have played and seen.


Larry is controlled by the D-pad and moves quite quickly across the screen.  The save/restore/restart menu is brought up by the select button, the inventory selection screen with the start button.  Button B uses the selected inventory item and Button A is a context sensitive button.  Button A is used to open doors, talk to people, take items, etc.  It is a very simple scheme but it does pare down the game to its bare essence.


As far as the port goes, some of the dialogue has been adjusted and areas like the alleyways, which only cause death, are not in the game.  As you can see in the attached screenshot, the graphics are plainer than the AGI version and there are fewer animated characters on the screen.  You can still die, for example, by walking into the street or having sex with the prostitute without protection.  The bar has been renamed from Lefty's to Tusky's.  In the casino, Blackjack has been changed to Roulette.


The game comes on a generous 512KB cartridge.  The cartridge has a 512KB of flash memory and 16KB of that is used to store a saved game.  Only one save game is supported, compared to twelve saves per directory for the PC version. The mapper 2 hardware this game uses is very common outside the flash saving.

The graphics have been taken from the AGI version, but the detail has been reduced.  There is much more in terms of music, but the Larry Theme is not present.  The music would not be out of place in a game like Bubble Bath Babes or Peek-a-boo Poker.  The closeups of the various girls you meet are also not present.  One last thing I must mention is that inside the box is a mail-in order form for Khan's port of E.T. on a NES cartridge.  The mail in order form is the only way to buy his E.T., so many collectors were unhappy that they had to open their sealed Larry box to buy the new game.  Just buy two!

The Case for Composite

The SNES and Genesis lead the pack of the 4th generation of video game consoles.  The common versions of these consoles can support RGB without any more effort than acquiring a cable and a monitor.  The Turbo Grafx 16 can be modded to support RGB.  But in this article I will demonstrate that RGB is not always the best choice for 4th generation graphics, at least when dealing NTSC composite video

1.  Sega Genesis

The Sega Genesis usually uses a 320x224 graphics mode.  Some games use a 256x224 mode.  The 320x224 mode's horizontal resolution is so great that not all the pixels can be fully resolved in a composite video signal on a standard TV.  There is frequent color fringing in thin-font text through the composite signal.  Additionally, with alternating colors,  you can obtain color artifacts to give graphics a transparent or blending effect.  This effect was used fairly often and works best with long alternating vertical lines.

Unfortunately, this effect is lost with an RGB monitor.  Compare the Genesis screenshots on this page for examples : http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/screenshots.html

Here are some examples from several Sega Genesis games.  For these screenshots I am using Kega Fusion v3.64, with the normal RGB output and a video capture of a real Sega Genesis Model 1 for composite video.  In each pair of Genesis screenshots, you will see the RGB first, then the composite.

Earthworm Jim is particularly ugly looking with RGB :

Note the edges of the mountains in the background :

The waterfalls of the Sonic series just don't look as convincing in RGB, composite video gives them a transparency effect :

Also, compare the fronds of the palm trees in Sonic 2 :

Some games use a checkerboard pattern that allows for dithering to give a transparency effect.  It is not quite as seamless on a composite monitor as the vertical stripes method, but gives a more acceptable picture on an RGB monitor.  Streets of Rage 2 uses the effect to simulate the characteristics of a studio spotlight during the nightclub stage :

The effect looks obvious with RGB, as do the color limitations in this title screen for Echo the Dolphin :

You can even see dithering being used in Street Fighter II, which uses a 256x224 mode, to smooth out the color gradient's in the carpet in this stage :

However, sometimes composite video can produce some very unsightly artifacts, as shown in the empty life bars of Castlevania Bloodlines :

2.  Super Nintendo

The Super Nintendo almost always uses a 256x224 graphics mode.  The Turbo Grafx 16 and CD typically used a similar mode but unlike the SNES could do a 320x224 mode.  Thus for games using these resolutions, artifact graphics are not typically available.  Even in these systems, shadows and smoke/fog do make some us of the less-than fine resolution of composite video :

However, late in the SNES's lifespan, Nintendo sought to improve the graphics quality of some of its games by creating 3D models of sprites and background tiles on advanced Silicon Graphics computers and then storing what was needed in a pre-rendered form on the cartridge.  Pictures of these graphics looked awesome on boxes and manuals and magazines.

Games with this look, like the Donkey Kong Country series, Killer Instinct, Super Mario RPG were very popular and helped extend the life of the SNES without a silly and expensive CD add-on.  When playing the game, they looked amazing back in the day.  However, when played through and emulator or to a lesser extent through RGB, the flaws cannot be denied.  The graphics have been so reduced in resolution from their SGI originals that they tend to look fuzzy, even with the perfection an emulator like higan 0.94 can provide :

Composite video can help hide the sharp edges from the down-conversion.  It is kind of like free anti-aliasing.

The SNES could do true transparency, but even so, dithering was sometimes used to provide something akin to free transparency.  The first screenshot, from Chrono Trigger, shows natural transparency by the light streaming in from the window :

The second screenshot, from Secret of Mana, shows true transparency with the water covering the rocks, and dithered transparency in the text box :

The final screenshot, from Mortal Kombat 3, shows a transparent effect with the life bars :

To give a flavor of more accurate dithering I used a composite capture device and real hardware (an early 2-chip PPU model revision).

Occasionally, Genesis-like artifacting does appear on the SNES.  Consider Kirby's Dream Land 3, which uses a 512x224 resolution.  The increased bandwidth of an RGB monitor can essentially resolve 512 pixels, but a composite monitor cannot, and the result is free transparency on the lower quality device.  Compare the following :

The first screenshot shows artifact graphics in the object partially covering Kirby, but you can see the gaps in between the lines.  The second screenshot shows the transparency effect you would see on a composite monitor.

The original model of the SNES is capable of S-Video output without modification, but you really begin to lose the transparent effects and forgiving qualities of composite video output.  In light of the successful development of HD Retrovision's component video cables for the SNES and Genesis, giving North American gamers the equivalent of RGB video out, this is a timely topic.

3.  Atari 5200 and 7800

Unlike the Atari 2600, the 5200 and 7800 support 320-pixel wide graphics modes.  The Atari 5200 uses the same hardware chips as the Atari 8-bit home computers.  Choplifter for the Atari 5200 was ported from the Atari 8-bit home computers, which was in turn ported from the Apple II.  All three versions use composite artifact color.  The Atari 5200 only has an RF connection, so unless you mod your system for S-Video (the Atari 800 has Separate Luma/Chroma on its video connector port), you will always see artifact color.  When Atari later released Choplifter for the XEGS, another Atari 8-bit home computer games console, it redid the graphics for a 160-pixel wide mode, eliminating artifact composite color.  Look here for more information : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-overlooked-artifact-color.html

The Atari 7800 also had a 320-pixel wide mode that supported artifact color, but relatively few games supported it.  Its 160-pixel mode was much easier to use and supported more colors on the screen.  One of the few games that do support artifact colors on the 7800 is Tower Toppler, a.k.a. Nebulus a.k.a. Castelian.  This might have been because the game was being ported to the Atari 8-bit and XEGS and the Atari 7800 at the same time by the same programmer.  As explained here, the Atari 8-bit version was canceled : http://www.atariprotos.com/8bit/software/towertoppler/towertoppler.htm  The Atari 7800 only has RF output, so you will always see composite artifact colors when playing the game on a real, unmodded NTSC system.  Playing it on a PAL system will result in very stripey, sometimes monochrome graphics.  This video will show you what the graphics should look like :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA3SPS-RKDM

4.  Sega Master System

The Sega Master System does support composite artifact color after a fashion.  It uses a 256-pixel wide mode but unlike the NES, it does not use a fractional color pixels that give a 3-line staircase effect.  It also does not vary each frame by one pixel.  This has the effect of making artifact colors rather stable and vertical on the SMS but diagonal and shimmery on the NES.  Sometimes you can see this in games.  See here for more information : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/07/video-potpourri.html

250 NES Games Worth Playing

In my opinion, there are many indisputable classics on the NES.  I also recognize that the library contains many, many other games that may not be indisputable classics, but are worth playing.  I decided to make a list of the games I would recommend to somebody when they ask "what's a good NES game?"

One thing I wanted to do is to cover as many genres as possible.  Even though sports games are not my forte, I wanted to try and fill as many holes as possible.  There are virtually no Street Fighter II style fighting games on the NES, so what is there, if it is at all decent, gets on the list.  I did not include any casual games outside classic puzzlers, nor did I include games that typically will be categorized as edutainment.  

Some games are here solely because of their peripheral support.  R.O.B. is a waste of money and the Power Pad is extremely impractical to use, and I would not inflict the Power Glove or the U-Force on a friend.  But the Zapper was an integral part of the NES experience and there are good games for it.  Arkanoid is on this list because it is fun to play with its VAUS paddle controller.  

Some games I recommend with reservations.  If you want a 100% authentic version of the original Archon or M.U.L.E., you won't find it in these ports.  You will find the essential essence of both games, an excellent two player head-to-head game in Archon and an easy way to get 4 player M.U.L.E. for the latter.  North and South also qualifies in this.  Double Dragon II can be unforgiving to get the best ending, but add a few Game Genie codes to make it fairer.  Ditto for Ironsword and either Battletoads game.  

Usually with a game series I recommend all the games in the series.  You will see every Mega Man game here, although some are better than others.  However, there are certain entries in a series that are really weak and are not going to be on this list.  1942 is just too shrill and boring and Contra Force is too slow to stand alongside Contra and Super C.

Other games on this list just barely make the cut.  Strider for the NES does not compare to the arcade original or the Genesis conversion, but it has just enough, despite its bugs and oddness, to make the list.  WURM is almost a guilty pleasure for me, but it is one of the better games that tries to implement more than one style of gameplay (and does not have those stupid mazes like Golgo 13).  Godzilla is another, if it weren't for the excellent use of the license, it would be a very mediocre game.

Some computer game ports are on the list, others are not.  The Wizardry and Ultima series are best experienced on computer platforms, especially the latter.  I chose Swords and Serpents because it is a good and more forgiving Wizardry clone that can only be found on the NES.  Pool of Radiance has merit in that it is a less unforgiving version of the original game while still retaining the essence of it.  Maniac Mansion is far truer to its computer forebear than King's Quest V and has awesome and exclusive if repetitive music.

This list is limited to North American NES releases during the NES's official lifespan.  This includes games released from and including 1985 up to and including 1994.  Unlicensed games released during that time frame are included, but not thereafter.  There are no Famicom or PAL NES exclusives, and no homebrews or prototypes/reproductions.  The list would probably double if all those were included, but I have narrowed the list to cartridges you could actually find on this continent.  Of course, there are some expensive cartridges like Bubble Bobble 2 and Little Sampson on this list.  

There are some "classics" that won't be on this list.  The original TMNT was a top 10 seller for the NES, but I cannot recommend it over so many other games that were not colossal disappointments.  Ikari Warriors was popular, but Guerilla War and Iron Tank (also from SNK) are better than all three Ikari NES games combined.  

1943: The Battle of Midway

3-D Adventures of the WorldRunner

A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance

Adventure Island

Adventure Island 2

Adventure Island 3

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom

Adventures of Lolo

Adventures of Lolo 2

Adventures of Lolo 3

After Burner

Alien Syndrome

Archon

Arkanoid

Astyanax

Bad Dudes

Balloon Fight

Barker Bill's Trick Shooting

Baseball Simulator 1.000

Baseball Stars

Batman

Batman Returns

Batman: Return of the Joker

Battle of Olympus, The

Battletoads

Battletoads & Double Dragon

Bee 52

Bionic Commando

Blades of Steel

Blaster Master

Bomberman

Bomberman II

Bonk's Adventure

Bubble Bobble

Bubble Bobble Part 2

Bucky O'Hare

Burai Fighter

BurgerTime

California Games

Casino Kid

Casino Kid 2

Castelian

Castlevania

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Caveman Games

Chessmaster, The

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2

Clash at Demonhead

Cobra Triangle

Code Name: Viper

Commando

Contra

Cowboy Kid

Crystal Mines

Crystalis

Déjà Vu

Desert Commander

Destiny of an Emperor

Disney's Darkwing Duck

Disney's The Little Mermaid

Dizzy the Adventurer

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong 3

Donkey Kong Jr.

Double Dragon

Double Dragon II: The Revenge

Dr. Mario

Dragon Fighter

Dragon Warrior

Dragon Warrior II

Dragon Warrior III

Dragon Warrior IV

Duck Hunt

DuckTales

DuckTales 2

Dudes with Attitude

Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball

Excitebike

Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, The

Fantasy Zone

Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger

Faxanadu

Felix the Cat

Final Fantasy

Fire 'n Ice

Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak, The

Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy, The

Freedom Force

Galaga: Demons of Death

Gargoyle's Quest II

Gauntlet

Gemfire

Ghosts'n Goblins

Godzilla: Monster of Monsters

Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode

Goonies II, The

Gradius

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Guardian Legend, The

Guerrilla War

Gun-Nac

Gun.Smoke

Gyruss

High Speed

Ice Climber

Ice Hockey

Immortal, The

Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II

Iron Tank

Jackal

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu

Journey to Silius

Kabuki Quantum Fighter

Karnov

Kickle Cubicle

Kid Icarus

Kid Klown in Night Mayor World

Kid Niki: Radical Ninja

Kirby's Adventure

Kiwi Kraze

Krion Conquest, The

Kung-Fu

Kung-Fu Heroes

Krazy Kreatures

Legacy of the Wizard

Legend of the Ghost Lion

Legend of Zelda, The

Legendary Wings

Life Force

Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade

Little Nemo: The Dream Master

Little Ninja Brothers

Little Samson

Lone Ranger, The

Low G Man: The Low Gravity Man

M.C. Kids

M.U.L.E.

Mach Rider

Mafat Conspiracy, The

Magic of Scheherazade, The

Maniac Mansion

Marble Madness

Mario Bros

Mega Man

Mega Man 2

Mega Man 3

Mega Man 4

Mega Man 5

Mega Man 6

Mendel Palace

Metal Storm

Metroid

Mickey Mousecapade

Micro Machines

Mighty Final Fight

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!

Milon's Secret Castle

Ms. Pac-Man (Tengen)

NES Open Tournament Golf

Nightshade

Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos

Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom

Nintendo World Cup

North & South

P.O.W.: Prisoners of War

Pac-Mania

Panic Restaurant

Pin*Bot

Pinball

Pinball Quest

Pipe Dream

Pirates!

Popeye

Power Blade

Power Blade 2

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom

Pro Wrestling

Q*bert

Qix

R.C. Pro-Am

R.C. Pro-Am II

Rad Racer

Rad Racer II

Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2

Rampart

RBI Baseball

Renegade

River City Ransom

Rockin Kats

Rolling Thunder

Rush'n Attack

Rygar

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team

Section Z

Shadow of the Ninja

Shadowgate

Shatterhand

Shinobi

Silkworm

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll

Snow Brothers

Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship

Solomon's Key

Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos

Spiritual Warfare

Spy vs. Spy

StarTropics

Stinger

Strider

Super C

Super Dodge Ball

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Spy Hunter

Swords and Serpents

Tecmo Bowl

Tecmo Super Bowl

Tecmo World Wrestling

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project

Tetris

Tetris (Tengen)

Tetris 2

Thunder & Lightning

Tiny Toon Adventures

Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland

Tombs & Treasure

Totally Rad

Trojan

Trolls on Treasure Island

Uninvited

Vice: Project Doom

Wario's Woods

WCW World Championship Wrestling

Werewolf

Willow

Wizards & Warriors

Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power

Wrecking Crew

WURM : Journey to the Center of the Earth

Xexyz

Zanac

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Zen the Intergalactic Ninja

Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II

Zombie Nation

Honorable Mentions:

Adventures of Bayou Billy, The

Captain Comic

Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones

Festers' Quest

Friday the 13th

Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters

Jaws

Metal Gear

Mission: Impossible

Monster in my Pocket

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters

Ultima

Wizardry: The Knight of Diamonds

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

The Forgotten Switch : The Atari 2600's B&W/Color Switch

The original Atari 2600 VCS had six switches to control the various game functions, Power On/Off, B&W/Color, Left Difficulty, Right Difficulty, Game Select and Game Reset.   In the early models of the console, there were six aluminum switches, symmetrically spaced on either side of the cartridge slot, three on the left, three on the right.  Later, Atari redesigned the console to reduce costs and put the left and right difficulty switches on the back of the console and used standard plastic switches instead of aluminum.  Even with this change, there were still two switches to the left of the cartridge slot and two to the right.  This continued into the Atari 2600jr, except that all the chrome switches had been replaced with plastic.  Nonetheless, the symmetry of the Atari 2600 is an aesthetic that has been seldom been so rigorously pursued in a console's design throughout its lifespan.

Atari 2600 Light Six Switch

The standard Atari joystick only had one button and the cartridges were too small at first for title screens, menus and logos.  Changing settings were done by these switches and the program reading the appropriate port.  Only the Power On/Off switch had a fixed function, it was connected directly to the electrical path that powered the console.  The other five switches were each connected to a bit on an I/O port.  The game could do whatever it wanted with them, but by convention the Game Select and Game Reset switches usually did just as they indicated.  While Left and Right difficulty were originally intended to set a handicap for one or both players, human or computer, they could just as easily be used to adjust game characteristics.

Atari 2600 Woodgrain Four Switch

The Black and White switch is the focus on this blog entry.  It is just as important as the other switches, yet too frequently overlooked and left off modern products.  The original intent of this switch was to alter the game to switch its colors when the switch was set to the B&W position.  The player should set it if playing on a B&W TV to improve contrast between the player/missile/ball graphics and the playfield/background.  The Atari 2600 had sixteen choices of colors or hues and eight levels of brightness or luminances.  Typically, when the B&W side of the switch was activated, the program would switch to using the eight monochrome shades offered by the 2600.  Sometimes, it would use more muted colors.  On a Color TV, the B&W choices would come very close to simulating what the image would like on a true B&W TV.  Here are two examples to show when this would be useful :

Combat - Color Switch

Combat - Color Switch on Simulated B&W TV

Combat - B&W Switch

Air-Sea Battle - Color Switch

Air-Sea Battle - Color Switch on Simulated B&W TV

Air-Sea Battle - B&W Switch

However, it is very important to remember that a B&W TV was often the second TV in American households in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  If the parents did not want the kids to hog the main TV with video games, they would hook the system up to a second TV.  Few U.S. TVs had two color TVs during this time frame.  Many kids grew up playing video games on B&W TVs, it is a very important part of retro gaming that too often overlooked.

From 1977 until 1982, most Atari and then Activision (made up of ex-Atari programmers) games used the B&W/Color Switch as originally intended.  In fact, until Atari's silver label cartridges and Activision's special label cartridges, it is easier to compile a list of games that did not use the B&W/Color switch as originally intended.  They are as follows :

Atari/Activision Games that Do Not Support B&W

Atari

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe

Asteroids

Superman

Backgammon

Demons to Diamonds

Super Breakout

Yar's Revenge

Activision

Activision Decathlon

Crackpots

Dolphin

Enduro

Frostbite

Keystone Capers

Oink

Plaque Attack

Pressure Cooker

Robot Tank

Spider Fighter

When it comes to Atari Silver, Children's or Red labels or Activision's Special labels, unless the game was previously released as a text or picture label, it will almost certainly not use the B&W/Color switch as intended.  In addition, relatively few third party games released during the 2600's official lifespan use it.  There are some exceptions, and this is not intended to be a complete list but for illustrative purposes :

Other Companies that Support B&W as Originally Intended

Alien

Star Wars ESB

Bank Heist

Dragonstomper

Frogger

Music Machine

Star Voyager

Seamonster

Space Tunnel

Realsports Volleyball

M.A.S.H.

Malagai

Mega Force

Worm War I

Crash Dive

Revenge of the Beeksteak Tomatoes

Joust

Finally, there are several games that use the B&W switch for a special function unrelated to its original intent. Often it could be used to pause the game, but other games assigned a unique function to it.  Here is a list of games that I have verified :

B&W Switch used for Something Else

Space Shuttle (engine controls)

Cosmic Ark (turn on/off star field on some cartridges)

Fantastic Voyage (pause)

Solaris (inverts planet horizons)

Mouse Trap (removes playfield)

Starmaster (brings up Galactic Chart)

Beany Bopper (pause)

Flash Gordon (pause)

Spacemaster X-7 (pause)
Secret Quest (brings up Status Screen and password)

There are undoubtedly more games than on this list, but it serves as an illustrative example of why the B&W/Color switch should not be utterly ignored.  Devices like the Atari Flashbacks which do not include the B&W/Color switch will not function as originally intended with these games.  

Activision Logo

On a totally unrelated Atari 2600 subject, it is interesting to note how consistent Activision was with its in-game logo.  Activision always displayed its logo "Activision" on the game screen for every game.  In its early games like Fishing Derby, the logo would simply be present somewhere on the bottom of the screen.  For the later games, like Pitfall, the text Copyright 198x would appear, then the Copyright text would scroll up and Activision would appear. On games released near the crash, there would be a rainbow leading into the A in Activision.  The A itself was redesigned, otherwise the logo pixel pattern seems identical :

Scrolling Logo 1982-1983

Scrolling Rainbow Logo 1983-1984

Beamrider is the only game where the Activision logo is not always seen during gameplay from the pre-crash era.   Beamrider was the first game to use the (c) character instead of the word Copyright.  It is also the last time the rainbow version of the Activision logo would be used.  Ghostbusters is unique in that it does not have the word Activision is not using the standard appearance.   After Ghostbusters, the (c) and year would be instantly replaced with the non-rainbow Activision logo, no scrolling.  Also, if the game was licensed from another company, that company's name would appear after Activision's.