# Most freakishly difficult video game
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 21, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077 "2003-04-21T17:46:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hebesphenomegacorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hebesphenomegacorona)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/1 "2003-04-21T17:46:46Z")
What do you think is the most freakishly difficult videogame in existence?
Two words: Sunset Riders
Another two words: Chief Wigwam
Hardest boss ever.Even with infinite lives. on Easy mode. That is the definition of a hard boss, which makes the game nigh impossible. and the other bosses are even harder!
that or Sinistron. I now think it’s impossible to get past level 3.
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### Author:  [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/2 "2003-04-21T17:48:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by hebesphenomegacorona \*
> \*\*that or Sinistron. I now think it’s impossible to get past level 3. \*\*
I’m assuming you mean _Sinistar_. That’s a dope-ass game if I’ve ever seen one. Stupid drone ships bumping into me…
It’s nice to play the Shockwave version of it on the Shockwave site.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/3 "2003-04-21T18:23:54Z")
Nobunaga’s Ambition.
You control one territory and are competing with 20 territories for control, and are surrounded by 2-4 enemy territories.
You can hire soldiers, plant crops, purchase stuff, expand industry, etc. But you can only do ONE of the things per turn! Thus if you try to do something to counter one enemy the other will gain the upper hand.
All this is assuming a drought or plague doesnt occur and weaken you so much you become prime target for the enemys. 1 of which will immediately attack you when this happens: if you happen to beat off one, the other will finish you off.
And this is on easy level!
On medium level, if the enemy succeeds in assassinating you, even once, game over!
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### Author:  [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/4 "2003-04-21T18:39:59Z")
Sinistar is cool
I Hunger!
Bayou Billy is my vote for hardest video game, but there is some Atari port of a game that is actually impossible to beat because they screwed up the port. i can’t remember the name.
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### Author:  [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/5 "2003-04-21T18:50:18Z")
Do you mean freakishly difficult in a _good_ way, or in any way?
The most difficult game I’ve ever played personally was called _Dark Castle_ by Electronic Arts for the Sega Genesis. It was a **bad, bad** game (NOT in a good way). The reason it was so difficult was mostly because it was hard to figure out what you were doing, and even when you could the poor controls would make it almost impossible to achieve.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/6 "2003-04-21T19:03:54Z")
Most freakishly difficult game I ever saw was a PacMan game written for a 386, running on a Pentium 133. I don’t know whether the game or the computer was supposed to adjust the game speed when running on the faster CPU, but the typical game lasted about 0.03 seconds. Click start, and instantly the ghosts would swarm all over you.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/7 "2003-04-21T19:07:56Z")
WWII GI.
The first level is the beach at Normandy and it’s almost impossible to survive it. Literally.
Once I’d actually found a covered place to crouch down and try to figure out what to do and a plane crashed onto me. That sucked.
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### Author:  [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/8 "2003-04-21T19:55:18Z")
Nobunaga’s Ambition was really cool but it wasn’t that special. I beat it all the time. NA 2 was also defeated after a few weeks of heavy play. I also loved the “romance of the 3 kingdoms” series as well.
The hardest game? I vote DOOM 2 without cheating (on HARD or impossible).
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/9 "2003-04-21T20:00:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Tars Tarkas \*
> Bayou Billy is my vote for hardest video game, but there is some Atari port of a game that is actually impossible to beat because they screwed up the port. i can’t remember the name.
You’re probably thinking of Epyx’s aptly-named _Impossible Mission,_ which had a bug so the final puzzle couldn’t be completed, thus preventing you from ever finishing the game.
That said, I vote for _Stargate._ Those Yllabian Space Guppies are murder! 😉
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/10 "2003-04-21T20:20:00Z")
There was a game I played once in the Civ/Master of Orion genre called “Deadlock” that was just freakishly difficult. None of the commands seemed to DO anything.
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### Author:  [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/11 "2003-04-21T20:26:22Z")
The hardest game I’ve experienced is the arcade game _Bagman_. I’ve never managed to finish even a single level.
I also didn’t manage that old PC game from Bullfrog, was it Magic Carpet? You flew over a medium-sized ball-shaped world, had to collect mana, and cast spells.
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### Author:  [@Nangleator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nangleator)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/12 "2003-04-21T20:27:24Z")
Final Doom was just silly hard. Of course, most everyboy was cheating by the time that came out.
Indianapolis 500 (official license) on the PC was incredibly difficult on the most realistic settings. I laud the game for its seeming accuracy, but when the car was vulnerable, and you tried to play even a 60-lap race, forget it. I usually lost it when coming out of the pits with a full gas tank and cold tires.
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### Author:  [@joshmaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joshmaker)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/13 "2003-04-21T20:49:08Z")
The old Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy adventure game has some of the evilest, most fiendishly devised puzzles in existence.
If you want to try it out, it is available for free in java form here: [http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html](http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html)
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### Author:  [@markdiscordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdiscordia)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/14 "2003-04-21T20:49:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The hardest game? I vote DOOM 2 without cheating (on HARD or impossible).
You mean on Ultra-Violence or on Nightmare? I’ve beaten it a few times on the former. No one actually plays the game on Nightmare…do they?
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/15 "2003-04-21T21:48:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by rjung \*
> \*\*You’re probably thinking of Epyx’s aptly-named _Impossible Mission,_ which had a bug so the final puzzle couldn’t be completed, thus preventing you from ever finishing the game.
>
> \*\*
On the PC version, you could win the game. In the final room, there were three computers, you had a one in three chance of picking the right one to use. There was no way to tell which one was the correct one(it changed every time), so it gave the illusion to many that the end was impossible.
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### Author:  [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/16 "2003-04-21T22:11:17Z")
I’ll vote for the Atari version of E.T. I wasted five of my most formative years trying to figure out what the point of that “game” was.
Maybe if I’d watched the movie, it might’ve made sense.
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### Author:  [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/17 "2003-04-21T22:14:03Z")
Broderbund made some maddeningly-difficult games:
Deadly Towers- Accidentally get whisked into the dungeon, and you’ll be spending 90+ minutes wandering around trying to find your way out (I would simply punch the reset button personally :mad: ) The bosses were INSANELY hard, and the final boss was insanely hard to the ninth power :mad:
Guardian Legend- In some of the later shoot-em-up parts of the game, there are so many enemies/projectiles that getting through it is just dumb luck. And if you make it to the final boss, you better hope you’re maxed out on life. (I beat it on emulator using save state and probably 500 or so attempts against the last boss. And of course the ending was a HUGE letdown :mad:
Legacy of the Wizard- This game took a huge investment in time. Plus, the password was around 45 characters long (similar to Guardian Legend) which made it very easy to botch it when you copied it down.
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### Author:  [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/18 "2003-04-21T22:20:01Z")
I hope remembered the title correctly:
_Ghosts & Goblins_.
Even the home Nintendo version was infuriating.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/19 "2003-04-21T23:50:00Z")
Doom II? No way. I’ve beaten it several times on Ultra-Violence, and you’re not supposed to actually try Nightmare difficulty. My favorite level is “Barrels of Fun”, since the roommate who introduced me to the game thought it was impossible without cheat codes :).
But I’m not sure what I’d nominate instead. There are a number of individual _levels_ to video games which are essentially impossible, but I can’t think of any entire games I’ve played which were that way.
Wait a moment, I’m getting one here… There was a stupid Doom clone a while back, something to do with witches. Thankfully, I don’t remember the title. Your initial weapon was your fist, without even a gauntlet, versus opponents who all had swords. If you were really diligent and fought really hard, you could get a better weapon: A (non-throwable) dagger. Which had limited “ammo” before it wore out and broke, but you didn’t know how many hits you had left with it. Meanwhile, the maps were all mazes, and your auto-map faded out after a couple of minutes, and the enemies (but not the items) re-spawned.
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### Author:  [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-freakishly-difficult-video-game/170077/20 "2003-04-22T00:04:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Treviathan \*
> \*\*I’ll vote for the Atari version of E.T. I wasted five of my most formative years trying to figure out what the point of that “game” was.
> \*\*
i think the point of that game was to teach kids to fall down wells and fear the FBI!
good call, **rjung**!
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