Worst Video Games Of The '80s

[The_Hamster_King]

Yeah, I remember playing Satan’s Hollow. It was pretty crappy … .

[Vevila]

Siddhartha Vicious: The Frogger song was called Froggy’s Lament, by Buckner and Garcia.

/clutches her vinyl album of Pacman Fever and wanders off humming Do the Donkey Kong…

[Ass_For_A_Hat]

@Edward The Head

One’s called Satan’s Hollow, really bad Space Invaders clone, some other one is called Bubbles, or Sink or something like that. You’re a bubble in a sink trying to clean stuff up? What’s up with that?

Even though I’ve never seen them in an arcade, and I worked in one, those have to be the worst.

Yes, these were both arcade games. I now want to remove Burger Time from my list and replace it with Bubbles. That was a really stupid game.

[TellMeI_mNotCrazy]

@Chastain86

That was either Jungle King or Jungle Hunt, depending on the version you played. And it wasn’t a caveman…it was Tarzan!

Which explains why Taito, when faced with a C&D letter, decided to change Tarzan to a pith-helmet equipped explorer-type, and reissue the game under the name Jungle Hunt.

I actually sort of liked it, truth be told.

Wasn’t there a similar game called Jacaranda Jim, too?

[TellMeI_mNotCrazy]

@TellMeI'mNotCrazy

Wasn’t there a similar game called Jacaranda Jim, too?

Never mind, I’m thinking of an old text adventure game (a good one though).

[slortar]

Kickball. Terrible, terrible game. You play a clown on a unicycle and you have to pop bubbles. Shoot me in the freaking head right now.

[slortar]

Er, that’s Kickman. My fingers made a desperate last ditch effort to spare you guys the pain of knowing what it’s called. Stupid fingers.

[Odinoneeye]

I’ll second QBert, Dig Dug and Burgertime. These were all games I never understood why my friends liked.

I think I played Bubbles, and I played Kickman as well, but no one liked these.

There was one where you do different Olympic events that I hated. I guess because I’ve never been much of a sports and/or Olympics fan, it just didn’t appeal to me.

[Hamlet]

@Pochacco

I also remember Gun Fight being pretty sub-par. Brain dead gameplay and really sluggish controls. Of course, it was made in 1975 so maybe it doesn’t count … .

I mighta played this game, but I think it was Boot Hill or some other name. Anywho, I played it a ton on one summer vacation where it was nigh but the only video game in the entire town, and I liked. Looking back, of course, it blew. But at the time…

Shoot daisy-chains and comets for power-ups like speed, laser, missiles, and the cutter blade.

Daisy chains??? Daisy chains??? My god the lingo must have changed since my day.

[Kat]

@MidnightRadio

I had that game when I was a kid. I loved it because it was the only game I could win (which, of course, is because I was so bad at video games—still am).

How did you get out of the pit?

[Odinoneeye]

There were a line of games that all had some kind of weapon as it’s control and they all started with the letter “C”.

There was Crossbow (fantasy), Cheyenne (western), Combat (WWII) and there was one that I think was called Chiller (horror).

Does anyone remember that last one? It was pretty gruesome and I think it got pulled. There was one part where there’s a torture chamber and a guy on a rack. If you shot the rack 3 or 4 times, the guy would pull apart.

[Kamino_Neko]

@Odinoneeye

There was Crossbow (fantasy), Cheyenne (western), Combat (WWII) and there was one that I think was called Chiller (horror).

Does anyone remember that last one?

Yep

My favourite part of the article there is this:

Chiller was one of a series of “C” games Exidy published, including Crossbow, Crackpot, and Cheyenne. Cheyenne came out, Kent said, “and you’d shoot these girls, and they would go ‘Ahhhhhh.’ Then you’d shoot Mexicans and they’d go ‘Ay yi yi,’ then you’d shoot these American Indians and they’d say, ‘Pale face.’ There wasn’t a peep of trouble for any of that. But then the next game that came out was Crossbow, and parrots would try to fly over you and drop coconuts on your head, and you’d shoot the parrots with your crossbow, and the SPCA complained.” There is little formula to understanding why some games trigger negative attention and others go unnoticed.

[Garfield226]

@Siddhartha Vicious

Anyone remember the Frogger song that came out? There was a very brief rash of video game related pop songs in the '80s. I’m fairly certain that there was a Pac Man one. The only thing I remember about the Frogger song was some schmuck wailing “Go, Froggy, Go!”

If it’s the same one I’m thinking of, this was released on Buckner and Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever” album (which featured all kinds of video games). I have it at home, I’ll look it up when I get there.

[The_Long_Road]

@Tentacle Monster

I opened this thread just to say “E.T. for the 2600”, knowing full well that someone had already said “E.T. for the Atari 2600”. That game traumatized me at the tender age of four. Terrible, terrible, terrible game.

Remember when you feel into the pits and had to raise E.T.'s head to float out of the pit? Holy freakin crap, no wonder they had to dump a ton of those in a landfill.

[Mockingbird]

@ozomatli

Custer’s Revenge was one of the worst games ever made.

And probably the most racist as well.

[MacTech]

[QUOTE=Siddhartha Vicious]
Anyone remember the Frogger song that came out? There was a very brief rash of video game related pop songs in the '80s. I’m fairly certain that there was a Pac Man one. The only thing I remember about the Frogger song was some schmuck wailing “Go, Froggy, Go!”

Buckner and Garcia made a whole album of them

[Dr_Paprika]

ET (worst game ever) and Gunfight were pretty damn bad. I kinda liked Dig Dug.

Other jeux terribles include:

3D Tic Tac Toe (woo hoo!)
Atari Slot Machine
Circus Atari
Burger Time (as said)
Trollop’s Cave
Kickback

[NDP]

How about Amidar? I get the impression this one was pretty unpopular. I remember after the one time I played it, my younger brother chided me about wasting a quarter to play such a stupid game.

[frenetic_amnesic]

It may be from the 90’s but what about Blaster Master for the NES? Or that Chuck Norris game for the Atari?

[rjung]

@Garfield226

If it’s the same one I’m thinking of, this was released on Buckner and Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever” album (which featured all kinds of video games). I have it at home, I’ll look it up when I get there.

<Hijack>

Do you have the original cassette/record, or the recently-re-released CD? 'cause I’ve got the CD, but I would love to get MP3s of the original songs – the remixed versions don’t do it for me…

</Hijack>