The worst commercial game...

[pd2021]

As in the most disappointingly awful game you remember from back then.

Has to be A&F Frogger - slow, jerky, practically unplayable. How did it make it out of the blocks?

Was there anything worse?

[tricky]

I've covered it in other threads, but for me it was Acornsoft Carousel.
My favourite game at the time was SEGA Carnival, what is the arcade game that Carousel is supposed to be.
The game isn't the worst by far, but it was the most disappointing to me.
Carousel also has another good point; it was what made me get back into BBC games writing properly in the 201Xs, starting with my version of Carnival

[sorvad]

Off top of my head was "Pedro" which I bought for the Electron from the Bargain Bin of my "Leo's" COOP store for £1.99, (could have been 0.99p) I was ripped off. Although there are others I remember, which I can't remember the exact name of, a snooker game and Empire Strikes Back. The physics of the Snooker game were truly awful and the Empire ran to slowly too be playable

[pd2021]

Oh yes Pedro... It also had the best loading screen of any game I can remember.

Had no idea what you were meant to even do in the game. I just assumed it was faulty it was so bad.

[sydney]

Licensed to kill from Alternative Software. Nothing comes close.
http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1272

[pd2021]

I've covered it in other threads, but for me it was Acornsoft Carousel.
My favourite game at the time was SEGA Carnival, what is the arcade game that Carousel is supposed to be.
The game isn't the worst by far, but it was the most disappointing to me.
Carousel also has another good point; it was what made me get back into BBC games writing properly in the 201Xs, starting with my version of Carnival

Yes remember Carousel. It was mediocre but certainly playable. At least it was inspiration to you - nice work!

[pd2021]

Licensed to kill from Alternative Software. Nothing comes close.
http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1272

Wow!

[lovebug]

Licensed to kill from Alternative Software. Nothing comes close.
http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1272

holy moly thats terrible and the tiny playfield is just icing on the cake

amazing

[sydney]

For those with enough sense to avoid playing Licensed to kill I've found a 1 minute clip of the electron version in the excellent 'Five games, five minutes.' series from everygamegoing.com here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdLvz6gACus&t=140s

[chinnyhill10]

I seem to recall Rik The Roadie got a half decent review from one of the Acorn mags but is irredeemably awful on every system it was released on. And what makes it worse is that it was released at a time where, for the most part, it was no longer acceptable to release games as shoddy as that.

[pd2021]

I seem to recall Rik The Roadie got a half decent review from one of the Acorn mags but is irredeemably awful on every system it was released on. And what makes it worse is that it was released at a time where, for the most part, it was no longer acceptable to release games as shoddy as that.

That bit with the spectrum analyser looks .... special!

[Kecske Bak]

It'll always be Melbourne House's Gyroscope for me. It was so bad, when we took it back to Boots they gave us back our money and let us keep the tape!

[jms2]

I'm astonished by Licence to Kill... not only is the playing area the smallest of any BBC game, every single level is identical, most of the time your attempts to stab the baddies don't actually work, and if they walk towards you it can result in your death even if they don't get close.

As a bit of research I decided to use the brilliant search facility on bbcmicro.co.uk to see what other games the authors had written, and whether they were any better. Well, the good news is that they are better. But they are still not good - most being below the quality of magazine type-ins.

I'm mindful that S.Guest and J.Hamblett might find their way here, and so I'd certainly be prepared to forgive them in order to hear their story. But maybe if I'd bought the games back in the 80s I might have a different view!

[MartinH]

Checkout the HSC for games that truly suck...

Right now: Wallaby.
Previously: Psycastria, Psycastria2

[pd2021]

Checkout the HSC for games that truly suck...

Right now: Wallaby.
Previously: Psycastria, Psycastria2

What's HSC?

[chrisn]

What's HSC?

The StarDot High Score Challenge - take a look at viewforum.php?f=46, you're welcome to join in!

[chinnyhill10]

I'm astonished by Licence to Kill... not only is the playing area the smallest of any BBC game, every single level is identical, most of the time your attempts to stab the baddies don't actually work, and if they walk towards you it can result in your death even if they don't get close.

As a bit of research I decided to use the brilliant search facility on bbcmicro.co.uk to see what other games the authors had written, and whether they were any better. Well, the good news is that they are better. But they are still not good - most being below the quality of magazine type-ins.

I'm mindful that S.Guest and J.Hamblett might find their way here, and so I'd certainly be prepared to forgive them in order to hear their story. But maybe if I'd bought the games back in the 80s I might have a different view!

It's not much cop on any system. To be honest most coders are upfront about stuff they did that was total crap. Some are even surprised when stuff they thought was total crap is actually praised and still remembered.

On one hand the industry was full of kids who were being exploited by companies and shady operators who often didn't pay up. On the other hand we end users ended up paying money for total crap.

There is a train of thought that say you shouldn't criticise games for the reasons above. But if you can't criticise, how do you genuinely praise the stuff that actually does stand out?

[Chuckie]

Most of the budget went on the licence. Think ET

[jms2]

It sounds like you guys are under the impression that Licence to Kill is the James Bond game. It isn't... or at least, if it was meant to be, then we've found another bad feature of it!

[dave_stacey]

As in the most disappointingly awful game you remember from back then.

Computer Maniac's 1989 Diary?

[Venger]

I mentioned Hercules in the HSC...

Here it is in all its glory : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMgmOzhWUcw

[MatthewThompson]

I seem to recall Rik The Roadie got a half decent review from one of the Acorn mags but is irredeemably awful on every system it was released on. And what makes it worse is that it was released at a time where, for the most part, it was no longer acceptable to release games as shoddy as that.

I remember Rik The Roadie, and the reviews, it sounded quite interesting, with a driving part and all that, I bought it because it sounded something a bit different but wasn't that great at all, didn't get any outings in the cassette player!

[MatthewThompson]

Licensed to kill from Alternative Software. Nothing comes close.
http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1272

I remember this, but never bought it, didn't realise it looked so bad !, it wasn't an old Electron User/Micro User type in was it ? As Alternative Software did release a lot of these type in games commercially some years later.

[melchett]

Surely it has to be the Cascade Cassette 50 (relived in all its horror on these forums).

You can play all 50 of the "amazing" games here:

http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=3408

So bad it even has its own Wikipedia page with some amusing comments in the Reception section.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_50

I paid good money for this - I still have it (why...).

[MatthewThompson]

I bought a game called Tales Of The Arabian Nights because it looked really good, but in reality it wasn't at all, graphics were brilliant, but there was no sound, the key controls were a weird selection and the game was really difficullt to play , could of been really good with a bit of fine tuning.

Other disappointments would include Return Of The Jedi - superb title page, excellent loud music, then a horrible two colour black and yellow game. Endor was green not yellow! (Licence to Kill suffered from the same horrible colour selection)

Bruce Lee also was another one with was annoying as it was missing a load of the rooms and characters that other versions has.

Games which crashed due to poor programming are worth mentioning - Jack Attack was a brilliant platformer, but always crashed and was impossible to complete, and the same can be said of Wizzy's Mansion, a great platformer, didn't crash but totally incompletable.

I liked all these games just found them incredibly disapointing due to the lack of fine tuning to make sure they were actually playable.

I seem to remember Galactic Commander from Micro Power was a bit of dud too, that was definitely one I didn't like and wished I hadn't bought.

[ivor_the_injun]

Return Of R2

I have a lot of time for “bad” games, stuff like Auf Wiedersehen Pet, but they have to play fair, and this doesn’t.

[melchett]

Will be interesting to compare the outcome of this thread with this one back in 2006 -> viewtopic.php?f=1&t=875

[MatthewThompson]

Will be interesting to compare the outcome of this thread with this one back in 2006 -> viewtopic.php?f=1&t=875

Blimey there's some right old stinkers listed in there i'd forgotten about, the Geoff Capes and Brian Jacks games were dreadful, think Eddie Kidd Jump challenge was marginally better (just)

As for Mastertronic - usually their name on a game was worth buying, I played many excellent games on the Commodore 16 from them, but anything they released for the BBC/Electron was to be avoided !! Kane *should* of been good, but they decided to miss out 2 levels for no obvious reason, therefore ruining the game ! Pretty much everything else was type-in game standard I think, Walk the Plank was basically Connect 4, and I remember the utterly dreadful Galactic Patrol - rubbish game and Electron User described it as (and I sill rememember it) "Galactic Patrol is less than impressive, and if it is being given away free with cornflakes, then I suggest you buy another brand" !!