VCSp Rev 3.1 (Low Cost Screen) Incompatibility List
|
Game Title |
Still playable? |
Symptom |
| Real sports Tennis | Not a bit | Screen is really bright and bounces. Don't think this title will break any hearts, though. |
| Riddle of the Sphinx | Heck no | No picture at all. A complete riddle. A mystery lost to the ravages of time. |
| Real sports Boxing | Far from it | Same problems as "Sphinx". Hm.... |
| Pole Position | Barely | Title screen doesn't even appear, game is off-center and wavy. |
| Laser Blast | Forget it! | Same problem as "Real Sports Boxing". Odd... |
| The Empire Strikes Back | Nope | Complete loss of horizontal sync. Similar to be frozen in carbonite. Sorry about this one. |
| Flash Gordon | Negative | Again, nothing on screen at all. Ironically, this was a gift from a VCSp buyer... |
| Summer Games | Nope | Nothing at all on screen |
| California Games | Not really | Vertical sync is pretty bad. |
VCSp Rev 3.1 Unfortunately Still Compatible List
|
Game Title |
Still playable? |
Symptom |
| Pac Man | NO! (Even though it works) | Pac Man doesn't turn his head, the ghosts flicker more than a 1903 newsreel, and the sound BLOWS! Oh, wait, this says it better than I ever could: (from The Dot Eaters) |
| Donkey Kong | In all its lame glory | Mario looks like a pile of bricks |
| Swordquest Earthwold | If you can call it 'playing' | Stupid 4k sword flickers a bit |
| E.T. | Yes, damn it | Endless falling into holes, lack of coherence in general. |
NOTES:
95 games tested. Yes, that's all I have. (In my defense, I have nearly the complete library of 7800 titles. Of course, that's not saying much)
As for the incompatible titles... Some don't surprise me. Summer Games, California Games and the Real Sports titles were all produced near the end of the 2600's life. The programmers were trying to squeeze every bit of power out of the 2600, and that might have pushed it past the limits of compatibility.
...but then again, Activision pushed the limit with almost every title, and all their games tested worked (except Laser Blast, sorry David). I couldn't test some of their later titles such as Double Dragon or Skateboardin' (since I don't have them) but stuff like Ghostbusters and Pitfall II worked. Seeing the sync problems I worried that Grand Prix wouldn't work, but it did (Mr. Crane tricked the display, making it actually go OUT of sync in order to create a scrolling road effect). That game, of all games, worked. Weird...
There are a LOT more games out there to be tested, but I was able to test all of the popular ones, the common ones. As more reports come in, I can amend this list and perhaps find solutions.
-Ben