Hat Trick – By Bally Sente

These 2-on-2 sports games tend to fall into two very distinct categories; ones that are brilliant like NBA Jam and Hit The Ice and ones that are downright terrible like, well like this game really! Hat Trick is a 2-on-2 ice hockey game that be played against another human or the CPU. The action is viewed from above and you see the whole rink at once. Each team has 1 player and a goalkeeper, most of the time you just control the offensive player but by holding down a button you can also control the keeper. Obviously the idea of this game is just to score more goals than your opponent within the time limit, this actually isn’t as easy as it sounds as its quite hard to score. It also isn’t as exciting as it sounds because this game is incredibly dull. There just isn’t really anything to it. It looks pretty poor, sounds very average and is boring to play. It’s no wonder that this game is the most popular one to butcher in order to make new homebrew carts.

4/10

 Ikari Warriors – By Atari

Released back in 1987 by SNK, who went on to make the Neo Geo console, Ikari Warriors was pretty much a straight clone of Capcom’s Commando, that was funnily enough also converted to the 7800. Thankfully it’s a very good one and added a feature of its own in s simultaneous 2-player mode. This 1989 conversion for the 7800 thankfully retains that feature and does an amazingly good job at replicating everything from the original. From the nice intro showing your plane crashing to the in-game music and floods of flicker free sprites you can’t help but be impressed with this conversion. The simple shoot everything gameplay is enhanced by power-ups and climbing in the tank is especially good fun indeed. It’s a close call over which is better out of this and Commando but to be honest who really cares? Get both of them and enjoy some of the best arcade action that can be had on the pro-system.

8/10

 Impossible Mission – By Epyx

This game was a massive hit for Epyx and ended up being converted to just about every 8-bit machine known to man. This 7800 version is as good as they come and probably one of the biggest games on the machine, you certainly won’t be completing this in a hurry! The idea of this game is run around a vast underground base looking for secret files hidden on a computer. There is a lift that takes you to different floors and all the rooms are guarded by lethal security droids. It takes several seconds to search each computer and perfect timing is required in order to stop being killed doing it. Your character can also jump to not only to get to other platforms but also to leap over the angry robots. The graphics are nice and colourful with great animation on our hero. The sound isn’t too bad but it misses the speech of the original C64 version. If you like arcade adventures and you like them tough then this game will be right up your street.

8/10

 Jinks – By US Gold

The very first thing that wows you about Jinks when you start it up is that you are greeted by a digitised speech sample! This is the only 7800 game to have this and its doing it through the TIA chip too, which makes it even more impressive. You may even recognise that sample as actually being from Gauntlet, US Gold were actually working on porting Gauntlet to the 7800 and for some reason choose to re-use this sample! Jinks is a real Marmite game that people seem to either love or hate, personally I love it. The best way to describe it is that it plays like a horizontally scrolling cross between Breakout and pinball. You have to use your paddle to get a ball along a level and into the exit. You can move your paddle around and also change the angle of it so you can manipulate the ball better. There are bricks to break, bumpers to bounce off, bonus items to collect and the odd enemy too in your way. One of the most original games on the system with both decent graphics and sound, I recommend you give Jinks a try.

8/10

 Joust – By Atari

The 7800 is home to some of the best classic arcade conversions on any machine, Joust is one of those that really stands out. The only console version that rivals this port is on the hand held Atari Lynx. Joust certainly has one of the craziest ideas of any video game, those guys back in the 80’s must have been doing a serious amount of drugs! You ride on the back of an ostrich flying around the screen trying to “Joust” the enemy knights from the back of their buzzards. You do this by landing on them or flying into them at least one pixel higher than they hit you. They will also be trying to do the same to you and also vastly outnumber you! When you hit them they turn into an egg which drops to one of the platforms below. You need to collect this egg before it hatches back into a knight who will be faster and more intelligent than before. Take too long doing defeating the enemy and a pterodactyl comes along and wipes you out. One of the best things about Joust is that 2 of you can play together as a team, one of the first games to do this! Joust is a fantastic conversion and pretty much a must have game for the machine.

9/10

 Karateka – By Broderbund

I can remember the very first time I ever saw a 7800, a write up of it in C&VG magazine, and when I heard about this game and saw a screenshot my mouth was watering. What was not to get excited about? A fighting game programmed by the same team as Prince Of Persia and featuring the same style of sprites and animation! Sadly the 7800 version of Karateka is totally ruined by one thing, the controls. Your character seem it respond to everything about 10 seconds late, if he bothers at all, and this will drive you crazy. It’s such a shame because Karateka looks amazing and there is no doubting how good this game was on the home computers. So if you really must play this game then go find one of them and steer well clear of this flawed conversion.

5/10

 Klax - By Atari

This game is one of the most converted arcade games ever but for those who don't know Klax is a tile based puzzler that requires you to drop different coloured bricks into a pit to form lines of three or more in the same colour either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. These bricks make their way to a pit along a conveyor belt that moves faster and faster as the levels increase. More colours are also added as the game progresses. You have a paddle to catch the bricks at the end of the belt and then drop them, your paddle can hold 5 at a time and if you miss a catch you loose a life. There are different criteria to achieve on each level such as points wave (score a certain amount of points), Diagonal wave (complete a certain amount of diagonals) and tile wave (shift a set amount of bricks). One of the best features of Klax are the secret Klaxes that can be used to achieve warps, such as the well known giant X. The 7800 version was the last game to be completed for the ProSystem but was never released until several years ago when it was found and repro's were made by ResQsoft. Better than the NES and Master System versions in every way except the sound (which is terrible - just a few beeps). This is a fine version with all the hectic gameplay and some great looking backdrops, a 7800 essential!

8/10

 Kung Fu Master – By Activision

8/10