Games that were difficult in your childhood

Minusorange · 27 Jan 2019 at 00:13

I was remembering back to my childhood of old games that were notoriously difficult at the time and I remembered Zarch which at the time I only got to play at primary school so no chance to properly learn it like you would a game you could play for hours at home but I always remember it being one of the most frustrating games I've ever played

What other vintage games did any of you struggle with or seem to remember as being hard ?

almoststew1990 · 27 Jan 2019 at 08:28

The first mission in Driver when you're in the car park "proving your worth". I can do it first time now though, not sure what the big deal was!

Liquid_Entity · 27 Jan 2019 at 09:18

Atik Atak to this day I still have no idea what was going on.

jsmoke · 27 Jan 2019 at 09:22

Spellbound on the ZX spectrum was tough, never finished it. Actually used a walkthrough with an ZX emulator and still tough with WT

azazl187 · 27 Jan 2019 at 09:28

OMG i had Space Harrier on the Atari ST when i was about 8.... It was stupidly hard!

LewisRaz · 27 Jan 2019 at 09:55

There were many years where the anxiety of this event coming up meant a console reset and rarely did I see past this level!

Seems funny now as its so easy.

Bluecube · 27 Jan 2019 at 11:13

At the dawn of the home computer, every single blasted game was hard when you were only 5! Flipping Manic Miner for example - took me two weeks to get past the first screen!

d_brennen · 27 Jan 2019 at 11:18

Battletoads. The hoverbike level actually made me cry with rage

jsmoke · 27 Jan 2019 at 11:19

Don't think I ever finished Jet Set Willy also.

Zefan · 27 Jan 2019 at 11:26

I tried playing Mega Drive Lion King the other day after completing it 23 years ago on Amiga. I couldn't do it. Old games punish you and are utterly infuriating

Bluecube · 27 Jan 2019 at 12:46

Zefan said:
I tried playing Mega Drive Lion King the other day after completing it 23 years ago on Amiga. I couldn't do it. Old games punish you and are utterly infuriating

Three lives, no energy bar, bad guy touches or shoots you - you die. I’m glad games have evolved from that concept!

LewisRaz · 27 Jan 2019 at 12:46

Zefan said:
I tried playing Mega Drive Lion King the other day after completing it 23 years ago on Amiga. I couldn't do it. Old games punish you and are utterly infuriating

The final boss on that is literally impossible without memorising it, and it takes so long to get to it. How on earth that game got approved at that difficulty level is beyond me

bimbleuk · 27 Jan 2019 at 13:14

Having recently started playing Elite Dangerous again and realising how easy even that is now compared to launch then the original Elite was pretty hardcore and I think most people remember docking their first few times before getting enough for a computer. Nice music though!

Duke · 27 Jan 2019 at 14:40

Arnie and Operation Wolf on the Amstrad CPC. The Simpsons on the Amiga.

kinger8938 · 27 Jan 2019 at 15:32

almoststew1990 said:
The first mission in Driver when you're in the car park "proving your worth". I can do it first time now though, not sure what the big deal was!

I didn't have a clue what a Slalom was

Ninco! · 27 Jan 2019 at 15:55

Space Hulk (1993)

My school mates would plot various tactics and then after school, try them out - they never worked! We would forget that one of the squad would get a gun jam.

By gum it was hard, I never got anywhere near to finishing. We would give up and play Sensi instead! If GOG stock this I would buy in a heart beat (got the original Floppy's) sadly binned the box though. :eek:

Its been years since I have seen the Intro - blimey! Memories coming back and how I loved the intro music!

Flibster · 27 Jan 2019 at 22:24

Original release of ProjectX, Chaos Engine, Syndicate: American Revolt, Rick Dangerous. All on Amiga.

joey1211 · 28 Jan 2019 at 11:10

One Man and his Droid on the C64. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.

elh_2009 · 28 Jan 2019 at 11:34

ghouls and ghosts and ninja gaiden on the nes, still the same now lol

cheesyboy · 28 Jan 2019 at 11:56

Aliens on the C64. I had the budget version which, unknown to me until 20 years later, was missing the printed map you would get in the full price version.
An early predecessor to the 3d fps, it was ******* terrifying, as well as difficult. Might go back to it with emulator. and with the map printed out.

Loads of C64 games were seriously hard. They would otherwise be so short that I guess they had to make them that way.

Zefan said:
I tried playing Mega Drive Lion King the other day after completing it 23 years ago on Amiga. I couldn't do it. Old games punish you and are utterly infuriating

I completed the SNES one in a weekend, having borrowed it from a friend. But in those days there tended to be differences between the consoles, so MD one might very well have been harder.

jsmoke said:
Don't think I ever finished Jet Set Willy also.

Depending on which system you were playing, it might have actually been impossible to complete. The C64 version was terminally bugged such that you jumped further going left than right (or vice versa), meaning there was a section (or sections) that simply could not be done.

Oh, and if I recall correctly, the ending sequence wasn't even coded into the game!