Smash TV and Total Carnage

[Ghost]

Hello people,

Do any of you know these two games?
They are shooters similar to Robotron 2084, being played from a top down perspective and using two control sticks; one to move and one to shoot in various directions.

Smash TV and Total Carnage were later also converted to consoles and home computers but never got quite as correct as the arcade originals because of the control system.

While I haven't played the actual cabinets, I have never seen them here in the Netherlands, I do have them on the Midway Classics PS2 games.

After all this talk about nostalgia I felt like playing some of the old games again.

[Harrison]

The SNES version of Smash TV, called Super Smash TV (adding super to the front of game names seemed to be a SNES thing) was the most popular home version from what I remember and used to get a lot of TV coverage on the video games shows at the time. It was definitely a good version.

I remember Total Carnage well as the magazines followed its development closely and I played all the coverdisk demos of it as it went along. I didn't realise at the time that it was a port of an arcade game, and didn't discover this until the game appeared in MAME. There was also a SNES version which I suspect was probably pretty good, especially as the SNES gamepad would lend itself quite well to a two stick control system (pad for one and the four buttons for the other).

I didn't know that an arcade port of the game was recently released for the last generation of consoles. I tend not to bother with arcade game compilations as I prefer just to play the originals using MAME. I also just looked the game up on Wikipedia and it says there was an Atari Jaguar version released in 2005. That was a surprise!

[Demon Cleaner]

I used to play Smash TV, is a good game if you play it for 1 hour as it gets tedious very fast. I used to play it on the Amiga.

And like Harrison, I don't use ports of games, I also fire up MAME to play the original. I would never d/l a game from f.ex. the PS3 network for money, when I have the original to play.

[Ghost]

Hello,

Well I got the games on those collection packs some time before I downloaded MAME.
Not sure if they really are that different from the Arcade versions, console technology has finally caught up and even surpassed arcade games.

I used to have Super Smash TV and Total Carnage for my SNES before I traded it and my Megadrive and all games for a Nintedno 64, IMO one of the most stupidest things I have ever done.

The games do become repetive but I enjoy playing them because of all the great memories they bring back.
I used to love the arcades because the games on them looked so much better than anything on a home computer or a console, of course later I learned that gameplay in home computers and consoles is more fairly balanced and deeper.

Williams is one of my favorite arcade developers, next to Smash TV and Total Carnage they also made Terminator 2: The Arcade Game (perhaps the only game tie in to that movie that was any good, all the console and home computer games were crap), Rampage World Edition.

Capcom and Konami made some of the best games too during that period.
I do kind of miss that time but I am glad we can still play all those fun games without pouring loads of coins down a slot.

[Demon Cleaner]

Not sure if they really are that different from the Arcade versions, console technology has finally caught up and even surpassed arcade games.Agreed, but original always stays original, whether better or worse. F.ex. I still prefer the original arcade Galaga to any other release, even if it has better graphics or more to offer.

[Harrison]

Same here. When they port any arcade game to a console for an arcade collection they are still not 100% identical to the original. MAME all the way for me.

[LowercaseE]

Count me in as a fan of these as well. I must've spent hundreds of dollars on Smash TV back in the day at the arcade. SOOOOOO addicting, but it really went through quarters. I have the SNES version which is a pretty good port, but the MAME version is what it's all about. I never really got into Total Carnage as much but it's still a decent game.

[TiredOfLife]

Smash TV, hmm.

Am I right in thinking that was released on the C64?

[LowercaseE]

Smash TV, hmm.

Am I right in thinking that was released on the C64?

Yep, I just checked on Lemon64 and it was there. I'm gonna have to grab a rom of it and see how it plays.

[Graham Humphrey]

Has anyone played the Amiga versions of these? Smash TV is pretty average but Total Carnage is one of the very worst games released on the Amiga IMO.

[Harrison]

I played the Amiga version of Smash TV after playing the excellent SNES version, so it made the Amiga version feel worse than it probably would to anyone playing it as their first experience of the game.

Total Carnage was OK, if very generic. As I mentioned before I played the coverdisk demos of it while it was in development and quite enjoyed it, but the controls were not very precise and made the game harder for it.

For me one of the greatest two player Amiga shooters of this type has to be Ikari Warriors. I used to play that a lot in two player mode and it was great fun. I first played the CPC version which was great for an 8-bit conversion, and then I got hold of the ST version. But the Amiga version was definitely the best, with the same improved visuals of the ST version, but with improved sound effects.

The original Ikari Warriors arcade machine also had rotational joysticks which was great!

[Buleste]

I used to love Ikari Warriors for the C64. Never played SmashTV or Total Carnage. For best multiplayer on the Amiga see Worms: The Directors Cut. The only way to improve the game is to add beer into the players.

[Demon Cleaner]

I also played Smash TV on the C64, and also enjoyed it very much. But like Harrison I also prefer Ikari Warriors, and the first time I played it was also on a CPC.