Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
1 2
Thread: Smash TV and Total Carnage
Ghost 23:16 15th November 2007
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.
[Reply]
Harrison 00:25 16th November 2007
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!
[Reply]
Demon Cleaner 07:00 16th November 2007
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.
[Reply]
Ghost 10:13 16th November 2007
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.
[Reply]
Demon Cleaner 10:16 16th November 2007
Originally Posted by :
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.
[Reply]
Harrison 15:05 16th November 2007
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.
[Reply]
LowercaseE 00:17 16th January 2008
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.
[Reply]
TiredOfLife 00:59 16th January 2008
Smash TV, hmm.

Am I right in thinking that was released on the C64?
[Reply]
LowercaseE 04:07 16th January 2008
Originally Posted by TiredOfLife:
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.
[Reply]
Graham Humphrey 09:52 16th January 2008
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.
[Reply]
Tags:Array
1 2
Up