10 Terrible Video Games You Didn't Realise Were Wildly Successful

9. Pac-Man (Atari 2600)

It was 1982, Pac-man was the greatest thing since sliced bread and Betty White. For the arcade, it was a king, so it was only logical that Atari would want to bring the game onto a home-port system where joys could be had and food to be gobbled. The thing was, Tod Frye, the game's programmer, was given a limited amount of time to complete the game; coupled with this were the major differences between the Arcade version and the Atari console - hardware, mainly, and the amount of available memory to run the game efficiently. The result? Frye had to condense the shape of the maze and used less complex patterns, sprites were animated in a different pattern, and the ghosts would create a flickering effect when they were on screen that would last longer than their actual frames. In short, shoddy gameplay. The critics slammed it and so did the fans, comparing the arcade version of the game to it's drunk, washed-up brother on the Atari 2600. It wasn't Frye's fault, really: he did the best he could with the time he had - even Frank Ballouz, the marketing manager at the time, informed the CEO of Atari that gamers would not be pleased with this version of the game. Still, Atari went on ahead and released it. It sold over 7 million copies and it is, and will forever be, the best-selling video game for the Atari 2600. It was the anticipation of it all. This was the biggest game of the 1980s and to be able to play Pac-man at home was a dream come true for most kids - of course parents were going to shell out the money. Still, you have to wonder what Atari thought of its fans to just be willing to put this game out there when the CEO was informed it was cr*p...