Anybody have any thoughts on the two Atari Flashback Classics releases? I grew up with a 2600 and am considering getting at least one of them, mainly for the arcade versions of some of the games, but I did notice a few Atari-released titles missing (I am assuming that just about all of them have licensing issues - they certainly can’t include arcade versions of the first three):
Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man (a definite improvement on Pac, at least on the 2600)
Space Invaders
Superman
Raiders of the Lost Ark
(don’t worry; ET is also not on either release)
I also wonder how well a “paddle game” like Warlords works with, say, an XBox One controller.
I don’t know about these releases, but about 10 or so years ago I bought a 2600 style joystick, preloaded with games, that plugged into the ps2. I was excited to relive a game from my youth, Adventure. I remembered a castle, passageways and a dragon. When I plugged the joystick into the ps2, my dreams were shattered! I could not believe how crappy and uninteresting the game was. I hope this doesn’t happen to you.
2600 games are the Fruit Stripe gum of video games.
If you’re like most of us, I would almost guarantee you that you will enjoy the idea of playing these games again more than you will enjoy playing these games again.
Looking at Volume 2, I see that all the best games on it need a roller ball- Missile Command, Crystal Castles and Major Havoc. Even an analogue stick is going to suck.
If you have the nostalgia itch, you might want to look into emulators.
Major Havoc isn’t so bad; on the other hand, Crystal Castles and Missile Command are pretty much unplayable.
A few other thoughts:
As expected (and as with the Activision version on the XBox 360), any game that uses the dial controller rather than the joystick is virtually unplayable - even the arcade games like Breakout and Tempest.
Despite the fact that the processors are much, much faster now, games like Chess and 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe take every bit as long to move now as they did back then. It never occurred to anybody that, in this case, they could speed up the processing to make the game a little more playable at the harder levels.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I think there’s a bug in (arcade) Lunar Lander; whenever I thrust, the lander turns vertical and it is impossible to get it to move left or right again.
I don’t know about these releases, but about 10 or so years ago I bought a 2600 style joystick, preloaded with games, that plugged into the ps2. I was excited to relive a game from my youth, Adventure. I remembered a castle, passageways and a dragon. When I plugged the joystick into the ps2, my dreams were shattered! I could not believe how crappy and uninteresting the game was. I hope this doesn’t happen to you.
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Crappy and uninteresting, sure…but in 1979? It was a revelation. I’m still amazed that it was even possible to MAKE a game like that given the limitations of the hardware.
Most of the games from that time are awful if viewed from modern eyes.
I played it a few months back and really enjoyed it. Some 2600 games hold up just fine, at least for me, but I’m a sucker for 8 bit and “lo fi” games (that’s pretty much all I play is 8- and 16-bit games.) Enduro is still pretty cool. River Raid is fun. Pretty much any Activision title, for that matter.
The first time I heard of these games, I thought, “Man, they must really be desperate if they’re already playing the nostalgia card.”
Not going to get this one. The 2600 was the perfect toy for keeping 6 year old me occupied for a few minutes at a stretch. Simple, no-pressure games with simple concepts and win conditions, each game taking maybe a minute or two at a time, and when my sister also got in the act we could pull off lots of fun stuff (that was a big part of the appeal for me, and impossible now that everyone I know gave up video games years ago). And I appreciate simplicity, but if there’s no depth whatsoever, it’s not going to keep my attention for very long. That’s why I’m such a huge fan of music games; they seem to strike the perfect balance between simplicity, depth, challenge, and variety (and they have some kick-awesome music!).
Oh, and I’ll say it: Dial games require a dial. Period. No, don’t even try to argue this with me. I have tried playing dial games with an analogue stick, and it was like eating cereal with chopsticks. Does. Not. Work. I still don’t understand why no one ever made a simple dial controller; there are enough games on these collections that it wouldn’t be an excessive cost.
Personally, I’d rather have a compilation for a lesser-known later system like the Sega Saturn or Nintendo 64.
