Even as someone with nostalgia for the VCS, this doesn't appeal to me. It's for collectors who have a lot of old Atari games but their system stopped working right? For people who notice...
Even as someone with nostalgia for the VCS, this doesn't appeal to me. It's for collectors who have a lot of old Atari games but their system stopped working right? For people who notice differences in emulation vs original hardware, is it actually a 7800 in there or is it emulating like most other systems?
They are also selling old games in new packaging and charging over $100 which makes less sense. I guess people like to collect this stuff but isn't it more interesting to have originals? It's not like the games are actually fun to play for more than 10 minutes. Even good ones, like Missile Command, are barely playable compared to the 8-bit computer or arcade version you can play using emulators.
There are many products that play hundreds of these games, and better ones, for less money. For example, there is a product called "My Arcade Gamestation Pro" that:
Costs $99
Comes with 200 games for 2600, 7800, and arcade
Has two wireless controllers that have both a joystick and a paddle (shouldn't these be $99 by themselves?)
Has an SD slot that lets you add more games. I think it isn't documented by the company but it can run almost any console or arcade game older than original Playstation. There's a youtube video where someone added over 10,000 games to it.
Has a few USB slots so I assume you could add a very accurate wired VCS controller in case that's what you need.
It's an ARM chip in there, so it's software emulation. I'd want proper hardware emulation and analogue outputs out of a product like this from the original manufacturer. As sold, this is mostly an...
It's an ARM chip in there, so it's software emulation. I'd expect want proper hardware emulation and analogue outputs out of a product like this from the original manufacturer. As sold, this is mostly an aesthetics product.
Being able to pop original cartridges in it is really cool, but is it $130 worth of cool? I don't personally think so, and I'm kind of the perfect audience for this. I have a 2600, no way to hook...
Being able to pop original cartridges in it is really cool, but is it $130 worth of cool? I don't personally think so, and I'm kind of the perfect audience for this. I have a 2600, no way to hook it up to even semi-modern TVs, and a grocery bag full of cartridges sitting in my attic. There are a handful of games that hold up well (Pitfall and Keystone Kapers come to mind), but everything else is either steaming hot garbage or saw more enjoyable releases on other platforms later on.
If you really wanted to try out 2600 games, you're probably better off grabbing an Atari Flashback with 40+ games. And if you don't have a TV with RCA jacks, it's still cheaper to buy an RCA > HDMI adapter along with it.
One thing that might be cool about this is if you can get your hands on homebrew cartridges and see what modern developers have been able to do with old, really well understood hardware.
Basically what I took from this is the game selection sucks. I don’t own any original cartridges anymore. The only game out of these that I’d play is missile command.
Basically what I took from this is the game selection sucks.
If you’re coming for nostalgia, then it’s a disappointment that Atari failed to include such classics as Asteroids, Defender, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and others.
I don’t own any original cartridges anymore.
The cartridge includes the following games: Adventure, Combat, Dodge ’Em, Haunted House, Maze Craze, Missile Command, Realsports Volleyball, Surround, Video Pinball and Yars’ Revenge.
The only game out of these that I’d play is missile command.
IIRC Yar's Revenge may hold up as well, but you're right that the bulk of the pack-in games are stinkers that most won't want to play for more than five minutes in 2023. This Atari box is so...
IIRC Yar's Revenge may hold up as well, but you're right that the bulk of the pack-in games are stinkers that most won't want to play for more than five minutes in 2023.
This Atari box is so disappointing. Either pack in a bunch of good games (like the NES Classic et al) or base it on an FPGA (like Analogue's products). Instead it lives in a weird middle ground where it won't satisfy most anyone.
It's in the AtGames Sega Genesis tier of quality at higher than all the 'Classic' console prices. That cartridge slot must've done a number on their profit margin.
It's in the AtGames Sega Genesis tier of quality at higher than all the 'Classic' console prices. That cartridge slot must've done a number on their profit margin.
I used to play on the Atari 2600 as a kid, back then it was pretty fun but I don't see the point in this device now. These games have aged horribly (many hardly qualify as games). This thing can...
I used to play on the Atari 2600 as a kid, back then it was pretty fun but I don't see the point in this device now. These games have aged horribly (many hardly qualify as games). This thing can give you a neat little dose of nostalgia, but after that wears off (in an hour or so) it's just e-waste or a collectible. And it only comes with 10 games? What a ripoff. All of the games made for the 2600 could easily fit on one memory card.
I recently gave away my Atari consoles and most of the carts (kept a few for nostalgia), but these games really haven't aged well. There were only a couple of games I'd consider worth anyone's...
I recently gave away my Atari consoles and most of the carts (kept a few for nostalgia), but these games really haven't aged well. There were only a couple of games I'd consider worth anyone's time playing anymore, the rest were either bad ports played played (or emulated) on another system or just bad in general and best not played at all. Atari arguably never had the kind of solid catalog that Nintendo did, so its much harder to cash in on these games.
As an aside, It still amuses me when every few years someone tries to release some enhanced version of one of the better Atari games. It's never good result. I see there are giving Berserk that treatment right now. I loved that game at the time, but man, let it stay in the past.
Even as someone with nostalgia for the VCS, this doesn't appeal to me. It's for collectors who have a lot of old Atari games but their system stopped working right? For people who notice differences in emulation vs original hardware, is it actually a 7800 in there or is it emulating like most other systems?
They are also selling old games in new packaging and charging over $100 which makes less sense. I guess people like to collect this stuff but isn't it more interesting to have originals? It's not like the games are actually fun to play for more than 10 minutes. Even good ones, like Missile Command, are barely playable compared to the 8-bit computer or arcade version you can play using emulators.
There are many products that play hundreds of these games, and better ones, for less money. For example, there is a product called "My Arcade Gamestation Pro" that:
It's an ARM chip in there, so it's software emulation. I'd
expectwant proper hardware emulation and analogue outputs out of a product like this from the original manufacturer. As sold, this is mostly an aesthetics product.Being able to pop original cartridges in it is really cool, but is it $130 worth of cool? I don't personally think so, and I'm kind of the perfect audience for this. I have a 2600, no way to hook it up to even semi-modern TVs, and a grocery bag full of cartridges sitting in my attic. There are a handful of games that hold up well (Pitfall and Keystone Kapers come to mind), but everything else is either steaming hot garbage or saw more enjoyable releases on other platforms later on.
If you really wanted to try out 2600 games, you're probably better off grabbing an Atari Flashback with 40+ games. And if you don't have a TV with RCA jacks, it's still cheaper to buy an RCA > HDMI adapter along with it.
One thing that might be cool about this is if you can get your hands on homebrew cartridges and see what modern developers have been able to do with old, really well understood hardware.
Basically what I took from this is the game selection sucks.
I don’t own any original cartridges anymore.
The only game out of these that I’d play is missile command.
IIRC Yar's Revenge may hold up as well, but you're right that the bulk of the pack-in games are stinkers that most won't want to play for more than five minutes in 2023.
This Atari box is so disappointing. Either pack in a bunch of good games (like the NES Classic et al) or base it on an FPGA (like Analogue's products). Instead it lives in a weird middle ground where it won't satisfy most anyone.
It's in the AtGames Sega Genesis tier of quality at higher than all the 'Classic' console prices. That cartridge slot must've done a number on their profit margin.
...they're all the house titles atari dumped at retail for $5 apiece in `83...
Yar's Revenge does hold up better than most 2600 games. I'd put in the handful of titles worth trying out now, but it still isn't great.
I used to play on the Atari 2600 as a kid, back then it was pretty fun but I don't see the point in this device now. These games have aged horribly (many hardly qualify as games). This thing can give you a neat little dose of nostalgia, but after that wears off (in an hour or so) it's just e-waste or a collectible. And it only comes with 10 games? What a ripoff. All of the games made for the 2600 could easily fit on one memory card.
I recently gave away my Atari consoles and most of the carts (kept a few for nostalgia), but these games really haven't aged well. There were only a couple of games I'd consider worth anyone's time playing anymore, the rest were either bad ports played played (or emulated) on another system or just bad in general and best not played at all. Atari arguably never had the kind of solid catalog that Nintendo did, so its much harder to cash in on these games.
As an aside, It still amuses me when every few years someone tries to release some enhanced version of one of the better Atari games. It's never good result. I see there are giving Berserk that treatment right now. I loved that game at the time, but man, let it stay in the past.