Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration - (in VCS Store)

[Atariboy]

17 hours ago, zzip said:

Does Atari 50 contain everything in Atari Vault 1 + 2?   I would delete those to free up space if necessary

Not at all.

 

By my count Atari 50 has 104 games (6 of which were newly created exclusively for it) versus the 150 classic games on Atari Flashback Classics/Atari Vault. Of the 104 games in this latest collection, 59 were previously in the Flashback/Vault compilations. That leaves 45 which are exclusive to Atari 50.

 

And by extension of that, it means that 91 out of 150 games from the Flashback Classics/Vault line weren't carried forward to this new collection. That total includes 14 arcade games that didn't make the cut for Atari 50, including some of my personal favorites like Red Baron, Super Bug, and Monte Carlo.

 

So the old collections definitely haven't been made redundant by the upcoming Atari 50 collection. Lineup wise they're going to complement each other rather well I'd say. Between the two you'd have access to 39 arcade games, 105 Atari 2600 games, 17 Atari 5200 games, 7 Atari 7800 games, 9 Atari Jaguar games, 6 Atari Lynx games, 1 standalone recreation of an electronic game (Touch Me, Atari's take on Simon), 5 Atari 8-bit games, and the 6 newly created Reimagined games.

 

Combined, 195 different games are on offer. And the older collection also may do something better than Atari 50 does, adding to the reasons to retain it. For instance the novel steering setup that Code Mystics came up with for the overhead arcade racers worked really well where as I believe Digital Eclipse did a more conventional solution like we saw in older collections (such as with Super Sprint in various Midway compilations from years gone by).

Edited November 12, 2022 by Atariboy

[Yosikuma]

On 11/10/2022 at 10:40 AM, Mockduck said:

Sadly, the 50th Anniversary Collection has been delayed on the VCS ONLY. No new release date listed. Atari is hosting a Q&A in the VCS Discord at Noon Eastern. Sounds like an issue with the Linux (VCS) version specifically, but I don't have anything secret to share other than that. 

And I was literally just coming here to see if anyone knew why it was not yet on the VCS. That explains that! Thank you!

[+swlovinist]

Indy 500(Race 500) is an unlockable if you view everything 100%.   There are 4 other unlockables I see in the Games Library section, but do not know how to get them as they are written in riddles.    Any help is most appreciated.  

[Atariboy]

I suspect the riddles are tied to the newly coded reimagined games.

 

They've not dug into the code of the arcade games for instance to locate the scoring registers to monitor for online leaderboards. And other than two achievements/trophies that I think are tied to Jaguar games, they're all connected to the reimagined games. 

 

So in line with that it seems quite unlikely that they've taken the step to dig into the code to locate triggers (such as one that would indicate getting the Golden Chalice in Adventure) to monitor as unlock criteria for opening up additional games. 

 

I didn't pay much attention but I think three of the riddles I glanced at were referring to accomplishing a goal of some sort in the new Swordquest, Haunted House, and Tank game.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Atariboy

[leech]

I can confirm it works on the Steam Deck (played a bit of Tempest 2000 and the Lynx version of Missile Command).  Guess I'll have to try again on my Debian install.

[Atariboy]

Basic Math apparently is unlocked in the tutorial level of Haunted Houses 3D.

 

Quoting a helpful post at GameFaqs.

 

Quote

In the area you get the key, there will be a dead end, and the urn will say something about a secret when you near it. There is a boarded shut door near that question mark. When you stand in front of it, your torch will go out. Stand in that spot for a few seconds and you'll go into a classroom. Inside is a test paper item. Grab it and take it to the teachers desk and you'll unlock Basic Math for 2600.

[+Intellivision Master]

I bought the Atari 50 collector's edition which is the gold steel book version.  I got it for Switch.  It looks nice, also comes with the poster.  I think the Atari 50 is a great value for what you get.  I can't wait to play all the different games and go through the history of Atari.  I look forward to trying out the re-imagined titles.  

[Guest]

On 11/12/2022 at 10:20 AM, swlovinist said:

Indy 500(Race 500) is an unlockable if you view everything 100%. 

Dude! spoiler alert next time! 

[Mockduck]

On 11/12/2022 at 2:32 AM, Atariboy said:

Not at all.

 

By my count Atari 50 has 104 games (6 of which were newly created exclusively for it) versus the 150 classic games on Atari Flashback Classics/Atari Vault. Of the 104 games in this latest collection, 59 were previously in the Flashback/Vault compilations. That leaves 45 which are exclusive to Atari 50.

 

And by extension of that, it means that 91 out of 150 games from the Flashback Classics/Vault line weren't carried forward to this new collection. That total includes 14 arcade games that didn't make the cut for Atari 50, including some of my personal favorites like Red Baron, Super Bug, and Monte Carlo.

 

So the old collections definitely haven't been made redundant by the upcoming Atari 50 collection. Lineup wise they're going to complement each other rather well I'd say. Between the two you'd have access to 39 arcade games, 105 Atari 2600 games, 17 Atari 5200 games, 7 Atari 7800 games, 9 Atari Jaguar games, 6 Atari Lynx games, 1 standalone recreation of an electronic game (Touch Me, Atari's take on Simon), 5 Atari 8-bit games, and the 6 newly created Reimagined games.

 

Combined, 195 different games are on offer. And the older collection also may do something better than Atari 50 does, adding to the reasons to retain it. For instance the novel steering setup that Code Mystics came up with for the overhead arcade racers worked really well where as I believe Digital Eclipse did a more conventional solution like we saw in older collections (such as with Super Sprint in various Midway compilations from years gone by).

I agree, the Classics/Vault collection is not at all redundant, although it sounds like Atari is delisting the Vault from Steam, and intends to make the 50th their new platform moving forward. Hard to say whether/if it will have any impact on AtGames' Flashback Classics line, I would assume not, hopefully not, as the Classics is now the most complete available for the 2600 catalog. 

 

I have done a comparison on the titles on both the Atari Flashback Classics collection (Atari Flashback Classics on Nintendo Switch, Atari Flashback Classics Volumes 1 and 2 on Playstation, the old Atari Vault 1 and 2 on PC/VCS) and here are the results. Obviously since the older collection never included anything past the 5200 the 50th's titles for the 7800, 800, Lynx, and Jaguar are unique to that title, but including it anyway. 

 

Titles that are on the Atari 50th: The Anniversary Celebration that are NOT on the previous collections Vault/Classics:
 

Arcade:
Akka Arrh
Breakout
Cloak & Dagger
Food Fight
I, Robot
Quantum
Sprint 8

 

Atari 2600:

Dark Chambers
Miner 2049er
Solaris

 

Atari 5200:
Bounty Bob Strikes Back

 

Atari 7800 
Asteroids
Basketbrawl
Centipede 
Dark Chambers
Fatal Run
Ninja Golf
Scrapyard Dog

 

Atari Lynx:
Basketbrawl
Malibu Bikini Volleyball
Scrapyard Dog
Super Asteroids and Missile Command
Turbo Sub

Atari 800:
Bounty Bob Strikes Back
Caverns of Mars
Food Fight
Miner 2049er
Yoomp!

 

Atari Jaguar:
Atari Karts
Club Drive
Cybermorph
Evolution Dino Dudes
Fight For Life
Missile Command 3D
Ruiner Pinball
Tempest 2000
Trevor McFur In The Crescent Galaxy
 

Reimagined:
Haunted Houses
Neo Breakout
Quadratank
Swordquest: Airworld
Touch Me
VCTR-SCTR
Yar's Revenge Reimagined

Titles that are on the Flashback Classics/Vault that are NOT on the Atari 50th: The Anniversary Celebration:
 

Arcade:
Avalanche
Baseball
Basketball
Canyon Bomber
Destroyer
Dominos
Football
Monte Carlo
Sprint
Super Bug
 

Atari 2600:

Adventure II
Air Raiders
Aquaventure
Armor Ambush
Astroblast
Atari Video Cube
Backgammon
Basketball
Black Jack
Bowling
Brain Games
Casino
Championship Soccer
Circus Atari
Codebreaker
Concentration
Dark Cavern
Double Dunk
Frog Pond
Frogs and Flies
Golf
Hangman
Holey Moley
Home Run 
Human Cannonball
International Soccer
Maze Craze
Motorodeo
Night Driver
Off the Wall
Pong Sports
Radar Lock
Return to Haunted House
Save Mary
Sea Batle
Sentinel
Sky Diver
Slot Machine
Slot Racers
Space Attack
Space War
Sprintmaster
Star Raiders
Starship
Star Strike
Steeplechase
Stellar Track
Street Racer
Stunt Cycle
Submarine Commander
Super Baseball
Super Challenge Baseball
Super Challenge Football
Super Football
Swordfight
Swordquest: Waterworld
Video Checkers
Video Chess
Video Pinball
Wizard
Yar's Return
 

Atari 5200:
Asteroids
Centipede
Countermeasure
Final Legacy
Micro-Gammon

Edited November 13, 2022 by Mockduck

[+Stephen]

I caved in and bought this on PC tonight.  I bought it for the extra content, not the games.  I am interested in testing out this new Jaguar emulation.

[bradhig1]

More secret games found. 

[jbrodack]

While the library of Atari 50 was definitely limited by licenses it's interesting that a decent amount of stuff on the last main collection was left out. No skydiver?  Also, feels like a missed opportunity to showcase Atari 2600 homebrew. I know there was a homebrew video and yoomp was included but there's so much great homebrew don't see why a few couldn't be included. 

 

There is a lot good about the new collection though especially Jaguar with 9 games. It's a good intro to the Jaguar even if not all the games are great. I like that the timelines show your current progress so you want to get that 100%. The timelines are pretty extensive. That new vector game is pretty cool and even sneaks in homage to battlezone.  Not a bad interface for changing 2600 game modes. Manual scans are good quality though the camera doesn't zoom in enough for Lynx scans.   Filters are well done and not too intrusive.  I dig the Lynx filter which works well for the low res visuals. 

 

My main gripe is lack of leaderboards.  With so many titles I get not doing online but not having leaderboard is a bummer. Not even with the new reimagined games.  Got a lot right but games like these demand leaderboards which were present in Atari Vault/flashback classics. 

[Mockduck]

Yeah, there's a separate discussion to be had about the 2022 commercial state of the Atari IP catalog. Flashback Classics is still available, although Atari Vault has been de-listed from Steam, so while Vault isn't going away on the VCS, the Atari Flashback Classics from AtGames is now the most complete Atari 2600 IP catalog available commercially. 50th of course adds all sorts of Atari platforms, but not comprehensively. So, while 50th is super great, it isn't a replacement for a fuller IP catalog like Classics. Additionally, Classics has generally working multiplayer. None have online leaderboards.

 

 

[Atariboy]

Atari Flashback Classics/Vault has online leaderboards for almost all of the arcade games. Only two or three of the arcade games lack one.

[jbrodack]

4 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Atari Flashback Classics/Vault has online leaderboards for almost all of the arcade games. Only two or three of the arcade games lack one.

Yeah usually when I've played vault on steam I play the arcade games and try to get higher on the leaderboards. 

4 hours ago, Mockduck said:

Yeah, there's a separate discussion to be had about the 2022 commercial state of the Atari IP catalog. Flashback Classics is still available, although Atari Vault has been de-listed from Steam, so while Vault isn't going away on the VCS, the Atari Flashback Classics from AtGames is now the most complete Atari 2600 IP catalog available commercially. 50th of course adds all sorts of Atari platforms, but not comprehensively. So, while 50th is super great, it isn't a replacement for a fuller IP catalog like Classics. Additionally, Classics has generally working multiplayer. None have online leaderboards.

 

 

As stated by Atariboy classics/vault has leaderboards for the arcade games that have high scores.  Multilayer online I'd only usually want for people I know. 

 

Atari 50th could have been a replacement I'm not sure why they didn't go all out and include all their IP and maybe license a few.  Vault on steam had some of its most interesting titles as dlc which was also delisted but I was able to get through fantatical.  

 

Besides the "missing" titles from the previous collection Atari definitely skimped on several systems. 5200, 7800, 800, and Lynx.  Also, I'm curious why no Atari ST. I'm guessing something with the bios. 

 

 

[roots.genoa]

1 hour ago, jbrodack said:

Also, I'm curious why no Atari ST. I'm guessing something with the bios.

Can you name an interesting Atari ST game published by Atari? The only games I played on my Atari ST were from third parties.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

Can you name an interesting Atari ST game published by Atari?

Nope.

 

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

The only games I played on my Atari ST were from third parties.

Time Bandit, Populous, Dungeon Master, Xenon 2, Oids, Elite…. Etc… etc….

[Mockduck]

Clearly I was incorrect about Classics Leaderboards, but the rest stands as a question. Maybe it was too much to ask for the 50th to become the comprehensive 2600 catalog with the introduction of newly-supported systems and the inclusion of the arcade and 5200 games from the Vault(s) that didn't make the cut. Its focus was on presentation and timeline. Still, if it - is - to become the ongoing supported list as it were, here's hoping they get back the missing games.

[stirrell]

45 minutes ago, Zeptari1 said:

Can you name an interesting Atari ST game published by Atari?

If we could include Falcon then Llamazap would be cool. Otherwise I can’t think of any that wouldn’t be on other platforms. Crystal Castles and Star Raiders are the games I usually hear as being decent on the ST but arcade and 8-bit are better versions of these I would think.

[jbrodack]

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Can you name an interesting Atari ST game published by Atari? The only games I played on my Atari ST were from third parties.

9 Lives, Hellraider, Photon Storm. 

 

I didn't say they had to be the best of the system or include a lot but with the 800 on the collection seems weird to not include Atari ST at all which is more well known.  Maybe could have included some other Jeff Minter games. 800 only has a handful of games on Atari 50 and included a non Atari game.  

[CrazyChris]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but has anyone tried

to run "Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration" on Windows 7

64-bit?

 

Chris

Edited November 16, 2022 by CrazyChris

[Flojomojo]

17 hours ago, Mockduck said:

Clearly I was incorrect about Classics Leaderboards, but the rest stands as a question. Maybe it was too much to ask for the 50th to become the comprehensive 2600 catalog with the introduction of newly-supported systems and the inclusion of the arcade and 5200 games from the Vault(s) that didn't make the cut. Its focus was on presentation and timeline. Still, if it - is - to become the ongoing supported list as it were, here's hoping they get back the missing games.

You were right about Atari Vault getting delisted from Steam, though. Take heart!

 

I waver back and forth on the question of "should Atari 50 have more stuff in it." I'm leaning towards NO because the whole point of a museum is curation, and editing. It's about Atari, not about third parties, and there's a lot of early dross that hasn't been fun for 40+ years. Home Run comes to mind. I just don't need it. 

 

The commercial appeal of "just a bunch of ROMs" is pretty well served by the AtGames plug and play Flashback sets, especially the ones with Activision games on them. Outside of the curated museum, or maybe tournament-focused activities like AntStream, I think I'm OK with leaving ROMsets to emulators. I'd like Atari 50 to be the very last time I pay money for 2600 Asteroids and Centipede.

[Mockduck]

I did want to say that one of the most exciting additions in the 50th for me is Quantum, the trackball arcade game where you circle enemies Qix-like. I had the chance to play the arcade maybe five or so years ago and have long thought it one of the best obscure Atari arcade cabinets. It's great to have a great version of it in the 50th. 

[Flojomojo]

I want to watch someone playing that and some other newer games I don't recall from BITD. My favorite from the collection is I, Robot. That and arcade Food Fight were selling points for me (even though I would have bought it anyway). 

[MrMaddog]

4 hours ago, CrazyChris said:

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but has anyone tried

to run "Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration" on Windows 7

64-bit?

 

Chris

 

 

TBH, it seems the requirements are very high for an emulation collection...maybe for the reimagined games?

 

As much as I like to get this for Steam along with the other recent Atari games, I feel like I should get this for my Xbox instead...

 

2 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

You were right about Atari Vault getting delisted from Steam, though. Take heart!

 

I waver back and forth on the question of "should Atari 50 have more stuff in it." I'm leaning towards NO because the whole point of a museum is curation, and editing. It's about Atari, not about third parties, and there's a lot of early dross that hasn't been fun for 40+ years. Home Run comes to mind. I just don't need it. 

 

The commercial appeal of "just a bunch of ROMs" is pretty well served by the AtGames plug and play Flashback sets, especially the ones with Activision games on them. Outside of the curated museum, or maybe tournament-focused activities like AntStream, I think I'm OK with leaving ROMsets to emulators. I'd like Atari 50 to be the very last time I pay money for 2600 Asteroids and Centipede.

 

Sigh, sounds like Atari has no problem with people downloading ROMz for games that got delisted like Sega did with their all the Sonic games for the Mega Drive Collection.