Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration announced

[Guest]

Looks really good. It’s on my radar for sure… 

 

 

[Gamemoose]

I picked it up today from the local Target and I played it a bit during my break. Instead of jumping directly to the games I decided to follow the time line, which is broken up into different chapters. I started with the first, focusing on the birth of the video arcade.
 

On my Switch Lite the video was crisp and clean as are the snap shots of fliers and photographs. In my short time i played Pong (it uses the analog sticks or D pad) then Quadratank, which is a retro-style 4 player tank game with power ups and such.

 

So far I love the presentation.  One of the videos was the “Pong Andy Capps” story that even those in the video say we all heard.  It had Al Alcorn, Tim Schaefer, Howard Scott Warshaw, Garry Kitchen, David Crane, Eugene Jarvis, the current president of Atari and a couple more I can’t remember all tell parts of the story as they remember or heard it. Great stuff so far.

[roots.genoa]

I started browsing the museum too and it's really great. I tend to skip galleries in video games and it really makes you watch everything. And I think it's great because I'm not sure I'll spend much time on games; a lot of them are very old, and the Lynx and Jaguar game selection is quite uneven.

[MrTrust]

I was really hyped for this, and I'm somewhat disappointed.

 

The emulation and presentation are all up to the usual Digital Eclipse standard, though mapping paddles and dials to the thumb stick is as wonky as ever.  The informational material is the best  ever seen in a collection of this type.  It really is like a full-gloss magazine in electronic form.  There finally seems to be a reasonably accurate Jaguar emulator out in the world now.  So, there are several things to like about it.

 

The game "curation" is not one of those.  What a mess.  Why are there two functionally identical versions of Bounty Bob Strikes Back?  For that matter, why are there any Bounty Bob games on here?  This is supposed to be a celebration of Atari; if they were trying to highlight the top-shelf third-party games that had definitive versions on Atari systems, why didn't they get more than those two games, and why is there a redundant version of each?  Yoomp! is the lone example of what homebrewers have done with Atari systems in the intervening years.  Really?  There's nothing else worth putting on there?  Why is the wretched XEGS version of Food Fight on here, and not the good 7800 one?

 

Even more bizarre than some of the inclusions are some of the omissions.  No Countermeasure for 5200?  No Motor Psycho for 7800?  No Final Legacy for 800?  No Realsports other than 2600 versions?  No Night Driver?  No Red Baron?  The Lynx selection is pathetic; if they weren't going to pony up for the Epyx licenses, then they could have at least thrown in Dirty Larry and Cyber Squash.  Overall, Atari Vault is a better and more comprehensive game collection, and substantially cheaper, even if it is missing some of the "rescued" games featured here.

 

So, what's left to justify that hefty $40 are the 6 new games.  Yars' Revenge Enhanced is, so far as I can tell, a straight 1:1 port of the original game with contemporary graphics.  Nice enough, I guess, but with Yars' Revenge Recharged out there, this looks like a low effort offering by comparison.  Same goes for Neo Breakout.  Haunted Houses is as advertised: a 3D version of Haunted House.  It retains all the frustrating elements of the original without any of the charm.  Quadratank is, essentially a head-to-head version of Vindicators, without all the strategy elements.  Vctr-Sctr actually feels like a real game that could stand on its own.  It's a mash-up remix of many elements of the different Atari vector games, and it works very well.  Feels very much like one of the recharged games, but looks like it could have been made in 1982.

 

That leaves Swordquest: Airworld.  If you're curious to know, no, they were not messing around.  This is a legit entry in the series, complete with all the impenetrable symbology and what-do-I-do-now esoteric gameplay.  I don't see any obvious signs of cheating and exceeding the limits of what the 2600 could do at that time.  Whatever your feelings about this series, the fact that they reconstructed the design without balking and making it digestible for the modern player (or any other player, for that matter, is to be applauded.  This is a piece of Atari history reclaimed, and it makes this collection feel special, maybe even more than the inclusion of Jag emulation.

 

So, you do get two worthwhile new games.  The arcade selection is solid, and the "museum" elements are spot-on.  Unfortunately, this is not the definitive Atari collection for modern consoles. That could be fixed with an expansion, and here's hoping for that, but in the meantime, you wouldn't be missing out terribly if you waited for a deep discount.

Edited November 12, 2022 by MrTrust

[roots.genoa]

I agree with what you said, even though I don't think the games are that important here (I know, ironic for a video game). Speaking of the "new" games, I only tried 3:

• I like the controls in Neo Breakout, because using both joysticks that move at a different speed kinda compensates the lack of paddle. BUT the rumble is terrible, like in most third party games unfortunately. I noticed it because I recently played Arkanoid Eternal Battle that is not as good control-wise, but features a perfect implementation of HD rumble on the Switch at least.
• Quadratank is very hard to control because, well, twin stick tank controls, but the top down view makes it even more confusing. I guess it's part of the fun, though, at least with human players.
• VCTR-SCTR is nice but I suck at Lunar Lander unfortunately, so I couldn't see what's after the second phase. Btw I also played the original Lunar Lander and it was really bullshit; my landing was great but my rocket exploded because I was probably one half of a pixel too far on the left. 😑

[mr_me]

Dual analog sticks are great for tank games.  The analog stick is okay for Lunar Lander but I find a mouse emulates the thrust lever better. You can't miss the 2x landing pads, the 5x pads are definitely doable. Try the advanced difficulty with rotation momentum, where you have to counteract each rotation thrust or you spin endlessly.

[MrTrust]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

I agree with what you said, even though I don't think the games are that important here (I know, ironic for a video game).

 

I would have more sympathy for that idea if the price were lower.  $40 is not chump change for a video game these days, and we're now talking about games that are half a century old, or nearly so.  There really is no good reason to be stingy with some of these old ROMS, and we see permissions getting secured for things like a 2600 Lode Runner homebrew by one or two-man operations, so these licensing issues are not impossible to sort out.  At the very least, there is no excuse not to have every 2600, 5200, and 7800 ROM they own on there.

 

And, like I said, it's not just what's not there, but what is.  Who in their right mind wants to play the 2600 port of Miner 2049'er on Switch, especially when the original is two clicks away?  If the collection is supposed to be curated as a sort of museum piece , why is that even there?  Why the embarrassing version of Food Fight when very, very few people ever bought or played that version, and you clearly have access to better ones? 

[DavidD]

6 hours ago, MrTrust said:

 

 Why the embarrassing version of Food Fight when very, very few people ever bought or played that version, and you clearly have access to better ones? 

Something odd must have happened behind the scenes to explain some of these decisions and omissions when it comes to titles the current Atari fully owns the rights to.  My first guess would be something like titles were chosen partially based on how many video clips, interviews, and the like they obtained for them, but as I don't have the collection I really couldn't tell.

[roots.genoa]

7 hours ago, mr_me said:

Dual analog sticks are great for tank games.

Yes, but it works better in first person view like in Battlezone.

[Guest]

On 11/12/2022 at 4:53 AM, MrTrust said:

I was really hyped for this, and I'm somewhat disappointed.

I'm hyped to play some Jag games again, It's been so long! The small selection of Lynx games has me wicked bummed out.. Atari really need to get Epyx on board! Where's Slime World, Electrocop, Chips Challenge, Blue Lighting etc......

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, Zeptari1 said:

Where's Slime World, Electrocop, Chips Challenge, Blue Lighting etc......

On Evercade. 😉

[MrTrust]

1 hour ago, Zeptari1 said:

I'm hyped to play some Jag games again, It's been so long! The small selection of Lynx games has me wicked bummed out.. Atari really need to get Epyx on board! Where's Slime World, Electrocop, Chips Challenge, Blue Lighting etc......

 

From what I can tell, Epyx was bought out by some bargain basement direct-to-DVD movie publishing house.  Was it really impossible to get them to cough up permissions for some of this stuff?  When are those licenses ever going to have value other than a project like this?

 

I guess we got Tempest 2000 at least, so maybe the rest is just gravy.

 

One thing I haven't heard mentioned in reviews is the implementation of Star Raiders is really good.  You can play it stock, it the is an optional "enhanced" mode which gives you a bezel with systems indicators on it, plus a little splash screen.  There's also an "overclock" option, which makes the gameplay totally smooth and much faster-paced.  It really freshens up the gameplay if you've played it a million times already.  Controller mapping is on point, too.

 

There's so much potential here if they could do a couple of updates and an expansion or two.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

On Evercade. 😉

Love the looks/idea of that system.. but have too many things now. 

1 hour ago, MrTrust said:

From what I can tell, Epyx was bought out by some bargain basement direct-to-DVD movie publishing house. 

As roots.genoa is saying they made it to the Evercade. Why not have them on Atari 50 too! And yes this is definitely the best project/place for this. Come on Atari get those Epyx games in there!

[DavidD]

4 hours ago, Zeptari1 said:

Love the looks/idea of that system.. but have too many things now. 

As roots.genoa is saying they made it to the Evercade. Why not have them on Atari 50 too! And yes this is definitely the best project/place for this. Come on Atari get those Epyx games in there!

There are two possibilities, I would think...

• Digital Eclipse gets Atari to go for DLC packs.
• Digital Eclipse goes straight to the current license holder and makes a deal to release "Epyx Collections" or something.

 

[roots.genoa]

8 hours ago, Zeptari1 said:

As roots.genoa is saying they made it to the Evercade. Why not have them on Atari 50 too! And yes this is definitely the best project/place for this. Come on Atari get those Epyx games in there!

And they're also currently rereleased on Steam by Pixel Games UK.

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

Just picked this up physically for Xbox.  Pretty much to play Atari Karts. (Don't tell me it sucks I know ). I'm a little sad they didn't even include an insert or anything in the case. I know many games don't anymore but I've noticed many more actually are including little fun inserts.. stickers , manual, etc.  Hells I'd even settle for a manufactuers card!

 

 

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

Ugh no online play?!

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

Ugh no online play?!

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

I'm a little sad they didn't even include an insert or anything in the case. I know many games don't anymore but I've noticed many more actually are including little fun inserts.. stickers , manual, etc.  Hells I'd even settle for a manufactuers card!

There's a poster in the Switch (steelbook) edition. 😝

Edited November 14, 2022 by roots.genoa

[negative1]

4 hours ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

Ugh no online play?!

i don't care about online play.

 

but no leaderboards is sad.

 

later

-1

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

Wow! Loving this compilation. Atari Karts is great.. I have a thing for shitty kart racers..zooming in on the original box art is great too. I was going to wait for a sale but I'm glad I got it. Got it physical at best buy with a five buck off coupon I had so not bad.

 

Black Widow is so nice with how you can control the glow. 

 

 

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

6 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

There's a poster in the Switch (steelbook) edition. 😝

This is one of very very few games I'd get the steelbook for. Don't have a switch though.   

 

Loving basketbrawl for 7800. Not a basketball game fan so passed on this.

[+jgkspsx]

I really love this package. Definitely the classiest thing that Atari SA has ever released. My one complaint is that the slipcover for the steelbook was apparently glued in place while on the steelbook, and it's way too tight to get the steelbook back into.

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

It's nice that companies are finally wising up that you can't just slap a bunch of roms together and call it a compilation for retail.  This was fk e right 

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

grrrr why is the steel book only available for that trash Nintendo system?