Atari 2600+ is AARP approved!

[Brad_from_the_80s]

Here is one of the better reviews, concise and polished.

 

 

 

Also makes a good point about 2023 being an exceptionally good year to be an Atari fan.

[scifidude79]

12 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

Maybe not everybody did, but I grew up reading and keeping the game manuals, which is often necessary with Atari games and even later 8/16-bit games.  Usually the games follow enough conventions that you can get started right away (I mean, there are only so many things you can try to press), but to get the most out of the game you kind of have to read a little.  Plus I always enjoyed the art work, the little back story, etc.  These kids have no concept, if they can even read at all. 

 

I get so sick of the small-minded tripe about how nothing before NES is even playable or Atari games are just mini-games.  It's all BS.  The NES and other similar consoles clearly have some technical advances and can display more expansive worlds on the screen, but they don't actually do EVERYTHING better, if you can get past whatever it is about an NES's chiptunes or not-that-stellar graphics is giving you a dopamine hit.  I think if these people detoxed from all other games for a week or two and seriously tried just the Atari they're perfectly capable of getting what is so great about it, but they won't.  There's nothing wrong with enjoying newer stuff, a lot of it is really good and fun to play.  Taking an hour to load a game or go through a freaking tutorial isn't so fun, but the point is I can appreciate and enjoy them all.  An Atari isn't actually somehow "less fun" than it was in 1981, that isn't even logical.  It is people and their spoon-fed, over-indulged, over-stimulated lazy minds that have changed.  People have more leisure than ever, have access to a gluttonous and dazzling array of entertainment, and like everything else the more they have the less they are satisfied with to the point where almost nothing can impress them any more.

 

It's also curious to me that, while the overall response and reviews are pretty positive and the 2600+ is clearly selling, some people pop up a lot in comments on reviews, on Facebook, on YT, and beyond just the ignorant one-off remarks, some individuals repeatedly trash the device or the ideas behind it in favor of their preferred way to play these games (or not playing them at all).  It is weird to me that they are somehow threatened or offended by this inert innocuous thing that they don't have to buy.

In my youth, I never paid much attention to the manuals, to be honest. I just figured out how the game worked. I tend to enjoy a good manual these days. I think it's because I took them for granted when I was younger and now I realize what I was missing. Also, it is cool to read back story now. I never knew what the back story was on Tower Toppler until I got a NIB copy off of Ebay and actually looked at the manual, something I didn't do with the copy we had when I was a kid.

 

I don't know how anyone could think games before the NES are unplayable or are mini games, when there's not a lot different game play wise between a lot of 2600 games and a lot of NES games. Yes, you could make bigger games with more detailed graphics, but a lot of the core game play is the same. But, as you said, some people are ignorant.

 

I watch a guy on YouTube who calls the people tho tell people how to play older games "retro gaming gatekeepers." They think their way is the best and that everyone else should think like them and act like them. I find they typically fall into two types. The first type are the ones who think you should always play on a CRT using original hardware. The second type are the ones who think you should emulate everything. Both feel so strongly about their preferred method that they feel it's their duty to tell others that their way is the right way and that everyone else should do the same. In my opinion, they're the most useless people in the comment sections of any video or review. They add nothing original or helpful to the discussion. Like you said, it shouldn't threaten or offend them that other people do things differently than them, but it sure seems to.

[Daedalus304]

On 12/6/2023 at 6:23 AM, ls650 said:

Some of those comments at the bottom of the article... 

"Why would I buy this when I already have a PS5??"

Whoosh - right over his head.

I saw similar reactions with the Nintendo and Sega classic consoles, personally i own and love my PS5, and grew up with the PS2 etc, but i'm still interested in the history of gaming and am definitely going to pick up a 2600+, just waiting to see what the christmas/boxing day sales have to offer, played around with Atari 2600 games on emulators and in the multi game collections on newer systems and really love the games and enjoy seeing what people could do within the limitations of the hardware, and the gameplay taking centre stage due to said limitations

[scifidude79]

23 hours ago, 82-T/A said:

 

Oh my God... I HATE tutorials... especially the ones that you cannot skip. It is so maddening.

 

The most recent Ultima Underworld (or whatever the call it), is like an hour of tutorial, and I can't get past it because I simply cannot handle an hour of micromanagement in a video game... so I've never made it past the first level.

 

This is like one of the core things in life that I hate...

I don't mind a good tutorial, if it's for a game I haven't played before. It's especially good for strategy games, as many of them can be very complex. But, with many of those, you can decided to do the tutorial missions or not. So, if you've played the game before, you don't have to be bored with it again. I don't like it in story games when you can't skip it on a later play through. I think that should always be an option. I do like it when games have on screen tips that you can disable. It's a nice middle ground between no tutorial and a full on tutorial that does nothing else. You just play the game and it gives you hints on how to play. If you're familiar with the game, you just disable it in the menu. It's less intrusive that way and you're still playing the game without having to set aside time to learn to play it.

 

The hand holding I really hate is when anything you have to "find" has a map point, an arrow or illuminated path pointing to it, or is just a huge glowing thing on the screen. It makes it less fun to find things. Remember playing games like Final Fantasy where you looked in any and all containers for stuff? Sometimes you got nothing, sometimes you got mediocre stuff or junk, and other times you got valuable stuff. Some games today take that fun away by having anything you can pick up glowing and any empty containers say they're empty before you look in them. That's way less fun. I also remember the fun and even sometimes frustration of having to find a key to beat a level, but I don't even know how many games these days use that mechanic. I also remember when games had secret areas that you only found by exploring. I'm sure there are still some that do, but not as many. Those were always fun to find, then the end of the level told you how many there are and how many you found, so you had replay value by trying to find more in that level next time. I feel like a lot of things like having to actually find stuff without something pointing out to you was taken out to pander to the growing number of people these days that have shorter attention spans. Somehow, it's been decided that they should feel happy when playing games, even if the rest of us are like "this is too easy."

Edited December 16, 2023 by scifidude79

[82-T/A]

8 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

I don't mind a good tutorial, if it's for a game I haven't played before. It's especially good for strategy games, as many of them can be very complex. But, with many of those, you can decided to do the tutorial missions or not. So, if you've played the game before, you don't have to be bored with it again. I don't like it in story games when you can't skip it on a later play through. I think that should always be an option. I do like it when games have on screen tips that you can disable. It's a nice middle ground between no tutorial and a full on tutorial that does nothing else. You just play the game and it gives you hints on how to play. If you're familiar with the game, you just disable it in the menu. It's less intrusive that way and you're still playing the game without having to set aside time to learn to play it.

 

The hand holding I really hate is when anything you have to "find" has a map point, an arrow or illuminated path pointing to it, or is just a huge glowing thing on the screen. It makes it less fun to find things. Remember playing games like Final Fantasy where you looked in any and all containers for stuff? Sometimes you got nothing, sometimes you got mediocre stuff or junk, and other times you got valuable stuff. Some games today take that fun away by having anything you can pick up glowing and any empty containers say they're empty before you look in them. That's way less fun. I also remember the fun and even sometimes frustration of having to find a key to beat a level, but I don't even know how many games these days use that mechanic. I also remember when games had secret areas that you only found by exploring. I'm sure there are still some that do, but not as many. Those were always fun to find, then the end of the level told you how many there are and how many you found, so you had replay value by trying to find more in that level next time. I feel like a lot of things like having to actually find stuff without something pointing out to you was taken out to pander to the growing number of people these days that have shorter attention spans. Somehow, it's been decided that they should feel happy when playing games, even if the rest of us are like "this is too easy."

 

Yes... you HAVE to be able to skip it. But like you say, when they integrate it into the story, then it ruins the game.

 

This "Viva La Dirt League" episode really speaks to me here...

 

 

 

[BIGHMW]

On 12/5/2023 at 7:51 AM, ls650 said:

Don't laugh - quite a few of us are well over 50 now.

I’m on this side of 58 (technically I’m 57 1/2) as I’m posting this reply, I passed the halfway mark back on November 19th.

[tradyblix]

2 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

I’m on this side of 58 (technically I’m 57 1/2) as I’m posting this reply, I passed the halfway mark back on November 19th.

Congrats. Can't be easy.

[+Living Room Arcade]

The link to the article in the OP:

https://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/info-2023/atari-console-re-release.html#

Edited December 26, 2023 by Living Room Arcade

[+Living Room Arcade]

2 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

The link to the article in the OP:

https://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/info-2023/atari-console-re-release.html#

I can't edit my post.  

I read the article.  Overall I liked it very much.

 

"Atari is also releasing about 2 ,600 new games, including an updated version of arcade classic Berserk"

Isn't that a funny error in the article?  Somebody probably told them that Atari is releasing new 2600 games, not 2600 new games!

 

"Released in 1977, the Atari 2600 was at the forefront of a home video  game explosion. Kids could play Space Invaders, Centipede, Missile Command and other favorites without needing a fistful of quarters and a ride to the arcade."

Yes!  Bringing home the arcade games!  There was just something so magical to me about that when I was a kid.  

[Brad_from_the_80s]

https://www.inverse.com/tech/atari-2600-plus-review-retro-gaming

 

A new review with a more interesting take.  But he keeps saying the controller button is "mushy" (??) and I'm not sure he's entirely clear on the concept of "this plays old carts, go get some".  Says you're SOL if you want to play Pac-man, one of the most common 2600 carts out there that is easily acquirable.    Dip switches somehow become a dipstick (lol).  Atari games are quick starting but he's wrong that there are "no tutorials, no storylines".  RTFM often enhances full use and enjoyment of the game.  On the whole though this reviewer does make a mental effort to grasp the context of these old games and how they were played, not having lived it.

 

But his report that an 80-year-old could get into the games while an over-stimulated modern 8-year-old couldn't doesn't surprise me, although I think plenty of kids can still play and enjoy these games given a chance (particularly by introducing them to Atari's rather kinetic multi-player games).  I'm just almost bothered that in such a short period of time a DVD has somehow become a foreign, unknown "circle thing" to a child.  I can go off on a tangent and ramble about this, but basically I think a world where anything and everything is all-digital and ephemeral and we own nothing is not the best case we can hope for, that technology is often destructive and not exclusively in good ways, and I think we're in a slow process of figuring out maybe what we still want to own and what physical experiences we'll want to retain.  Thus people collecting and playing old and new vinyl when the technology has no real advantages, some resorting back to buying DVDs and Blu-rays as the astronomical costs of streaming come home to roost and the golden age slowly evaporates, and gen-X finding some nonsensical glee in physically inserting old game cartridges in their 2600+ to relive the glory days again

[scifidude79]

40 minutes ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

https://www.inverse.com/tech/atari-2600-plus-review-retro-gaming

 

A new review with a more interesting take.  But he keeps saying the controller button is "mushy" (??) and I'm not sure he's entirely clear on the concept of "this plays old carts, go get some".  Says you're SOL if you want to play Pac-man, one of the most common 2600 carts out there that is easily acquirable.    Dip switches somehow become a dipstick (lol).  Atari games are quick starting but he's wrong that there are "no tutorials, no storylines".  RTFM often enhances full use and enjoyment of the game.  On the whole though this reviewer does make a mental effort to grasp the context of these old games and how they were played, not having lived it.

 

But his report that an 80-year-old could get into the games while an over-stimulated modern 8-year-old couldn't doesn't surprise me, although I think plenty of kids can still play and enjoy these games given a chance (particularly by introducing them to Atari's rather kinetic multi-player games).  I'm just almost bothered that in such a short period of time a DVD has somehow become a foreign, unknown "circle thing" to a child.  I can go off on a tangent and ramble about this, but basically I think a world where anything and everything is all-digital and ephemeral and we own nothing is not the best case we can hope for, that technology is often destructive and not exclusively in good ways, and I think we're in a slow process of figuring out maybe what we still want to own and what physical experiences we'll want to retain.  Thus people collecting and playing old and new vinyl when the technology has no real advantages, some resorting back to buying DVDs and Blu-rays as the astronomical costs of streaming come home to roost and the golden age slowly evaporates, and gen-X finding some nonsensical glee in physically inserting old game cartridges in their 2600+ to relive the glory days again

I pretty much stopped reading that article after a bit because I noticed two things that made me realize this person isn't the right person to be reviewing the 2600+. Firstly, he's Gen Y. Is that a bad thing? No, not necessarily. However, I know this because he said "When the Atari 2600 was first released, I was still 15 years away from having a mortal coil to call my own." So, he was born in 1992. He doesn't "get" Atari because he never owned an Atari. However, the bigger reason I know he isn't a person who should be reviewing this kind of system is because he didn't buy it. He doesn't give a crap about Atari, but Atari reached out to him about reviewing the console and sent him one for review. I know this because he said this: "The version I was sent comes with three different cartridges. One with Mr. Run and Jump (a new game that was ported to an Atari experience), Berzerk (a multi-directional shooter that was refreshed), and then a third cartridge with 10 classic games in total. This last one even has a dipstick for selecting which game loads up when you pop the cartridge in." I watch YouTube, so I know what the review packages look like. They were in a larger box with the console and those two cartridges. Besides, he said he was sent it. He didn't buy it. I watch tech and gaming channels on YouTube and I know that companies reach out to YT reviewers to send them things to review, and the people who agree to receive tech in exchange for reviews never really care about what they're reviewing. They're just doing it because they're obligated to review the free stuff they were sent. I prefer reviews from people who actually bought the thing they're reviewing, or at least care about the category it fits into enough to give a real opinion about it. I mean, he doesn't even seem to understand why Pac-Man wasn't included. Anyone who knows anything about Pac-Man knows that 1. the 2600 version isn't looked upon all that fondly and 2. it's difficult and expensive to wrestle a license from Namco.

 

But, yeah, it's mostly us older folks who care about this sort of stuff. I have a huge collection of DVD and Blu-ray discs. Not just to go "look at my collection," but so I can watch stuff. I do watch some streaming, but it makes me mad when I'm paying a monthly fee to a service and they drop something from their catalog because they decided not to renew the license. Then I have to try and find it somewhere else. Sometimes you can't find it somewhere else. So, that's where those nice shiny discs come in handy. And I can't wrap my head around the idea of buying digital movies at all, even though I buy digital games. I don't want to clutter up a game console or computer hard drive with a bunch of digital downloads of movies and shows. Also, I saw recently where the Playstation is losing a license, so anyone who bought that content will no longer be able to watch it. That's just not right to me. But, that's the future. 🙄 Also, sometimes you can't even download the content, you have to stream it, like if you buy movies on YouTube. If your internet goes out, you can't watch it.

 

I'm slowly turning into that "get off my lawn" guy and I have to say I'm pretty stoked about it. I can't wait a few more years until I can officially be a grumpy old man. 🤣

Edited December 27, 2023 by scifidude79

[+LS650]

1 hour ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

https://www.inverse.com/tech/atari-2600-plus-review-retro-gaming

 

 

Not a bad review - his dad really got into Berzerk, so at least his old man has some good taste in video games.

[desiv]

On 12/18/2023 at 11:31 PM, tradyblix said:

Can't be easy.

On the contrary, getting older couldn't be simpler...

I do nothing, and it still happens...   

[Ben from Plaion]

4 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

https://www.inverse.com/tech/atari-2600-plus-review-retro-gaming

 

A new review with a more interesting take.  But he keeps saying the controller button is "mushy" (??) and I'm not sure he's entirely clear on the concept of "this plays old carts, go get some".  Says you're SOL if you want to play Pac-man, one of the most common 2600 carts out there that is easily acquirable.    Dip switches somehow become a dipstick (lol).  Atari games are quick starting but he's wrong that there are "no tutorials, no storylines".  RTFM often enhances full use and enjoyment of the game.  On the whole though this reviewer does make a mental effort to grasp the context of these old games and how they were played, not having lived it.

 

But his report that an 80-year-old could get into the games while an over-stimulated modern 8-year-old couldn't doesn't surprise me, although I think plenty of kids can still play and enjoy these games given a chance (particularly by introducing them to Atari's rather kinetic multi-player games).  I'm just almost bothered that in such a short period of time a DVD has somehow become a foreign, unknown "circle thing" to a child.  I can go off on a tangent and ramble about this, but basically I think a world where anything and everything is all-digital and ephemeral and we own nothing is not the best case we can hope for, that technology is often destructive and not exclusively in good ways, and I think we're in a slow process of figuring out maybe what we still want to own and what physical experiences we'll want to retain.  Thus people collecting and playing old and new vinyl when the technology has no real advantages, some resorting back to buying DVDs and Blu-rays as the astronomical costs of streaming come home to roost and the golden age slowly evaporates, and gen-X finding some nonsensical glee in physically inserting old game cartridges in their 2600+ to relive the glory days again

This was great, his and his families experience with the machine over Christmas 2023 will never be forgotten....imagine how many people across the world are having experiences like that right now, feels good man.

[Brad_from_the_80s]

Not anything I can really post here, but the latest issue #38 of Old School Gamer mag has some 2600+ review coverage, and issue 37 had some Atari content including about the new Berzerk release.  Lately these issues also have some articles by HSW, and Atari also advertises the 2600+ and other products in them.

 

 

On a completely unrelated note, several video and other reviewers of the product I've seen will sometimes include Donkey Kong while putting the console through its paces, and I gotta say...

 

Poor Pauline!

 

Nobody ever freakin' remembers her name.  They keep calling her "the princess" or something

 

She's not a princess.  She's Mario's girlfriend!  And she's probably been looking for him all these years since she heard he's been running around with some shroom princesses behind her back, lol.

[scifidude79]

If they don't remember Pauline, they probably don't remember that Mario's name was Jumpman and he was a carpenter in that game. That's why the first level has hammers to smash the barrels, the hammer is a carpenter's tool.

[+LS650]

3 minutes ago, scifidude79 said:

That's why the first level has hammers to smash the barrels, the hammer is a carpenter's tool.

I dunno, I've seen some plumbing jobs that look like a hammer was involved...

[Sean_1970]

2 hours ago, ls650 said:

I dunno, I've seen some plumbing jobs that look like a hammer was involved...

Clearly scifidude has never had to deal with a stubborn clogged drain 😏

[Sean_1970]

Saw this PCWorld review in the Apple News app (it’s paywalled, sorry): https://apple.news/AOb6ua8hdQ863FqL7-Ld2YQ

Not bad, 4/5 stars, though I do always find it odd when reviews like this knock it as “too expenaive” - is it really? I think when originally released the VCS was more expensive than a PS5, so this feels like a bargain!

 

[scifidude79]

2 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

Saw this PCWorld review in the Apple News app (it’s paywalled, sorry): https://apple.news/AOb6ua8hdQ863FqL7-Ld2YQ

Not bad, 4/5 stars, though I do always find it odd when reviews like this knock it as “too expenaive” - is it really? I think when originally released the VCS was more expensive than a PS5, so this feels like a bargain!

 

Some people seem to think that just because it plays "old" things that it should be really cheap, like $50 cheap. They have no concept (or care, really) into how much time, money and effort goes into making something like this. In USD, the VCS (2600) cost $189.95 in 1977. That's equivalent to over $962 in 2023. So, yeah, $130 in early 2024 isn't all that much.

[+LS650]

2 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2161782/atari-2600-plus-review.html#:~:text=The Atari 2600 Plus is,really bumps up the price.

[scifidude79]

From that PC World article:

 

 

Quote

 

Cons

• Short cables
• No instructions
• Expensive
• Not so many games

 

That last one confuses me. Last time I checked, this system will play hundreds of games. Unless she means the included 10-in-1. I guess that's a fair con, if you're not someone who either has cartridges already or isn't planning to buy any. But, I would assume that those people won't buy a 2600+ anyway, as they obviously prefer other methods to play games.

 

[Sean_1970]

5 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

Some people seem to think that just because it plays "old" things that it should be really cheap, like $50 cheap. They have no concept (or care, really) into how much time, money and effort goes into making something like this. In USD, the VCS (2600) cost $189.95 in 1977. That's equivalent to over $962 in 2023. So, yeah, $130 in early 2024 isn't all that much.

That price still boggles the mind (and given we were poor easily explains why I didn’t get one until 1982). But then people were spending how many months salary on VCRs around that time?

[Brad_from_the_80s]

9 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

Some people seem to think that just because it plays "old" things that it should be really cheap, like $50 cheap. They have no concept (or care, really) into how much time, money and effort goes into making something like this. In USD, the VCS (2600) cost $189.95 in 1977. That's equivalent to over $962 in 2023. So, yeah, $130 in early 2024 isn't all that much.

They don't value/appreciate it, or they don't think they will use it, so they don't want to pay for anything.  I would recommend they just not buy it in that case.  When I consider how many months/years of use and enjoyment I may get out of this little machine the price is virtually nothing.

9 hours ago, scifidude79 said:

That last one confuses me. Last time I checked, this system will play hundreds of games. Unless she means the included 10-in-1. I guess that's a fair con, if you're not someone who either has cartridges already or isn't planning to buy any. But, I would assume that those people won't buy a 2600+ anyway, as they obviously prefer other methods to play games.

 

Probably comes from a place of assuming others (like some of the reviewers) have no other carts or any serious intention of buying any.  They're also making the mistake of comparing this device to all the mini-consoles when it is really more of a modern re-creation of an original console.  As a "mini-console", yes it is miniaturized slightly, uses similar/same underlying tech to an extent, but only includes 10 games.  This is the wrong way to think about this device, as just yet another mini console.  It isn't one of those things at all really.  As a new iteration of a 2600 it is fantastic.  Not perfect, and it has some gaps of course, but it also has some capabilities that original consoles do not.

[scifidude79]

18 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

That price still boggles the mind (and given we were poor easily explains why I didn’t get one until 1982). But then people were spending how many months salary on VCRs around that time?

Yeah, my parents struggled to get one too. By the time they could afford it, the 5200 was out and they bought that. We didn't have a VCR until closer to 1990. I remember that because Batman with Michael Keaton was one of the first tapes we got and that movie came out in theaters in 1989.

 

14 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

They don't value/appreciate it, or they don't think they will use it, so they don't want to pay for anything.  I would recommend they just not buy it in that case.  When I consider how many months/years of use and enjoyment I may get out of this little machine the price is virtually nothing.

That's why I'm less fond of reviews by people who had Atari reach out to them and send them one to review. They have no real interest in it, they just do what they said they would do and they review it. We understand the value because we're Atari people and we gladly bought it with our hard earned money. Like you, I consider the price nothing because I've been enjoying it so much and I will for years to come.

 

14 hours ago, Brad_from_the_80s said:

Probably comes from a place of assuming others (like some of the reviewers) have no other carts or any serious intention of buying any.  They're also making the mistake of comparing this device to all the mini-consoles when it is really more of a modern re-creation of an original console.  As a "mini-console", yes it is miniaturized slightly, uses similar/same underlying tech to an extent, but only includes 10 games.  This is the wrong way to think about this device, as just yet another mini console.  It isn't one of those things at all really.  As a new iteration of a 2600 it is fantastic.  Not perfect, and it has some gaps of course, but it also has some capabilities that original consoles do not.

For sure, the mini console spoiled people. A tiny system with X amount of games on it for $60 to $100. I've got several of them. I have the NES Classic, SNES Classic, Genesis Mini (first model), Commodore 64 mini and the Atari Flashback 50. None of them are hooked up. The only one of those systems that I don't have a horde of physical games for is the Commodore 64. And those are mainly games I intend to play. With the device that includes so many games, many of them wind up being games I don't want to play. And then they won't/can't include a lot of my favorite games. So, I find more value in the console that plays cartridges.