Torn: 2600+, GS, or Flashback

[chad5200]

How many people saw "Torn:" in the subject line and initially thought it was a misspell of "Tron:"?

 

Got Tron the the brain since '82.

 

"I fight for the users!"

 

[Flojomojo]

On 12/31/2023 at 6:06 PM, Ben from Plaion said:

There is only one answer here and that's the Atari 2600+

LOL company man is just a teensy bit biased
At least you wear it in your username

 

@thorvitz there's a Flashback with a bunch of Activision games on it along with the usual Atari stuff ... looks like the 12 Gold is an update to that. Unless you have a bunch of old cartridges, I'd go with that, so you won't need to mess with scrounging used stuff. 

[JetmanUK]

23 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

To answer the question posed in the title, my advice is to follow what I did, you don't need to follow my order of purchase, but here it is for completeness:

 

Buy the 50th Anniversary Flashback

Buy the 2600 Plus

Buy the Gamestation Pro

 

Enjoy Atari. 🤟🏻🗻

Following on from my positive but admittedly not very helpful answer I'll say this:

 

Number 1 choice - 2600 Plus

The 2600 Plus has been a real revelation, a true time machine that I have had huge fun using so far. 

I could only locate one of my carts from back in the day (I think my others are at my parents, some digging through their packed loft will be required!). I also had some carts amongst a lot of games for various systems I bought off eBay about 15 years ago, all but one worked. So I had to go to eBay to collect most of my current games, and it's been fun and expensive but totally worth it. But yeah, if you have no carts or don't want to collect then don't get a 2600. 

 

Number 2 choice - Flashback 50th anniversary Gold

Super cute little console, packed with great games and even incldues the holy grail... Activision games. It comes with two joysticks and paddles, so you are ready to go. A real one stop shop purchase. Great value! 

 

Number 3 - Gamestation Pro

Atari games from across multiple hardware, wireless joysticks with nice built in paddles. The joysticks are quite nice, but not as nice as standard Atari sticks for 2600 games (but still good!) and nowhere near as good as using a third party joypad for other games. It's ace up it's sleeve is the emulation of other consoles too. If that is something you are interested in you may like this machine the best... Or you may already have an alternative for that anyway. The aesthetics, whilst still Atari-esque are not nostalgia inducing. Nice though. 

As a pure Atari option I prefer the other two. I do like this console though, but prefer my Evercade VS (which is different again, yeah I own all four of these things. 🤷🏻🤦🏻🤣) as an alternative game console to the 2600 Plus or Flashback. 

 

They all do different things. Look at what is important to you. 

 

Edited January 2 by JetmanUK

[skorphy]

On 12/31/2023 at 6:16 PM, Brad_from_the_80s said:

Well honestly the cleaning has been no big deal.  A bottle of isopropyl alcohol and some cotton buds at a dollar store and you're good.  Dip the Q-tip in the alcohol, work both sides of the cart contacts, see the gunk come off, swab out any other dirt.  Maybe blot dry or let it dry on it's own for a while.  There are other/better methods, but I never have to do more than this.  If there are still problems with the cart it is likely an Activision cart, lol.

Cleaning, I agree is pretty easy, but I had a few failures with isopropyl alcohol and found Deoxit pretty much works every time. Even on carts that appear squeaky clean after a good isopropyl scrub and still won't load, Deoxit is/was the answer.

[Exceleron]

I can't believe ppl are saying the FB sometimes have a rip-off price, yet recommend the 2600+ with their super rip-off cart prices...

 

Now, given you can just add all games to the FB with the dongle, or use a Harmony with the 2600+, which gives the nicest experience technically, though..?

[Trebor]

18 hours ago, Exceleron said:

Now, given you can just add all games to the FB with the dongle, or use a Harmony with the 2600+, which gives the nicest experience technically, though..?

Depends how "technically" is being defined.

 

"Technically" as closest accuracy to the original 2600/VCS hardware experience, that would be 2600+.  My personal favorite and best of the bunch to me.

 

"Technically" as easier to update to add 2600 games, while not being quite the original console experience, but having a menu to select games from, then it is the Flashback.

 

"Technically" as spans the most Atari hardware platforms, and mimics closer to how a modern game system functions, then it's the Gamestation Pro.

 

JetmanUK covered the various options in more depth, a few months back.

[shane857]

Personally I would steer clear of the Flashback. Crappy/cheap build in my experience anyway.

2600+ gets my vote. Most loose carts and some boxed are usually cheap and as other users have mentioned, you can clean the contacts on the carts with isopropyl on a q-stick/cotton bud. Only takes 10 seconds or so. 👍

[yorxs]

I guess I'll bring some gasoline to the debate. Why not the Retron 77? It's half the price of the 2600+, can play both carts & ROMs, has save states and Activision games don't make the ticking noise on my Retron.

[Trebor]

30 minutes ago, yorxs said:

I guess I'll bring some gasoline to the debate. Why not the Retron 77? It's half the price of the 2600+, can play both carts & ROMs, has save states and Activision games don't make the ticking noise on my Retron.

The Retron is certainly an option, if the interest is only for the 2600.  It does not play 7800 cartridges. 

The 2600+ handles all 7800 retail and almost every homebrew beautifully, including POKEY and YM sound support.

[tradyblix]

On 4/22/2024 at 8:51 PM, yorxs said:

I guess I'll bring some gasoline to the debate. Why not the Retron 77? It's half the price of the 2600+, can play both carts & ROMs, has save states and Activision games don't make the ticking noise on my Retron.

If you're talking about the noise in Pitfall, it was solved in 1.1x-r2. There's nothing wrong with roms, but you give less fucks about the games when you use roms. There's a value to having the carts, having to slot them in, the way it looks, holding the cart later, enjoying the art on the cart that you don't get with roms. That may not matter to you, but it does have a value. IMO. 

Edited April 24 by tradyblix

[Spanner]

Easy really, get all three.. , Atari2600 Plus, AGSP, and Atari Flashback Gold 50th Annie,  I have...  

Edited May 7 by Spanner

[+LS650]

1 hour ago, Spanner said:

Easy really, get all three.. , Atari2600 Plus, AGSP, and Atari Flashback Gold 50th Annie,  I have...  

Don't forget The 400 Mini..!

[JetmanUK]

2 hours ago, LS650 said:

Don't forget The 400 Mini..!

The what?

Edited May 7 by JetmanUK

[Marc Fiorillo]

I say forget the Flashback altogether.  I have a 2600+ and a GSP.  I love having physical media, and have a large collection of 2600 and 7800 carts, so a modern 2600 like the plus is a no-brainer for me, especially since Plaion is putting in a lot of time and money to get the firmware right.  The GSP handles multiple systems, and is therefore a better choice than the Flashback.  While it does have several drawbacks, it's a nice little system I keep in the bedroom so I can play from bed!

[+LS650]

8 hours ago, JetmanUK said:

The what?

I have a 400 Mini, and really like it. 

[JetmanUK]

3 hours ago, LS650 said:

I have a 400 Mini, and really like it. 

It was a joke in relation to the lukewarm reception it got on these forums. I think a lot is done right on the machine, it has potential...   

But, as this is a 2600 part of the community I think that the topic was aimed more at VCS games.