Curt Vendel Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 I was fortunate enough yesterday to receive an advanced release of the new upcoming Jakks Atari Paddle Games Controller. (I assisted in several areas of this product design.) This new game controller, just like the Atari 10-in-1 Joystick by Jakks is a reproduction of the original Atari 2600 controller. This time is a reproduction of the Paddle controllers. These new game controllers come in two flavors, a single player and a new two player model which comes with an extra paddle controller wired into it for head to head gameplay. To accomodate the electronics and battery compartment the primary controller has the same lines as the original paddle but is longer with an area for the power and menu buttons, the depth is deeper but fits and feels comfortable in the players hand. For the two player version the 2nd paddle is a near perfect replica of the original Atari 2600 paddle controller. The system starts up with a title/credit/trademark screen then proceeds to what I can only describe as a fantastic Menu'ing design. On the left side of the screen you see a label-end stack of Atari 2600 cartridges listing the games available to play, these include: Video Olympics, Casino, Night Driver, Canyon Bomber, Street Racer, Super Breakout, Warlords, Pong, Circus Atari, Steeple Chase, Demonds to Diamonds and as an added bonus Arcade Warlords and Arcade Pong. The right side of the screen shows a Pong Arcade and Warlords arcade to select these two extra bonus arcade games, there is also a link to credits for the Digital Eclipse staff and they earned their marks on this new game consoles software side. I wont go into each games details, as they all turned out very close to true to form. What I would like to point out are some key features. Most importantly was sound effects, the sounds are spot on, game play is smooth and true to the originals. I especially found playing Night Driver a lot of fun and now with Circus Atari (originally on the Joystick model which played horribly both due to poor programming and the main fact that it was a paddle game) well now Circus Atari is finally fun and enjoyable since its now playable with a paddle. Super Breakout plays well, here I noticed on several occassions just the slightest slowdown in game play from time to time, but its so minor that you have to be looking for such a flaw to notice it, so its really a non-issue. Now Warlords is a LOT of fun, but lets talk about Arcade Warlords which is simply great, if you are a fan of Warlords like me, this arcade translation alone is well worth the cost of the unit, its a great translation, plays very well and the sound effects are near pefect making for a wonderful round (or dozen) of gameplay. Overall video is crisp, responsive and clean, audio is superb, the menu'ing and navigation are topnotch. With only the slightest of flaws and bugs that are really only noticable if you are going out of your way to find them, this console rates a 9.5 out of 10. This is a 180 degree turn around from the sloppy job of the Jakks 10-in-1 Atari Joystick and its definitely something to put on your want/wish list. Walmart and Target should be stocking their shelves in the next several days, so keep an eye out. The single player will sell for around $19.99-$24.99 and the two player for $25.99-$27.99 depending on your sellers markup. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 If you get the two-player version do the games have a single player option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Galaga Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 Can you play single player games with the 2 paddle version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 26, 2004 Author Share Posted June 26, 2004 Some of the games do allow single players, games like Street Racer, Canyon Bomber and Steeplechase are two player only. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Atari Man Posted June 26, 2004 Share Posted June 26, 2004 Some of the games do allow single players, games like Street Racer, Canyon Bomber and Steeplechase are two player only. Are you sure? I've got Canyon Bomber, it's got several one-player games against the computer, or was this something that was changed on this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 27, 2004 Author Share Posted June 27, 2004 The Canyon Bomber in the two player version is specifically a two player head-to-head game only. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 Is the electronics the same in both the one player and the two player versions? What is the resistance of the pot? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenwood Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 This so needed Kaboom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
128bytes Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 How does Warlords handle the lack of a 4 player option? Can you play the "game 10" variation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 28, 2004 Author Share Posted June 28, 2004 Warlords (both 2600 and arcade) look for an active player to join and then start the game with the appropriate AI... Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 28, 2004 Author Share Posted June 28, 2004 This so needed Kaboom! If it was an Activision Paddle Games Collection, then Kaboom would be included, but this was Atari owned titles only. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted June 28, 2004 Share Posted June 28, 2004 Now Warlords is a LOT of fun, but lets talk about Arcade Warlords which is simply great, if you are a fan of Warlords like me, this arcade translation alone is well worth the cost of the unit, its a great translation, plays very well and the sound effects are near pefect making for a wonderful round (or dozen) of gameplay. How much does Arcade Warlords resemble the actual arcade game visually? Overall, does it give Castle Crisis a run for its money? I would buy this if it just had an arcade-like Warlords game. Too bad there's no four player option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 29, 2004 Author Share Posted June 29, 2004 The Arcade version is very very close, I love Castle Crisis, its near my 800 all the time for some quick gameplay when I need a break while working. The arcade version of the paddle controller sounds and plays very well, graphics are not perfect, but damned close, gameplay and AI are very good. I emailed back and forth with Mike Mika from DE who did the coding, they faced a lot of challenges coding on the emulation chip and I think they did a masterful job of coding the games and menu by overcoming a lot of the bugs and issues revolving around the CPU used. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted June 29, 2004 Share Posted June 29, 2004 I emailed back and forth with Mike Mika from DE who did the coding, they faced a lot of challenges coding on the emulation chip and I think they did a masterful job of coding the games and menu by overcoming a lot of the bugs and issues revolving around the CPU used. So I'm probably not the only one who's poked through the arcade code... -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMika Posted June 29, 2004 Share Posted June 29, 2004 I would love to take credit for coding this, but that belongs to the group of guys in Vancouver under Jeff Vavasour's watchful eye. It was our emulation experts who pulled it off. It's as close as we could get with the hardware we had. Unfortunately, it wasn't a custom hardware, so we had to make some very minor concessions. Jeff is very particular about how the games turn out, and I think the games turned out great. He had a lot of useful help from people very recognizable on this board. So hopefully everyone is happy! Best, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted June 29, 2004 Share Posted June 29, 2004 Will the AtariAge store be selling the paddle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted June 29, 2004 Share Posted June 29, 2004 I would love to take credit for coding this, but that belongs to the group of guys in Vancouver under Jeff Vavasour's watchful eye. I was going to say that I thought Jeff must be involved! The last time I wrote him he said that he was busy but planning to make patches for the Atari 80-in-0ne arcade games to be compatible with the Stelladaptor. I am still thinking of buying the one player paddle and seeing if it can be customized. Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffVav Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 The Canyon Bomber in the two player version is specifically a two player head-to-head game only. Actually, the two player unit has all variations of the Canyon Bomber cart in there. Basically, in the one player unit, you can play the one player variations of a game, and in the two player unit, you can play the one and two player variations of the game. Also, arcade Warlords is nearly running the original arcade machine code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Player Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Also, arcade Warlords is nearly running the original arcade machine code. Wow, so I can now play the arcade version of Warlords anywhere there's a TV? This unit is a must buy for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 Kaboom! would have fit this perfect, but yea, definitely worth the money for arcade Warlords. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 I keep checking the shelves but haven't seen a Jakks Paddle for sale anywhere yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 Basically, in the one player unit, you can play the one player variations of a game, and in the two player unit, you can play the one and two player variations of the game. Is this a software difference or a hardware difference? Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vespertillio Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 I was thrifting on Friday and found the 1st release for 2 bucks. I passed. Nothing compares to the real thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffVav Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 Basically, in the one player unit, you can play the one player variations of a game, and in the two player unit, you can play the one and two player variations of the game. Is this a software difference or a hardware difference? I'm not really allowed to get into the details, but it should be fairly clear that there's at least a hardware difference. If you're looking to unlock or hotwire unadvertised features, though, I don't think it's a very likely prospect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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