Flashback 2 Reviews

[Lord Helmet]

The VSYNC stuff is really evident on Asteroids Deluxe (a game I was really looking forward to). The screen is so jumpy it makes me think that the game wasn't even tested.

909049[/snapback]

 

 

I was really looking forward to that... oh well I'll try it out tomorrow.

 

Hopefully it won't happen on my flatscreen 21" tv, it plays pal games fine, and it plays the intro to nukey's pac-man 8k fine as well. SOOO, hopefully it won't jump.

909174[/snapback]

 

 

It's still playable, just distracting. Its very challenging since the killer sattelites really come after you. They are also there from the very begining of each level, so you could be running away from them while dodging a scteen full of asteroids at the same time.

[ZylonBane]

Something I just noticed in Adventure II-- when you press Reset, it DOES NOT reset the positions of any of the objects (other than the player). You have to cycle power to the unit to truly reset the game.

[Lord Thag]

Something I just noticed in Adventure II-- when you press Reset, it DOES NOT reset the positions of any of the objects (other than the player). You have to cycle power to the unit to truly reset the game.

 

I noticed that last night as well. The FB2's only real design flaw is that you have to power off to get back to the menu. Not a big deal, but mildly annoying.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Dennis reported the HMOVE blank bars may be missing. Can anybody confirm this for other games?

 

Save Mary should prove this pretty obvious. Or Missile Command with non-black background. Check the left side.

Edited August 12, 2005 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Songbird]

Something I just noticed in Adventure II-- when you press Reset, it DOES NOT reset the positions of any of the objects (other than the player). You have to cycle power to the unit to truly reset the game.

909542[/snapback]

Isn't that true in the original Adventure, too? I thought pressing Reset (like after a duck -- ahem -- dragon eats you) only resets the player. You have to actually select a different game variation to get a true object reset.

[Shannon]

Something I just noticed in Adventure II-- when you press Reset, it DOES NOT reset the positions of any of the objects (other than the player). You have to cycle power to the unit to truly reset the game.

909542[/snapback]

Isn't that true in the original Adventure, too? I thought pressing Reset (like after a duck -- ahem -- dragon eats you) only resets the player. You have to actually select a different game variation to get a true object reset.

910002[/snapback]

 

It's been a while, but I believe in the original the dragon's will come back to life on reset.

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

Just picked up one of these from the Walmart in Sturbridge, MA (I grabbed the last 2). Plugged it in as soon as I got home - here are my first impressions:

 

Pros:

 

- console looks very professional - well built.

- Joysticks are responsive - I am very happy with them

- A/V is awesome - screen is very clear, colors are vibrant.

- old games play perfect - it 'feels' like a real Atari

- Pong is ok - some collision detection problems though.

 

Cons:

 

- can't tell the state of the difficulty switches (by sight). you can, however, tell by touch (if the button is raised, it's 'A', if it's clicked it (floating), it's 'B').

- no voice in Quadrun (I was expecting this, so no big deal)

- the instructions claim that the version of Millipede was an 'alternate version' - GCC version I presume. Unfortunately, it's just the released version (which I already have on cart)

- colors in ADV2 are dark on some screens. Maybe this was intentional - to me, it just feels like an NTSC game with PAL colors

- Caverns of Mars flickers continuously on the first stage (very annoying). Title screen is the best part of this game (I was very disappointed with this as COM was a fav back in the ol' 800 days). I *know* this can be done better. At least it's playable...

- Yars' return, simply put, is terrible and a HUGE disappointment. It feels like a very bad hack of the original (is it a hack?).

- Asteroids deluxe, although not terrible, suffers from jumpy graphics. It's also an obvious hack of the orignal. Space Duel has the same issues, except to the extreme where the game is unplayable.

- Lunar Lander is just no fun and flickers horribly anyway.

 

Overall, I am slightly disappointed, mostly because the *new* games is what I was really excited about, and most of them are not even playable. I cannot see how Atari decided to include some of them (espcecially Yars' Return and Space Duel) as they were obviously not ready for release. Certainly it would of made more sense to include some other old (finished) games from the back catalog. Can someone (Curt?) please explain how this obvious mistake made it by QA???

 

Ok - enough ranting. Most of my issues are with the new games, so removing that from the list and this product is still worth 30 bucks. Any chance that these games can be fixed for an FB 2.1?

[King_Salamon]

Nice to read some reviews but has anyone unlocked to 2 bonus games on this unit yet? Seems like nobody has made mention of them yet! I'm still waiting for these units to appear in Canada so I can't check to see what the 2 bonus games are.

 

I'm guessing there will be 2 paddle supported games... Breakout and Circus Atari? Just guessing.

[Feralstorm]

Dennis reported the HMOVE blank bars may be missing. Can anybody confirm this for other games?

 

Save Mary should prove this pretty obvious. Or Missile Command with non-black background. Check the left side.

 

It appears that some effort has been made to remove the 'comb' I've only really checked Missile Command so far, but the comb is not on the left side - it's all background color. However if explosions or missiles go to the left edge there is some distortion, so something is there, just not the well known black comb of yore.

[OrionB]

- the instructions claim that the version of Millipede was an 'alternate version' - GCC version I presume.  Unfortunately, it's just the released version (which I already have on cart)

 

I've seen someone else say this, but on my unit the title screen on Millipede is the one (with the mushroom) from the GCC version described here. I can't tell if it has the other differences in the GCC version, because the screen rolls continuously, making the game unplayable. I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Didn't anyone test this??

[hookem]

- the instructions claim that the version of Millipede was an 'alternate version' - GCC version I presume.  Unfortunately, it's just the released version (which I already have on cart)

 

I've seen someone else say this, but on my unit the title screen on Millipede is the one (with the mushroom) from the GCC version described here. I can't tell if it has the other differences in the GCC version, because the screen rolls continuously, making the game unplayable. I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Didn't anyone test this??

911495[/snapback]

 

Hmm.. I wonder what the disconnect here is. The Millipede I have played on the FB2 does not look like the GCC version, and has absolutely no screen rolling. It's rock solid.

 

Is there another Mllipede, not in the "Arcade Favorites" section, that I am missing?

[sidcrowe]

When I first came here, I was pretty negative and angry (still am-hee hee ), but even though there seems to be some big problems here (ROLLING SCREENS???), for the most part (still waiting in Canada for a bug-free version) I still want this thing.

 

AND I AM STILL PLEASED WITH CURT for keeping this thing a 100% real 2600 on a chip. That's the genuine article.

 

Maybe the new games needed more time

 

Still, this is an awesome little unit, which seems to only have some problems with the new games which just needed more time to be great

 

Still a fine effort and a step in the right direction. If these screens really are rolling on all TVs and there's mega flicker (doesn't have to be that way-lookit Pac Man vs Mc Pac Man on 2600) on the new games, it's still a good deal

 

I will NOT dump on this thing. Curt kept it 100% real, and because of that, time became a factor. It's all so easy to use different hardware, but then it wouldn't be the real thing

 

Don't be too hard on it, guys

[OrionB]

Hmm.. I wonder what the disconnect here is.  The Millipede I have played on the FB2 does not look like the GCC version, and has absolutely no screen rolling.  It's rock solid.

 

Is there another Mllipede, not in the "Arcade Favorites" section, that I am missing?

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I don't think so; that's where the GCC version is on my unit. I guess some units have the broken GCC version and some have the working Atari version? If so, I'll have to go return mine and hope to get another one with a working Millipede. I was willing to forgive the broken Quadrun sound and a lot of the problems with the new games, but I'm pretty unhappy about not being able to play Millipede.

[hookem]

I don't think so; that's where the GCC version is on my unit. I guess some units have the broken GCC version and some have the working Atari version? If so, I'll have to go return mine and hope to get another one with a working Millipede. I was willing to forgive the broken Quadrun sound and a lot of the problems with the new games, but I'm pretty unhappy about not being able to play Millipede.

911499[/snapback]

Well, OK, that could explain things. So by the "GCC" version, you mean there is no "DT" icons, and the player is not square? If that is the case, that your game has the GCC player graphics shown here, then I'd say we have found another variation besides the no-voice Quadrun...

[OrionB]

Well, OK, that could explain things.  So by the "GCC" version, you mean there is no "DT" icons, and the player is not square?  If that is the case, that your game has the GCC player graphics shown here, then I'd say we have found another variation besides the no-voice Quadrun...

911500[/snapback]

Yeah, I just looked and I definitely have the GCC version.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The dumped ROM of GCC Millipede displays 295 lines (~53Hz), which is probably too much for many NTSC TVs (standard: 262 lines, 60Hz).

[DEBRO]

So that's why some of you are saying your Millipede is rolling. I have the Atari version on my unit. I was wondering why I didn't see the screen roll.

 

Have any of you tried Battlezone? My colors are off from the cart version. They are a bit dark.

 

Also AdvII and Return to Haunted House colors are too dark for me. I can't see where I'm going.

 

As for the HMOVE lines it does look like they're masked. You can see them if you do an explosion in Missile Command though. I originally thought objects weren't shifted correctly because they were missing but that's not the case. The objects are placed correctly horizontally.

 

Oh, I also don't see the garbaged Secret Quest copyright line that was reported. My Secret Quest looks fine.

Edited August 15, 2005 by DEBRO

[+Atari_Warlord]

Walmart in Dayton, Ohio finally got a shipment and I picked one up on Sunday. Here are some random thoughts on this and future projects.

 

Thanks Curt and all involved for this fun item.

 

FB3 - Please add a way to get back to the menu without cycling the power switch. Add a cartridge port as a hidden expansion port, see the 7800 case. Add more games and see if anyone can correct some of the deficiencies of the new games on the FB2.

 

Adventure Territory:

Adventure - I played this game a lot as a kid and still enjoy it

Adventure II - Seems fine, didn't have the color problems others have reported that make it hard to see

Haunted House - O.K., has never really excited me

Return to Haunted House - Colors were fine for me, need to spend more time figuring out what to do

Secret Quest - I found this strangely fun and addicting

Wizard - I was bored

 

Arcade Favorites:

Arcade Asteroids - Worked fine although I wish they had included the original also

Arcade Pong - I really like this, didn't notice detection problems but my tv is older

Asteroids Deluxe - Seemed O.K., the screen only jumped a couple times so was still playable

Battlezone - Have always liked this one

Centipede - Ditto

Lunar Lander - Despite the flicker, I like this one. I just wish I knew what the parameters for landing succesfully are, I kept crashing when I thought I was going slow enough.

Millipede - The non-alternate version, worked fine

Missile Command - Played a quick game then switched to variation 13 and got the programmer initials

Space Duel - As bad as everyone has said, although I had one funny moment where I thought I was dead but the object flickered off and passed through me before reappering

 

I'll have to continue later...

[+johnnywc]

Still, this is an awesome little unit, which seems to only have some problems with the new games which just needed more time to be great   

 

Still a fine effort and a step in the right direction. If these screens really are rolling on all TVs and there's mega flicker (doesn't have to be that way-lookit Pac Man vs Mc Pac Man on 2600) on the new games, it's still a good deal 

 

I will NOT dump on this thing. Curt kept it 100% real, and because of that, time became a factor. It's all so easy to use different hardware, but then it wouldn't be the real thing   

 

Don't be too hard on it, guys   

911497[/snapback]

 

I completely agree 100% - I did forget to send a huge THANK YOU out to Curt - I am VERY pleased with my purchase and I'm recommending these to all my friends. This is certainly a step in the right direction and the difference between this and a "perfect" product is small (certainly much smaller than the FB1 ). I hope my comments are taken as constructive criticism that can be taken into consideration for FB3!!

[ZylonBane]

Something I just noticed in Adventure II-- when you press Reset, it DOES NOT reset the positions of any of the objects (other than the player). You have to cycle power to the unit to truly reset the game.

Isn't that true in the original Adventure, too? I thought pressing Reset (like after a duck -- ahem -- dragon eats you) only resets the player. You have to actually select a different game variation to get a true object reset.

I checked, and you're right. However, since Adventure II doesn't have any variations, the SELECT button does nothing... so you really do have to cycle power to get a fresh start.

 

Anyway, I'm wondering now why Curt chose to commission all these new games from obviously marginal 2600 coders, instead of acquiring publishing rights to some of the excellent homebrews already out there. Was the bland Atari Climber really the best Curt thought the homebrew scene had to offer? (yeah yeah, I know about the failed Thrust deal).

 

Space Duel and Yars' Return are so unplayably bad that they should have been cut from the final release. They do the 2600 a disservice by their presence.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Was the bland Atari Climber...

For the record: Climber 5 is a XYPE game. And a well deserved one!

 

Space Duel and Yars' Return are so unplayably bad that they should have been cut from the final release. They do the 2600 a disservice by their presence.

I haven't been able to check those games at all, but with a small budget you can only get so much for paid job.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

I don't have a FB2 yet (but I keep checking on it everyday) but I'm sure they could produce some fixed versions of these new games in a revision of the FB2, couldn't they? Then again they are hard at work on the next FB, but it shouldn't take too much work to fix up some of these games should it?

[jsoper]

Still love it over here, the new joysticks, Yar's Revenge and River Raid are worth $30 by themselves. Just broke my high score on RR and wasn't really trying. Now a whole new generation gets to geek out with the best 2600 shooters. Too bad Starmaster wasn't included too, I think those three games have aged the best.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I don't have a FB2 yet (but I keep checking on it everyday) but I'm sure they could produce some fixed versions of these new games in a revision of the FB2, couldn't they? Then again they are hard at work on the next FB, but it shouldn't take too much work to fix up some of these games should it?

Screen jumping, rolling and maybe brighter colors should be easy to fix. The Climber bug probably too.

 

Reducing flicker however, would most likely require a complete rewrite of the games.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Too bad Starmaster wasn't included too, I think those three games have aged the best.

Yes, IM(B)O Starmaster is easily one of the best.