Flashback 2600: How many would you buy?

[+Random Terrain]

Let's pretend that the next product to come from Atari is called the Flashback 2600. It can take old cartridges and those little cards that will contain 10 to 20 games each.

 

The Flashback 2600 comes with two joysticks and two paddles along with a few other things including the up-to-date TV hookup as you would expect. This time, instead of making you unplug a joystick to use the paddles, there is a third place for the paddles to plug into so you can leave them plugged in. Don't worry, they fixed it so that all of the old games will work correctly with this new setup.

 

So if we pretend that Atari made the Flashback 2600, how many would you buy? I'm semi-poor and I would buy at least 2.

[moycon]

How much would they be again?

[+Random Terrain]

How much would they be again?

932554[/snapback]

I don't know. How much would they be? Somewhere between $50 and $100?

[+Random Terrain]

I'm surprised to see those 0 votes. I thought everyone here wanted a new Atari that could use our old cartridges. If it wasn't too expensive, I might buy one every month for a while. Not only would they make great gifts, but it would be nice to have a stack of backup Atari 2600s for the future.

[Lord Helmet]

I would have at least one for myself. I agree that at the right price point they would make great gifts.

[Brian R.]

While at first glance it may sound appealing, I have a perfectly working four-toggle, woodgrain 2600 that I bought brand new back in the mid 90s, along with a six-toggle I know works flawlessly, and a brand new perfectly working junior model, so I don't see much need for me to buy new 2600 hardware.

[+Random Terrain]

While at first glance it may sound appealing, I have a perfectly working four-toggle, woodgrain 2600 that I bought brand new back in the mid 90s, along with a six-toggle I know works flawlessly, and a brand new perfectly working junior model, so I don't see much need for me to buy new 2600 hardware.

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Oh yeah, if you had those modified so that they had a more modern TV hookup to get rid of those old display problems, I could understand that. Three things though:

 

1. Nothing lasts forever, so it might be good to have a couple of new ones in a closet as backup.

 

2. If they really made it so that you could leave the paddles plugged in the whole time, allowing you to play any paddle game without the usual hassle of dragging out the paddles and unplugging and plugging, that might make anyone move over to the new Flashback 2600.

 

3. If you make your own games using something like batari Basic, it might be easier than ever to play your games on a real Atari instead of an emulator.

[Flojomojo]

RT, I think this is a weird question. The whole point of programmable, removable media is that you DON'T need to buy a million different consoles. You buy ONE, then you feed it with games, sold separately.

 

The multiple iterations of standalones should be the single biggest thing that's going to kill the dedicated "TV Game" market -- I'm surprised it hasn't already been saturated. Then again, there's a market for disposable flashlights, contact lenses, razors, ballpoint pens, tupperware containers, and so on ...

 

To answer your question, I would buy at least ONE of these hypothetical consoles for myself, and a copy of pretty much every game that comes out for it. Depending on its friendliness to newbies and its price, I might pick up others as gifts, as I did with the C64 stick.

 

If I were Atari, I'd stick to keeping it standalone. I can't see overly specific media selling too well at retail. An online distribution method could work, but then you've complicated everything and assumed a certain level of technical ability in your users -- killing the "plug and play" simplicity you had going for you.

[Brian R.]

I also doubt there's any concern - or market - for a console to use the original 2600 games. I mean, really, outside of us, the 2600 is ancient history, and most people don't have 2600 cartridges laying around and aren't waiting for a new console to come along so they can play them.

 

If there was such a market, then I'd suspect that the FB 2 would have had a cartridge port included standard, rather than requiring a hack that only those skilled in such things could accomplish.

 

As for other points...

 

Yeah, backups are good. But 2600 hardware is very sturdy and reliable. I'm more concerned about the one working Dreamcast I have breaking than I am any of my old Atari consoles. I've already had one perfectly cared for DC crap out on me.

 

While exchanging controllers can sometimes be a pain, I don't know if a dedicated jack for them would be a main selling point for me. I don't often play paddle games. And because my consoles are in my living room, I often put controllers away to cut down on clutter.

 

And I don't make my own games.

[+Random Terrain]

And because my consoles are in my living room, I often put controllers away to cut down on clutter.

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Getting a little off-topic, I use those affordable individual plastic drawers that you can find at places such as Target, Walmart, and Big Lots. I put the console on top and the controllers stay plugged in and I put the controllers and excess cord into the drawer and the drawer closes almost all of the way. No messing around unplugging things, there's no clutter, and the controllers don't get dusty.

 

The drawers I have kind of look like this:

[vdub_bobby]

Getting a little off-topic, I use those affordable individual plastic drawers that you can find at places such as Target, Walmart, and Big Lots. I put the console on top and the controllers stay plugged in and I put the controllers and excess cord into the drawer and the drawer closes almost all of the way. No messing around unplugging things, there's no clutter, and the controllers don't get dusty.

 

The drawers I have kind of look like this:

That kind of drawer isn't exactly a good looking piece of living room furniture.

[+Random Terrain]

That kind of drawer isn't exactly a good looking piece of living room furniture.

932721[/snapback]

Depends on the living room or game room. If you have an arty-fartsy living room full of breakable antique furniture, you may not want to use plastic drawers. You could have expensive wooden ones made. I've seen some pretty crusty looking game rooms around here where that kind of drawer wouldn't be the worst looking thing in the room.

[Fort Apocalypse]

I like the idea of including the paddles. I would make it have a kid-proof but easily removable standard memory card in it or a USB hookup that would allow you to load games you wrote yourself with batari basic. However that basically eliminates the need for cartidges (which I think is good in a way, because they are bulky) and it also invites people to be using roms that they don't own (which is probably not good). Finally a modern memory card is probably overkill as it would fit all of the possible atari roms on it and have a ton of space left on it. I would add the ability for it to play 8-bit games also. Do that and I'm sold. I'd pay $30-45.

[sku_u]

Why would I want another 2600; I have too many as it is

[krawhitham]

now if the FB3 is an 8-bit system I can run computer games on I'll buy 20

[sidcrowe]

I'm poor too, but I'd get two, if they were $50 each.

[bones]

Getting a little off-topic, I use those affordable individual plastic drawers that you can find at places such as Target, Walmart, and Big Lots. I put the console on top and the controllers stay plugged in and I put the controllers and excess cord into the drawer and the drawer closes almost all of the way. No messing around unplugging things, there's no clutter, and the controllers don't get dusty.

 

The drawers I have kind of look like this:

932678[/snapback]

 

Those are exactly what I use in my game room. There are two sets of four stacked up on each side of the tv and they hold all sorts of controllers, from NES up to a couple large flight sticks. The rest of the setup in the game room is made with white Closetmade shelving and a white tv stand, so these fit in nicely.

[Clint Thompson]

a'bit off topic of post but I see these storage bins and stuff.

Man, when I was collecting and my parents moved someone had left behind a HUGE (long anyways) dresser with 9 drawers. I easily had enough room all 500+ 2600 games, 40 some odd 7800 games, all my (200 or so) 8bit 800 floppies, Jaguar games, Lynx and games and loads of magazines!

 

Man I miss that dresser! It held some of my best memories... it was however too large to move with us once we moved again. (god it was awesome! )

[+Random Terrain]

Those are exactly what I use in my game room.  There are two sets of four stacked up on each side of the tv and they hold all sorts of controllers, from NES up to a couple large flight sticks.  The rest of the setup in the game room is made with white Closetmade shelving and a white tv stand, so these fit in nicely.

934901[/snapback]

If I can ever get a good digital camera, I'll take a picture of my Xbox and PS2 sitting on their drawers with controllers inside.