Atari 2600 Paddle TV Game Gets It Right?

Thanks to IGN Pocket for its hands-on reviews of the latest JAKKS classic 'TV game' devices, including the Ms.Pacman-starring Namco device and an unlicensed 'Classic Arcade Pinball' game combo, but, more importantly, the previously mentioned, much-awaited Atari Paddle 'TV game' ("...a fantastic follow-up to the company's Atari Joystick plug-and-play controller released two years ago.") There's also a retro expert's review on the Atari Age forums which indicates the Digital Eclipse-developed 2600 conversions are "a 180 degree turn around from the sloppy job of the [original DC Studios-produced joystick], and it's definitely something to put on your want/wish list." Finally, disappointed fans are addressed regarding the lack of Kaboom! on the 11-game compilation, explaining: "If it was an Activision Paddle Games Collection, then Kaboom would be included, but this was Atari owned titles only."

I wish they would

[foidulus]

create something like Nintendo's iPaq(which is an snes/n64 built into a controller that they sell in China) were I could take my tv game, go to a game store, pay a few bucks, and download the 2600 game of my choice. Or better yet, do it online. You wouldn't even need that large of a memory card to hold a lot of these games. Come on people, innovate! You have that IP just sitting around, do something with it or else people have no choice but to download roms. And please make it better than these tv games, I don't want to have to pay $20 for a device that only holds a few games(then has to take up space in my house when it's not in use)

Re:I wish they would

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok it's not a nes controller, but for handheld 2600 action + nes + snes + sms + gamegear + scumm + doom + real games get a GP32 and a 128MB card.

Re:I wish they would

[mpr]

I think you meant Nintendo's iQue [lik-sang.com]

Re:I wish they would

[foidulus]

D'oh!
I guess I have PDA on the brain.
Thanks.

Re:I wish they would

[raygundan]

Only fair that you'd get PDAs on the brain, as the iQue is also Garmin's GPS/PocketPC PDA [garmin.com]. In fact, that's probably where your neurons got crosswired.

Ahh, memories of paddle controllers...

[clintp]

In high school, I remember taking a paddle controller apart and mounting a 3' metal rod through it and affixing it to a 5' stand. On the end of the rod was a clamp for changing the amount of weight on it. I made...a pendulum.

After carefully debugging the software and hardware at home, I brought the whole apparatus into school and hooked it up to the school's Atari 400.

On screen, with a couple of keypresses you could get a realtime graph of the pendulum's oscillations against a set of scales (time and distance). Changing the length of the pendulum (with a wing nut), position of the weight, size of the weight, etc.. allowed the other students to really visualize what was going on.

It was still there and working, long after I graduated.

No 4-player...

[Saige]

I just have to say that I think they've missed the boat on at least one important thing.

The lack of being able to play 4 player games.

The best game on the set is Warlords, at least in 4 player mode. I still have seen few games that are as fun with 4 players as the original Warlords, and this set does not allow 4 player play.

It would be like a Street Fighter compilation that was exact in every detail - but only allowed single player play.

Re:No 4-player...

[Smallpond]

Yes. Many lunch hours were spent playing Warlords at work ca. 1980. The only other multiplayer game that compared was nsnipes.

Blargh

[Anthony Boyd]

Atari 2600 Paddle TV Game Gets It Right?

If "gets it right" has anything to do with "met customer demand" then no, they did not get it right. The reason fans would be upset about the missing Kaboom! game is because that's the one they wanted. If there was a dictionary entry for "getting a retro paddle device right" it would be defined as "includes Kaboom!"

Oh well. I'm sure some of the people reading this will be happy with the other games. I'll just keep waiting for Activision's version, I guess.

Kaboom!

[kmhebert]

No doubt, without Kaboom! this is just a neat toy. To be honest, if they released a paddle set with just Kaboom! and Warlords I would love to try it out. It's too bad that they don't make paddle controllers or paddle games anymore, sure there are only so many things to do just going right and left but a lot of those games were the most fun to play. Well, 25 years ago anyway.