Atari's 50th Anniversary Collection Includes 100 Games, Interviews, and Addictive New Titles (arstechnica.com) 25
Launched last week on the Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and Steam, Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection contains over 100 games, and also "over an hour of exclusive video interviews with key players in the games industry" (according to its web site). Forbes says the compilation "may well be the best game collection ever made." The Verge says the compilation is "huge, detailed, and does an amazing job of explaining why these games are so important."
But Ars Technica complains it's "stuffed with historical filler."
And yet, "one new game contained in the package won't let me go..." their reviewer adds. "I'm talking about Vctr Sctr, a retro-style arcade shooter that melds the addictive gameplay of classics like Asteroids and Tempest with modern gameplay concepts." As a package, Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection sets a new high-water mark for retro video game compilations. The collection's "timeline" feature deftly weaves archival materials like design documents and manuals, explanatory context and contemporary quotes from the game's release, and new video interviews with game creators into an engaging, interactive trip through gaming history.
But while the presentation shines, the games contained within Atari 50 often don't. Sure, there are a few truly replayable classics on offer here, especially in the games from Atari's glorious arcade era. That said, the bulk of Atari 50's selection of over 100 titles feels like filler that just doesn't hold up from a modern game design perspective. Dozens of "classic" Atari games — from 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe on the Atari 2600 to Missile Command 3D on the Jaguar — boil down to mere historical curiosities that most modern players would be hard-pressed to tolerate for longer than a couple of minutes.
Then there's Vctr Sctr, one of a handful of "reimagined" games on Atari 50 that attempt to re-create the feel of a classic Atari title with modern hardware and design touches.... More than just the look, Vctr Sctr does a great job capturing and updating what vector games of the early arcade era felt like to play.
Vctr Sctr apparently manages to combine updated versions of Asteroids, Lunar Lander, , and Tempest (in increasingly difficult waves). The article notes it's just one of six "reimagined" titles in Atari 50, but calls Vctr Sctr "a perfect brain-break game, an excuse to ignore the outside world for a quick, distracting burst of focused, high-energy chaos.
"In that way, it might be Atari 50's best demonstration of what the classic arcade era was really like."
But Ars Technica complains it's "stuffed with historical filler."
And yet, "one new game contained in the package won't let me go..." their reviewer adds. "I'm talking about Vctr Sctr, a retro-style arcade shooter that melds the addictive gameplay of classics like Asteroids and Tempest with modern gameplay concepts." As a package, Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection sets a new high-water mark for retro video game compilations. The collection's "timeline" feature deftly weaves archival materials like design documents and manuals, explanatory context and contemporary quotes from the game's release, and new video interviews with game creators into an engaging, interactive trip through gaming history.
But while the presentation shines, the games contained within Atari 50 often don't. Sure, there are a few truly replayable classics on offer here, especially in the games from Atari's glorious arcade era. That said, the bulk of Atari 50's selection of over 100 titles feels like filler that just doesn't hold up from a modern game design perspective. Dozens of "classic" Atari games — from 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe on the Atari 2600 to Missile Command 3D on the Jaguar — boil down to mere historical curiosities that most modern players would be hard-pressed to tolerate for longer than a couple of minutes.
Then there's Vctr Sctr, one of a handful of "reimagined" games on Atari 50 that attempt to re-create the feel of a classic Atari title with modern hardware and design touches.... More than just the look, Vctr Sctr does a great job capturing and updating what vector games of the early arcade era felt like to play.
Vctr Sctr apparently manages to combine updated versions of Asteroids, Lunar Lander, , and Tempest (in increasingly difficult waves). The article notes it's just one of six "reimagined" titles in Atari 50, but calls Vctr Sctr "a perfect brain-break game, an excuse to ignore the outside world for a quick, distracting burst of focused, high-energy chaos.
"In that way, it might be Atari 50's best demonstration of what the classic arcade era was really like."
List of Games? (Score:2)
Is there a list of games? I looked at the Atari site and the Amazon listing, and didn't see a list.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't know Atari had the rights to Miner 2049er, but I'm glad to see that on the list. I'm surprised to see both the 2600 and 800 versions were included. I played the 800 version quite extensively back in the day, and it was impossible on higher skill levels as the clock would run out faster than it was possible to complete the fourth level or so. There was also a cheat code to start on any level which I suspect was included to allow reviewers to review the whole game without hours and hours of play.
Re: (Score:2)
Shamus and Necromancer especially. I was never impressed with the gameplay on Rescue on Fractalus, and somehow I missed MULE. But I don't think any of those are owned by Atari, so I don't think they had the option of including them; certainly great options for a fan-made collection, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, M.U.L.E., a game my friend and I played so much back in the day that we wound up turning it into a drinking game.
What Would You Include? (Score:2)
If you were to make a collection of the most important Atari games, which ones would you include? In most cases, everyone assumes the coin-op version is the best, with the 2600 being a horrible strip-down, and the 800 or 5200 versions being close (and surprisingly the 5200 versions were often coded separately from the 800 versions, with pirates sometimes porting the 5200 version to the 800), but many games simply only existed on one platform, or were more important on one platform.
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, the only classic Atari games I can even imagine playing the originals of now would be the vector stuff, or maybe Pong at a party or something. As a bonus, these days there are sufficiently high-resolution monitors that you could do a really good job of emulating the look of the vector displays.
Re: What Would You Include? (Score:1)
Vector emulation: they did exactly that --check out
https://arstechnica.com/gaming... [arstechnica.com]
Re: (Score:3)
They may not be the most important games, but Atari's arcade games released around 1985-1990 were pretty slick in terms of graphics and sound, and ate a lot of my quarters:
Gauntlet
Marble Madness
Super Sprint
APB
Roadblasters
Paperboy
They were all commercially successful, but Gauntlet's 4-player multiplayer "insert coin to continue" gameplay made arcade owners a fortune. I'm a bit surprised that none of them are included in Atari's collection.
Re: (Score:2)
For coin-op games, Gauntlet was a huge innovation. I saw a more modern version in an arcade this summer, where the game gave you cards for armor and stuff that you could scan in when playing in the future. It's still sucking in quarters after all these years.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it was a lot of fun. Atari was early to notice the potential for arcade games with special accessories - all the above games had some kind of weird control device - a trackball for Marble Madness, handlebars for Paperboy, and of course 4 joysticks for Gauntlet.
Re: (Score:2)
Missing (Score:4, Interesting)
The Atari 50 is missing a huge list of fantastic Atari arcade games...
Marble Madness
Paperboy
Gauntlet(!!!)
720
Road Blasters
Xybots
Cyberball
Vindicators
Hard Drivin'
STUN Runner
Badlands
Klax
Rampart
Space Lords
Steel Talons
A lot of these would be *great* with updated graphics. Not even remastered, just cleaned up and sharpened would be fine.
Re: (Score:2)
If you were to make a collection of the most important Atari games, which ones would you include?
I would include the following Atari 800 games: Draconus, Gyruss, River Ride, Bruce Lee, Zorro and Karateka.
But it seems that they do not belong to the classic arcade era or they were not produced by Atari.
Yawn (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Absolutely!
When deciding what projects to fund, nobody considers possible revenue more than ten years out, so a ten-year copyright would be sufficient to achieve the intended purpose of encouraging content creation. Personally, I think 20 years is the right term.
The worst part is all the stuff where the publisher no longer exists, so it's not even clear who has the rights anymore, let alone all the stuff that is owned by companies that don't care anymore.
Bringing this more directly back to the topic, I wou
Re: (Score:1)
I agree, however it's trivially easy to play emulated versions of old games nowadays. Here's one of many sites that lets you play games in your browser:
https://playclassic.games/game... [playclassic.games]
re: emulated games (Score:2)
While it might be trivially easy to play most of the arcade classics? The bigger challenge is playing ones that feel accurate to the originals.
I recently bought (and then did some mods to) a "multicade" to play a big selection of classic coin-op and 80's - 90's console titles on. It's a coffee table type setup except the 32" display attached to its table-top lifts up on gas struts so you have the horizontal display orientation for the games that use it (fighting games, primarily) via controls across the fro
Uhm, GOG? (Score:1)
Atari platform (Score:2)
On the platform buttons/links on the site, there is an Atari one which goes nowhere? What is that there for? Distraction? Wishful thinking? Hint at something coming?
Too bad no Penguin button...
"Addictive New Titles" (plural) (Score:2)
What No Pitfall?? (Score:1)