Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Atari 2600 revived

On the market, there's a product called Atari Flashback 4, which contains 75 classic Atari 2600 games that defined an early home gaming industry. Back in the 1970's Mr. Nolan Bushnell had formed the company Atari which was derived from a Japanese game of Go, as saying Atari was a polite way of saying you're gonna get knocked off the game board. Bushnell back then had developed the first coin up game Pong in 1972.  The whole game itself was built into parts ranging from a black and white tv from Walgreens, etc. The whole back of it looked like an overgrown rats nest with all the wiring used to get the game running. Well  back then, it was placed into a bar tavern and playable for about 25 cents per play. They got their first service call as the coin slot was jammed, and that was a technical problem that Mr. Bushnell could solve easily. In later years, his company created classic arcade games like Breakout, Asteroids, etc. It was the early years of videogaming technology, and back then anything beyond Pong was oh wooow! In the late 1970's, Bushnell had an idea of a VHS system that would allow consumers to play videogames at home, and the games would be placed onto a chip and housed into a cartridge. It was a perfect concept, but Mr. Bushnell lacked the funds to bring his idea to life. So he he had no choice, but to sell his Atari company to CBS for about $5 million and CBS came up with the VHS system or now known as the Atari, and created a few games for it. At first it was hard  to get the consumers interested, but as they came up with more games, the system began to gain popularity, but soon lacked sales. That is until Taito was contacted and asked them for grant the rights to their game Space Invaders to be made for the  Atari 2600. The game and the system flew out the door with extreme popularity. It was a huge breakthrough, even as simple as the system is, and being able to play arcade game ported games at home on the 2600 was great, even if the graphics were blocky.
             Anyway, in later years, after the 2600 faded into history, it was now revived in a product called Atari Flashback 4. 75 original Atari 2600 games are programed onto a chip and housed into a miniature wooden cabinet replica of the Atari 2600. The Atari joysticks are now wireless and enable the gammer to control the game, select levels and access the game menu with ease. The console device also has a second set of buttons to power the unit. I loved playing those games and it  brought about great childhood gaming memories for me. It was a simpler time with simple game concept and you knew what to do and had your gaming fun. It's a nostalgic thing, and many gamers will enjoy reliving the classic Atari 2600 games once again. Although the package says it has 75 games, it's a lot more than that, as with  games like Street Racer, Star Ship, you get another game variation upon selecting another level. Amongst the games available to play, they've also included homebrew games like Haunted House 2, Adventure 2, as well as arcade hits like Space Invaders ( which features the arcade version as apposed to the original 2600 version), and Millipede.
          The only downside is that there are games like  Circus Atari, Blackjack, and Breakout that require the paddle ball controller to play the game with. An advanced version of the Flashback unit has those controllers brand new as well and the wireless joystick. So I had to order my paddle balls used on Ebay for about $15, and they worked, but were jittery in controlling. I managed to get inside the paddle ball controller and cleaned up the sensor and such, and it does work a little better and makes games like Circus Atari easier and more fun to play. Man did some of those game bring back memories as I had a blast playing those games, until my older sister came in and claimed that she got next game. Back then my Biological father, after he divorced my mom, was the only one who had the Atari, and hooked it up to the color tv in the living room, so gameplay was limited, as long as dad wasn't watching a movie or a game on tv. Playing these old Atari games are great and the product will make your a happy gamer. Although sometimes the game titles on the game menu screen are sometimes hard to read, unless you hook up your device to a flat screen tv.