Atari have undoubtedly created many classic games over the years, some of which appear in my
Top 100 Computer / Video Games of All Time. However, the slogan 㦼 Classic Games in One!” is slighty misleading, because it’s taking as a rule the idea that all
old games are
classic, which obviously isn’t the case. A good example of a true classic which is featured on this collection is
Asteroids - over two and a half decades old and still just as playable (and nearly as addictive!) today as when it was released.
The 㦼” games is also mildly misleading as some of the arcade games are also featured in their Atari 2600 console form. For nostalgia the 2600 is possibly the best choice for emulating in this collection, however many of the games play quite badly and all of them look and sound terrible by today’s standards – then again that’s part of the nostalgia! There are some fun games based on the 2600 system here – Asteroids is playable enough, Human Cannonball is quite enjoyable, some of the sports games and shoot ‘em ups play okay. I can’t help feeling that having a slew of games from
such an antiquated system wasn’t the brightest of ideas though – by and large they are extremely simple (not necessarily a bad thing) and lacking much replay value. Added to the terrible graphics and sound… Perhaps a few games from this system added to some from the 8-bit Atari computers and a decent bunch of ST games (now
that would be a collection worth having!!) would have been better. Still, it’s very interesting to see how games were many years ago, and compare them to what we expect today. The actual interface to show the options and change things seems to have been cobbled together by someone in a hurry, which is quite disappointing. The games are divided into several categories – racing games, sports games, space games, adventure games, action games, mind games, gambling games, arcade games.
The coin-ops are much better. There is a smaller collection of games based on the coin-ops (18), but these are far more satisfying and there really are some classics here.
Asteroids and
Asteroids Deluxe still play superbly, and a game I’d never played before –
Warlords – is very challenging and frighteningly addictive! (It’s kind of an update on the breakout games – which are here two – where you are one of four players defending your bases from a ball – well a ball of dragon flame really – and trying to break down the other players’ defences. It’s actually easy enough to beat the two horizontally / vertically opposite you, but getting the guy diagonally opposite you is very difficult! After a while more than one ball of dragon fire is going at once, so it becomes extremely frenetic!) Frenetic is the one word I would use to describe
Millipede, which must count as one of the most utterly mental shoot-em ups ever created. Other popular games such as
Tempest, Missile Command and
Crystal Castles are here to be enjoyed too, and a couple I’d never played / heard of which are quite good as well. The original
Lunar Lander games is also in this section, which really surprised me – I’ve played several of this type of game in the past, but the original is so challenging it’s untrue and really quite addictive – something I never would have believed until I’d played it! The interface is quite nice for the coin-ops with (optional) arcade console backgrounds.
The extra features include a lot of stuff that might be of interest to game historians or those who had the originals, like scans of various memorabilia – badges, promotional material, game manuals, computer magazines – and some wallpapers etc taken from the games. Of more interest are a series of short interviews with Nolan Bushell, founder of Atari and considered by many to be Father of the Gaming Industry. It’s a good job these are short as there are no video control options, just click and it plays – no fast forward, rewind, or… anything, really! The image quality isn’t great but the sound is quite clear. For anyone interested in gaming it really is quite fascinating, because it goes right back to the beginning of computer gaming – before it was even envisaged, in fact. One thing I learned from this that I never knew before is where the name “Atari” comes from – the Japanese game of “Go” – Atari is what you say if you’re about to give your opponent a pretty good beating (figuratively speaking, of course!). They did have another very nerdy name to begin with but a candle-maker had already copyrighted it!
The videos (there are 9 in total) don’t really feature anything apart from Nolan talking, which is a bit of a shame, though on the plus side this means you can be doing something while you listen to him. ~The shortest videos last for half a minute, the longest ones for 9 minutes - 37 minutes altogether. It’s very interesting hearing his memories of the early days. For instance,
Pong, one of the most famous computer games of all time, was actually only intended as a training project for Nolan’s first employee! Many married couples apparently first met each other over a game of Pong…
When the concept of paying for games with quarters first appeared, some very clever and very sneaky kids made their own – by impressions of quarters in plastercine, filling them with water and a bit of grit, freezing them, taking a freezer box to the arcade and quickly running in and putting the icy quarters in the slots! You get to find out his view of being titled as “The Father of the Video Gaming Industry”, and what his favourite game of all time is. (But is it a computer game??..)
Overall these videos do add considerably to the value of this collection. As for rating altogether though, I’m a bit uncertain what it should be. There are certainly some great games here, some fascinating history, and bucket-loads of nostalgia. On the other hand quite a few aspects of it seem thrown on or cobbled together, and some of the games refuse to run on occasion (changing the resolution in the settings usually sorts this out, but sometimes they seem to just have a tizzy fit and refuse to work). While some of the games are great, a lot are nondescript or just have really not travelled the timeline well. I’m going to recommend it, but because of my reservations I’m only giving it 3 stars. Most recommended to people who actually owned a 2600 console and have fond memories of it (and the awful but extremely sturdy Atari joystick!) or people who are interested in gaming history. I’m tempted to say that it’s worth it for Asteroids Deluxe and Warlords alone.
Full Games List
ARCADE GAMES
Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Black Widow, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Liberator, Lunar Lander, Major Havoc, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong, Red Baron, Super Breakout, Space Duel, Tempest, Warlords.
ATARI 2600 GAMES
A Game of Concentration, Adventure, Air-Sea Battle, Asteroids, Basic Programming, Battlezone, Bowling, Breakout, Canyon Bomber, Casino, Centipede, Circus Atari, Codebreaker, Combat, Crystal Castles, Demons to Diamonds, Dodge ‘Em, Double Dunk, Flag Capture, Football, fun With Numbers, Golf, Gravitar, Haunted House, Home Run, Human Cannonball, Math Gran Prix, Maze Craze, Millipede, Miniature Golf, Missile Command, Night Drive, Outlaw, Quadrun, Radar Lock, Realsports Baseball, Realsports Football, Realsports Tennis, Realsports Volleyball, Sky Diver, Slot Machine, Slot Racers, Space War, Star Raiders, Star Ship, Stellar Track, Street Racer, Submarine Commander, Super Baseball, Super Breakout, Super Football, Surround, Swordquest, Earthworld, Swordquest Fireworld, Swordquest Waterworld, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Video Checkers, Video Chess, Video Olympics, Video Pinball, Warlords, Yars Revenge.
Minimum System Specs
OS: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
CPU: 200MHz Pentium II
RAM: 16Mb
HDD space – none – you can run everything directly from the CD-ROM (install option available)
Video card: 2Mb
DirectX: 7.0 (9.0b included on disc)
(With system specs this though here shouldn’t be many people left with a system that can’t run the Atari Collection!!)
See also:
Top 100 Games of All Time (part 1) (for Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe)
