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Atari 50 years Celebration game

Impotaku

Member
I love how there's 5 mysterious confidential files in the games roster it seems they are games that you can unlock by doing certain things i managed to find one by looking at everything in the museum. So much care has been put into this loving the old commercials & paperwork plus the interviews.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Which version of Tempest is this? I hope it's the Nuon version since it' the best and the only one that can't be emulated.
Tempest 2000, the Jaguar game. Tempest 3000 is the Nuon game, and is widely considered the worst Tempest game. It's blurry, missing effects, can't save scores and has bad controls. Not to be confused with Tempest X3, the PS1 version. I bought a Nuon just for T3K, and it was a big mistake, lol. But if you absolutely must play T3k, emulation is VERY close to having T3K get in game as multithreading is currently being worked on. You can get in the menus, but it crashes when it loads a level.
 
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Lynx II was the best of the handhelds from that era and one of my favorite systems of all time. S.T.U.N. Runner must be included in this collection.
1280px-Atari-Lynx-II-Handheld-Angled.jpg
How many batteries did that thing take? I know my game gear which took about 6 AA lasted like 3 hours. Was rough as batteries weren't cheap then. My gameboy used to last days on 4AA.

I think the Turbo Duo was the most innovative and cool. It played the same 16bit hu cards as the tg16 and also had a tv tunner (although i think gamegear had that too). Don't know how many batteries that had as I wasn't fortunate enough to own one, only the home console.

What was it's best games? Any rpgs?
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Yeah the green lady in Cybermorph is still annoying, not helped by the fact I’m absolutely shit at the game. Have a real soft spot for the Jag tho and Atari Karts is better than what I thought it would be.
Also, that Jaguar fighting game blows. One of the cool things about this collection is that they don't hide their blunders.

But yeah, I played Atari Karts for like an hour yesterday. It's fun.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
How many batteries did that thing take? I know my game gear which took about 6 AA lasted like 3 hours. Was rough as batteries weren't cheap then. My gameboy used to last days on 4AA.

I think the Turbo Duo was the most innovative and cool. It played the same 16bit hu cards as the tg16 and also had a tv tunner (although i think gamegear had that too). Don't know how many batteries that had as I wasn't fortunate enough to own one, only the home console.

What was it's best games? Any rpgs?
Version 2 took 6 AA batteries and lasted up to 6 hours. The good thing about Lynx was that the 2600 power adapter would power it and I had like 5 of them laying around. I laid in bed and played Klax for hours.

I am very disappointed that this collection didn't include Klax. Klax was kinda made for the section on the 90's because "It is the 90's and there is time for..."
 
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Havoc2049

Member
Version 2 took 6 AA batteries and lasted up to 6 hours. The good thing about Lynx was that the 2600 power adapter would power it and I had like 5 of them laying around. I laid in bed and played Klax for hours.

I am very disappointed that this collection didn't include Klax. Klax was kinda made for the section on the 90's because "It is the 90's and there is time for..."
I've had a Lynx II since 1991 and plugged-in is the way I play my Lynx as well. I've only put one set of AA's through my Lynx since I've owned it. I got the deluxe package that came with the AC power adapter and California Games. I also have the car cigarette lighter adapter and the C cell battery pack that lasts like 40 hours. The Lynx games in Atari 50 package aren't the best. It would have been nice if they could have made a deal for the Epyx games and the Atari Games arcade conversions, as those were some the best games on the Lynx.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I've had a Lynx II since 1991 and plugged-in is the way I play my Lynx as well. I've only put one set of AA's through my Lynx since I've owned it. I got the deluxe package that came with the AC power adapter and California Games. I also have the car cigarette lighter adapter and the C cell battery pack that lasts like 40 hours. The Lynx games in Atari 50 package aren't the best. It would have been nice if they could have made a deal for the Epyx games and the Atari Games arcade conversions, as those were some the best games on the Lynx.
Epyx was bought by Atari before the Lynx launched so I don't think the rights were held separately. I am not really sure how they picked the particular Lynx games that they did.
 

Havoc2049

Member
Epyx was bought by Atari before the Lynx launched so I don't think the rights were held separately. I am not really sure how they picked the particular Lynx games that they did.
I wish Atari owned the Epyx library of games. Atari only bought the Lynx hardware from Epyx. Bridgestone Media (a holding company) owns Epyx.

From Wikipedia:
Epyx had shrunk from 145 employees in 1988 to fewer than 20 by the end of 1989. After emerging from bankruptcy the company resumed game development but only for the Lynx, with Atari acting as publisher.[6] In 1993, with eight employees left, they decided just to sell off the rest of the company. Bridgestone Media Group eventually acquired the rights the rest of Epyx's assets.
 

MrA

Member
I wish Atari owned the Epyx library of games. Atari only bought the Lynx hardware from Epyx. Bridgestone Media (a holding company) owns Epyx.

From Wikipedia:
Epyx had shrunk from 145 employees in 1988 to fewer than 20 by the end of 1989. After emerging from bankruptcy the company resumed game development but only for the Lynx, with Atari acting as publisher.[6] In 1993, with eight employees left, they decided just to sell off the rest of the company. Bridgestone Media Group eventually acquired the rights the rest of Epyx's assets.
No chips challenge and its baller soundtrack is disappointing
 

Agent X

Member
Picked this up today on switch, not really fair to class this just as another retro game compilation it's way more than that i'd class it as an interactive museum where you can also try the games out. The amount of work they have put in sets the bar on what retro collections should try to do.

You're absolutely right on this. This package totally excels as a historical documentary. The amount of content is staggering. Even longtime Atari fanatics like myself will learn new and interesting things about the company and the personalities involved.

Bonus point that they made sure to try and give a decent replication of the originals the actually non shit scanlines and bezel borders are a great touch as is the vector glow while no tv can really replicate the intense glow of a real vector monitor it's a nice attempt.

I'm not sure I completely agree here, though. Some of the borders and graphical filters are cool, but unfortunately others seem half-baked. There are a few effects that are highly annoying, and they barely give you any options compared to most other modern emulators (including some of Digital Eclipse's own efforts on previous generation systems).

For the raster games, you can either have the graphics unfiltered, or apply a scanline effect. That's it. Oh, but the problem here is that the scanline effect is married to this "TV curvature" effect that attempts to simulate the physical shape of an old-fashioned TV screen. There's some darker shading along the edges, and some "brightening" in (approximately) the middle 30% of the screen. On some games this is barely noticeable, but on other games it is highly pronounced and looks awful. I would love to have the option to have only the scanlines, without the simulated TV curvature. I really hope they patch this in at some point.

The vector games also have it rough. While they do have a great simulated vector glow, this is counteracted by the addition of "vibrating" vectors that have this pseudo-interlaced look. It's a clever effect...for about five seconds. After that, you'll wish you could turn off the jitter and just play with crisp, clean vector lines (like...oh, every Atari arcade compilation going all the way back to the original PlayStation), but sadly you can't turn this off. Again, I hope that they can add this option in a future patch.

There are so many other options missing from the emulators, too. The arcade games have a dearth of options to tweak difficulty and the like (e.g. selecting starting number of lives, score plateaus for bonus lives, etc.). Digital Eclipse was able to implement these options on their Atari packs on PlayStation over 25 years ago, but I suppose this has become a lost art over the ages.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
It's kinda hard to browse and find games you want if you don't already know them by heart.

The resolution options are disappointing and it won't save windowed on launch.

Still a really cool package.

Force Enable Steam Input if you have problems with your DS4Windows/additional controllers plugged in your PC by the default.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
Epyx was bought by Atari before the Lynx launched so I don't think the rights were held separately. I am not really sure how they picked the particular Lynx games that they did.
Epyx was't acquired by Atari so Atari didn't own the Lynx games. Probably wouldn't have been any better for Epyx if they had been acquired by Atari.
 

Deerock71

Member
I love how there's 5 mysterious confidential files in the games roster it seems they are games that you can unlock by doing certain things i managed to find one by looking at everything in the museum. So much care has been put into this loving the old commercials & paperwork plus the interviews.
This game has reviewed surprisingly well, and things like this I'm sure are going to bring a smile to my face.

EFIT: Saddened to read this does not include Pitfall, Pac-Man, and ET.
 
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Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
Epyx was bought by Atari before the Lynx launched so I don't think the rights were held separately. I am not really sure how they picked the particular Lynx games that they did.
Kind of hard to find Epyx games in collections. I picked up the Colecovision Flashback and couple years ago and that has Gateway to Apshai... which was nice!
Picked up Rogue on the Steam Deck a couple weeks ago
 
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SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I wish Atari owned the Epyx library of games. Atari only bought the Lynx hardware from Epyx. Bridgestone Media (a holding company) owns Epyx.

From Wikipedia:
Epyx had shrunk from 145 employees in 1988 to fewer than 20 by the end of 1989. After emerging from bankruptcy the company resumed game development but only for the Lynx, with Atari acting as publisher.[6] In 1993, with eight employees left, they decided just to sell off the rest of the company. Bridgestone Media Group eventually acquired the rights the rest of Epyx's assets.

They bought the operation in any event, as Atari's internally developed games were made by the same staff. I am pretty sure Atari published those games as well.
 

Havoc2049

Member
There's quite a bit missing, the game runs pretty bad in some tracks and lack of numpad removes some core gameplay features and the ability to change cameras, Some objects don't even render.
All the Jaguar and 5200 games that use the keypad have keypad support with a radial dial, accessed with the right thumb stick, so all the various camera angles can be accessed in Club Drive.

I loved Club Drive back in the day and played it to death. I've been doing a deep dive in the Atari 50 version. The only thing I couldn't do was access the secret world, Planet Todd, and the secret debug/drop camera mode. To access Planet Todd for example, you have to press the 2 & 4 buttons on the number pad on the World Select screen at the same time on the Jaguar pad. That corresponds to up on the right thumb stick and pressing the A button at the same time on a modern controller. I do that, but Planet Todd doesn't come up. My guess is that pressing up on the right thumb stick doesn't register as a button press, even though it corresponds to the #4 keypad button in the emulator. Maybe I'll see if I can map that radial dial function to a face button to see if I can get it to work.
 
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Agent X

Member
A few posts earlier (post #113), I mentioned some complaints about the graphical filtering that they utilized in Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Here's what I said about the raster games:

For the raster games, you can either have the graphics unfiltered, or apply a scanline effect. That's it. Oh, but the problem here is that the scanline effect is married to this "TV curvature" effect that attempts to simulate the physical shape of an old-fashioned TV screen. There's some darker shading along the edges, and some "brightening" in (approximately) the middle 30% of the screen. On some games this is barely noticeable, but on other games it is highly pronounced and looks awful. I would love to have the option to have only the scanlines, without the simulated TV curvature. I really hope they patch this in at some point.

For comparison purposes, here are some screens that I captured from the Atari 2600 version of Missile Command contained in this package, as well as some other compilations.

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration (PlayStation 4):

wwVu9je.jpg


Notice that the edges are darker relative to the middle portion of the screen. I understand what the developers at Digital Eclipse were trying to achieve here. While it's not an outright bad implementation, it can be jarring at times. It's a pity that the player doesn't have the option to turn off this effect and have a clean, uniform image while still retaining the scanlines.

The next three screens are all from compilations developed by Code Mystics, so you'll notice some similarities to each other.

Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 2 (PlayStation 4):

lWF924G.jpg


Atari Flashback Classics (PlayStation Vita):

nmcPUCH.jpg


Atari Vault (PC):

fUUbGbi.jpg


While the scanline effect on the Atari Flashback Classics and Atari Vault (from now on will refer to as FBC/Vault) was acceptable a few years ago, the Atari 50 scanline effect is a great improvement.

The colors also differ between Atari 50 and the FBC/Vault implementations. I think Atari 50 is trying to simulate what the games looked like on a typical TV from the 70s/80s, while FBC/Vault is sending out more "pure" RGB colors that might exceed the color gamut of most old TVs. Both of these are acceptable for different reasons. Your preferences might vary based on the game you're playing, or your mood at the time. It would be great if Atari 50 could allow the user to choose the palette to use.

Atari and Digital Eclipse should consider producing a patch to enable an advanced user to tweak individual attributes of the graphical rendering to suit his personal preference. Scanlines, color palette, and TV curvature should all be independently adjustable.

On that note, there are lots of game options that are unavailable to the user. There are even games for which some portions of the game controls are missing, meaning that the player cannot perform all of the in-game actions. Maybe that's passable for a casual player who wouldn't notice this on a relatively unfamiliar game, but some hardcore Atari fans will surely find this disappointing.

I know it sounds like I'm being overly critical of Atari 50 here, but that's because I want the developers to go back and fix these issues. The package excels in so many ways pertaining to the historical aspects, and the attention to detail they gave there. It's evident a lot of love went into the project, judging by the comprehensive amount of content and the polished presentation. I just want to see the gameplay aspects elevated to an equally high standard.
 

Havoc2049

Member
I haven't really played many of the 2600 games. I've been mainly playing Jaguar, 5200, 7800, 800 and the new games. Everything I've played has been solid so far. Control is never going to be 100% spot on.

Don't sleep on Star Raiders! Star Raiders was always one of those games that aged well and never gets old. The remastered Star Raiders is excellent with the new title screen and music that plays at the begining. All the slowdown that was in the original Star Raiders when there were multiple enemies on screen is gone as well. After years of playing Star Raiders on a keyboard, it takes a little practice to get the controls down, but is doable.

Agent X, what games have features missing?
 

Agent X

Member
Agent X, what games have features missing?

One game that immediately comes to mind is Malibu Bikini Volleyball for Lynx. Here's the description screen from Atari 50:

K0b9ldW.jpg


The description mentions the ability to switch the musical soundtrack mid-game. That was a very cool feature...except you can't do this within Atari 50, because they forgot to implement the Option 2 button.

It's not as though they ran out of buttons, either. There are plenty of unused buttons on the controller. All they need to do is assign the Option 2 function to one of those buttons.

While this is not essential to play the game, it was a noteworthy feature. Its absence in Atari 50 is particularly ironic, considering that they specifically highlighted that feature in the description.

Another side effect of the missing Option 2 button is that after the game ends, you cannot restart the game from within the Lynx emulator. You have to exit out to the Atari 50 menu, and then reenter the game to play again.
 

nush

Member
The description mentions the ability to switch the musical soundtrack mid-game. That was a very cool feature...except you can't do this within Atari 50, because they forgot to implement the Option 2 button.

Patched.

They have just released an update for this title,


Dip switch settings for the arcade games. Best update is for Tempest 200, analog control added, 60fps and an overclock mode. Great stuff and I hope they continue to improve this great collection.
 

Agent X

Member
Atari has announced that they will release a new, free update to Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration on December 5. The update will add 12 Atari 2600 games to the collection.





They have not announced which games will be included. Some people have speculated Aquaventure, Double Dunk, Motorodeo, Steeplechase, Night Driver, Polo, and Berzerk.

They've also hinted that there might be even more games added later on, possibly through paid DLC packs. If they do add more games, I hope they give some love to their other home systems besides the 2600. In particular, I think the Lynx kind of got shafted here. Maybe Atari can negotiate with other companies like Epyx and Songbird (and maybe even Warner Bros.) to bring back some lost Lynx classics.
 

Havoc2049

Member
Hopefully we'll see Checkered Flag (Lynx), Iron Soldier (Jag), Iron Soldier 2 (Jag CD), Gates of Zendocon (Lynx) and Battlemorph (Jag CD).
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Oh nice. I play this all the time! I wish there was a way to get Klax into it.
 
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Deerock71

Member
Cool, but it should have been on the original GAME CARD...WHICH I OWN!!!

Could one of those be Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird?
 
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Daniel Thomas MacInnes

GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
As always, these retro gaming collections are dependent on which persons or holding companies currently hold the rights, and how much ransom money they’re demanding to receive before releasing the games that are locked in their vaults.

You’d be surprised how greedy and selfish many of these companies are. Any current publisher has to calculate if those licensing costs will be covered by future sales, or if the ransom is just too expensive. Atari’s current owners aren’t running a charity shop, after all. They’re not doing this because they’re nice. They expect to make profit on their investments.

And let’s not get into the issue of arcade live sing where the original publisher refuses to ever grant licensing rights ever again. I’m looking at you jerks, Taito. “Bah, our arcade Space Invaders is the best.” Whatever.
 

Agent X

Member
The day has arrived, and with the arrival of the latest patch, they added 12 11 games from the Atari 2600 to the collection. Those games are:

  • Adventure II (homebrew)
  • Aquaventure (prototype)
  • Bowling
  • Circus Atari
  • Double Dunk
  • Maze Craze
  • Miniature Golf
  • MotoRodeo
  • Return to Haunted House (homebrew)
  • Save Mary (prototype)
  • Super Football

Although there are only 11 2600 games in the list, they did add one more game...from the Lynx. That game is:

  • Warbirds

Great update!

A couple notes on the games above, as a few lucky people might have already played one or two of the above games in this collection:

The Atari VCS version of Atari 50 only received 10 new 2600 games today. That's because Circus Atari was already in that version of the collection as a bonus game.

Some people who had the physical version of Atari 50 observed that Warbirds for the Lynx appeared in the collection, as long as your installation was not patched. The game was removed from Atari 50 with the "day one" patch. Why? Supposedly, Warbirds was one of the intellectual properties that Atari sold off to Tommo several years ago, when the company was strapped for cash. Just prior to Atari 50's release last year, Atari learned that they no longer had rights to the game, and were obligated to remove it. Recently, Atari reacquired the rights to Warbirds from Tommo, and thus they are now able to reinstate this game into the collection.

Hopefully we'll see Checkered Flag (Lynx), Iron Soldier (Jag), Iron Soldier 2 (Jag CD), Gates of Zendocon (Lynx) and Battlemorph (Jag CD).

A rousing "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to all of the above!

dOVAB27.jpg


This guy's a hardcore fan of the Jaguar. I know AJ Styles is, too. :messenger_grinning:

Gates of Zendocon might be a bit tough, considering that it's an Epyx game. That said, Blaze was able to get this and almost every other Epyx-developed Lynx game onto one of their Evercade cartridges. Perhaps Atari might consider opening their wallet to bring the Epyx Lynx games into the fold.

Oh nice. I play this all the time! I wish there was a way to get Klax into it.

Heck yeah, It may be the twenties, but there is still time for Klax!

And let’s not get into the issue of arcade live sing where the original publisher refuses to ever grant licensing rights ever again. I’m looking at you jerks, Taito. “Bah, our arcade Space Invaders is the best.” Whatever.

Square Enix (who owns Taito) has disavowed the 2600 version of Space Invaders, since the game isn't "close enough" to the arcade original, particularly the visuals. They boast that the character representations from the arcade game are "iconic"...and they're right. But, I'd also say that the 2600 invader designs--though quite different--are equally iconic. They are permanently etched into the memory of anyone who ever held an Atari joystick in the 1980s. Still, Square Enix refuses to budge on the issue, and that's why various incarnations of Atari Flashback self-contained game consoles use an alternate "quasi-arcade" recreation of the game, rather than the 2600 version that so many of us grew up with. They have no qualms over some of their other properties (e.g. Jungle Hunt) being presented as the 2600 versions, but Space Invaders continues to remain off the table.

I think Konami might hold a similar attitude about the two versions of Frogger for the 2600.
 

T-0800

Member
Square Enix (who owns Taito) has disavowed the 2600 version of Space Invaders, since the game isn't "close enough" to the arcade original, particularly the visuals. They boast that the character representations from the arcade game are "iconic"...and they're right. But, I'd also say that the 2600 invader designs--though quite different--are equally iconic. They are permanently etched into the memory of anyone who ever held an Atari joystick in the 1980s. Still, Square Enix refuses to budge on the issue, and that's why various incarnations of Atari Flashback self-contained game consoles use an alternate "quasi-arcade" recreation of the game, rather than the 2600 version that so many of us grew up with. They have no qualms over some of their other properties (e.g. Jungle Hunt) being presented as the 2600 versions, but Space Invaders continues to remain off the table.

I think Konami might hold a similar attitude about the two versions of Frogger for the 2600.

That's really sad to hear with regard to Space Invaders. I think it is one of the best versions of the game available thanks to the extra modes.

I hope one day Atari are able to buy back the rights to Gauntlet etc.
 

Daniel Thomas MacInnes

GAF's Resident Saturn Omnibus
Atari 2600 Space Invaders is the best version of the arcade classic. It's spookier, more unsettling, more tense. That rhythmic pounding of the marching aliens and your laser cannon, peppered occasionally by the sound of the passing mothership, provides a far better sense of dread than the arcade ever could. There's something deeply trippy about many classic Atari 2600 games, where you can tell the programmers were all 1970s acid heads and knew how to communicate the dream/nightmare elements of the psychedelic experience.

So, in summary, the moral lesson for today's game designers: take more psychedelic drugs. Hah!
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
This is such a phenomenal collection. Just picked it up and already learned a ton.

Just got to Lunar Lander and Vctr-Sctr which is one of the best arcade games Ive played in a while.

Think of the best remaster you've ever played and multiply that by 1 million. Dozens of games with detailed development timeline for the company, developer interviews, scanned in promotional materials, full blown new games made in 2022 as tribute versions, modeled 3D box art for canceled products, remade digital versions of dead Tiger Electronics tier Atari handheld products from the 70s. If the best remaster you can think of is gold tier, this is SSS platinum+ tier. They even included scanned in office memos detailing the very first idea pitch for Centipede in 1980.
 
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Krathoon

Member
It always cracks me up how Atari sidesteps Activision and Imagic. They made some of the best games on the 2600.

They kind of ate Atari's lunch.

There is a windows collection of the Activision games. It is called Activison Anthology Remix.
 
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I always cracks me up how Atari sidesteps Activision and Imagic. They made some of the best games on the 2600.​


Atari doesn't own the rights to the games made by Activision of Imagic. They aren't sidestepping anyone. Now that Microsoft has purchased Activision it could be interesting if Microsoft sold the IPs for the 2600 games to Atari.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
It always cracks me up how Atari sidesteps Activision and Imagic. They made some of the best games on the 2600.

They kind of ate Atari's lunch.

There is a windows collection of the Activision games. It is called Activison Anthology Remix.
Atari doesn't own Activision and Imagic games so they can't put them in collections like this. I would imagine that Microsoft could release an Activision and Imagic Atari 2600 collection if they wanted to since Activision bought the rights to many of the Imagic games when the company went under.
 
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Krathoon

Member
Atari doesn't own Activision and Imagic games so they can't put them in collections like this. I would imagine that Microsoft could release an Activision and Imagic Atari 2600 collection if they wanted to since Activision bought the rights to many of the Imagic games when the company went under.
Yeah, but they don't really acknowledge them. They don't mention that there are these other companies making great games.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Yeah, but they don't really acknowledge them. They don't mention that there are these other companies making great games.

Hey guys, many of the best games on the platform were from third party publishers. Sorry but you can’t play any of them on this collection.

I mean, why bring it up, only to disappoint people? That would be my guess.
 
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Havoc2049

Member
It always cracks me up how Atari sidesteps Activision and Imagic. They made some of the best games on the 2600.

They kind of ate Atari's lunch.

There is a windows collection of the Activision games. It is called Activison Anthology Remix.
In that '82-84 time frame when Activision and Imagic had all their 2600 hits, Atari was no slouch either and had a ton of great games with the silver label packaging. Ms. Pac-Man, Vanguard, Centipede, Milipede, Phoenix, Kangaroo, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Galaxian, Joust, Stargate and a few others were great games. All the Atari property silver label games are in this collection.
 
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