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• gamedeal user

  Aug 15, 2023

  This is a very cool collection of games, and while I think there could have been MORE documentaries and interviews, there is still a lot here, a lot more than with most classic game collections on the market right now, so I think it's a big step in the right direction. It reminds me of some of those Atari/Activision/Taito/Namco PS1 collections back in the day. I think game preservation is very important, and this game does a great job at that, and deserves support. I will say however, that my second point of disappointment (the first being that I wish there was MORE video interviews/documentaries, as what's here is very well done), is that it's kind of a bummer that there aren't any Activision games here (maybe one or two? I don't think so though). Now, I get it, Blizzard Activision are going to be a bunch of C-units on a good day, and would probably try to strong-arm the devs out of some cash to hand over the rights to publish some of them, but surely there has to be *SOME* semi-reasonable deal that could have been reached, yeah? Just a damn shame to not have a near perfect collection of games here. Speaking of which (and I know this would be a stretch), it would have been cool to have gotten some of the notoriously bad licensed games, like Spider-Man, Ghostbusters, and ESPECIALLY the legendary ET game. Now, I know that Hollywood would be their typical soul-less subversive, money-grubbing selves and try to charge out the ass to hand over the licenses for these games, but I have the strong inkling that the devs here didn't even bother to try. Just a shame. I'm not saying it would be easy, but I think it would have been possible. Anyway, the presentation here is awesome and deserving of praise, but short of the complaints and disappointments I listed above, I do think this game is a solid purchase.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 12, 2022

  If anyone is curious like I was and can't find a list of the games that are in this package, here they are: Reimagined - Haunted Houses - Neo Breakout - Quadratrack - Swordquest - Touchme - VCTR-SCTR - Yars Revenge ARCADE - Akka Arrh - Asteroids - Asteroids Deluxe - Black Widow - Breakout - Centipede - Cloak & Dagger - Crystal Castles - Fire Truck - Food Fight - Gravitar - I, Robot - Liberator - Lunar Lander - Major Havoc - Maze Invaders - Millipede - Missile Command - Pong - Quantun - Space Duel - Sprint 8 - Super BReakout - Tempest - Warlords 2600 - 3D Tic-Tac-Toe - Adventure - Air Sea Battle - Canyon Bomber - Centipede - Combat - Crystal Castles - Dark Chambers - Demons to Diamonds - Dodge Em - Fatal Run - Haunted House - Millipede - Miner 2049er - Missile Command - Outlaw - Quadrun - Baseball - Basketball - Boxing - Football - Soccer - Tennis - Volleyball - Saboteur - Secret Quest - Solaris - Super Breakout - Surround - Swordquest Earthworld - Swordquest Fireworld - Swordquest Waterworld - Warlords - Yars Revenge 5200 - Bounty Bob Strikes Back - Millipede - Missile COmmand - Star Raiders - Super Breakout 7800 - Asteroids - Basketbrawl - Centipede - Dark Chambers - Fatal Run - Ninja Golf - Scrapyard Dog Lynx - Basketbrawl - Malibu Bikini Volleyball - Scrapyard Dog - Super Asteroids/Missile Command - Turbo Sub 800 - Bounty Bob Strikes Back - Caverns of Mars - Food Fight - Miner 2049er - YOOMP JAGUAR - Atari Karts - Club Drive - Cybermorph - Dino Dudes - Fight For Life - Missile COmmand 3D - Ruiner - Tempest 2000 - Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy
• gamedeal user

  Nov 29, 2022

  It's a lightbulb moment when you realise - "Context". Context is what’s been missing from Retro Collections before now, and that goes for both the official and the less-than-legitimate packages. Let’s be honest, after 50 years of video game evolution most Atari titles have been dated to unplayability. I imagine glancing eyes will roll when they see the price, "£30! For a bunch of ROM's! In this economy!" but the games themselves aren't the sales pitch here, the sales pitch is context. In Atari 50 you’ll find the games presented on a chronological timeline alongside supplementary documentation. This documentation takes the form of advertising flyers, behind-the-scenes design plans and, most interesting of all, video interviews with the developers. Enough time has passed that these developers are talking truthfully and frankly about their experiences which makes for a refreshing change in today’s world of sanitised PR output. Seeing this evolution is rewarding because the absolute bare essentials of gaming are drip-fed and you get that context when something we take for granted was once absolutely groundbreaking, like music or colour sprites. If development war stories and archival archaeology aren't really your thing then Atari 50 does become more difficult to recommend. Aside from the inclusion of Lynx and Jaguar games this arguably isn't the most "complete" Atari set out there. Additionally, with no Activision representation, the scope of this collection is firmly about the history of "Atari as a company" not a comprehensive "experience of owning Atari hardware". An important distinction! Regardless, if these retro collections wish to remain relevant the blueprint on how to do so has been laid and the bar for quality has been raised. To any folks fascinated about the history of game development do not hesitate to pickup Atari 50 - Video games are an interactive medium, their museums should be interactive too. With my best wishes to Pong, I hope you’re having a wonderful 50th birthday.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 12, 2022

  Works out of the box on the Deck. Tempest 2000! Pleasure!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 13, 2022

  The various people who've owned the Atari license have released and rereleased a ton of collections over the years - a collection with Centipede, Combat, and all the other 2600/early arcade staples is pretty old hat and you'd be hard pressed to find someone with any interest in those games that hasn't played the heck out of them. Atari 50 isn't that, it's like buying a well-produced Criterion edition of their history. Instead of a bunch of roms with a front end, it's a extras packed museum exhibit with well edited and entertaining clips from people who were there (or prominent big fans). It's all set in a timeline that provides full context to the long story of a company that was at the top of the world and slowly fell apart. Without having played everything at this time, the emulation seems excellent across the various supported platforms (including Lynx and Jaguar) and I really like the various visual CRT-effect styles they do, which usually fall apart for me in collections like this, but really worked this time. And yeah, in addition to all the games everyone who is looking at this store page has played a million times, it digs deeper and gets the aforementioned Lynx and Jaguar representation, which includes the great and highly entertaining Tempest 2000. There's a ton of oddball games too like say, Ninja Golf a game that sounds like it was developed for Newgrounds, but was instead made for the 7800. Playing something like this that is so well and smartly put together makes me wish that this is the beginning of a series for long-running companies. A real treat for big nerds.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 12, 2022

  I've bought this mostly for the Atari Jaguar (and Lynx) content. So will mostly cover those, rather than much else. So there are a variety of Arcade games, plus games from the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, 800, Lynx and Atari Jaguar. The Atari ST/STE systems are almost completely ignored, as though they don't exist at all, in terms of there being any games available, but the Atari ST is mentioned extremely briefly in the history section. You can play and learn about the games and the history of the systems, or you can bypass the history lessons and select the games you want to play directly. There are two options when starting: OpenGL, or DirectX, I went for OpenGL (with Nvidia 2060) and it worked perfectly, whilst DirectX was glitchy in the menus. So skipping all the other systems, here are the Atari Jaguar games available, with brief ratings from when I originally played them on the console: - Atari Karts – this is almost impossible to get for a real Atari Jaguar, so it’s good to see here, but it doesn’t compete with Mario Kart (on the SNES) in terms of fun - Club Drive - this was terrible on the console - Cybermorph - this was okay - Dino Dudes - OK - Fight for Life - this was the "cool" looking game (at the time), but not much fun - Missile Command 3D - quite good - Ruiner Pinball - another pinball game, the likes of which you've seen on the Amiga 500 / Atari ST/E - Tempest 2000 - the best version of Tempest ever, this whole package is worth buying for this alone - Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy - a forgettable sideways scrolling shooter that I completely forgot about, even after playing it, end level baddies are quite big though There are obvious omissions from this list, including Alien vs Predator (not included), which was very slow on the Atari Jaguar, but very scary and fun to play. The other game that I think is worth playing on the Jaguar is Super Burnout, which was very impressive and very fast for the time (60fps), but again, not included with this compilation. Rather frustratingly each Atari Jaguar game you play has the controls assigned to different keys, perhaps there’s some reason behind this, but it does make switching between games frustrating. Atari Lynx games include: - Basketbrawl - Malibu Bikini Volleyball - Scrapyard dog - Super asteroids / Missile Command - Turbo Sub The best Atari Lynx games are missing, such as California Games, Paperboy, Robotron 2084, and of course as mentioned, all the great Atari ST/STE games are nowhere to be found (Lemmings, IK+, Stunt Car Racer anyone!?). There are also arcade versions of Missile Command, and Tempest, so there is some duplication. There are also 6 new games, but who wants to play new games, when they want to relive their childhood? The history included is really interesting, with lots of information including old adverts, old video interviews and features, as well as new stories, interviews and information. There is a lot to watch, and play here!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 17, 2022

  £30 for a bunch of old Atari games would frankly be a rip-off, but that's not what this is. This is essentially a virtual museum of the history of Atari. The presentation is great, it takes you year by year through the history of Atari, with original interviews, old footage, advertisements and all the other promotional stuff, and then of course there are the games. You don't just jump blindly into a game, it gives you a story of why that game mattered, so even if you don't like it, you can still appreciate it. As the title states this is a celebration of Atari not just a collection of games.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 1, 2022

  Just like in the 90's, when I purchased the Jaguar brand new, I purchased this compilation for one game. Tempest 2000. I don't have a ton to say other than FORGET ALL OF THE OTHER VERSIONS OF TEMPEST YOU SEE FOR SALE ON STEAM. This is a near perfect(if not the actual game file?)version of Tempest 2000. There is just absolutely no other version that even holds a candle to it. The $45 CAD I paid for this compilation is a no brainer just for this one game. Even on the Sony ps1 with Tempest X3 (which is a decent game) they didn't quite get the feel right and the music was off. For whatever reason, it is apparently very hard to create magic twice and nobody has ever done this game justice since the Jag. Anyway....498,700 on my first play thru in 30 years. Got my ass handed to me on level 25. Got angry. Knew I was hooked immediately. The grid hasn't seen the last of me.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 13, 2022

  Lets preface this by saying that I wasn't born during any of Atari's console (I'm 25) so I have no nostalgia for any of the games in particular. I have some experiences on a real 2600 (we found my dad console), but thats about it ( had a fun time, need to buy a new TV cable for it tho haha). So I'm not really in the target audience of this product, but I still bought it day one. Why? Well, the number of games is a really good argument. 104 or 3 (don't remember) is a huge number of new experiences. And while some games are very simplistic and a bit so-so, you get a ton of great fun and I think its really fun to revisit the past, and I personally love retro-gaming (more of a SNES guy tho lol). Also, finally good Jaguar emulation. Its one of those system I would like to own one day because its a really unique one. But I think the bigger selling point for my purchase was for the historical value. I love video game history, from start to today. Its a really fun subject to explore and I would hope some younger gamers gets interested in it. You get a treasure trove of fun facts, ads and interviews with the people that made Atari, well Atari (shoutout to the drugs interview, my favorite one, its really hilarious). The way it is set up is ingenious, its really like a museum display, you get to explore on your own rythm and stuff. I have 16-ish hours of game time and I just got through everything. There is alot packed here. So if you're not sure if you should pick it up or not, get it for the history. The games are great to have, but the museum feature and the love put through to it by the devs we're super apparent and fun. Also the 6 new games are fun too. Must buy for any fan of video game history.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 14, 2022

  Overall, I think this is a great retro gaming collection, with a few things that could be improved. I've played this for over 7 hours at the time I'm reviewing it. The emulation is very well done and there's a lot of games here. All of the games I've played have worked flawlessly, especially the Jaguar games which are notoriously difficult to emulate well. The other big attraction is the interactive history mode. It's a treasure trove of concept/production art, internal memos, photos, and interviews that are all well done. It does a great job of capturing the history of Atari from it's founding through the Jaguar era. There's a lot of funny moments in the interviews and it's a wonderful peek behind the scenes. Taken as whole, it's worth the $40 asking price. So, what could they improve? First, there's a number of odd omissions in the games, and I'm talking about Atari owned games that they have the rights to. It's understandable that 3rd party games (Activision, Imagic, M-Network, Parker Bros., etc.) aren't included due to licensing costs/issues. But there are some Atari developed games that have been in previous collections that are oddly missing. Take for example, Star Raiders. The original version was for Atari 400/800, and the Atari 2600 port is by far the most well known. Yet neither of those are here. We get the Atari 5200 version, which while similar to the 400/800 version is probably the one the fewest people have played given how poorly the 5200 sold. So, why that version and not the original or the one most people had. Or better, yet, why not all three? The Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computer library are anemic with only 4 games each. Where's the Atari 5200 versions of Asteroids, Centipede, CounterMeasure, all of the Atari 5200 RealSports, etc. Same with the Atari 8-bit computer games, just a lot of odd omissions. The part I'm really not a fan of, many of these games were in the Atari Vault, which they removed from sale 1 day before this collection went live. There are currently no options for the arcade game difficulty. They're configured one way and that's how you're going to play them, even if the game has settings for different amount of starting lives, different difficulty settings, different point targets for bonus lives. They really need to open these up. Especially because they provide the sales flyers for a lot of these games that tout these features. Another area for improvement is achievements. There's only a handful and they're tied to the Reimagined games and a few Jaguar games. Atari Vault had an achievement for most (all?) games for every console. This seems like a simple thing to add and they really should add these for all the games. One last thing that was a bit disappointing were the display options. The CRT filter isn't great. There's much better examples in open source offerings like Stella that do an excellent job of emulating a CRT display, including adding interference. It could really do with some more options there. I think what they have is works, but it could be so much more authentic. Overall, despite those issues, there's a lot of value here. I'd like to see these things addressed, but I think the collection is definitely worthwhile in its current state.