Atari's Greatest Hits

[Nester the Lark]

Here is the official PR and trailer for Atari's Greatest Hits: Volume 1.



Volume 1 includes a whopping 50 games from both the arcade and Atari 2600, including:

Atari Arcade Hits
Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Missile Command, Pong, Space Duel, Tempest.

Atari 2600 Favorites
3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Adventure, Air-Sea Battle, Asteroids, Atari Video Cube, Basketball, Battlezone, Bowling, Centipede, Championship Soccer, Dodge ’Em, Flag Capture, Football, Fun with Numbers, Gravitar, Hangman, Haunted House, Home Run, Human Cannonball, Math Gran Prix, Miniature Golf, Missile Command, Outlaw, Realsports Baseball, Realsports Boxing, Realsports Football, Realsports Tennis, Realsports Volleyball, Sky Diver, Slot Maching, Slot Racers, Sprintmasters, Starship, Stella Track, Submarine Commander, Surround, Swordquest Earthworld, Swordquest Fireworld, Swordquest Waterworld,Tempest and Video Checkers.

Bonus features include: "the original game manuals for each title, an Atari memorabilia showcase, and special bonus extras -- including an Atari Trivia game where gamers can race against the clock to answer questions about Atari history and then post their scores to Atari.com."

The PR emphasizes these games as "casual" (which I guess they are by today's standards). Some of the games can by played with single-card multiplayer, and others require multi-card. The package will be available this fall for $29.99.

I'm a little disappointed that it focuses on the 2600 since I don't think those games have aged as well. However, it does have both the arcade and 2600 versions of some games. It also has the three Swordquest games, which the Angry Video Game Nerd did a really awesome feature on that you can (and by all means should) see here.

I'm not sure I want to spend $30 on this, but I'll keep my eye on it.

[Johans Nidorino]

Aug 25, 2010 14:21:48 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

The PR emphasizes these games as "casual" (which I guess they are by today's standards).

That sounds kind of sad

The bonus features sound cool. The manuals and catalogs used to have cool artworks.

[Wildcat]

Beat me to it.

I'm sort of curious in this, as I dabbled with the 2600 a bit in my youth, and the arcade line-up isn't shabby. 50 games is a lot, too. I may wait for a price cut, though. $30 is a lot for me right now, and I have plenty of other games I want more than this.

[Nester the Lark]

Well, I've taken some time to look into the game lineup a little more closely, and I've made a few observations:

- Many of these games look as boring to me now as they did back then. (Seriously. Fun with Numbers? Video Checkers?)

- On the other hand, some of the 2600 games actually surprised me with their graphics. For example, the 2600 version of Battlezone looks amazing for a 2600 game, and in its own way even looks better than the arcade version!

- I don't understand why they didn't include the "Realsports" edition of soccer instead of Championship Soccer.

- Apparently, at least a couple of the 2600 games are unreleased prototypes, including Tempest and Realsports Basketball.

- In light of that, I wonder if it would've been possible to include the prototype of Swordquest Airworld.

- And speaking of Swordquest, I wonder if the comics will be included as part of the bonus features so that it's possible to solve the game's clues.

- There are at least a couple of notable omissions. Where are Combat and Yar's Revenge? I'm sure they have to save something for Volume 2, but I would hope that that collection focuses more on arcade, 5200 and 7800 games.

[Wildcat]

Heh, there are some goofy inclusions and omissions - I too was wondering where Combat was.

[Johans Nidorino]

Combat was a bundle game and always appears in compilations, so yeah, I bet it will be in volume 2.

[Nester the Lark]

Digging around Atari's website has revealed a few more details:

- It's being developed by Code Mystics, and is scheduled for release on November 2.

- It appears that the touch screen will be used primarily for manipulating the switches on the 2600. For the arcade games, the touch screen is used as the play screen, so it'll probably be used to simulate the trackball and knob from the arcade. I also noticed that Centipede is played in the vertical orientation.

- Only Warlords, Space Duel and Pong support single-card multiplayer. (Is it really that hard to squeeze a 2600 game into a DS's memory? I would think not.)

Aside from that, there are several classic Atari games available to play in your browser right here (click the Arcade Classics tab), including Missile Command, Tempest, Centipede, Millipede, Yar's Revenge, Lunar Lander, Gravitar, Crystal Castles, Battlezone, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Adventure.

[Nester the Lark]

Just stumbled across something else. This page at the game's official site cryptically states: "TOP SECRET: Play the actual military training prototype commissioned by the US Army, never before released to the public!"

I assume this refers to that special version of Battlezone that Ed Rotberg was asked to create for military training purposes. Sounds like it'll be an unlockable.

But if I play it, won't it train me to be a killer? I'm not sure they can maintain an E rating with something like that included.

[Nester the Lark]

I missed this, but the lineup for Atari's Greatest Hits Volume 2 was announced last month. It's got another 50 games that are a combination of arcade and 2600 games:

Atari Arcade Hits

Asteroids Deluxe, Black Widow, Crystal Castles, Liberator, Major Havoc, Millipede, Red Baron, Super Breakout, Warlords.

Atari 2600 Favorites

Breakout, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Super Breakout, Video Pinball, Warlords, Return to Haunted House, Secret Quest, Canyon Bomber, Circus Atari, Combat, Combat Two, Demons to Diamonds, Desert Falcon, Off-the-Wall, Radar Lock, Golf, Double Dunk, Realsports Basketball, Realsports Soccer, Super Baseball, Super Football, Video Olympics, A Game of Concentration, Backgammon, Basic Programming, Brain Games, Code Breaker, Maze Craze, Video Chess, Black Jack, Casino, Fatal Run, Night Driver, Steeplechase, Street Racer, Quadrun, Sentinel, Space War, Star Raiders, Yars' Revenge

Can't wait to play Basic Programming.

So, there's Combat and Yars' Revenge. Also good to see Crystal Castles included.

Bonus content includes video interviews with Nolan Bushnell.

Also, it's good to see Atari follow through on this instead of announcing a "volume 1" and then stopping right there. Incidentally, I've already seen volume 1 for about $20.

And here's the official site for volume 2.

[Johans Nidorino]

Hehe, contents are looking better than volume 1's.

Agreed on Basic Programming ;D