{"id":16054,"date":"2017-02-07T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T00:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=16054"},"modified":"2017-01-14T03:16:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T03:16:32","slug":"the-games-of-atari-flashback-classics-vol-1-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/07\/the-games-of-atari-flashback-classics-vol-1-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Games of Atari Flashback Classics vol. 1, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ATARILOGO1\"<\/a>So this time we\u2019ll go over the rest of the 2600 games in Atari Flashback Classics vol. 1.\u00a0 They did a pretty decent job with the presentation for these.\u00a0 You can view the box art and original instructions for each game.\u00a0 And when you start, you\u2019ll see a replica of the Atari 2600 on the bottom area of the screen so you know what buttons to push if you want to change game modes and such.\u00a0 But I wish they would\u2019ve gone the extra mile like how Activision Anthology did on the PS2.\u00a0 In that one, you had all those features listed above, plus you could view TV commercials, earn virtual patches, and even listen to 80\u2019s music while you play.\u00a0 I really liked that collection because of that, and the fact that Activision\u2019s 2600 games were better overall.<\/p>\n

When I go over each of these games, I\u2019ll probably just talk about each one very briefly.\u00a0 One reason is because there are so many games.\u00a0 But also because I don\u2019t have many memories playing these games as a kid.\u00a0 I never had an Atari 2600 when I was little, but that\u2019s OK.\u00a0 I enjoyed going to arcades more anyway.\u00a0 Plus, my first home gaming system was actually our first computer (an Apple ][+), which is strange since I\u2019m such a staunch console gamer now.\u00a0 And that had better arcade ports than the 2600 did.\u00a0 Most of my memories of playing 2600 games are when I would go to friends\u2019 houses who had one.\u00a0 My first actual home game console was the Atari 5200, and I didn\u2019t even ask for it, as it was a surprise Christmas gift.\u00a0 I know that system gets a lot of bad press about how huge it was and how bad the controllers were, but as a kid I loved the 5200.\u00a0 In fact, when Atari does these collections, I kind of wish they would put some 5200 games on there instead of them all being 2600 titles.\u00a0 Even when the NES came out, I didn\u2019t get it right away because I was perfectly happy playing Pengo on my 5200.\u00a0 Super Mario Bros. was great and all, but it wouldn\u2019t be until when Zelda came out that I wanted a NES.\u00a0 Anyway, sorry to ramble there, let\u2019s get started with the list.<\/p>\n

3-D Tic Tac Toe<\/strong><\/p>\n

It kind of reminded me of that chess game they play on Star Trek for some reason.<\/p>\n

Air-Sea Battle<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a glorified shooting gallery, but there are lots of gameplay modes so that\u2019s what makes it neat.\u00a0 Kind of reminds me of Combat for some reason, even though it\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>\n

Backgammon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never learned how to play Backgammon, and this game didn\u2019t encourage me to.<\/p>\n

Basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of these old sports games look so bad, it\u2019s almost comical.\u00a0 It might\u2019ve been fun if it weren\u2019t so hard.<\/p>\n

Blackjack<\/strong><\/p>\n

The setup was so cumbersome and confusing on this one that I didn\u2019t play for long.<\/p>\n

Bowling<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the most basic bowling game you can imagine, but I think I would\u2019ve really liked this game as a kid for some reason.\u00a0 I like how you can put spin on the ball even after you\u2019ve rolled it.<\/p>\n

Canyon Bomber<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a variation of Air-Sea Battle with Breakout elements.\u00a0 I think these games are more fun with two players.<\/p>\n

Circus Atari<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a super hard Breakout game where you have to move a see-saw to make two acrobats jump up and hit their heads on blocks.\u00a0 I\u2019m horrible at this game.\u00a0 Those poor acrobats.<\/p>\n

Combat<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this game came packaged with the Atari 2600 back in the day, didn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I remember playing this game the most at friends\u2019 houses, along with Air Sea Battle. It\u2019s basically just Atari\u2019s old Tank arcade game with a TON of different modes here.\u00a0 You can even be airplanes!<\/p>\n

Combat Two<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is just a prototype game and never actually came out.\u00a0 But it has some neat ideas like different terrain and breakable walls.\u00a0 I bet it would\u2019ve been a hit if it did come out.<\/p>\n

Desert Falcon<\/strong><\/p>\n

It kind of reminds me of Zaxxon with an Egyptian theme, but the graphics are so bad that I can\u2019t tell what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Dodge \u2018Em<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this is an arcade port where you are a race car and must run over dots in four different lanes around a circle, while avoiding a car going the opposite direction.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of fun but gets real hard.<\/p>\n

Fatal Run<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this must\u2019ve been a later 2600 game, as it even has an option for you to continue where you left off via a password system.\u00a0 It\u2019s a racing game like Pole Position, but as far as these go, I prefer Activision\u2019s Enduro game better.<\/p>\n

Football<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this must\u2019ve been an early 2600 game, as the graphics were so bad I couldn\u2019t tell what was going on.<\/p>\n

Home Run<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I sure hope this was an early baseball game, as it doesn\u2019t even have outfielders!<\/p>\n

Human Cannonball<\/strong><\/p>\n

You use the joystick to adjust a cannon\u2019s trajectory, accounting for wind and the target you\u2019re supposed to hit.\u00a0 So it reminded me of Scorched Earth a little bit.<\/p>\n

Miniature Golf<\/strong><\/p>\n

They just reused Adventure\u2019s graphics and tried to make a golf game out of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s horrible.<\/p>\n

Quadrun<\/strong><\/p>\n

I tried my best to learn how to play this game, but I still couldn\u2019t figure it out.\u00a0 I think you have to shoot these things and then warp to the other side of the screen and catch your projectile.\u00a0 I imagine the thing most people would remember about this game is the voice sample that plays when you first start: \u201cQuadrunQuadrunQuadrun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radar Lock<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an arcade style flight sim game that does some pretty neat graphical tricks I didn\u2019t think the 2600 could do.\u00a0 If SEGA made an After Burner port on the 2600, this would be it.\u00a0 Only problem is after I shot down all the planes, I had no idea what to do next.<\/p>\n

Realsports Boxing<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care if this game looks better or more realistic than Activision\u2019s Boxing game, Activision\u2019s version had better gameplay.<\/p>\n

Realsports Football<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well the field actually looks like a football field this time, but I still couldn\u2019t figure out what to do.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a football video game fan anyway.<\/p>\n

Realsports Soccer<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a soccer game on the 2600.\u00a0 Not much else you can say about it.<\/p>\n

Realsports Volleyball<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this is the best of the \u201cRealsports\u201d series on here.\u00a0 But it\u2019s still hard (or I just suck at it).\u00a0 There is a volleyball game I really like and that\u2019s SEGA\u2019s Beach Spikers on the GameCube.\u00a0 But you can play as Ulala in that one so that\u2019s why I like it, ha ha!<\/p>\n

Save Mary<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another prototype game where you use cranes to lower blocks to save Mary from a canyon filling up with water.\u00a0 But I could never figure out how to lower the blocks.\u00a0 Man, most of these prototype games were crap.\u00a0 Why did they even put them on here?<\/p>\n

Slot Machine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, slot machines aren\u2019t that much fun to being with, so imagine how much fun they\u2019d be on the 2600.<\/p>\n

Slot Racers<\/strong><\/p>\n

So I thought this would be a game about slot car racing, but instead you\u2019re a dot in a maze and can shoot things.\u00a0 I left that game very confused.<\/p>\n

Sprintmaster<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a version of the old Atari game Sprint with better graphics, but just as bad controls.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t look as good as Super Sprint, of course.<\/p>\n

Star Raiders<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a first-person spaceship flying shooting sim, but the radar graphics are so horrible that it\u2019s hard to tell where to find enemies to shoot.<\/p>\n

Steeplechase<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is actually a port of a much older Atari game where you race horses and jump over hurdles.<\/p>\n

Stunt Cycle<\/strong><\/p>\n

And another prototype game where you make a motorcycle jump over a ramp.\u00a0 I could never get it to land right.\u00a0 Excitebike this ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Super Baseball<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well it\u2019s certainly improved over the Home Run baseball game, but it\u2019s still not the 2600 baseball game I remember playing at my uncle\u2019s house a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Super Football<\/strong><\/p>\n

This collection has three different football games on it!\u00a0 This one views the field from a 3-D perspective.<\/p>\n

Swordquest Earthworld, Waterworld, and Fireworld<\/strong><\/p>\n

These are actually three different games, but I\u2019m putting them all together because they\u2019re all kind of the same at first glance.\u00a0 You run around mazes like Adventure, but can sometimes do these single screen action sequences that remind me of shooter games or Frogger.\u00a0 The unique thing about the history of these titles is that there was a contest to go along with them where you could win prizes like a crown or a sword, but nobody knows who, or if, anyone won these things.\u00a0 And the fourth game in the series, Airworld, never came out.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of those weird urban legend things, or maybe I should do more research on it.<\/p>\n

Yars Revenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know a lot of people love this game, but I never really \u2018got it\u2019 for whatever reason.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve tried many times to figure it out.\u00a0 I do know why it\u2019s called \u201cYars,\u201d though.<\/p>\n

And those are all the games on vol. 1.\u00a0 Later on this week we\u2019ll go over the games on vol. 2 in the same fashion!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this time we\u2019ll go over the rest of the 2600 games in Atari Flashback Classics vol. 1.\u00a0 They did a pretty decent job with the presentation for these.\u00a0 You can view the box art and original instructions for each game.\u00a0 And when you start, you\u2019ll see a replica of the Atari 2600 on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16056,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16054\/revisions\/16056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}