{"id":18881,"date":"2019-03-25T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18881"},"modified":"2019-03-04T00:43:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T00:43:27","slug":"the-games-of-the-atari-flashback-classics-vol-3-part-1-arcade-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/25\/the-games-of-the-atari-flashback-classics-vol-3-part-1-arcade-games\/","title":{"rendered":"The Games of the Atari Flashback Classics vol. 3: Part 1: Arcade Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For Christmas I got the Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 3 game for PS4.\u00a0 I love classic game collections and writing about them, so for the next while we\u2019ll going to take a look at the games on this compilation.\u00a0 There are so many though that we\u2019ll do it in three parts.\u00a0 The first part we will take a look at the arcade games on here.<\/p>\n

On the whole, the games on this volume 3 collection aren\u2019t that good.\u00a0 But I got it anyway because I have the other volumes on PS4 as well.\u00a0 The neat thing about the Switch version is that it has ALL the games on vols. 1 to 3, so that would be a good one to pick up.\u00a0 My one big criticism about the arcade games on these collections is that they focus more on the Atari titles from the 70\u2019s and very early 80\u2019s.\u00a0 Which is fine and all, but I wish they had some from the late 80\u2019s as well, such as Marble Madness, Roadblasters, or Blasteroids.\u00a0 Since I was born in the mid 70\u2019s, I don\u2019t remember the arcade games on this collection as much.\u00a0 I do like the artwork on the marquees and cabinets, though.\u00a0 They have a neat 70\u2019s funky look to them.\u00a0 Anyway, so here are the arcade games found here:<\/p>\n

Avalanche<\/strong><\/p>\n

This plays almost exactly like Activision\u2019s Kaboom! game, except with more primitive graphics.\u00a0 You must catch falling balls with five paddles before they hit the ground.\u00a0 Miss too many and it\u2019s Game Over. \u00a0This one is nearly impossible to play without a paddle controller.<\/p>\n

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

Just a standard early black and white baseball game.\u00a0 Nothing special.<\/p>\n

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

This is one of the few games on here that I remember seeing in arcades.\u00a0 Well, I only saw it once, but I remember it.\u00a0 When I was little, for a time my mom would watch neighborhood kids while their parents went to work.\u00a0 Sometimes she would take us to the roller rink.\u00a0 I could never roller skate very well, so usually I would put on my skates and crash in front of the row of arcade games.\u00a0 But on the other side of the roller rink, there was one lonely arcade game for a while, and it was Basketball.\u00a0 I remember checking it out once and even though it had black and white graphics, the animations on the characters looks pretty fluid for the time.\u00a0 And it still does.\u00a0 Granted, the gameplay isn\u2019t that good, but for a late 70\u2019s black and white arcade game, it doesn\u2019t look that bad.<\/p>\n

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

I didn\u2019t realize so many Atari 2600 games were based on early Atari arcade games, but this is one of them.\u00a0 You view a canyon filled with balls with numbers on them, and two blimps or airplanes fly from left to right on the top of the screen.\u00a0 You only control when they drop bombs.\u00a0 You must bomb the balls for points, and the numbers tell you what your score will be when you hit them.\u00a0 Miss three times and it\u2019s Game Over.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like the 2600 version except it has numbers on the balls while the 2600 one doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Destroyer<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a basic submarine game.\u00a0 A boat moves back and forth at the top of the screen and you control when it drops bombs in the water.\u00a0 You move a dotted line up and down to dictate when they explode, and you try to hit submarines with them.\u00a0 It\u2019s not bad, but the fake screen overlay makes it hard to see your score.<\/p>\n

Dominos<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is just the game Snake, or Snafu or whatever. \u00a0Also like the TRON light cycle game. You move a line of dominoes and try not to hit anything.\u00a0 Block the other player so they don\u2019t have room to move and are forced to hit something to win.\u00a0 If you or the other player hits something, your dominoes will get knocked down and the other player gets a point.<\/p>\n

Fire Truck<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the only other game I remember seeing in arcades.\u00a0 When I was really young, there was a proto-Chuck E Cheese restaurant called Crystal\u2019s Pizza that we used to go to.\u00a0 It was a sit down and eat pizza place (remember when those were a thing), and there was a pretty big arcade there, too.\u00a0 That\u2019s the only place I ever saw Fire Truck outside of arcade auctions.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize it was even supposed to be a game back then.\u00a0 You drive a fire truck through a top down road and try not to crash.\u00a0 But it\u2019s nearly impossible because you have to worry about the front and back of the truck.\u00a0 A second player can join in and help you steer the back.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a very good game, but as a kid I didn\u2019t care.\u00a0 I just liked pretending I was driving a fire truck.\u00a0 That Crystal\u2019s Pizza was also the only place I remember seeing games like Munch Mobile.\u00a0 More than 20 years later, I went back to that Crystal\u2019s Pizza and they still had that Fire Truck machine!\u00a0 I wonder if Crystal\u2019s Pizza is still there?\u00a0 It\u2019s been more than ten years since I last visited.<\/p>\n

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

If I remember correctly, Atari Football was pretty popular in arcades and helped them stay relevant in 70\u2019s arcades.\u00a0 They released it during football season and it was a tabletop arcade game.\u00a0 It\u2019s all in black and white and the players are just X\u2019s and O\u2019s.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember seeing it in arcades but I do remember seeing it in a travelling video game museum I went to when I was in college.<\/p>\n

Maze Invaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh man, this game is awesome!\u00a0 Out of all the arcade games on this collection, this one is my favorite.\u00a0 I never saw this in arcades, but if I did, I think I would\u2019ve loved it as a kid.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a cross between Pac-Man and Berzerk.\u00a0 You control a cute little blue dot with eyes (looks like Lolo from the Adventures of Lolo game series).\u00a0 You move around mazes and gobble fruit like Pac-Man, and when you do, you can go through doors that open the next maze.\u00a0 But you can also shoot at enemies like in Berzerk.\u00a0 The neat thing about this game is that the mazes are ever changing, so each playthrough may be a little different every time.\u00a0 There are also fun ways to boost your score, too.<\/p>\n

Monte Carlo<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m surprised that this game wasn\u2019t more popular. It\u2019s a top down racer with F-1 looking cars and it is in full color and controls great.\u00a0 Not bad for a 70s game.<\/p>\n

Pool Shark<\/strong><\/p>\n

It looks like a 70\u2019s billiards game with black and white graphics, but it doesn\u2019t play like any pool game I\u2019ve ever played.\u00a0 You just move the white cue ball around freely and have a time limit to knock all the other balls in the holes.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty crazy and weird.<\/p>\n

Sky Diver<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another one of games where I didn\u2019t realize it was an arcade game before it was a 2600 game.\u00a0 It\u2019s all in black and white while the 2600 version was in color.\u00a0 You press a button to make a guy jump out of a plane, and press it again to open a parachute and steer him to land on a target for points.\u00a0 You compete against a second player or CPU.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I could never figure out how to open my parachute in time, so my guy would crash into the ground head first.\u00a0 But a little blocky ambulance comes out and picks up your guy after that, so that cracked me up.<\/p>\n

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

Just a top down black and white soccer game from the 70\u2019s.\u00a0 At least the players look somewhat like people.\u00a0 If you added color it would look like a soccer game from the 80\u2019s, so that\u2019s not too bad.<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019m not sure if this game came out first or if Monte Carlo did.\u00a0 Both games are the same, except in this one you are a VW Beetle looking car.\u00a0 The graphics are black and white, but it controls better than Monte Carlo.\u00a0 I think it must use the same engine as Fire Truck because a lot of the graphics are the same, like the \u2018CRUNCH\u2019 graphic when you crash.<\/p>\n

And those are all the arcade games on vol. 3.\u00a0 Next time we\u2019ll look at all the Atari 5200 games on this collection!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Christmas I got the Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 3 game for PS4.\u00a0 I love classic game collections and writing about them, so for the next while we\u2019ll going to take a look at the games on this compilation.\u00a0 There are so many though that we\u2019ll do it in three parts.\u00a0 The first part we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881","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=18881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18883,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18881\/revisions\/18883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}