Atari, and famed founder Nolan Bushnell, were the pioneers of the 1970s who conceived, founded, and pioneered the video game industry. Putting aside the nearly century-old game of coin-operated mechanics and hurling pinballs into a dusty corner, Atari became the focus of bars everywhere with its Pong in 1972. It was the beginning of the digital age, Bushnell et al. was here to make it fun.
Sometimes we run the risk of forgetting these truths. Japan’s gaming revolution has done a lot to build on, perfect, and usurp Atari’s original efforts – and in such an amazingly innovative style – we tend to focus My classic gaming glasses date from somewhere from the mid 80’s to the late 90’s. Of course, it’s generational. For those who grew up with them, there’s still affection for Clive Sinclair and the boom of early PC games, Spectrums, Commodores and Amstrad; CBS Colecovision, Vectrex and the Grandstand console. But 50 years have passed and now it’s Atari’s time, and that wants everyone to know.
The result is, Atari 50: Celebration is a painstaking love letter to the organization’s history and its accomplishments. You are greeted with a great interface, beautifully designed and displayed, but never overblown. It captures the sudden nostalgia of Atari’s Halcyon days right into the soundtrack and scrolling video backgrounds.
And it Fast, There’s barely a beat as it smoothly glides through content, takes a split second to upload a box image to full resolution, or dives into documentary footage as if it’s waiting for your attention. Games too, of which there are more than a hundred spanning seven Atari formats, from Arcade, 2600, Lynx, Jaguar and everything in between, come to life with the push of a button. There are no online options, rankings or otherwise, but with such a dense volume of content, it is easily forgiven.
The layout is clean, colorful, and neatly categorized across Arcade Origins, Birth of the Console, Highs and Lows, The Dawn of PCs, The 1990 and Beyond. It’s a cleverly organized adventure that runs on timeline charts dotted with quizzes, photos, developer interviews, and anecdotes. It’s fun to explore arcade, boxy flyers, vintage commercials, photos, and a selection of brilliantly produced developer interviews from the original hardware creators.
Even the great Nolan Bushnell himself, sitting comfortably in his embroidered Atari 50 t-shirt, joined the procession with a specially recorded segment. It’s interesting to compare the Atari 50’s presentation with something like that of Capcom Arcade Stadium titles. The latter comes with a 3D rendered gimmick that is quite similar to an actual video game, but lacks the inner warmth exuded here.
With the development of this collection handled by Digital Eclipse, the games seem to be perfectly emulated, at least as far as we can tell, without any hiccups or visual lag. any. Features really nice arcade bezels for 4:3 aspect ratio, with a soft but acceptable sweep line filter and the option to change the glow intensity of certain titles to match the level burned in the tube on the machine you played as a child. Some extra filters won’t work – perhaps something to really bring out that old CRT flavor – but as it stands, the presentation is perfectly acceptable. Certain gemstones, such as Asteroids Deluxe, has a simulated depth of field effect to show what was once a printed background behind its luminous vectors, and it really makes it feel as if you’re looking at the screen. It’s delightfully done and a prime example of the package’s attention to detail.
Far from cheap money, throwing old-fashioned games with a minimum of fuss, the Atari 50, on the other hand, is completely noisy: noisy about the company, noisy about the good times and the bad, and noisy about the universe Atari created. The scriptures include I’m a robot, Food war, Yars ‘Revenge, Tempest 2000 and more. Only once in a while do you hit headlines like Firefox, one of the first Laserdisc-controlled arcade games, was only slightly disappointed to find that it was informational only and had no play options. This is doubly sad when it’s absent Computer spaceThe world’s first arcade video game and not Aliens vs Predators on Jaguar, most likely due to licensing issues. ET: Extraterrestrials suffered the same fate, a relatively poor but still meaningful game in the Atari story.
One cannot pretend that all Atari output is solid gold. Even one of Jaguar’s designers admitted that the console output has quality issues and it shows up in the majority of titles on offer. While certain Lynx, VCS, and 2600 titles leave a little to be desired, and there’s certainly something missing that bothers someone or the other (in our case 1983. Star Wars arcade), but there is so much to understand that it is more about the journey.
And, as if it hadn’t been a brilliantly produced bundle paired with rich content, there were six brand new games included as well. 40 years later and Swordquest: Airworld is the fourth sequel you never expected, inspired by its original creator and comes with three previous entries. Neo Breakoutis – you guessed it – an expanded, modernized version of Overate with exciting new twists; Quadratank continue the tank series with a four-player battle; confusing title VCTR-SCTR mix the elements of Tempest, Moon lander, and Small planet, go crazy with an addictive score challenge; and Haunted house reimagining the original Atari 2600, now in a 3D voxel-built space, ready to reimagine the spark of survival horror with new challenges. Yars ‘Revenge: Enhancement – it’s not the same game as the recent game Yars: Recharged – revive the original with a glowing new graphic overlay that can be swept away to reveal the original pixels with a single tap of the shoulder button. There is even an unreleased video game prototype, in the form of Akka Arrhcomplete with simulated LED flashing behind the frame.
Inference
The fact that it’s called ‘Celebration’ instead of ‘collection’ is an alternative of phrases that couldn’t be more appropriate. With its smooth, fast and flawless interface coupled with rich, thoughtfully crafted content, the Atari 50 is truly a tribute to the company that founded the industry. It is true that its content will have a greater appeal to the older generation of gamers, to today’s parents (and grandparents) who grew up in the whirlwind of the 70s and 80s in the ’70s and ’80s. video game scene. For them, reminiscing about moments and experiences that once cost a little money will be fun. For others, it helps to understand the appeal of many of these games, and some titles outside the Lynx and Jaguar categories are easy to pick up and play for the uninitiated. At the same time, the Atari 50 is so thorough and engaging a classic gaming tunnel, like exploring a virtual museum, that it somewhat surpasses its target audience. For those interested in the history of video games, unearthing the past, and for gamers who aren’t afraid of what is today considered rudimentary, there’s plenty of fun to be had during the trip. reverse this memory.
