Atari 50 - Anniversary compilation that also provides historical context and commentary per game

[MattyP]

1 hour ago, Calashnikov said:

Apologies man, I did try and search for it, but tricky when one of the words is a two digit number and the other word is Atari 😅

 

Maybe a mod could merge?

 

@squirtle @velma  @Silent Runner @Pob 

😇🙏🏻 

Ah no worries!  I was going to post up here in the main discussion group but didn't think it was "new" enough 

 

Ordered this on disk although thinking of changing to digital. It will probably need a connection to the net anyway to patch etc. And it will be convenient.  Although nothing has been mentioned about it being on other XB store - its on Steam/Epic but no mention of the console versions.

[rgraves]

25 minutes ago, MattyP said:

Ah no worries!  I was going to post up here in the main discussion group but didn't think it was "new" enough 

 

Ordered this on disk although thinking of changing to digital. It will probably need a connection to the net anyway to patch etc. And it will be convenient.  Although nothing has been mentioned about it being on other XB store - its on Steam/Epic but no mention of the console versions.

 

It's deffo on the XBox store:

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/atari-50-the-anniversary-celebration/9n3tfdsq531t

[MattyP]

19 minutes ago, rgraves said:

 

It's deffo on the XBox store:

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/atari-50-the-anniversary-celebration/9n3tfdsq531t

Ah great last time I checked it wasn't there!  

 

Now ordered!  

[Camel]

Shame they didn’t get Activision on board to get the good 2600 stuff on this.

[Lorfarius]

27 minutes ago, Camel said:

Shame they didn’t get Activision on board to get the good 2600 stuff on this.

 

Atari didn't own Activision?

[Unofficial Who]

34 minutes ago, Camel said:

Shame they didn’t get Activision on board to get the good 2600 stuff on this.

 

It's been 20 years since the excellent Activision Anthology was released. I'd love to see it rereleased for modern consoles but I suspect the target audience is perceived to have aged out of the market.

[MattyP]

11 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

 

Atari didn't own Activision?

Nope. Activision was formed by disgruntled Atari employees! 

[MattyP]

Downloaded and installed. Now roll on Friday...   

[Camel]

3 hours ago, Unofficial Who said:

 

It's been 20 years since the excellent Activision Anthology was released. I'd love to see it rereleased for modern consoles but I suspect the target audience is perceived to have aged out of the market.

I still play it from time to time. Getting the Barnstorming patch was a bugger.

[DeciderVT]

Any word on the quality of the emulation yet? Not reassured by the mention of Digital Eclipse being behind that recent Turtles Collection after hearing about the awful lag that had. Was that ever fixed?

[Unofficial Who]

9 hours ago, MattyP said:

Nope. Activision was formed by disgruntled Atari employees! 

Not only that but the first iteration of Activision is why we have third party publishing at all on consoles. Before then the company that made the console made the games and that was that.

[smac]

Any idea on what Lynx games will be included?

[Fletch]

I really want this but I know I’ll play each game for about 3 seconds and then never again. 

[Hamus]

Games are not Fifty years old, what has happened.

[StumpyJohn]

1 hour ago, Hamus said:

Games are not Fifty years old, what has happened.

Computer games are actually even older!

 

Spacewar! is often referred to as the first video game and is from 1962 so 60 years old.  But there are quite a few earlier examples too including noughts and crosses games dating from the beginning of the 1950's so 70 years old!!

[MattyP]

6 hours ago, Fletch said:

I really want this but I know I’ll play each game for about 3 seconds and then never again. 

Indeed! But looking forward to the package as a whole with all the historic things in there and the journey through Atari's history. 

 

Hopefully the emulation is top notch as it's worth it for Tempest 2K for me. Sold my copy of T2K years ago and don't think there has ever been a version since that was good as the Jag one.  Certainly makes it more accessible than buying a Jag and the cart again!

 

Sure they'll be others that I keep going back too again though and looking forward to trying the 6 new updated games in there. 

[chipsgravy]

19 hours ago, smac said:

Any idea on what Lynx games will be included?

There is a list of games kicking about now, https://nintendoeverything.com/atari-50-anniversary-celebration-game-list/

 

Atari Lynx

1. Basketbrawl
2. Malibu Bikini Volleyball
3. Scrapyard Dog
4. Super Asteroids & Missile Command
5. Turbo Sub
6. Warbirds

 

The Jaguar selection is disappointing but not unexpected. 

[Calashnikov]

Is it the full games, or little playable flavour snapshots, and/or both?

 

I think I like the idea of little digestible demos that best demonstrate the various games. But then, I suppose the earlier arcadey type games pretty much speak for themselves. 

[MattyP]

https://youtu.be/ijQvUZ1HR0E

 

Digital Eclipse run through things. This looks like they have done a superb job and exactly what I was hoping for! Love the detail they have lavished on this. Roll on Friday!

[smac]

6 hours ago, chipsgravy said:

There is a list of games kicking about now, https://nintendoeverything.com/atari-50-anniversary-celebration-game-list/

 

Atari Lynx

1. Basketbrawl
2. Malibu Bikini Volleyball
3. Scrapyard Dog
4. Super Asteroids & Missile Command
5. Turbo Sub
6. Warbirds

 

The Jaguar selection is disappointing but not unexpected. 

 

No Roadblasters, California Games or Xenophobe? I guess the good thing is I only own one of those listed games, Warbirds.

[MattyP]

19 hours ago, smac said:

 

No Roadblasters, California Games or Xenophobe? I guess the good thing is I only own one of those listed games, Warbirds.

Licensing issues I'm guessing. Ataris history is interesting.

[Unofficial Who]

19 hours ago, smac said:

 

No Roadblasters, California Games or Xenophobe? I guess the good thing is I only own one of those listed games, Warbirds.

 

Roadblasters and Xenophobe I think are owned by Warner by way of Williams now.

[Kirby]

Star Raiders

 

That absolutely blew me away - I must have been 11 or 12. Incredible to think that was running on an 8 bit system.

 

And of course Mercenary - Escape from Targ was years ahead of its time.

[dave7g]

No price for this on Steam or PSN. How bizarre, how bizarre.

[MattyP]

11 minutes ago, dave7g said:

No price for this on Steam or PSN. How bizarre, how bizarre.

Noticed this when I was looking for details on the PC version.... Hopefully ready to play tomorrow morning... It's downloaded in the Xbox ready ... It's £32 on the Xbox store to give an idea of price. Physical copies can be picked up from base for £28. Still never understand why digital games are more expensive than their physical counterparts even though they are using more resources. 

[dave7g]

Sounds reasonable for 103 games. The 6 new games look pretty good too.

[Parappa]

Has anyone played that Atari mini game game that came out a while ago. It's like an RPG. I had a quick go and it seems great! 

[MattyP]

So this unlocked and had a quick go this morning...

 

Its a really well put together experience. Lots of ways of sorting the games from format to data and just a timeline of eras in gaming. Some nice period adverts and other bits and bobs that have been scanned in high quality also the game boxes are 3D models so you can zoom and rotate around them etc. Vids with various people working on the games back in the day are scattered about along with developer interviews on how they were influenced by Atari.  

 

It captures the whole feel of the era really well and how primitive things were back then and allows you to experience the games as part of a journey through time. Many younger gamers will probably never fully understand the magic of controlling things on a TV screen because they have grown up with it this at least can give them an idea of the journey older gamers have gone through!

 

Happy to report that Tempest 2000 is fine and is fully complete with music etc. Had a quick look at some of the other Jaguar games on there and they are interesting!  Full of great ideas but the implementation at times leaves a bit to be desired. Think to be fair most are coded by small teams or just single developers and have a "demo scene" feel about them. Glad I didn't drop £50 on some them back in the day that is for sure.  Fight For Life in particular isn't great. But all part of the fun I guess there is a lot in here to explore and experience. The Neo games in here seem to be well done too.

[Flub]

I hope this runs on Steam Deck. I'd like to play T2K again

[rgraves]

20 minutes ago, MattyP said:

 Fight For Life in particular isn't great.

 

I'm sure I read some back-story on that recently that basically said the developer(s) had a disagreement with Atari and basically gave them the rough version of the game to publish as a protest against not being paid or some such.....I'll try to find it again!

 

It's such a shame the Jaguar selection is so small - would have loved to have seen titles like Ultra Vortek, Iron Soldier, Checkered Flag - and some of the CD stuff as well like Battlemorph, Hover Strike, or even Highlander.

 

EDIT:

Quote

Mechanically, the game is serviceable. It's pretty much a standard, albeit slow, virtua fighter clone. The moves list is actually alright except for the fact that you don't start off with any moves and instead must steal moves by defeating opponents. This lets you build your own character, and the number of moves in the game is actually large, so by the end of the game you have a custom super fighter that can pull off lots of moves, but it is rough in the beginning. It seems like, buried under all the trash is an average game. And it turns out this is exactly the case - see, Atari had actually gotten into the habit of not paying their employees at the time. Much like the USFL, developers weren't ever sure if their checks would cash. Fight for Life came out as Atari was shutting down and being sold to Hasbro, so the final 4 or so months of work on the game were unpaid to the developer. And thus, in retaliation, the developer withheld the final builds of the game from Atari. No pay, no game. Atari, needed to recoup some sort of the development fees, released a very early beta of the game as the final. The version of fight for life that was sold is a 60%-ish complete version of the game. This is pretty apparent by the "intro" to the game which features several minutes of characters standing around doing nothing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nfr1eKxcxM

A few years ago, Jaguar Sector 2 - one of the best Jaguar fansites, contacted the lead programmer for the game and he gifted them the source code to the final build of the game. JS2 subsequently built 28 copies of this game and sold them, making them amongst the rarest, hardest to find Jaguar games around. I have number 22 of 28. Dubbed Fight for Life Limited Edition, this version is much improved and is actually a pretty good game for the system:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQb1pLMSSGU

Better texture work, faster FPS, faster and smoother gameplay, no 10-minute long fights. Sure, it's well below VF and even Battle Arena Toshinden, but it's not a joke anymore. What is a joke is that this version never got an official release, and that Atari thought so poorly of its own customers that they'd release an actually-unfinished game. And that's how Atari bowed out of the gaming industry - not with a stellar last effort, but with a cheap, insulting cash-grab.