Atari Flashback Vol 3 (PS4)

[VideoGameCritic]

This one is fascinating. Most of the arcade games were late-70's black and white. Some are surprisingly fun!

The Atari 2600 games are dominated by M-Network titles and home brews. There's a lot of obscure titles here if you're looking for something different.

What's really exciting are the Atari 5200 games, which there are about 16. Games like Centipede and Missile Command work okay with the analog stick, but the ones that require a keypad are confusing. I love Realsports Baseball, but how can I throw a pitch without my opponent knowing what it is? The keypad keys are listed down the left side.

[snakeboy]

Have you tried using the touch pad on the PS4 controller to control the trak ball games? It actually works really well.

[Atariboy]

This one is fascinating. Most of the arcade games were late-70's black and white. Some are surprisingly fun!

Not only are the black & white arcade games generally fun, but I had forgotten how sharp they looked.

The resolution these appear to have run in was impressive and the details are amazing for the time period. And I love the overlay in Destroyer and was happy to see that Code Mystics hadn't forgotten to include it. What's otherwise a plain looking game ends up beautiful thanks to it.

Be sure to give the analog stick a try in the three overhead racers. The d-pad is just a simple left/right steering input that leaves them unplayable, but they shine with the analog stick thanks to how the developer implemented it. Surprised nobody thought of this years ago earlier for games like Super Sprint in arcade compilations.

What's really exciting are the Atari 5200 games, which there are about 16. Games like Centipede and Missile Command work okay with the analog stick, but the ones that require a keypad are confusing. I love Realsports Baseball, but how can I throw a pitch without my opponent knowing what it is? The keypad keys are listed down the left side.

Alas, I didn't feel like many of the 5200 games made the transition well to the PS4 controller. But Asteroids was a pleasant surprise.

It's actually fully playable here. This game was so difficult with the 5200 controller that Atari shelved it after finishing it, but no control issues here. I was left puzzled by how your defensive capabilities worked though. To activate things like hyperspace, I had to press downward on the stick or d-pad just like the 2600 port. But I seemed to have to press and hold it for a second to activate it rather than it being immediate.

That delay isn't too handy in an emergency when you're reaching for it at the last split second. I assume this delay was implemented so as to not accidentally activate hyperspace with a 5200 joystick with every inadvertent downward press of the stick, but it's such a bizarre and lousy way to handle it when there's a second fire button right on a 5200 controller that it could've been mapped to.