Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

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Alienblue

Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby Alienblue » June 2nd, 2006, 1:29 pm

Another opinion:
Retro Atari Classics; Nintendo DS : C-

Since the critic doesn't have this on his feedback site, I felt I had to comment here. I do not advise paying full price for this but I picked it up today for $15 and at that price I found it does do enough things right to be worth it.
The good: As someone who has searched for decent BREAKOUT, ASTEROIDS, CENTIPEDE and other classic games for the GBC/ GBA, I feel I must defend the "classic" mode of these games here. Ok, Centipede is a bit mushy with too-large sprites and the need to use the shoulder buttons to fire. But ASTEROIDS and MISSILE COMMAND and SPRINT are all right on target and play very well with the buttons. And at last, a decent version of BREAKOUT (along with a fair update with colored walls and character "paddles")....as we know you need a paddle or analog for BREAKOUT but the touch pad serves quite adequately! Sadly, PONG uses a vertical format (!?) and Tempest is worthless. But WARLORDS is good too, so HALF the games on here are the BEST portable versions I know of in the ORIGINAL mode (Asteroids, Missile Comand, Sprint, Breakout and Warlords).
The bad: The other five games are junk and only BREAKOUT and ASTEROIDS are at all playable in the updated modes. The critic is right on about the garish graphics of Centipede: OHMYGOD! BARF! I think the designers were REALLY abusing substances and wearing heavy shades! And no Button control on Tempest? WHY even attempt LUNAR LANDER and GRAVITAR on such a tiny screen? There are a slew of old atari coin-ops that would have been far more playable!
So, in the end, if you find this on sale as I did and enjoy playing any or all of the five games mentioned, grab it! Just don't expect all the games to be fun and stick to original mode on everything but Breakout and Asteroids (why they got decent updates on those two while the rest sucked tar through a straw I'll never understand...maybe the mushroom smoke was wearing off
by then?)

Atarifever1
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Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby Atarifever1 » June 6th, 2006, 1:34 pm

Good review.  I took your advice on Space Invaders Revolution and liked it a lot, so I'll try to find this one on sale too.

GameOfThrones
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Re: Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby GameOfThrones » February 16th, 2018, 11:32 pm

Good review. I never thought much of it. i would give it a D plus.

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Atariboy
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Re: Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby Atariboy » February 19th, 2018, 2:25 am

Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 & 2 for the DS from 2010 are a much better way to go for classic Atari arcade/2600 action than this 2005 release. Solid emulation and very few problems over the 100 games or so spread across both volumes.

In fact I can only even remember two complaints. Red Baron doesn't retain my high score; It will be there when I fire it up, but it always disappears a second or two later. And I don't like than I can't play a non-stretched round of Centipede and Millipede unless I play with my DS/3DS rotated 90 degrees. When holding a DS normally, these 3:4 vertical arcade games are stretched to 4:3.

All the games here are emulated there in arcade form (Including the 2600 port when available), except for the black & white Sprint game. Little reason to go for Retro Atari Classics today if one intends to actually play it.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 19th, 2018, 6:30 pm

Has anyone tried the Atari portable from AT Games? I've always wanted to try it out, but it's hard to find.

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Atariboy
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Re: Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby Atariboy » February 20th, 2018, 12:25 am

Yes, I own the 2016 original and have enjoyed it. It's very imperfect, but it does a lot of stuff right and is worthwhile for a 2600 enthusiast.

To sum up my thoughts for the 2016 model, here's a list.

    -Poor quality d-pad, with lots of accidental diagonal inputs.

    -When difficulty switches are set to the harder position, the on-screen notification doesn't disappear (Fixed for 2017).

    -Great battery life. 12 months of semi-regular use before I had to recharge mine back in December.
    -Ability to load downloaded Atari 2600 roms from an SD card greatly expands the game lineup. Fancier games like Pitfall 2, Supercharger games, Space Rocks, and so on don't work.

    -Emulator is relatively lackluster. That limits compatibility, the audio often sounds off, and some stuff doesn't work right even in games that initially appear to be fine.

    -Composite video output doesn't work correctly on my system with two different cables.

Note that many of the more popular 2600 games that don't work right with the emulator have been hacked by the AtariAge community to restore them to working order. A full rom pack of known working games, including these hacks, is available at AtariAge from the following link.

http://atariage.com/forums/index.php?ap ... _id=542615

Just unzip them and put them on a regular SD card which you then insert into the system. Should be the first thing that anybody does that buys an Atari Flashback Portable.
Last edited by Atariboy on February 25th, 2018, 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 22nd, 2018, 7:24 pm

Do you anticipate a 2018 edition? If so I'll just wait for that.

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Atariboy
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Re: Retro Atari, Nintendo DS

Postby Atariboy » February 23rd, 2018, 5:30 am

The AtGames rep that is active at AtariAge says there will be a 2018 edition.


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