I had totally forgotten about this package. I remember when it came out. I was in the military at the time, and was basically the IT head for my battalion. Someone in the "head shops" (where company commanders and the other battalion brass) had installed it on one of the computers, which of course was a big no-no. I remember being impressed by the emulation, although the sounds definitely didn't sound right. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it, as not all that long before I had still been playing those games on my 2600, but it was one of the earliest examples of retrogaming that I can think of.
Playing games was an almost secretive thing back then. The Action Pack also has a "boss mode" that brings up a fake spreadsheet, similar to Infocom games. Good story!
Nice job on the video, and your diligence with PacMan is admirable! I remember this coming out in the 90s and thought it was the stupidest idea ever. "Who would want to play an Atari game on a computer in a tiny window with a keyboard?" I thought. Fast forward to about 2015 when I began my nostalgic journey on emulating every single gaming console! ;-)
I remember this, it was strictly for nostalgia purposes in the young adult demographic who bought PC's for "adulting" stuff. Plus I notice that these types of products (like plug 'n plays) are also for people who hadn't actually played 2600 games for years so they don't still have an actual 2600 to compare things like sound or cycles. And yes I got a hold of a CD-ROM, giving away in a cereal of all things, and couldn't run it on my Win98 PC...so I just ripped the ROMS to play on Stella instead.
I'm not surprised Next Generation ripped on it. In their top 50 games list, they begin River Raid with saying "nostalgia aside, the Atari 2600 sucks." Then again that rag was against all consoles not named Playstation.
They were all about 3D graphics over anything else including good gameplay. I only read that rag when I was trying to break into the gaming business... :P
I had totally forgotten about this package. I remember when it came out. I was in the military at the time, and was basically the IT head for my battalion. Someone in the "head shops" (where company commanders and the other battalion brass) had installed it on one of the computers, which of course was a big no-no. I remember being impressed by the emulation, although the sounds definitely didn't sound right. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it, as not all that long before I had still been playing those games on my 2600, but it was one of the earliest examples of retrogaming that I can think of.
Playing games was an almost secretive thing back then. The Action Pack also has a "boss mode" that brings up a fake spreadsheet, similar to Infocom games. Good story!
I really like the concept of Retro that is Retro. I knew nothing about this Action Pack, and found this to be very curious indeed…
Oh nice! I hope you found some interesting stuff here Jolt!
Nice job on the video, and your diligence with PacMan is admirable!
I remember this coming out in the 90s and thought it was the stupidest idea ever. "Who would want to play an Atari game on a computer in a tiny window with a keyboard?" I thought.
Fast forward to about 2015 when I began my nostalgic journey on emulating every single gaming console! ;-)
I just felt like I had to see if it could work.
Great video, man.
Thanks AtariCreep!!
I remember this, it was strictly for nostalgia purposes in the young adult demographic who bought PC's for "adulting" stuff. Plus I notice that these types of products (like plug 'n plays) are also for people who hadn't actually played 2600 games for years so they don't still have an actual 2600 to compare things like sound or cycles.
And yes I got a hold of a CD-ROM, giving away in a cereal of all things, and couldn't run it on my Win98 PC...so I just ripped the ROMS to play on Stella instead.
Yeah, the roms are just right there for the taking. It was simpler times for sure.
I just rummaged through my box of old CDs and found the "Activision's Commodore 64 15 Pack". I totally forgot about the "nag" mode ...
The whole idea of the "Nag mode" It's awful but also kinda great too, as a historical artifact of the times.
@IntoTheVerticalBlank i remember having the "nag." mode turned off. Ironic considering i bought this for my mom, who loved River Raid
I had this on my 486DX2 66mhz system back in the day and it didn't play that well either.
Okay, so that's a good data point, thanks!
That virtual nag mode was a rather odd addition and I can see how it would grow old ultra fast! 😁 Anyway, interesting video!
Oh yeah it's just awful. Thanks!! But now that I have the audio files, they might slip into other videos...
I'm not surprised Next Generation ripped on it. In their top 50 games list, they begin River Raid with saying "nostalgia aside, the Atari 2600 sucks."
Then again that rag was against all consoles not named Playstation.
Good point. They really did live and die worshipping at the alter the Sony.
They were all about 3D graphics over anything else including good gameplay. I only read that rag when I was trying to break into the gaming business... :P
Atari 2600 emulation is ALWAYS off
True. It's even off on 7800+ playing River Raid.
@IntoTheVerticalBlank it's ironic. not even Atari can emulate these old titles correctly