Review: Atari 50 - The Anniversary Celebration (PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Switch & PC) - Defunct Games
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Defunct Games reviews Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Switch and PC.
Every aging video game company needs to release a compilation like Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Both as a history lesson and a package full of amazing games, this is a new high-water mark for retro compilations. No matter if you’re a longtime fan or somebody who has never owned an Atari product, this is an amazing guide that is not afraid to talk about some of the company’s darker and shadier moments. Atari is simultaneously an important part of creating the video games industry and also kind of a mess, making for a compelling story with a whole lot of great games to play. While it largely glosses over the 21st century and definitely could have used more Lynx titles, this is an amazing collection that every company should emulate going forward. Atari 50 makes a real strong case that this is an anniversary worth celebrating.
NOTE: Defunct Games received a digital code from the developer/publisher of this game for review purposes. For more information about the Defunct Games review policy visit www.defunctgames.com
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I remember my uncle got the Atari for xmas in 1977 and everyone was blown away by the graphics.
Blown away? 🤣🤣
@@chezchezchezchez Back in those days, you didn't think it could look better. Strange times we had.
Yep! It was WAY better than the Atari pong console we had before. I remember when my friend got the Intellivision in 1979-80. That was the first 16 bit console and was even better than the Atari VCS. The controller pads sucked though!
Turbo graphix 16
@@ssgusa Atari vcs was better
Sega should do something like this. Instead of simple Genesis compilations and mini systems.
Yes but sega needs to expand beyond the 16bit era
I was thinking the same thing.
Sega is like that aging band that relies on their one hit to get them by. They have been great about releasing Genesis collections, but it's always at the expense of their other systems. It's rare to see Master System, Game Gear, Sega CD and 32X games included in their compilations, and forget about the Saturn and Dreamcast. I was happy to see their recent Genesis II plug-n-play unit get a handful of Sega CD games, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Sega needs to do a better job preserving their other consoles (and arcade games).
As long as the documentary bits are done by that Pandanonium guy. That dude makes 2 hour documentaries about FMV games on Saturn that are fascinating
@@thaneros Sega give us Saturn and Dreamcast compilations! WTF did they release the mini Genesis 2 when they already released the mini Genesis about 3 years ago? Why not release a mini Saturn or Dreamcast? Who asked for a mini Genesis 2 seriously lol
Got this just for the documentaries and extras. It’s basically an interactive history lesson.
Love this
I've never particularly been a fan of Atari's games, but their history and contributions to the industry are fascinating and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this compilation. Looks like we have the new gold standard. Curious to see what Digital Eclipse tackles next.
In a perfect world, every company older than 20 should be getting in touch with Digital Eclipse right now.
The 2600 had some amazing titles .. but the box art on 2600 games was just pure art !
@@DefunctGames heck yes, I'd love to see them give this scale of treatment to quite a few companies.
Yup I view this as more of a documentary that includes games, rather than the other way round. No one would want to play 99.9% of these for more than two minutes.
Great video. I got the Atari 2600 and Colecovision back in the early 80’s. I only have a handful of Atari games now, but I just ordered this for the PlayStation 5 👍
I don’t usually get too excited about anything Atari, but this sounds pretty interesting. Great job
Great review. I read the SwordQuest comic while I perused the Atari 50 for the first few hours. It is a great collection that does make me more than a little sad no one else has the stones to go so deep and proudly present this kind of history. Just playing a few of the 2600, 5200 and Jag games made it pretty much worth the price, but you nailed it on the post 1998 content. They became a publisher with less focus on their own IPs and just released everyone else's hot mess.
Atari's old box art was amazing to me. I can remember as a child playing the 2600 for HOURS on end. It was the BEST!
I’m sure it’ll probably never happen, but a Working Designs collection would be amazing. And I’m sure there’s some awesome stories they could tell.
Exciting to FINALLY get Jaguar games, but man, would’ve loved to have gotten stuff like Kasumi Ninja or Iron Soldier instead of Fight For Life.
My copy arrived today and Im looking forward to loading it up and trying out some of the games.. I would have liked to see the Atari ST included in this compilation and not completely ignored as it was my first computer and only Atari I actually owned but this still looks to be a fantastic collection
I miss my ST greatly and it's a glaring omission from this collection but licensing, I guess. Enjoy the retro gaming! I started computing on a ZX81.
@@MatthewJohnCrittenden buggy boy, the great gianna sisters and the likes of wiz kid surly plays a part in 50 years of Atari.. but na st is like the step child no one wants to comit too lol
@@jamiec2023 Have to admit, I couldn't afford an Amiga. But I warmed to the ST and it's MIDI ports. Hard to pick a favourite game but Buggy Boy is up there. Carrier Command is another.
Did you purchase the Steelbook edition of Atari 50?
i snagged it last night on ps5, it's a really well-done presentation for sure, worth the $40 for sure.
Agree entirely. This collection - and especially the attention to history - exceeded all of my expectations. I would LOVE something comparable from Sega.
Digital Eclipse and M2 should team up someday to give us a Toaplan collection of this caliber, with DE handling the museum and historical aspect while M2 is in charge of emulation.
The only. Thing that matters, the input lag, never get addressed
I didn't notice any. That said, I'm sure there are people who will do the math and put the game through its paces in order to reveal the amount of lag on various systems. I really only mention it when the lag is noticeable or gets in the way, and neither of those things happened when playing Atari 50.
This looks fantastic. I never was a really big classic Atari guy - I started with C64 - but appreciate the history of video games and this looks absolutely best possible way to do it. As much crap I've given to the current-day Atari, they really seem to have knocked this one out of the park. I'm guessing all the missing stuff is a licensing nightmare - Midway being owned Warner Bros and several Infogrames / GT Interactive IPs being sold off. For example the Alone in the Dark you mentioned is wholly owned by THQ Nordic these days and Driver is Ubisoft's.
Speaking of Alone in the Dark, I hope you will get to that remake next Halloween.
I 100% agree that Sega shoulda done something like Atari just did, the Sega Genesis had its time in the sun but I feel they should more delve into their more harder to obtain history like the Saturn or the dreamcast, hell even bring in some third parties in on this too, make it a celebration to remember
I was the freak that chose a TurboGrafX over a Genesis.. If only I had a DeLorean.. Nevertheless I still really enjoyed it.. I wouldn't mind having a TG16 compilation because I don't think we've ever gotten one.. Moreover we're due for a Konami one and also Data East for that matter.. Which reminds me my latest Taito one on Switch is currently in transit.. Sadly my PS2 disc no longer works and for whatever reason I've been craving Elevator Action.. Granted the sequel is technically better the original def had more charm
I'm not a fan of Atari at all to be clear. However, I agree that this compilation in how it was set up is now the standard in which all other compilations should be judged. A fantastic job by the way with the review. I might pick this up when I goes on sale for around 15 to 20 bucks down the road. QOTD: Getting a compilation covering multiple games over decades of time would prove difficult just for the licensing alone for any company which is why these things are virtually impossible to do.
Born in the 70ies here... I still remember my games with my cousins on the Atari 2600.
It's funny to see all the history of Atari... It's pretty sad to see that many "first" video games companies are dead now in the 21th century. I think we had more imagination at that time : look at the graphics : those games are really awful... but we cope with it and we enjoyed them.
I think I'll check this anthology .. just for fun.. and to play some lynx and Jaguar games (I never owned this last console..). We can play with Tempest 4000 .. cool !!!
Brilliant review once again. I'll likely pick this up just to deep dive into the history a bit more. Seems really interesting.
Keep up the great work. It's much appreciated.
Damn, I'm sold. Great review showing intricate aspects of the compilation. You should be a sales man instead of a TH-camr.
I would love to see a Colecovision compilation. That was the console I grew up with, after moving on to Nintendo and then eventually PlayStation.
If SNK did something like this, with Neo Geo history that be pretty wild!
This would probably be the best choice, since so much of the library is owned by SNK. They also have a lot of arcade and NES games that have been largely forgotten about. Not sure how many of the original SNK employees would be willing to dish, but this would be a great compilation. I hope this happens.
They did do one for their pre-Neo Geo stuff.
I think that this collection needs some more features. Currently there’s no access to the arcade games’ dip switches to change the number of lives and difficulty and so on, you can’t make save states on the arcade games, you can’t switch the difficulty switches or black and white switches on the fly for the 2600 games, and there’s no rewind feature. I think that these missing features can be patched in.
But as is currently, I’m still enjoying this compilation.
When I first heard about this a couple weeks ago, I knew I wanted it.
Now, after watching this video, I know I MUST HAVE IT.
Needless to say, I'm an Atari fan.
We got a 2600 in about 1982 and we so I played it from age four to about 8 or 9 I'd say. My first four years of video games were Atari memories and I finished and loved ET. One of the top 5 games on the system. This is something I might pick up for $20
I'm not a huge fan of Atari games as I do think id only play them for a few minutes and never touch them but this collection seems really good. I think having the museum helps as alot of these games dont have too much depth into them.
I'd like to see a SNK collection like this. The current snk collections seem like random games and I'd love to have a collection that has a ton of games from all their systems in one place along with the history.
"Nearly killed the industry that they helped to start???" Wow, just because it happened there in the states doesn't mean it also applies for the rest of the world. Here in the Philippines back in the early 80s, arcades were booming and sprouting like mushrooms all over the places while the Family Computer is flourishing with far superior Japanese games than their blocky, low graphic North American counterparts.
I think it's fair to point out that Atari is one of the key players when it came to birthing the home console industry and that they nearly tanked that industry in the United States. This does not exclude or trivialize what was happening in other countries.
QotD: someone already said Sega, but I just want a Sega CD 💿 Collection! That's all! I never had it as a kid and always wanted to try all their games cause GamePro would review all of them. Give me Night Flight
Great package.
Love it overall, even though a lot of the games are mere novelty nowadays.
I am old(ish) and grew up with the 2600.
Licensing issues aside, it would have been fantastic to see other 8 bit games from 400/800 era.
Also, we need the Activision games to complete the line-up.
The Lucasarts games would be great as well.
"Amen" when you were mentioning missing Lynx titles. Warbirds was easily one of my favorite console games ever....handheld or otherwise. Maybe Atari will release a missing episodes compilation with games glossed over from this release, including a few arcade titles missing from the last 20+ years. I'd love to see games like San Francisco Rush (the Rock edition, 2024, etc) which were developed by Atari Games but like you say, they're probably licensed to other companies like Midway. Great video review though, thanks!
Having many games consoles thro 70s, 80s, 90s etc etc would love to see ZX Spectrum collections for the Switch🙏
Agreed. I would love to see this style approach for a ZX Spectrum collection, since I feel like you would really need to fill in the context and history in order to tell that story. As an American who had basically no access to ZX Spectrum, I don't even know where to start.
The context and history would be great, but just the games collection would be enough for me👌
All those arcade games you mentioned were owned by Atari Games. Atari games was the arcade division of Atari Inc before the crash. In 1984, the company was split in two. The computer and console divisions were sold to Jack tremiel, the ex founder of commodore, and renamed Atari Corp. Meanwhile the arcade division was kept by Time Warner. So stun run, pit fighter, paperboy, etc are all Atari games games and are still owned by Warner Bros discovery to this day.
Atari Corp could only produce the games that Atari Inc produced before 1984. Which is why they are in this collection.
Right. I mention that it's likely a licensing problem, but felt I needed to point out that they don't have a lot of those games because people would be asking for them.
Well they couldn’t really call it “Atari 30: cause we didn’t cover 2000-2020 much”. The 50 is because Atari has been around for 50 years obviously, and i think they included everything Atari has the rights to. They also couldn’t really just ignore the last two decades entirely.
Would you rather I didn't mention that they basically yadda-yadda-yadda 1998 - 2020? Seems like something that should be mentioned in a review.
@@DefunctGames I don’t know. I guess not. No one else mentioned it, to my recollection, but unfortunately not many even gave it a comprehensive review!
There's a lot of obvious awnsers like a Sega or Namco (A full on PS1 Namco Museum style package would probably be a huge undertaking but it'd be the greatest thing at the same time), but I think something smaller might be cool too, like a Data East or Sunsoft one. Though, I think that might be more a retrospective more than an Anniverssary.
Data East needs a compilation like this.
Compilation starts with C as does Capcom. I mean, Capcom could have an awesome compilation using just the number of arcade fighting games they developed alone.
One game I'm genuinely disappointed that isn't here is Tempest 3000. There's no way to play it on modern consoles without resorting to flawed emulation and piracy. It should've been an easy addition on their part for the "new games" collection, but alas they didn't. Other than that though, I like the game lineup. I do think they could've gotten Activision on board to release games like Pitfall too since they did with some of the more recent mini plug and play consoles, but oh well. Games from the Atari 800 and Jaguar were still pretty unexpected though, so there's that.
That's a good point. They already had Tempest and Tempest 2000, so it's a shame they didn't continue with the series. I suspect it's because Tempest 3000 didn't show up on an Atari console. They had already done the work to emulate the much more popular Tempest 2000, so I imagine that they figured that would please the most amount of people. Not sure what they would say about the Nuon technology to set up Tempest 3000's inclusion. I also suppose that there's Tempest 4000 (sold separately) for those who wanted a newer version of Tempest.
@@DefunctGames Yes but Tempest is still an Atari franchise, the Nuon was co-created by former Atari employees, and Tempest 3000 is still approved and published by Atari with their name on it from the start. I know Tempest 4000 exists, but it would be better to have 3000 in tandem for archival purposes, especially right now since emulation for the Nuon is shaky at best. It could've been an easy slam dunk for them. Besides, I’ve heard very mixed opinions about 4000 in general, especially on PC. And having Tempest 4000 without being able to easily play 3000 is like having Planet Coaster without RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, or RCT3 and RCT1 without RCT2, it just feels wrong. For a collection that's primarily supposed to be about letting us play rarer games, I would've at the very least also wanted that. I know it's technically kinda nitpicky, but come on, this is the same collection that tries to go through the whole history of a company, so I think that criticism is valid and should be expected. It's not like they don't own the rights to that game, they just don't care enough to put the effort into re-releasing it, and when they don't care enough about their most positively received game series then that's kind of a big problem imho…
The problem is that besides additions of Jag and 7800, it's just the same games that I have had on so many compilations already, and I ain't paying 60 bucks for a few retro games.
They've got this wonderful arcade library for example and they keep putting the same ultra retro stuff.. why not road riot? Road blasters? STUN RUNNER ffs?
The Jaguar was really successful at launch. Problem was IBM couldn't make enough processors for it to meet demand which led to a small install base and third party publishers staying away from it except to do Sega Genesis ports
Sorry but all IBM did was assemble and Q. A test the console, the low chip yields from initial fabrication plants, lay with manufacturers making the custom chips.
Inital runs had runs as low as 40% yields.
I
Actually waited for your review before looking into much on this. Had no idea it had all of that history archived into it. I didn't get inspired to be a programmer until the NES popped up but i tell ya if i worked at Atari I wouldn't have quit pretty quick. Industry looked like a meat grinder for the programmers.
The atari 5200 is the best roach motel ever. Leave it anywhere and they will all make themselves at home.
QOTD, have a couple i'd like to see for different reasons. Victor entertainment as some of their original titles have been lost to time and don't think licenses can be obtained for them. Another is Culture Brain; a lot of those titles are also lost in license hell but it came out semi-recently that the entire company was possible a Yakuza front so that would be fun seeing who would be interviewed about it.
I think the Evercade guys have a lot of the rights to the missing lynx games.
I can explain the discrepancy. After the failure of the Jaguar, Atari was bought by Hasbro Interactive as an in house label. Soon after, Infogrames fresh off the acquisition of GT Interactive buys Hasbro Interactive as well, and rebrands as Atari to be a more recognizable name to the north American audiences and did publishing work for the 2000's with hardly any original content aside from a few compilations and Ghostbusters. However Hasbro still retained the hardware rights for Atari systems and sold plug n plays under the jakks pacific brand to dubious quality. It wasn't until around 2016 Atari now internally restructured bought the hardware rights back from Hasbro and became the Atari we know today for this compilation as well as acquiring Nightdive studios, launching the slept on VCS and having a steady cash flow to keep themselves afloat while they work on reimagined classics and get back into the hardware buisness proper.
Great review bro!!!
I'd like to see a Turbografx 16 compilation.
That would be amazing. Digital Eclipse has already worked with Konami (the company that owns Hudson and much of the TG16 library) on that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection, so it's within the realm of possibility. That would be a great way to honor the greatness of that system (maybe maybe preserve some of those SuperGrafx games that we never got over here).
Epyx made quite a few Lynx titles, and who know who owns the IP for those at this point, so no surprise there is missing ones.
Here's my problem with this collection... most of these really good games used specialized controls like trackballs, spinners and paddles and playing with a d-pad or analog joystick just doesn't doesn't do these games justice
The other titles that you cited in order: Driver, Getting Up and Alone in the Dark unfortunately are not more part of Atari Catalogue because were sold by Company to another game companies. Driver franchise was sold to Ubisoft and Alone in the Dark recently to THQ Nordic now Embracer Group
And the other more titles that you cited in the end are part of Warner Bros Games or Warner Bros Entertainment
You're right, and of course I knew that they wouldn't be included in the package for the reason that you mentioned. However, when covering a collection like this, you need to address that there are a lot of "Atari" games missing, and I felt like that was a good way to segue into that discussion.
I am pretty sure that many of thr games you mentioned wishing it had were actually from Atari Games Corporation. According to Wikipedia that’s all now owned by Warner bros games.
Best review on the internet.😎👍
What about the paddle games? Did they emulate them properly or did they screw them up like usual?
The paddle games control well. I believe the PC version of the game even allows for third-party paddle controllers.
'Yada, Yada, Yada's it's way' eh!
I am hoping that when Steam has its annual autumn sale in a couple of weeks that this game collection will be part of that sale because I want to buy it but budgetary constraints are keeping me from doing so
Actualmente está en oferta
Activision would be my pick for another collection like this.
No Army Battlezone..no buy
Sorry got the wrong title I meant Army Battlezone
Atari doesn’t own Battlezone anymore. They sold it to Activision.
@@GregsGameRoom Which Microsoft bought. It's gonna be Microsoft's, who knew.
Qotd
I would love so many companies to do a compilation like this one. However I would love Nintendo or Sega the most.
I think williams/bally had their hands in pitfighter, race drivin and rampart.
Absolutely right. I mostly used those games to bridge into talking about some of the history that isn't talked about (due to licensing issues).
Spoiler Alert: You will not find Custard’s Revenge on the collection, LOL.
Gotta keep it from an AO rating!
Nintendo should get that style of a compilation.
I THINK KONAMI SHOULD MAKE A COMPILATION LIKE THIS. GOING THRU THE 80S 90S AND MAYBE AFEW GAMES FROM THE PLAYSTATION ERA
Poy Poy or bust!
I guess I overlooked this one.. I didn't even realize it existed.. I can't believe it's been four plus decades since I got my ColecoVision! Christmas I think it was 1984 I got my Atari adapter for it and a the mess of Atari games my parents got me.. Lots of which were Activision tbh Oh well thankfully I still have the Activision Anthology on PSP
Finally! CLOAK AND DAGGER!!! I’ve waited about 40 years for this release💜
Been a fan of that game ever since seeing it in the movie Cloak and Dagger back in 1984. Glad it's finally gotten a legit home release.
I guess that's why we got 'Winners don't use drugs"?! all joking aside yeah this looks like an incredible collection! a lot of the stuff I probably have already on the other atari collection that was previously released, but I'm definitely very interested in trying out the new inclusions you don't normally see like the Atari PC, Jaguar and Lynx stuff! none of which I ever owned so it'd be my first time playing any of that.
QOTD: definitely a tough one cus a lot of the companies I would've loved to see already have compilations?! but I suppose if Konami wants to team back up with Digital Eclipse for a retro do-over I would not say no to picking it up! Same for most any of the other companies honestly, Capcom, SEGA, hell yeah even Sunsoft since it seems like they're revisiting their old IPs for rerelease.
Most If Not All The Titles On This Compilation I Already Own On PS4 AND Switch
Hudson soft would be a good choice since Konami just sits on everything they acquire
No I'm not sitting down I'm standing up peeing while watching and commenting.
Just make sure and wash your hands when the review wraps up.
Dammit. The "yada yada" of the 2000s is the thing that I was hoping not to see, but expecting it. Including Marc Ecko's Getting Up would've been _brilliant_ actually (it's a Slayer Engine game, and while I still think Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best one between it, Getting Up and Indiana Jones, Mark Ecko's game is still a lot better than I bet most people would assume), and stuff like Alone in the Dark Inferno and Driver would've been awesome if just for the variety they would've brought to the collection (though of course, licensing would've been a nightmare, especially with IP that's now owned by different publishers). Mostly though, I was hoping for games like the XBLA version of Yar's Revenge, the gorgeous on-rails shooter that hasn't been seen on any digital storefront in forever. Putting in stuff like _Asteroids Outpost_ would've been out-of-place, but hell, they should've at least mentioned crap like that and maybe had videos shown of them. If you're going to do a 50th Anniversary package for a company that's borderline irrelevant now, you need to let people know _WHY_ that's the case. You have to show you can look back at your own mistakes and move on, not be too eager to hide them.
You're totally right about the rights to these games though. I'm sure Warner Bros. probably owns a lot thanks to their ownership of Midway's library - I mean, look at where you can find Pit Fighter; on a Midway Arcade Treasures pack (the second one, I believe). Still, this does seem like a fine collection and a nice product to see from "Atari" considering their recent past has been filled with shady nonsense such as that stupid speaker hat and the Atari VCS/Mini Ryzen PC thing. I hope whatever company is using the name "Atari" currently (it's still Infogrames, I take it?) does better going forward - this is a good way to start a new era of NON-shady dealings if you ask me.
QOTD: I'd like to see Ubi Soft do one, actually. Mostly because I can't think of too many Ubi games before Rayman on the Playstation. But I remember when ZombiU was being marketed for the Wii U that they mentioned an original title called Zombi was actually their first game ever... from 1986! It was for the Amstrad, ZX Spectrum, etc. all those British computers. So yeah, like, I'm VERY curious about their history and output, especially since they're mostly just a Far Cry and Assassin's Creed factory nowadays, sadly. What the heck did they really do between the mid-80s and Rayman 2 _really_ put them on the third-party map by 2000? Even EA and Activision have occasionally dabbled in collections like EA Replay and Activision Anthology, so Ubi Soft is the biggest question mark out of all of the three "Big Evil Third Parties," lol.
Between this compilation, the recently-released Atari Mania and the Recharged franchise, I feel like the current Atari is at least making an effort to be better. This compilation reminded me of just how many IPs they own, most of which have not been tapped in decades. They have nothing to lose, so I hope they continue to try out all of the crazy ideas and continue to resurrect some of those games and franchises. If nothing else, this game reminded me that there are still a TON of Atari arcade games that could be Recharged in the coming years.
@@DefunctGames Yeah, I like that positive thinking. You make a great point about stuff like Recharged and this collection being encouraging signs, so I'm gonna hope they're turning things around too now 🙂
Those years were pretty embarrassing so I’m not surprised they were skipped.
that's crescent Galaxy man i wanted that one when i saw the ad in Gamepro in 94 and 95 for the Jaguar Trevor Mcfur in the Crescent Galaxy that was one of the ones i wanted a lot i know they don't have Shamus Karateka, or even the ps one of asteroids i hope they do but at least it has Combat one of my all time fave atari games river raid is another super fave and super break out chop lifter, my sister at the time loiked teeny bopper kinda a clone of pac man back then but different premise too, TRON and an actual version of Cloak and Dagger as well as Boulder dash it awesome but only on the Pc version later on, this is somethign worth getting there is something that has on ps4 im going to check out too that has 99 atari games on it but want to do research on it as well it might be the same thing but i want this one hope it has all of the pac man games as well i always did wanted to try Trevor Mcfur in the crescent Galaxy since i saw it back then thank you for this informative video it si very good to elarn about this one more very interesting and something to look forward too.
Thank you for the review, this looks great! Would you say this is better than Atari Mania?
To answer your QOTD: Tough choice, but I would go with either of my favourite video game developers: Treasure, Nihon Falcom or SNK.
I like the concept (and zaniness) of Atari Mania, but prefer the comprehensiveness of this package. Sure, I can complain that there aren't enough Lynx games, but with more than one-hundred games to play, you won't be hurting for things to do. And all of the extras, archival material, commercials, interviews and video segments make this a must-own for anybody interested in the history of the games industry.
@@DefunctGames Thank you for the reply! Appreciate it!
The Tramiels didn’t buy the arcade division which was split off into Atari Games. That was about when Marble Madness and Gauntlet came out so none of the games after those belong to Atari Corp (the home consumer division.) Not surprised they would avoid the late 90’s Atari after they did that stupid reverse merger with JTS Corp, got sold to Hasbro, then Infogrames. They weren’t doing jack sh- except publishing games they had nothing to do with. Then this new Atari has been hoping to profit off the name by ridiculously trying to sell speaker hats, cryptocurrency, hotels, and the overpriced and underpowered Atari VCS console. This compilation is honestly the best thing they’ve done in DECADES. So I will give credit where it’s due. Hopefully they keep on track and do better in the future.
I wish there was an Atari Games compilation that included arcade games such as Marble Madness, Paperboy, Gauntlet, Klax, and Rampart. According to Wikipedia the Atari Games properties were purchased by Time Warner in 2009.
Great review! I'm really unfamiliar with Atari's games but weirdly know their history inside and out. Mixing the two is a great idea. Digital Eclipse hinted at this approach with the great Samurai Showdown compilation they released. I too wish there were more late 90's onwards games in the collection. M
Why didn't they put the original arcade roms on this?
Sorry, I may have missed it but, does this come with Yar’s Revenge?
Yes. It comes with a couple different versions of Yar's Revenge, including the original game and an updated version.
Great review. Is there a difference between ps4 and ps5? The ps4 is ten dollars off right now
I reviewed the game with the PlayStation 4 version (all of the footage is from the PS4). I have since downloaded it on my PS5, and it seems to be identical.
@@DefunctGames Thanks!
This sounds like a great release but couldn't it have had all the Atari games from every system??? It's not like it couldn't fit on the disk or cartridge. This game only had like 105 games, I know Atari owns 200+ games on the 2600-7800 at least
I see what you're saying and agree to an extent, but I don't think that's what Atari was going for. While it would be really cool to have a comprehensive collection of every game they released on those early systems, that's not what this compilation was trying to do. I view it more as a museum, where the goal is to show you a smattering of games in order to tell a larger story. That's why you see a cross-section of games for all of the systems, instead of narrowing it down to every arcade game or every 2600 game. Ideally, this game could have DLC that turns it into the comprehensive collection that many Atari fans want.
Here's the big question... Is Berzerk on this collection?
Sorry, but the answer is no.
Great review!
Question:
How does the games list compare to the Atari Flashback Classics collection?
(Specifically, I have the Switch version)
I'm curious how much overlap there is between the two.
If we're strictly talking about Atari 2600, then there's definitely some overlap. Atari Flashback Classics on Switch has more 2600 games and some repeat arcade titles. However, where this game excels is in variety of systems. There are better arcade games here, plus all of the Atari 7800, Atari 800, Lynx and Jaguar titles. Strictly from a 2600 angle, Flashback certainly has more games. On the other hand, Atari 50 blows Flashback out of the water when it comes to history, interviews and memorabilia.
@@DefunctGames
Nice!
Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to have to pick this one up.
Oh, and this video (and your friendly interaction) made me a new subscriber. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the kind words and for subscribing. I hope that the rest of our content isn't a crushing disappointment. :)
@@DefunctGames
😆
Do the games support dpad use?
Looks like a cool collection.
I'd like a Turbografx collection.
🐅
Yes, you can use either the D-pad or the analog stick for pretty much every game in this pack. There might be an exception when it comes to one or two of the Jaguar games, since they had to come up with creative ways to map all of the buttons. I can tell you from experience that my D-pad got a real workout while playing Atari 50.
There is a TurboGraffx mini out there just in case you don’t have one or are not aware of its existence. 🙂
@@bildo1977 I have it - love it.
Thanks for the comm.
🤘
@@broken1394 I see. You want a collection released on the consoles. 👍🏻
I feel like it's needed. For as cool as the plug 'n play unit was, there were limited quantities and not everybody wants to buy hardware specifically for those games. Considering that a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done (at least when it comes to licensing), I would love to see a Atari 50-style compilation that goes over the complete history of the TurboGrafx-16. Have it be a $40 download for modern consoles. That's the way to go.
Sega for sure even if they already have some of the best damn collections out there already! Also SNK especially all things NeoGeo, Capcom, Konami, Bandai Namco, Taito, I would absolutely love a Treasure one albeit highly unrealistic and finally Midway to a much lesser degree.
They should have included some of the games they made for other systems in the 2000s…
That was a different splinter of atari the current atari does not have the rights to those
My pick is Hudsonsoft, even though it's a pipe dream.
Short lived computers? 1979 to 1993+ (and that doesn't include the ST laptops and Falcon). Not exactly "short lived".
Fair point.
@@DefunctGames Great video. Thanks.
So what is the best game on here?
Tempest 2000 and Ninja Golf. That's where people should start.
How do we unlock confidential games?
There are specific challenges tied to some of the games that will unlock the bonus content. This is also how you earn the achievements/trophies.
@@DefunctGames thanks!
The fact that this packages missing alot games I gonna say pass but for console players sure buy it.
Nintendo, Capcom, Sega
Are they full games or taster levels of, for example, Adventure?
They are the full games.
@@DefunctGames Thanks 👍
I don’t know why they keep releasing the same games without the proper controllers. Who plays pong with the xbox controllers? Breakout, same problem. I guess I need the switch version if you can use the touch screen. 😑
There's a little of that in this collection, but that's to be expected when you're porting so many games from a bunch of different consoles and arcade configurations. The alternative would be to not include Pong, which would leave a MAJOR hole in Atari's history.
Is the PS4 version significantly worse than PS5. I want to get it on PS5, but since no copies of that version exist in the known universe...
For what it's worth, I played through the game on PlayStation 4 for this review. I have since bought a PS5 and loaded it on that system, and it seems to be pretty much identical.
@@DefunctGames thank you
Can't wait to play Pitfall and River Raid 😡
Well ... I have some bad news for you ...
has it got ET?
No. They talk about E.T. a lot (especially in relation to the great games crash), but including it would have required them paying for the license again. As you would expect, none of the games based on movies or licensed properties are included in this compilation.
@@DefunctGames shame as it's the most famous game of all time for the wrong reasons, it would have been a gem to include it for the lols
Funny how some of the early game developers got their ideas from smoking weed. It's not frowned upon like it once was..... Marijuana just became legal in Missouri....from the election a few days ago.
I'm in Washington State, where it has been legally to buy in stores since 2012. It's amazing how different the mindset is after just a decade. And it makes sense that game developers would come up with some of their most creative ideas while doing drugs, what with some of the world's best music, movies and books coming from artists who were high. I love that we live in an age when some of these aging hippies can just be honest about what they were doing in the 1970s.
As a fan of old school games, main reason I like things like MAME so much, this absolutely sounds like my kind of game. Wishlisted it on Steam while watching this video. As for the questions, all those you mentioned sounds great, but think I'll add to it Coleco, Amega, Commodore, Apple, IBM, and whatever company made Intelvision. Yeah, those would be great.
SEGA SEGA SEGA
The Atari ST mentioned?
You know, I don't remember it being mentioned. However, I'm sure it came up in the chapter about computers and I just missed it.
Intellivision
Nolan's Atari is no Joke. The Jokes in Jack. he put Ataris home division in the toilet.
I never pass the nes generation
To get my retrofix
Beyond the nes
It's pongary primitive games
I'm so disappointed in this title. I downloaded into my PS5 and found no third party games from companies like Activision or imagic. And no paddle control for games like Breakout or Tempest. And where are the Star Wars titles? Thumbs down.
No defender or alien vs predator ? I regret paying full price for this, you will not play 95 % of the games on this.
The problem is that present day Atari doesn't own the rights to either of those games. Defender is currently owned by Warner Bros. Interactive, while Alien vs. Predator would likely require re licensing with the companies that own the rights to Alien and Predator. It was unrealistic to expect any third-party or licensed games.
@@DefunctGames they should have charged £20 for this instead of £35. For the 50th anniversary you would have thought they would have made an effort to put some of more well known games on here. It's a shame that so many great past games are stuck behind legal tape.
@@DefunctGames yep Disney own AVP, good luck licensing that one now..
Exactly right, Alien vs. Predator was NEVER going to be an option. For what it's worth, it does get mentioned in the video segments talking about the Jaguar.