The 8-Bit Atari 400 Mini Review
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 เม.ย. 2024
- Does this new Mini console live up to the 8-bit Atari computer legacy?
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
TH-cam Page - / jan3d
Intro by Evan S.
portfolio.tsestudios.com/
Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
TH-cam Page - / nigh11
Episode Notes:
1. I purchased the 400 Mini with my own money. This was not a free review product. - เกม
Many gamers ignore the significance of this Machine in the video game industry.
Jay Miner 's Team (the father of Amiga) was responsible for this machine.
IT was the first home computer with custom chips for sound(PCM) and graphics(256 color palette) something that became standard for the industry. It was the first platform with a "USB" type of port(SIO - Joe Decuir was also part of the team responsible for the development and standardization of the USB port ). It was the first machine with SVIDEO output....and a screen saver.
Many people ignore Atari for a reason, they were garbage at home and had no competition and once Nintendo came with the NES, people saw right from the garbage that was Atari consoles with their basic graphics and sound that sounded like bleeps and bloops. Atari were only ever decent at best in the arcade’s next to giants like Sega, Capcom and Konami who all left Atari in the dust with their far superior hardware.
@@Adamtendo_player_1Yet, without them, we wouldn't have what we have now. Show some respect.
Atari Lord X 2.0
I appreciate you are too young to understand or appreciate the truly groundbreaking nature of the 400 and 800.
As for basketball, it was the first game to ever have human shaped sprites (more accurately, player missile graphics)
Taito brought out an arcade version in 1974, and it wasn't until 1979 that the black and white 'sweet georgia brown' basketball game came to the arcades. The 400 and VCS had the game the same year. Arcade conversions, especially from black and white to colour, coming out in the same year as the arcade machine, was very much the scoop back in the day.
You are right to think encounter, miner 2049er, and boulderdash were good, because they were played heavily back in the day.
Electraglide is only truly experienced properly when you get to the end. It's no mean feat. The replayability is in the completing the game (think of the rush of clearing the final stage in outrun) you can also change the steering weight on the title screen if you need the controls altering.
If you want to see what the Atari could really do, then I'd recommend these
Rainbow walker
Necromancer
Shamus
Drol.
Again, getting to the end is the goal. If you can do that, you will get the real sense of achievement!
I’m also too young to appreciate such basic primitive graphics and sound, I refuse to give any credit whatsoever for such pathetic and prehistoric hardware.
🤣OK.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 You could at least give it credit to have made it possible to have superior hardware and software down the line. Rome was not built in one day.
Oh dear...
Best go and play and let the adults appreciate.
.@@Adamtendo_player_1
@@Adamtendo_player_1What a childish and immature response.
I never heard of this machine, it was really fun watching this one and seeing some of the games. Thanks for your great work SLX. 😊🙏
Glad you enjoyed it!
try Real of Impossibilities
That CX-40 joystick actually has 7 extra buttons that can be mapped to functions normally accessed with the keyboard, like in Star Raiders, for instance. There are four buttons around the ring in the cardinal directions, a shoulder button, plus a start & menu button in the back. For advanced games that use the keyboard a lot, you can hook up a USB keyboard.
adding your own games out the box is epic😊
My childhood friend had an Atari 800. Some of my first personal computing was done on that. I did preorder one of these and I am liking it so far. The controller may be one of the best re-creations I have ever used. The sub buttons built into the joystick was a genius idea.
I love me some Bruce Lee. First time I played it on a platform outside C64
Loved the ZX Spectrum version!
Nice review. Don't talk down a legend though. The Atari CX-40 joystick is iconic. The CX-40 was the beginning and the bridge to all controllers that came afterward.
Sega realized how good the DB9 pinout was and used it for many of their great controllers.
I agree 💯%!
My cousin gave me his 800xl when he graduated to a dos pc. Me and my friend used to have a ton of fun playing "star trek" in the game Star Raiders by taking turns one person piloting and shooting with the joystick and the other operating the keyboard to turn shields on and off and navigation and etc
Three recommendations to try:
Alley Cat, Necromancer, and Electrician. Three of my favorites from my Atari 800.
the Atari joystick was my go to joystick of the spectrum, amiga era. my most loved joystick.. nothing else compared to it!
Mine to, carried forward from 2600, c64 and then amiga
I just remember the joystick worked so well on the 2600. Sure your hand would cramp up after long play but that happened to me on the NES too.
They were all pretty bad at the time.
It's cool that Atari made their own home computers for kids to enjoy. Sometimes it feels very nice to play a very simple system like Atari, to revist old memories.
love the channel keep it up homie
Appreciate the comment.
MULE was my childhood.
If that basketball game came out in 1979 - that would be incredibly impressive for that day. Well into the 80s the best basketball game I recall was, I think, the Real Sports lineup for the 2600, and that 400 version looks like a two generation leap forward. It might not be fun by today's standards, but visually, that is really impressive looking for the era.
Basketball was indeed a launch title for the 400/800 computers and I agree, it was very impressive for the era.
@@ScottWozniak for Me gaming began when the NES came out before the NES it was like being in the Stone Age with Atari.
Agreed. Those colors and animation in 1979? Amazing, really.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 ummm... no keyboard with the NES. I was playing games on the Atari 800 6 years before they even attempted inferior conversions of games such as Ultima III, F-15 strike Eagle, MULE and Silent Service on the NES. Consoles couldn't compete with the complexity of computers for flight sims, war games and RPGs back then for years. Likewise, Atari or C64 ports of Mario Bros., Castlevania, Contra were far slower and inferior to the NES originals. Two different camps of gamers back then. I played/camped in both of them.
i would destroy you in any game boy
step up and get dropped punk
My first computer in the early 80s was an Atari 400 with a 410 cassette recorder, so this does hold a lot of nostalgic value for me.
I pre-ordered one. The console itself is very good, though I find the controller slightly flawed - particularly the Ring buttons. I find before I start any previously unplayed game, I have to edit the input buttons and make sure the configuration is saved.
Overall, I am enjoying it.
Liked the atari 50 collection 👌
Heard an update that adds more games is coming for the summer 🤔
Just wish it had 3rd party games.
Nice...any Jaguar games?
You can add your own games to any of the supported platforms
Great review !!!! I bought one too and it is pretty much my introduction to the Atari 8-bit games . Really fun mini . So many games to discover .
Atari was so full of potential, and you can see that in the early to mid 80s. Its so disgusting that it never got a chance to really thrive beyond 1984 due to gross mismanagement. Such a travesty.
At least Atari lived on as a publisher, I'd say they're doing well now.
The same can be said for Commodore.
@@58jharrisTrue, probably because their paths were intertwined. The Commodore founder later became Atari’s CEO in the 1980’s.
I picked up one of these too, also without any experience or nostalgia. More bundled games would have been nice but I’m enjoying it so far.
I remember playing the Bruce Lee game, Bulder Dash, Frogger and Rampage.
But i've played those games, on different gaming systems like the Commodore C64, Atari 2600, NES and Sega Master System.
Good review Segalord X.
Seriously amazing chipset for its time. Ahead of its time by miles
Sega Lord X taking it back to the Atari
It's cool, but I think it's mostly going to end up as a display piece next to the other minis.
You stood up Froggers date.
I was going to buy this but I'll hold out for the Atari ST mini. I'm just glad Atari is giving their other systems attention
Definitely not disappointed after the pre-order, though the joystick gets a bit of getting used to with all the years of using controllers with thumbsticks.
For the folks attempting to play 5200 games from the USB stick, the .a52 format doesn't work - needs to be .bin for it to be recognized.
Edit; Also there is a file display limit of roughly 256 items in the media browsing menu, so if you have alot of roms divide them into folders and I'd recommend a roughly 200~ set of files per folder.
Miner 2049er and International Karate on my 800XL, what memories.
"The movement of the monkey feels all wrong"
Another timeless quote from Sega Lord X
Man, I've been watching Starcade recently on TH-cam, and those people are masters at these types of games.
Great video! I wasn't expecting an episode on the new Atari 400 Mini, so this is really nice. Sorry that your comments are getting spammed by pornbots.
I grew up on the Atari 8-bit home computers, so this is something I was really looking forward to playing. The case design is excellent and the ability to play games from USB made me excited. The best part: four controller ports and the inclusion of the greatest videogame of all time: MULE! Yay!
Then, of course, I discovered that the version of MULE on this device is glitchy, as we can see from your footage (the mules in the shop are missing, which is a BIG DEAL). That really irritated me and felt like an unforced error. I do hope Retro Games and Atari can fix this with a system patch. Seriously, though, MULE is fantastic. Think of a mashup of Monopoly, SimCity and Mario Party. It's relatively easy to learn but has enormous depths, as you collect land plots, equip them to grow various items, then battle on the market with your rivals without completely bankrupting the colony. I'm not joking when I say that multiplayer games can end in punched shoulders and shouting. It's glorious.
Seven Cities of Gold is another masterpiece, Ozark Softscape's following game, in fact. Essentially, this is the game that inspired Sid Meier to make Civilization (just as MULE inspired Will Wright to make SimCity), and it's an open-world exploration game where you can travel across the new world, discover continents, and either make friends with or massacre the native populations. The version on the 400 Mini, once again, is flawed. The opening title sequence was cut (no idea why), and the ability to create new worlds to explore (created and saved to a blank floppy disk) was removed. There's no reason for this, as we have been able to use this feature in Atari emulators since the '90s. Again, I do hope this could get fixed in a hardware patch.
Fortunately, you can just put MULE and Seven Cities onto your USB drive, and that's the solution I strongly recommend for now.
I think we all agree that loading USB games is the best feature of this device. I'm currently sitting on roughly 1,700 games on my desktop Mac, including the entire Atari 5200 library and over a dozen 2600 games (mostly Activision titles) that were ported to the 8-bit by indie coders. This computer has a vast library of Golden Age arcade classics, very much "2600 on steroids," but also has many fantastic original games from Activision, Electronic Arts, Lucasfilm Games, Synapse, Datamost, Broderbund, Microprose, Origin, etc. Many of the most famous computer game classics from the 1980s were found on Atari.
The indie-homebrew scene has thrived on the Atari 8-bit since the 1980s (Poland and the Czech Republic became the center of the Atari universe), and it appears to be stronger than ever today. It's wild. We have some spectacular new games to play, like a new Prince of Persia, killer arcade translations of Time Pilot, Scramble and Bosconian, a number of graphics hacks to older arcade cartridges like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Moon Patrol, and even a couple games that take advantage of a "1MB" memory upgrade to your Atari computer, including a version of Space Harrier that must be seen to be believed. I have no idea if that will play on the 400 Mini.
I haven't yet touched the new joystick, but I'd almost certainly agree that it's likely mediocre at best. I'd love to be proven wrong. But we 1980s kids all knew to buy better joysticks as quickly as possible. Another question on my mind is whether I can buy a USB-9pin adapter and use the classic Wico joysticks. But any modern USB controller should be fine. I'm also aware that USB keyboards work on the 400 Mini, which would be a must for games that used a lot of keyboard commands (the precursor to keyboard-mouse controls).
I'll finish off with a short list of my Top 50 Atari 8-Bit videogames. These are only the games created back in the day, not any modern indie titles, but I did put down the "updated" versions of several arcade classics. If you're looking for games to try, Atarimania and Fandal are the two essential websites to visit. Thanks again for all the hard work!
DTM's Atari 8-bit Top 50
1. M.U.L.E.
2. Seven Cities of Gold
3. Ballblazer
4. Star Raiders
5. Castle Wolfenstein
6. Tale of Beta Lyrae
7. Mr. Robot and His Robot Factory
8. Montezuma’s Revenge
9. World Karate Championship
10. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
11. Boulder Dash
12. Donkey Kong Arcade
13. Pac-Man Arcade
14. Robotron: 2084
15. Dropzone
16. Blue Max
17. Drelbs
18. T.G.I.F.
19. Starfleet I: The War Begins
20. Rescue on Fractalus
21. F-15 Strike Eagle
22. Silent Service
23. Lode Runner
24. Spy Vs. Spy
25. Archon
26. Defender
27. Bruce Lee
28. Ms. Pac-Man Arcade
29. Murder on the Zinderneuf
30. Dr. J and Larry Bird Go One on One
31. Pinball Construction Set
32. Lode Runner
33. Missile Command
34. Mig Alley Ace
35. Millionaire
36. Stealth
37. Spy Hunter
38. Gyruss
39. Q*Bert
40. Frogger
41. Track and Field
42. Submarine Commander
43. Spelunker
44. Ninja
45. Zeppelin
46. Koronis Rift
47. Starquake
48. King Tut’s Tomb
49. Mario Bros Arcade
50. ET Phone Home
Defender and satans hollow are really good for the atari 8 bit as someone who wasn't born until this computer was obsolete.
I never got a chance to play this growing up. Looking at these games now they all look great imo. I don't do hardware anymore, but imma look into playing these to check them out. Thanks for the coverage!
I loved Battlezone in the arcade, and got really, _really_ good at it. To the point where I had issues trying to use an NES D-Pad when the Twin Sticks were sooo much better to me.
Then, in the same arcade that still had Battlezone...Virtual On came in. It took weeks for someone to win a fight against me muahahaha!
Feel free to explore some more obscure vintage systems. :D
Here are some titles you might want to find and try:
-Great American Cross Country Road Race, This game basically had a map of the U.S. and you would race from city to city. You have to keep an eye out for the fuzz and your gas level. It simulated night and day cycles as well as different weather and environments
-Archon, this game is setup like a chess board with light and dark teams. They are comprised of mythical characters like wizards, genies, manticores, trolls, golems and others. You challenge other characters my moving your character to the spot the enemy is occupying. A real time fight breaks out, with each character having a specific attack power, life bar, speed, and cool down. The playfield cycles through day and night, with teams gaining an advantage in one or the other (light=day, dark=night). Some squares are always light or dark. Taking on a character on its favored time of day can be suicidal (a grunt can one-shot a high powered character under such situations) but if you have great control of the character you can come out on top.
You win by capturing all of the power squares on the field, (occupying the 4 corners of the field the 4 cardinal points (NSEW) and the center), or by defeating the team leader (Wizard on the light side, Sorceress on the dark).
-Racing Destruction Set, and Isometric racer that lets you construct your own courses, with variable surfaces (asphalt, mud, ice etc), change the height of each track segment, and adjust the gravity (moon, earth, jupiter etc...). It also had several different vehicle to race, from sports cars, to trucks and jeeps to dragster and motorcycles, each having its own stats.
-Alley Cat, you play an alley cat trying to find a female cat in an apartment build. You start out in a back alley trying to jump into one the building's windows, avoid objects thrown out of windows, the random dog that comes walking by, and deal with mice on cloth lines(your cat will hang on to articles of clothing on the clothesline will the mice will undo any piece of clothing you hang from, to drop you).
In each window you are presented with a mini game you have to complete:
- in a giant fish bowl where you must dive and catch the fish swimming about while avoiding the electric eels, you have to return to the surface be your air runs out.
- another room has a giant chunk of swiss cheese that has mice peeking their heads out of several holes, you have to catch them all while avoiding a broom that will try and sweep you out of the level if caught, ( you lay down foot prints to keep the broom busy)
- another has a bunch of sleeping dogs which you must avoid while drinking up the bowls of milk left for them, (spend too much time at one bowl and they'll growl and wake up)
Successfully completing one of these levels takes you back to the alley where a female cat will now appear in an open window.
entering one of these levels you are presented with several rows lined with hearts that are patrolled by male cats, bump into them and they'll knock you down to a level below. All the while red and blue cupids are firing arrows around the screen, the arrows path adding(red) or taking away (blue) hearts from each row, adding or removing stepping platforms in your attempt to reach the top row where the female cat awaits.
-There is a very impressive home brew of Sega's Space Harrier running on the Atari 800.
nice review, might consider this when it goes on sale.
Got my and love it. Now we need a The Bally Astrocade mini
Great One thank you!! I just got my 2600 running and been enjoying Solaris, Donkey Kong, Desert Hawk, Asteroids, Pole Position 2, Baseball, OH man and tons more!! so much fun mostly and some just nostalgia! lol
Next Mini Console review by Sega Lord X: THEA500? Please!
Thanks!
I love the lef-handed mode of the new CX-40 joystick. For me this is the best Atari controller ever made.
YOOMP immediately reminded me of the special stage design in Knuckles Chaotix for the 32X!
I never played around with the Atari 8-bit computers. I'd like to, though. If nothing else, I'd do some comparisons to the C64 versions of the games I played. However, I'd rather play with a full-sized version of this rather than a mini version. There was a full-sized version of TheC64 that was released, and I got one of those. It's great.
Bruce Lee looks really slow compared to the C64 version. I never played MULE, and Boulder Dash looked slow (I didn't care for that game, though). I'd like to play F-15 Strike Eagle, as well as Archon I and II.
Thanks for reviewing this. I gotta say I disagree with your assessment of the Atari joystick, though. It's basic but it works well. I use one for my C64, and it does the job.
I just hope that a full-sized version of this thing gets made. I would consider buying one then.
I love this device, but I would love to see a SLX C64 mini and A500 mini videos as well!
I played a lot of Bruce Lee & Wavy Navy on my Apple II BITD. Other than that I don’t know much about Atari 8-bit computer games; just what was also available on Apple computers of the time.
Seems before my time for sure but I like the fact it lets you play roms on it
Love that new outro
Not a commentary on the video itself, but I never paid attention at your ending animations and the Panzer Dragoon one rocks ^^
I hope you get to review C64 and Amiga minis too and some of their games. I think those were the 2 best computers for gaming in the 1980s and early 1990s ... by far!
I know you can add ROMs, but it really should come with more games 🤑
That's the weird part because they could add every game!
@@OneLifeGames licensing costs money, the price would go up for every game included
It's a rights and licensing thing. That's also why the "Bruce Lee" game was renamed to just "Lee".
Owners can easily lets you add a ton of game roms that gamers can easily find.
Um no it's not the case, as some were done by independent developers, for the Atari 400 that doesn't mean Atari owns it, it's still legal property of the developer, it's upto the them if they want to add there games but obviously would come at a cost
It's too bad that you can't add the 2600 library to it! Either way, this console looks great, but I really don't understand why it didn't come with a power pack?? Not everyone has one just laying around lol....Also, the joystick included gave me some fond nostalgic feels!
Great video and review of the Atari 400 - a system I had never heard of prior to Retro Games announcing they were launching a mini version. I must confess, it's better than I had expected.
I noticed you mentioned their next release should be the 16-bit Atari and assume you mean the Atari ST? I imagine they may go down this route, but probably worth mentioning Retro Games have already released the Amiga 500 Mini (or A500 Mini as officially known) which was it's direct competitor and the better system of the two. If you've not played one yet I suggest you do, it's Retro Games best mini release to date.
You're right about those joysticks, I hate them so much💀
Not bad for hardware released in 1979, 5 years before the NES.
Oh please gaming truly began when the NES came out.
@@Adamtendo_player_1What a load of rubbish.
@@Adamtendo_player_1yeah right, kids in Europe playing micro computers games way before the NES
@@bradallen8909 it’s fact these basic and primitive games are the equivalent of the Stone Age 😂😂😂
@@glennmk5167 I didn’t have a home computer and nor did I care to own one with such awful graphics and sound. My system was an NES and I guess I’m in the minority in the UK because most of my friends that I knew had an NES nobody cared about having a home computer that were primitive than NES 😂😂
Kind of impressive how the Atari 800 XL was my primary console for a number of years, but the only game I owned for it that was represented here was Missile Command. I know that the licensing might have been an issue, but my favorite games back in the day were Lode Runner, Archon, and Ballblazer. All of those were the XE versions, so a bit more advanced than the 400 that they chose to spotlight here. As for the controller, I had an Epyx 500XJ, which was and even still is an excellent microswitch controller. There were few games that I could get by with with only a single button on the Genesis, but the interface was identical, and I enjoyed playing the Sonic the Hedgehog games with it much more than the native controller.
The CX40 joystick works great! 👍👍
I just knew that Pengo was gonna get mentioned in here, one way or another. :-)
First computer game I played was Space Quest II : Roger Wilco
Can anyone tell me why the Genesis Mini 2 is not hacked? I want to put more games on it!
I wish I would’ve been able to actually purchase one. Its release in Europe went under the radar and was only available from Amzon Germany.
I'm curious if the amazing Space Harrier homebrew port works on the 400 mini
Wow - some of those games had some super cool coding tricks on display. Just goes to show what you can do when you're a good, stubborn coder 😁
I heard that many if the games that come with it are homebrews.
I think there is a version of this on the PS5 (maybe the PS4 also) if you have the plus sub. I never played it because I have had my fill of Atari from my younger years. But they also have a Sega 16bit collection on there also. I am replaying the Phantasy Star games again, I really love those.
I grew up with a 2600 when everybody else had a SNES and a Genesis.
Mule is great. Basically a trade sim.
Way too expensive, but hyped for the Controller 🥳
I think capture the flag is only 256 directions but that's still a lot!
Cheaping out on the power adapter is so annoying. Increase the price by a few dollars/euros/whatever and include one. Cheapskates.
Not the first to do this, but just as bad.
While my experience with gaming in the 80s was mostly on computers, it was not on any of the 8-bit line up from Atari. No nostalgia for them, but always cool to see their games.
Good video.
A computer I had as a teenager, the Amiga, is a gaming system I think you'd like a lot. The graphics are good... I think there is an Amiga mini.
They same company has created the A500 Mini - they don't have the rights to the name Amiga, you see. It has more games built-in, and has been improved with some updated firmware.
@@MarkTheMorose Well the thing is on Amazon, you're right it's called "A500 Mini" but also says Amiga in several places (e.g. "25 AMIGA GAMES", etc.) It's a little single board ARM box with the Cloanto emulator running on it. But for people who don't want Workbench, etc and just want to play some Amiga classics, it looks like a good deal.
@@mercster I think it's a case of them not having the rights to use the names Commodore or Amiga on manufactured hardware, due to how much it would cost. They have properly licensed the system ROMs, and as long as they acknowledge the trade marks and such, they can describe the system as being compatible with Amiga games. I bought one at launch, in fact, though I've not used it a great deal.
@@MarkTheMorose Again, I dunno why you're so hung up on "They don't have rights to Amiga", that's all well and good... it's an Amiga 500 mini in practice. The "Amiga" name has been bought and sold several times over the years, it doesn't matter. I don't have the Amiga mini, but I have turned a Raspberry Pi into an emulated Amiga, complete with Workbench and all that. Pretty trivial, but probably more work than a casual gaming fan would be willing to put into it. Which is why the A500 Mini thing is cool.
SLX, as for the Atari ST computer line, there were some good games on there which have been since ported to the Jaguar. However, the Atari ST was designed as a business machine as well as desktop publishing and music creation (thanks to the built-in MIDI ports), while the Amiga computers had their origin as a next-generation chipset for Atari for use in advanced computers and consoles. However, when Atari's home division was sold to Jack Tramiel, Amiga was bought by Commodire. The Amiga comouters were more impressive in terms of graphics and sound compared to the ST. Thats why the Amiga outsold the ST. However, graphics and sound do not guarantee good games.
The ST and Amiga had good games, but they also had a lot of stinkers.
I had Hovver Bovver, Miner 2049er, Bruce Lee and MULE for the C64. I loved them all.
I just learned about hovver bovver from the exquisite llamasoft collection: the Jeff Minter story from digital eclipse
Gotta say I preferred jet set willy over miner.
Atari Lord X
were you running at 50hz or 60 hz
60.
Jeezus - scanline mode PLEASE!
Not on my channel. Can't stand it.
🎉
Your mileage may vary, but I feel like the Atari 8-bit computers were better than the Atari 16-bit ones. The 8-bit line was released when Atari was at its strongest as a company, and you get a lot of quality games of that early 1980s vintage. Beyond that, the hardware is pretty powerful for its time, as you pointed out. By contrast, the Atari ST feels like a would-be competitor to the Amiga with crappier sound.
5:14 thats what she said
😂
But when is a Sega Dreamcast mini coming out?
It won't. Sega has no interest in that project.
I was big in the Atari 8-bit games in the late 80s and am familiar with the library. I'm disappointed with the lineup of games for the mini. About 7 of them are good, but some of them like Basketball and Asteroids are junk.
But you can load other games via USB drive.
*ATARI are so greedy with 25 games? I mean Turbo Graphix 16 had 62 games when that came out late* 😑
Yeah, but unlike most Mini consoles, you can add your own games without the need to hack it. Just drop the games on a USB drive and you have everything day one.
@@SegaLordXBut 50% of the ROM’s you add to this won’t play. And yes, I have used the correct file extensions. Retro Games really dropped the ball on this one. It should have had at least 100 built-in titles.
@@SegaLordX Already have a ton of devices I can add games to and emulators. The selling point of these minis is that they have the best games built-in.
I found one site with 5500 different files (Google is your friend). I downloaded them and copied them all to an old 2-gigabyte thumb drive.
Some files when loaded will flash a light blue screen with a white square in the top left, then kick you back to the carousel.
That means the file will only run on the newer XL models (perhaps it needs more than 48K, or requires the newer GTIA graphics processor, not the older CTIA.)
Change the machine type from the default of 800 to 800 XL, and then the game will likely run fine.
I've found that the vast majority of game files run, like 95%.
Υou can add any game out of the ~7.000 available for the system.
4:24 uk viewing
Fake scan lines suck I agree
Depends for me, some scanline filters look amazing, some look corny, the best ones are subtle and don't copy PVM scanlines but consumer grade CRT scanlines
Looks like an interesting mini console, nice video showing details on it. I couldn't imagine playing any games with that joystick though 🤣😂🤣 good thing you can use onther controllers....
I really enjoyed the C64 and A500 minis, but this one's def not worth the price to me (and you have to buy a seperate VCS controller to unlock two more games to play with its paddle feature)...very easy pass.
Interesting I've never heard of the 400 before!
So this Mini does not come with a power brick? You mean if you got it you need that to use it? I am kinda drunk so I probably misunderstood.
Correct, you do need to have or buy a mains adaptor. I didn't notice it in the video, but the C64 Mini and A500 Mini from the same company came with a USB lead, but you need to have or buy the adaptor to plug the lead into. This allows them to sell the same device in countries with different mains voltages and plug designs, but it's not very convenient for the buyer.
I can’t think of ANY of these mini systems that gave you a power brick. No brick was included with the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Mini, NEO GEO Mini, Astro City Mini, Taito Egrett II Mini, etc., etc.
Like others have stated, this is done on purpose so that the system can easily be sold worldwide without the need for including a region specific power brick.
Atari ST / 16 bit would be interesting, but it's kind of cursed in that most of the Amiga versions are better... also it uses a Motorola 68k CPU, which was also found in, that's right, the Genesis!
They sold the mini without a power brick? Wow. That's crazy.
Yeah, just like the latest iPhone or Android.
I don’t believe any of these mini systems came with power bricks. They weren’t included with the PC Engine/TG-16 Mini, Neo Geo Mini, Sega Astro City Mini, Taito Egrett II Mini, etc., etc.
It’s done on purpose so there’s no need to manufacture region specific bricks. This makes it much easier to sell worldwide.
Um about the 2:05 quote about misleading is not misleading at all. They all have the same CPU, GPU, and Pokey Sound Chip. The only difference is amount of RAM, or for the 5200 the ROM is stripped down for console use (and added instructions for the awful controllers). Other than that it's all the same you can plug a Atari 8-bit cartridge from the XE/XL models into the original 400/800 models however Disk/Tape based games may require that additional RAM. They call it the 400 for the cosmetic look only. I do wish they would release a full size "800" version with a working Keyboard like they did with the C64. If you really want to see how good the 8-bit computers were there is a free to download ROM of a port of Prince Of Persia that can run only natively on a Atari 8-Bit system with 128K of RAM (or with certain Flash Carts). There is a guy making a Port of Space Harrier as well with a ROM available too.
Also, the older versions of the 400/800 came with the CTIA graphics processor. The later versions of these, plus the XL/XE series, came with an updated GTIA processor that offered a few more graphics modes that some newer games require.
I understand all that but its called the 400 Mini and its that name that I was referencing. Most people that do not know its history will likely not understand what that entails, much less it can also play 5200 games.
Did we even have these in America? I don't remember them at all.
Yes, it was overshadowed by competition
Yep we sure did. I had the 800, the 400's bigger brother. The entire line was released here. Atari was based in Sunnyvale, California.
Yes. They were moderately popular but overshadowed by the Commodore Vic-20 and C64.
controversial opinion: bruce lee is best on pc, it's 4 color sick cga but still it's the best playing version(on 8mhz) controls etc wise.
i saw this on amazon and had it preordered, but cancelled mine after realizing I prob wouldn't even play it enough to justify it...I had similar thoughts about that C64 mini too. Maybe in a few years I'll pick both up
Nothing justifies buying it, it doesn't even convey the originals physical characteristics correctly.
@@unverifiedbiotic lol, the amazon listing made it look much better...but this unboxing by SLX...yeah, the product itself looks so unappealing and cheap. At least the C54 looked better from the unboxings I've seen.
I think you need to appreciate this era of gaming to get the most out of it. If the period between the 2600 and 5200 does nothing for you, this is likely not going to do much for you.
@SegaLordX yeah, I agree. I can at least justify the c64 cause it's a general curiosity of mine, but this, not really lol
For those who are wondering why Atari 5200 games are included, seemingly for no reason, it does have historically a purpose. The Atari 5200 is actually a consolized atari 800, it couldn't possibly be build from the ground up to be a new competitor in the marked like all retro youtubers say. Just look at the library and games side by side, it's identical, so the hardware has to have been very similar. I don't know how Atari Corp and Atari Games had no communications between each other if this came to be, it's so obvious they did loan chips to each other.
Atari took the cheap way out with the 5200. The 7800 was what the 5200 should have been.
@@58jharris And then they made the XEGS, which I think is also similar to the 7800.
@@58jharriswasn't it due to time constraints and needing a colecovision competitor
When i still had my 2600, i would plug in my Master System controller (and later the Genesis controller) when i wanted to play games on it. The Atari joysticks are my least liked peripheral as well. Ugh, so clunky and uncomfortable and unresponsive.
Doesn't come with it's own power supply?? Not ok in my book.
I've got a box full of USB adapters. I can live without one more, but that's just me.
Unfortunately , nothing comes with the brick anymore . But I have several laying around .
NONE of these systems come with the power brick. And it’s done on purpose so that they can just manufacture one system to sell worldwide and not have to change power bricks depending on which continent is selling it.
Neither do smartphones. It is what it is.
I'm not quite old enough to have played Atari growing up, but I have to say that these games have not aged well. I don't think there's a single game in the Atari library that actually interests me in any way. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that mini consoles like this exist, but I would never buy an Atari console in any form.
Getting a bit annoying all these mini consoles that are sensitive to their power sources, they need to start including one again.
Atari does what Coleco no
The Colecovision was vastly superior to any Ataronoffering on the 80's...
@@stinkypinkeee5085 i agree, just thought it sounded catchy, lol
Altirra emulator on a mini PC can do all of this and more.