This
compilation of Atari titles gives us 18 arcade games and 62 Atari 2600
games emulated courtesy of Digital Eclipse.
The presentation of this package is excellent throughout - the main menu is presented as a starlit sky featuring invented constellations - each one indicating a subset of the games on offer. There is one for the arcade originals, one for home arcade versions, one for puzzle games and so on.
If you select a constellation, the screen zooms in nicely and you see the constellation up close - allowing you to see a label for each star - or individual game title.
Select a game with a single click and it will be highlighted and there is a menu at the bottom of the screen for extras, options and play (you may play straight away by double-clicking on a game title).
Options are comprehensive - allowing the setting of controls, screen resolutions, dip switch settings for the arcade games and so on. I found the defaults the best in virtually all situations - even for the mouse controlled games. Some needed the sensitivity adjusted - but that is always a matter of personal taste.
The extras include flyers, pictures of merchandise and scanned manuals for the 2600 titles. There are some video interview clips from Bushnell as well - but they are not game specific and they appeared in the Atari Anniversary Redux for PS1. Some other interesting stuff there too such as Atari comic scans and trivia. All of the arcade games feature the option of having the cabinet art displayed during play - this works better on some games (Super Breakout, Missile Command) than with others (Asteroids - where the game appears quite small). The cabinet art is extremely well done and the buttons for starting the games flash at the right time and are interactive - you can select the difficulty mode in Lunar Lander using them for instance.
The presentation of this package is excellent throughout - the main menu is presented as a starlit sky featuring invented constellations - each one indicating a subset of the games on offer. There is one for the arcade originals, one for home arcade versions, one for puzzle games and so on.
If you select a constellation, the screen zooms in nicely and you see the constellation up close - allowing you to see a label for each star - or individual game title.
Select a game with a single click and it will be highlighted and there is a menu at the bottom of the screen for extras, options and play (you may play straight away by double-clicking on a game title).
Options are comprehensive - allowing the setting of controls, screen resolutions, dip switch settings for the arcade games and so on. I found the defaults the best in virtually all situations - even for the mouse controlled games. Some needed the sensitivity adjusted - but that is always a matter of personal taste.
The extras include flyers, pictures of merchandise and scanned manuals for the 2600 titles. There are some video interview clips from Bushnell as well - but they are not game specific and they appeared in the Atari Anniversary Redux for PS1. Some other interesting stuff there too such as Atari comic scans and trivia. All of the arcade games feature the option of having the cabinet art displayed during play - this works better on some games (Super Breakout, Missile Command) than with others (Asteroids - where the game appears quite small). The cabinet art is extremely well done and the buttons for starting the games flash at the right time and are interactive - you can select the difficulty mode in Lunar Lander using them for instance.
The games I have played on the "real thing" seem to me and my imperfect memory to play exactly as they should - even the colour palletes and sounds (two things that emulation doesn't always get right) are spot on. The gameplay only really falls down because of the limitation of the keyboard and mouse as a substitute for the more specialist controllers - games like Battlezone suffer. On the other hand Missile Command plays like a dream with the mouse and Z,X and C keys and Super breakout plays (and looks) particularly well. There is an option to play in enhanced mode where the graphics are retouched slightly. You can also select the screen orientation for Super Breakout.
Games that play well: Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Liberator, Lunar Lander, Major Havoc, Millipede, Missle Command, Super Breakout, Space Duel.
Games that suffer because of control : Battlezone, Black Widow, Pong, Red Baron, Tempest
The other arcade game- Warlords is perfectly presented but really needs 2,3 or 4 players - a network option would have been needed here.
Atari 2600 games.
As expected , these are emulated perfectly as far as I'm aware. I have to admit to not having played all of the games on the original hardware - but for example, a great deal of the early generation games all sound the same and those classic VCS sounds all seem to be there. When the emulation starts, you are presented with the Game Matrix (as seen in many VCS game manuals) along with brief instructions as to the functionality of the various options. You can set the difficulty switches here too. This screen is toggled by pressing F1.
Back in emulation mode, press TAB to select a game variation and 1 to start playing - its as simple as that. F2 and F3 set the difficulty switches while in-game. F4 sets the TV Type. Emulation is perfect - even down to the flicker in Asteroids - I would have liked an option to switch hardware artifacts like that off - but then, some are nice to see such as the infamous black scan lines at the left of the screen.
Games that are worth playing: Adventure, Breakout, Circus Atari, Dodge 'Em, Gravitar, Maze Craze, Missile Command, Sky Diver, Super Breakout, Video Pinball and Yar's Revenge.
Games that would be worth playing for more than 1 player (not mentioned above): Air Sea Battle, Canyon Bomber, Combat, Flag Capture, Space War, Surround, Video Olympics, Warlords.
The rest on offer are either too primitive for even an old crusty like me (at 38) to enjoy or are just too ambitious for the 2600. They won't hold your attention for too long - but they are interesting to play with as opposed to play - if you see what I mean. It also reminds retro gamers that they weren't all great back then and shows how far games have come. However the good games show how little we have progressed in many other ways....
Overall
This is a very good package - well presented and with legal access to some of the all time greats complete with high-score support and some extra information. There are desktop themes included too. A nice touch is the option to go for full install, partial install (no extras - accessible if the CD is in the drive) or just run off the CD (high scores saved to the hard drive) Its pretty cheap (I got it for £7 which is cheap for the UK) and the Atari arcade games are better presented here than in MAME - I'd go for it if you're an Atari fan.
