ian said:

That is true...BUUUT the home versions WERE made by Atari , and I do belive that we are talking about home systems here.

While we're at it, a few Atari arcade games we not really made by Atari either..throughout the early 80's (and possibly later) they had an agreement with Namco to relase several Namco games in the states. The games Pole Position and Dig Dug were both actually Namco games.
[This message was edited Sat Oct 26 18:57:55 PDT 2002 by Nikster]

Activision is still around...they were one of the biggest non-Atari Atari game-makers.

teller said:

They were also the first company (besides Atari) to make games for the 2600. They are the oldest 'third party' software company out there.

To whomever was asking about the new next-gen systems- out of the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube- in my opinion, you can't go wrong with a Gamecube. Nintendo has always made "quality" games, that has never changed. People may claim they are "kiddie" but you can't deny their mastery of excellent gameplay. Plus, they have a lot of good support from other game companies now, that they were lacking a couple of years ago. In my opinion, PS2 has a ton of mediocre games. They have quantity, but not quality. And Xbox is completely useless if you have a PC.

Just my opinion.

I had an Atari 5200 system and thought it was THE SHIT!

I also knew someone who had an Intellivision system...anyone remember that?

Centipede was my fav.

jtgillia said:

Well, I politely disagree. I think if you are an old fan of Nintendo and the quality titles they are known to put out, you'll be disappointed with the GameCube. There are very few exclusive titles on the GameCube, and none of them are that compelling. The console isn't a good purchase yet, I highly advise waiting for titles like Zelda. Here's the best ones out so far:

• Super Mario Sunshine. Old fashioned, extremely frustrating platformer. If you like pain, get this game. Lots of invisible barriers, lots of dying because the shitty camera swings around and prevents you from seeing the things that are attacking you... in short, it is an absolute mess. Some nice toys to play with, some nice set pieces, but the camera is so bad, and the game structure is so poor with no real sense of progression that it is hard for me recommend this one.
  
• Super Monkey Ball. A great little toyset, well presented and very solid. However, it's very hard and very punishing. Like Mario Sunshine, it's quite old fashioned in structure (you have "lives", which I hate) and it gets very hard very quickly. Frustratingly, the bulk of the levels are in the advanced section (with only 10 "beginner" sections) so unless you are brilliant at the game, you won't see about 70% of the stuff in this game.
  
• Luigi's Mansion. Great fun, well presented, lovely sound effects etc. However it is very repetitive and very short - get it when it is half price on sale or something, it isn't worth the cost of a full-price game purchase. One of the better games on GC though.
  
• Pikmin. Clearly a rush job, I suspect another 6 months of development would have helped a lot. Really bad camera controls, really infuriating invisible barriers in the levels, really monotonous and repetitive tasks, and the game has a fixed time limit (so you have to complete each task in a specified about of time) which I find very arbitrary and unnecessary.
  
• Smash Brothers Melee. Typical SB affair, silly fighting game. Great if you have 4 controllers and 3 other people to play with, crap if you don't.
  

Coming soon we have stuff like Starfox Adventures from Rare (already out in the US, but according to reports it has some serious bugs), Animal Crossing (already out in the US, I highly recommend it, it's a lovely little game), and the new Zelda title (judging from the movie clips, it looks great but the camera could be iffy again since it is clear Nintendo haven't a clue how to implement a decent camera system). TimeSplitters 2 is great, but it is also great on XBox and PS2.

The XBox is a nice machine for the money, but similarly there aren't enough decent titles to justify the purchase. Halo is OK if you like shooty games. The rest aren't great. The XBox Live service is great though and it really takes all the pain out of PC online gaming (huge ass patch downloads on day 1 of launch, driver conflicts, having to constantly upgrade video cards etc). When Splinter Cell comes out, and MechAssault and a few others the console will look like a more attractive purchase. Note also that you can easily mod an XBox and install Mame and play over 5000 old arcade ROMs

The PS2 has tons of games, a lot of them shit but there are enough high-quality titles and enough choice to make the PS2 a good purchase. Put it to you this way: "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" is out in a few weeks, and you'll need a PS2 to play it. This will be the biggest game of the year without a doubt. For me personally, playing stuff like Rez, Ico, Space Channel 5, Frequency, Jak&Daxter, GT3, Metal Gear Solid 2, GTA III etc made the purchase well worth it, and they are all titles that aren't on other platforms. (Well, Rez was on Dreamcast but it's an inferior version of the game).

Pound for pound, the PS2 is just a better purchase than the other two. However, with the impending further price cuts, it isn't unreasonable to expect most gamers to own a PS2 along with at least one of the other two consoles.

Nikster said:

Yeah but the Atari versions of the games stank

For me (aside from the 2600 / VCS and such great moments as Thrust, Galaxians, Centipede, Phoenix, Pitfall 2) the golden age of Atari were the 8-bit days... some of the games on the 800XL kicked ass. Like Mercenary and Thrust.

I learned my trade on the old Ataris, got into writing demos, games, virii, all sorts... before I later got into Unix and VAX systems. Atari have a special place in my heart, but I do think that the brand is damaged beyond repair now. Also, people associate the Atari logo with those old classic games and to see it plastered across games like Stuntman on PS2 just seems wrong.

ian said:

The heart and soul of Atari is gone...all that remains is a brand and some memories. Once upon a time, an arcade game with the name "Atari" on it had a certain flavor...but no more.

And I don't know anyone who bought that "Jaguar" console or "Lynx" handheld...

teller said:

You know one - me

Seriously though the Lynx and Lynx II were absolutely brilliant pieces of kit, way ahead of their time. Sure they guzzled batteries but they really were superb and had some great games too.

Similarly, the Jaguar was a kickass console that was lightyears ahead of the competition at the time. Unfortunately Atari as it was then (under Tramiel, before it was sold off to Hasbro) was on its last legs and couldn't give the Jag any kind of a push and so it died on its ass, just like the 3DO and the CD32 Some great games though - Tempest 2000, Cybermorph, Aliens Vs Predator. Lots of shit games too unfortunately, but the console had some lovely hardware and lots of potential. I keep mine, just for playing T2K!

Atari's failures were always business failures really. The stuff they made was really quite good, right up to the Jag

BTW as bad as Jack Tramiel was for Atari, I think it's a tad unfair to say the Tramiels "weren't into videogames". I think that he saw the rising popularity of affordable home computers and the declining popularity of the coin-ops and he decided to realign the company. With some success I might add - the Atari ST series for example did extremely well. It was cheaper than the Amiga, it had more standard hardware so it was easier to code on, and it had built-in MIDI hardware and ran Cubase beautifully It was a great machine in its day, and you'll find one nestling in a dark corner in recording studios all over the world

But as I say, they were there for the Lynx and the Jaguar - probably a case of too little too late - but there was a concerted push to reclaim the videogame market with what was still a strong brandname. Poor business decisions and money problems meant neither console got the support they deserved, and then Atari snuffed it and got bought up by Hasbro Interactive, who promptly did nothing at all with it, before eventually selling it on to Infogrames.

I'm glad that Infogrames chose to relaunch the brand, but it was a dangerous move that left them wide open for criticism. The titles they have released under the Atari moniker are quite derivative, unimaginite titles that (while of some appeal at least) capture none of the feeling that we feel when we think of the glorious Atari days. Shame!

Here's a detailed history of Atari's big stumble with consoles (especially the 7800):

http://www.atari7800.com/...istory.htm

But it's neat that there's a company out there manufacturing refurbished 7800's and making new games!

teller said:

That IS pretty cool. My 7800 has been out of action for a long time...

Man...who knew Ian had so many consoles throughout the ages? Who knew he was such a busy-body? I can barely get a game of Quake in my spare time, much less do all that!

teller said:

What can I say, I love Atari

I still have my Atari boxed up in my attic. Thought maybe I'd save it a long while and then bring it out one day. Show my kids again how old I am.

I bought this Atari game for Playstation a few weeks ago... it has:

Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Battlezone
Black Widow
Centipede
Gravitar
Missle Command
Pong
Space Duel
Super Breakout
Tempest
Warlords


They are much more difficult to do on Playstation. I suck at it, actually.

AzureStar said:

Ah yes...Gravitar...one really HARD game. I must have wasted days on that stupid thing. I hope I never ever come across it again.

teller said:

I'm really bad at it.

AzureStar said:

As if it weren't bad enough that there are baddies firing at you, the ground itself is constantly pulling at you trying to make you crash. There's this one awful level with really tight caverns and crap...one wrong move and you're out $0.25. It's a sadistic game...sadistic from the perspective of whoever came up with it...he needs to be put next to the inventor of mayonnaise and put to death!

I liked Gravitar but prefer Thrust. Check it out if you haven't played it, it's marvellous!

I started out with a Commodore Vic-20 back in 1984ish with games like Rockman, RIP and Rader Ratrace. I miss them lame games and as the years went on I got a C64, Spectrum +2, Amiga 500 and soon didn't get my 1st PC on till 8 years ago, I loved getting the Shareware and Freeware stuff for my Commodore-Amiga, it was simple but fun the best game has to be Dizzy.. Oh I must be getting old.

anyone know what happened to Commodore???

dykie2000 said:

Commodore made huge losses after CDTV and CD32 (and the rising popularity of cheap PCs etc) in 1993 and shut down permanently in 1994.

Amiga has since been owned by a number of different people, including Gateway (the PC makers), and they are still around check out http://www.amiga.com

just found a great link www.old-computers.com

All your old computers at a click of a button

Oh geez, I played Asteroids for hours on that antique...

I spent many hours playing Asteroids, too. Also Yar's Revenge, Mega Mania, Berzerk, and Stampede. Stampede was cool...it was kinda like Defender, only instead of shooting mutants you lassoed cows

The original ATARI Star Wars coin-op from 1982.Now that was a game.Great sound direct from the Movie and really cool (for the time) vector graphics.

My record read 13,000,000+ wave 56.Sat on my arse for two and a half hours on one 10p piece.I tell you that took years of practise.

I travelled the length and breadth of Britains seaside resorts during the 80's and didn't see anyone's score that could touch mine.

Thecherryloon said:

Jesus! You must have had nightmares about Star Wars for weeks!

Anyone who has ever owned an Atari NEEDS to check out this site... http://www.newvenue.com/a...eature44//. It is REALLY cool

I still have three atari systems, 2600, 5200, and 7800. I buy games from Ebay. I have ColecoVision also. There are many web pages that sell games and systems directly.

VinaBlue said:

Mousetrap was the bomb...I had atari and my sister had colecovision...I liked playing colecovision so much more...my mom was addicted to atari Pac Man and I remember trying to figure out how to play ET...it made no sense...I just remember having to pick up pixelized blocks of something...