VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => Classic Video Games => Topic started by: burningdoom on March 11, 2021, 02:43:44 pm
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Atari 2600 sucks.
It was barely a part of my childhood before the NES, so I just don't have the nostalgia for it.
The sound is atrocious. The graphics are barely recognizable (that's understandable, at least), and that joystick is stiffer than an Olive Garden breadstick.
That said, it has a very interesting history. I'm enamored with the history behind the early gaming industry even if I'm not a fan of the console. Nolan Bushnell is a very unique guy. And the crap that company went through after he left.
I'm happy it was the innovator that created the gaming industry, but I sold mine due to disinterest.
What are your thoughts on the console?
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It really is kinda poor, even for 1970s standards. Arcades were leaps and bounds ahead of home consoles then, but even as a console the 2600 was jank. All of it's less successful contemporaries had better graphics, better sound, and more accessible programming for developers than the 2600. Atari was lucky that their console was in the right place at the right time to sell so many units before anyone else could.
I can mess around with it, there are some tolerable games. But I mostly just think of it as a novelty. I'd never pay what people are asking for the games now.
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When it came out it was fine . Just having video games at home was fun even if they did look like ass , people were coming from pong . The joysticks were one of the better designs of it's time and there were tons of 3rd party controller designs . The console was built like a tank , carts were of a good design . Games had a lot of big titles , they were plentiful and easily found in a variety of stores . Luckily as a kid we got the Atari 400 instead and never had to deal with the 2600 except visiting friends . I only recently picked up some 2600 variant consoles because they were dirt cheap . I do not collect the games as there are usually much better versions available . The NES came out in a different time . The NES sucked when compared to the Sega Genesis and so on .
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Atari 2600 games are better played on those PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 and Xbox compilations in my own opinion. the closest thing to a real Atari 2600 I played was on 2 Atari Flashback consoles, it was different, but the games in my opinion are better played with a D-pad controller. the Atari Flashback joysticks are uncomfortable.
But if you play Atari 2600 games on " A Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600" on PS1 OR
Activision Anthology or Atari Anthology for the PlayStation 2 or Original Xbox .
One downside of a real Atari 1970's early 1980's Atari 2600 was the fact that you need to sit right next to the console itself and reset the game every time you need to start or play the game over again.
I don't mind the graphics I don't mind the games, I actually love Atari 2600 games. but I don't really feel comfortable playing with the joysticks. I never tried the paddle controllers through.
When it came out it was fine . Just having video games at home was fun even if they did look like ass , people were coming from pong . The joysticks were one of the better designs of it's time and there were tons of 3rd party controller designs . The console was built like a tank , carts were of a good design . Games had a lot of big titles , they were plentiful and easily found in a variety of stores . Luckily as a kid we got the Atari 400 instead and never had to deal with the 2600 except visiting friends . I only recently picked up some 2600 variant consoles because they were dirt cheap . I do not collect the games as there are usually much better versions available . The NES came out in a different time . The NES sucked when compared to the Sega Genesis and so on .
I LOVE PONG! I've played a lot of rounds of it on PlayStation 2
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As far as revisiting the Atari VCS in 2021 , it's very primitive .
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I grew up with the 2600 and still enjoy some games like Adventure,Haunted House or Starmaster mostly games that have a end goal.Im not into playing for high scores anymore.
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Personally, I'd take Intellivision over Atari 2600 any day. There's a much more interesting variety of games, IMO.
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Personally, I'd take Intellivision over Atari 2600 any day. There's a much more interesting variety of games, IMO.
Fun fact, the Mattel Intellvision was the vary first 16 bit console and it came out in 1980 according to what I read, the Mattel Intellvision had better graphics, but I never was a fan of the Intellvision Flashback controller, the buttons are stiff and hard to push. however I never played on a real Intellivion only Flashback and of Intellivision Lives! for the PlayStation 2.
The Atari 2600 and all the rest of the 1980's consoles up until the 1989 release of the SEGA Genesis had 8-bit processing power
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Personally, I'd take Intellivision over Atari 2600 any day. There's a much more interesting variety of games, IMO.
Although the Intellivision games were great , the controllers sucked the worst out of the big 3 consoles IMO and the fact that you could not just go out and buy a better one for it hobbled it . They sold those joystick kits for the stock controllers , but it was like putting a Band-Aid on a knife wound . I picked up a TandyVision One last year and those controllers certainly bring back bad memories .
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Personally, I'd take Intellivision over Atari 2600 any day. There's a much more interesting variety of games, IMO.
Although the Intellivision games were great , the controllers sucked the worst out of the big 3 consoles IMO and the fact that you could not just go out and buy a better one for it hobbled it . They sold those joystick kits for the stock controllers , but it was like putting a Band-Aid on a knife wound . I picked up a TandyVision One last year and those controllers certainly bring back bad memories .
Can you plug a Sega Genesis controller into it and use It? You can on the Atari 2600.
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Personally, I'd take Intellivision over Atari 2600 any day. There's a much more interesting variety of games, IMO.
Although the Intellivision games were great , the controllers sucked the worst out of the big 3 consoles IMO and the fact that you could not just go out and buy a better one for it hobbled it . They sold those joystick kits for the stock controllers , but it was like putting a Band-Aid on a knife wound . I picked up a TandyVision One last year and those controllers certainly bring back bad memories .
Can you plug a Sega Genesis controller into it and use It? You can on the Atari 2600.
I would imagine no. Most Intellivision games I've played. Even on the Intellivison Flashback it required more then 6-or 8 buttons to play most the games. the Intellivison controller has 3 or 4 side buttons, and a circle like disc object for a d-pad than and 12 telephone like other buttons on it.
it made usage of all those 17 buttons, and quite a few Intellivision games had a vary complex in game menu option. They also used plastic or paper overlays the games, that would slide into the controller. It told the player what buttons to press, and how to play these vary complex video games, for this console
The Colecovision console and controller setup, was about the same as the Intellivision. Except the Colecovision was 8-bit instead of having a 16-bit processer like the Intellivision
(this is what the Mattel Intellivision controller looked like)
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4d/5f/5a/4d5f5ae31e747e80ef2438681fa60bf6.jpg)
(if anyone is curious this is what the Atari 2600 controller looked like)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61kbZT52U1L._AC_SY355_.jpg)
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Oh man, THAT controller. I remember it, now. I hated it as a kid. Not intuitive at all. They had these cards you'd slip into it over the buttons that would act as a control guide for each game. They didn't help.
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Atari 2600 sucks.
(https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/474/944/7e9.jpg)
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Personally, I'd take Intellivision over Atari 2600 any day. There's a much more interesting variety of games, IMO.
Although the Intellivision games were great , the controllers sucked the worst out of the big 3 consoles IMO and the fact that you could not just go out and buy a better one for it hobbled it . They sold those joystick kits for the stock controllers , but it was like putting a Band-Aid on a knife wound . I picked up a TandyVision One last year and those controllers certainly bring back bad memories .
Can you plug a Sega Genesis controller into it and use It? You can on the Atari 2600.
Nope , some models/model (I know the model II at least) used the same 9-pin as the Atari , but nothing else was compatible . The original and model III , you can't remove the controllers without disassembly of the console .
The Colecovision had some other choices including a trackball .
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I don't know if more people have this thought but I think the charm of the Atari 2600 was the same of the Game & Watch.
Pretty arcade and simple games but with an addictive gameplay for play it just trying to get a high score.
I think it worked smoothly for some games but some other games are certainly kinda unplayable.
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I came into video games during the 16-bit era. Playing Atari 2600 for me is no different than playing those crappy Tiger Electronics handhelds. Some games like Pitfall, Yar's Revenge, and Adventure are historically interesting and fun to mess around with for like ten minutes at a time, but I have just about zero emotional attachment to any of it. Flash games from the early 2000's are better than Atari 2600 games, lol
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Atari 2600 games were made vary simple most of them were easy to understand how to play, the controller was basically a joystick with 1 button, the major downside for me would be that you needed to sit by the game console itself and keep hitting the reset switch every single time you lost the game.
I don't have a real Atari 2600 console, but I still like the games themselves, in my opinion it was a huge step above the 1st generation consoles, being the PONG clones and the Magnavox Odyssey 1 in 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey 1 tv console, didn't have any sound or any graphics or any AI programming or computer opponent. OR any video game names for sake. all of which makes a video game worth playing in my opinion.
so people back then (as far as home television game consoles go) the Atari 2600 was a HUGE step forward back in 1977-1978,
I can appreciate the Atari 2600 for what it was at the time, but I don't have barley any interest in the original Magnavox Odyssey. I Mean all the games used plastic sheets and basically a white dot that would shine behind the overlay. the 1st Odyssey had no programming other than a primitive computer mouse curser in the shape of a white square.
not to mention the Atari 2600 had COLOR as well as a Black and White Option, no overlays
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Atari 2600 games were made vary simple most of them were easy to understand how to play, the controller was basically a joystick with 1 button, the major downside for me would be that you needed to sit by the game console itself and keep hitting the reset switch every single time you lost the game.
Allot of games where really hard to understand how to play thanks to the limitations. Quite some atari 2600 games in wich you needed to be quite smart to finish them withouth any help.
adventure, haunted house swords quests how did people figure this out withouth internet. you can barely recognize anything hard to see if you made any progress.
The games where really abstract tons of imagination needed
And have you seen most ending screens? In wich most people in this era would probably be confused if the game actually just crashed or frooze instead.
There is barely anything memorable about atari 2600 games
you don't have iconic tunes, no cool sound effects, the grapics are usually just lines on a screen. Even shitty flash games look better than games such as river raid or pitfall wich are some of the best looking games on the system.
Gameplay at best is space invaders or pacman however usually far far less. Considering the options that you have if you didn't grew up with it you'll probably never want to touch an atari 2600 game.
I guess the shitty sounds could be nostalgia to some. and ofcourse the really hard puzzles thanks to it's limitations experimenting with stuff in games such as adventure and sword quest to finally beat those. Had to take ages to figure stuff out withouth the internet. The hardships could probably have value to people with atari nostalgia.
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I never learned or bothered to learn how to play the "Quest" games, or Haunted House. I did look up how to play Adventure however those are not my favorite Atari 2600 games though :-\
Have You played Star Ship? or Chopper Command? or Asteroids? or Boxing? or, "Street Racer"? Skiing? Plaque Attack? Demon Attack? Space Invaders? Journey Escape?
I only played games through emulation, mostly on PlayStation 2. and the AtGames Atari Flashback consoles. Your not wrong with your claims @sworddude but the games are still fun for the few and if were talking worst console ever mine would be the Magnavox Odyssey 1. in spite of it being a 1972 game console, I think it should have had some kind of graphics sound, and AI if were talking the computer game Space War in which came out in 1962 10 years before the Magnavox Odyssey came out.
At least the Atari 2600 had graphics sound and AI at all, but coming from playing more modern games I am definitely not calling the Atari 2600 the best console ever, that would be crazy for me to say in my opinion.
Manuals needed to be read on some atari 2600 games like E.T but I never played that game and don't think I ever will.
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I am an all round game fan, I have no nostalgia for anything under the 5th console generation but sometimes I want to play some video Olympics, or Breakout, I just like playing most games :)
And "Star Ship" is the only game I know of that lets you target and shoot Toilets, Bugs and Blue Flying Saucers, in outer space :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kfVOdoTSX4
and use a mech to fart on a giant space cookie :o
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the major downside for me would be that you needed to sit by the game console itself and keep hitting the reset switch every single time you lost the game.
At the time that was all that was really necessary considering that the average TV screen in the late 70's was 19"-25" you were going to be sitting on the floor right next to the TV/game system anyways . Also some Atari games used the fire button as the start/reset button .
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I promise you younger guys the Atari 2600 and 5600 were the shit in the early 80s. Arcades cost money. Parents thought it was a waste of quarters. So to be able to game at home was great fun. Remember there was basically nothing else. Only Caleco and Intellivision. No internet, no computers (basically). Everyone had a 2600. It had Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Nintendo's Donkey Kong, ect ect. The included game Combat had around 20 games on it. Real Sports Football was like Madden back then. Yeah its rough now, but wait 40 years from today and look at PS5 vs PS10. Which I'm sure the PS10 will just download directly to your brain by then.
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While there was nothing else Gaming wise.
Other hobbies exists, boardgames and reading books was a hell lot more popular back in the day. Let alone playing outside just to name some examples.
Rc cars, model trains figurines building kits. allot of hobby's where allot more popular back than (allot of those examples are nearly extinct nowadays) because gaming didn't fil that void as much with how limited it was back than. Those things mentioned above are pretty much of the same quality back than as it is nowadays. so you could say those hobby's where at their peak while gaming was at it's infancy.
it's only natural for allot of people to pick up something else since you only had atari, coleco and pong consoles. Not to mention The Nintendo nes saved them consoles because people got bored of Atari. Even back than the atari being almost nothing had an impact While ever since we had the nes and future generation consoles stuff kept growing instead. we didn't experience a videogame crash ever since.
That gaming got bigger after each year is mainly because games became more fun when time passed by in wich people dropped those other hobby's.
That's just my speculation anyway. Obviously plenty that enjoyed the new atari tech back in the day.
Sure atari and some other lesser known brands where all you had back in the day, but don't forget allot of other hobby's existed aswell that where way more popular back in the day that weren't held back by limitations and where at their peak (Not much improved nowadays).