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Atari Comeback on Wireless Devices

Posted by Hemos on from the return-of-the-orange-fire-button dept.

Markgor writes "Just read an article on Wuzap.org about efforts to port classic Atari games on to wireless devices. Given that smart phones don't exactly have a lot of memory, it would seem like it's a no-brainer to slap a little game of Pong or Combat on. The article can be found on wuzap."

4 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. 2 things that most people don't realize by freeweed · · Score: 3
    1. PONG itself would be hellishly difficult to code. In fact, the original PONG didn't even have code, so to speak. It was entirely generated and controlled by analogue circuits. At best, you could make a passable simulation of 2 'bats' and a 'ball'. Something tells me this has been done before.

    2. To those who write 'programming 2600 games is easy'... check out the source code for Combat. (It's a bit down that page). Sure, if you wanted to write some c++ game that shows a block that shoots other blocks, no problem. But for those of us purists, nothing beats the original code.

    Just port an emulator and be done with it! Oh wait, it's impossible to emulate PONG... :)

    --
    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  2. great by wunderhorn1 · · Score: 3
    one more thing to piss me off on the train to work in the mornings.

    The people who have the cell phones ring with "fur elise" and then blather on at the top of their lungs about absolutely nothing were bad enough.
    Now we'll be forced to listen to the wanker playing 'Pitfall' on his phone, with all the annoying sound effects and cursing when he gets eaten.
    Expect a huge wave of commuter fatalities if this ever catches on...

    blah!

    --
    Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
  3. Sounds great... by Karma+Sink · · Score: 3

    But, with all the emulators out there already, is this even a big deal? All that would have to be done is to port z26 or Stella, and then find a good source of Atari ROMs. This doesn't sound like it's exactly world rocking... we've had access to these games for quite a while.

    Cheers!
    Karma Sink

    --

    When encryption is outlawed, ?o'AZ-,++o+i++##4AoA+-/-C++bI+/.+~
  4. 2600 != Pong by micromoog · · Score: 4
    I would like to set something straight here.

    When people hear about Atari 2600 games being ported to DOS/Linux/PDA/toaster/etc, often the first thing they say is "Oh joy, now I can play Pong!".

    Pong is an Atari arcade game released in the early 70s. It had such variations as Pong Doubles and Quadrapong, all arcade cabinet games (Pong Doubles was actually a tabletop game). Home Pong was released in 1974. It played one game: Pong.

    The Atari 2600 was released in 1977, for the purpose of playing games other than Pong. Pong was old news by '77. People wanted color.

    So, to my knowledge, Pong was never released for the 2600. Pong Sports is an old cart, and Mondo Pong is a new development (yes, people still write games for the 2600), but no original Pong cart for the 2600.