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Atari Announces an Official Portable 2600 System
Bill Kendrick writes: "Infogrames (the folks who now own Atari) have just struck a deal with another company to produce a 10-in-1 video game system based on the Atari 2600. It'll be joystick-shaped, plug into a TV set, cost only $20, and include games like Combat, Asteroids, Missile Command, and my favorite, Adventure! It won't replace my Atari 2600 Jr and 60 cartridges, but it's a step in the right direction!"
For that price it might be a fun buy.
Now if only I could get games for my lynx :)
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
I mean, imagine having a joystick-like thing in your pocket, walking to a friends house down the street?
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
-Cyc
It's amazing how Atari are constantly heard to resurrect itself only to push out the same games again and again, only to surprise itself when it doesn't pay off profitably... even in this instance, cheap many-in-one tv classic games systems have been sold so it's not even first with this strategy...
Is that an ATARI in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
I know I'm going to hell, I'm just trying to get good seats.
Sony reacted to the new product as expected. Effective Friday, the price on all PS2's will be dropped to $19.95....
I really liked Stun Runner. The starter's voice was sexy.
I have been pwned because my
But, several years ago I found an Atari emulator and the roms to go with it. I was all set and ready to play Mousetrap, Montezuma's Revenge, River Raid, Pitfall, and all those other great games. It only took me a few minutes to realize that these games were nowhere near as fun as I had remembered them to be. Sure, in the 1980's they pushed the technological envelope to the limit, but their time has passed. Gameplay is not the sole factor in determining the value of a game, presentation is just as or even more important.
For me, the old Atari games will remain as the peak of video game entertainment in my mind, but to be perfectly honest, playing them only makes me realize how far technology has progressed.
I hope that they also resurrect and include with this system the almost indistructable Joysticks that came with the 2600. I shed a tear when mine finally gave up the ghost and I realised I would have to start buying feebly built joysticks.
Patriotism is the opium of the masses
If only they could create a machine that I could plug in my TV that would allow me to play a tennisgame involving a dot and two lines together with a friend, perhaps with two rotary controllers; now that would be innovation!
Somewhere lost in boxes in my parents' basement for the last 10 years (since the transformer broke) is my 2600 and a paper shopping pag full of games that I had purchased over the years. Since my folks just moved recently maybe they will find it once more.
:(
I miss my Atari.
I also miss the look on the faces of sales people when as a kid in the 80's I'd buy a game for my 2600 using an assortment of nickels, pennies, and dimes.
The allowance of months for a Combat cartridge!
:)
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
I can just see hordes of children being really unhappy when their grannies buy them one of these instead of the PS/2CubeBox game they wanted...
I thought Infogrames were going to be producing new games as Atari, not just raiding the back catalogue to put out shite games nobody wants - just like other recent incarnations.
It's well past the time Atari was allowed to die, I think.
"Information wants to be paid"
10 games and a console for $20 !
think about getting richer !
it's the same with MAME or P2P to get
records from the 80's : my purchasing power
has increased by millions, well beyond
my wildest dreams of the time !
10's of consoles and computers for a few bucks,
thousands of games and weeks of pop music...
funny how a 1981 Porsche in good shape
still costs a lot...
(think Risky Business here)
Google passes Turing test : see my journal
Oh shut your fucking face, you whingy bitch. Don't buy it, don't play it, and get on with your life.
Talking of life, get one. Stop using a nick that plays off of a well known troll, and stop pretending that you don't want people to think that you're egg-troll. Get your own damn trolling material. Fuck stick.
Probably because of there failure to release any halfway decent games in the last 5 years.
However, I'm sure a Portable Atari 2600 will solve all their financial problems .
Just for SAG I'll say you're dating yourself gentleman.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
There's something like this already available in the mega joy 2 - since the games are all unlicenced, they all have different names, but you get three-times the names.
Whingy? I love AC's.
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
Kick ASS! -- Nice to see you name around Bill, as a die-hard Atarian I also just met up with Bob Puff awhile ago also. Now speaking of Atari's what ever happened to K-Products?
/.
Thought I'd ask on
>> Gary
Still using the 800XL till this day
To me, the Atari 2600 games were extremely playable. Keystone Kops, that Tank game (I can't remember) and of course Space Invaders... Many a happy hour.
When for the same sort of price you cna get a Mega Joy II based on the old Famicom - so better graphics - and contains 60 games (although not all are worth playing!).
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Though you can get a NES clone in the UK - built into a N64 controller - for £15-30!
I dont know anyone by the name of egg-troll, and eggstasy has been my IRC nickname since 1996. /. where ppl came to COMMENT on the news, and so my commentary was that i didnt really see the point of re-releasing shitty 30-year old games, and i DONT.The gaming industry should be thinkiong about moving forward, not backwards. I have a 1-year old computer and pretty much all games still run at full speed, because they all pretty much have shitty graphics. Where's the ambition of these people? It's a really bad sign when shitty consoles have better graphics than a powerful computer.Most software is lagging far behind present hardware capabilities. Give me decent graphics like FFX has, and a reason for ppl to actually want to buy a geforce 4 dammit!
Furthermore, I was under the impression that this was
Does anyone have the Atari 2600 schematics and details of its consruction and roms? Every year the third years have to create something as a part of their third year project and its allways something that never gets used anyway. So making all the chips in hardware on an FPGA might be cool.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Will it run Linux?
It would be perfect (in my book) if it had an actual 2600 cartridge slot. Both joysticks for my 2600 are pretty much dead, the console itself may be too. But I have a bunch of games I miss playing, and emulation doesn't cut it for me.
:) Too bad it doesn't have River Raid built in. Oh well.
That said, it's still cool.
SIGFEH
It's sad to see Atari's legacy being abused by yet another company who just lives on Atari's fame.
Atari used to be a great systems manufacturer as well as a gaming company. Their ST line was very good and could compete with the Amiga in it's days. Their STacy an STBook were great portables where the STBook was way better then what any company could offer as a portable. It took years for the industrie to reach the same kind of portability as the STBook offered.
Alas, Atari is no more. The companies diverse owners just broke it into little parts and sold them to the highest bidders.. There are few companies which have had a change of ownership so frequently as Atari has.
Take a look at http://www.atari-history.com for some background information on Atari and it's products
Guess what ? We have this thing called CHOICE in the world. If you don't want to do something DON'T. Quit whining about how you don't want to, already.
Secondly, did it ever occur to you that other people might enjoy the very games you think are worthless ? No ? The world revolves around you and your opinions, I see.
River Raid RULES! Hall of Fame
I believe, until I'm corrected, that this is not actually an Atari 2600 (or anything even vaguely similar) but rather Jakks existing hardware system with classic Atari games ported to it.
(Just to clear up the comments about "wish it had a cartridge slot).
-marc
Humans have no other way of forming an opinion than basing it on the sum total of all knowledge possessed by the individual. Well-read and well-traveled people will likely have opinions based on more information than a person who has lived in the middle of nowhere and sat on their ass drinking beer and smoking Marlboros all his life.
What this gets at is that an opinion is a very personal thing to each individual. You hold the opinion that you are smart enough to tell others that theirs are wrong. That is certainly debatable.
Should all opinions be held equally valid if we are to assume that they are the best congerings of one's mind? Of course they shouldn't. Someone who has an opinion about something with which he has experience should have greater validity attached to his opinion than someone with no experience.
Thus, if we look at eggstacy's post we see that he has experience with the Atari platform. He says he doesn't see the point in dredging up old games and platforms that are simple outmatched in every way by today's systems. You offer us platitudes about how "we have this thing called choice". You offer no opinion but have much to say about another's.
Shame on you.
Sony reacted to the new product as expected. Effective Friday, the price on all PS2's will be dropped to $19.95....
In other related news, Microsoft has bought 17 US senators and 112 US representatives and have managed to get a law passed that requires each family with a kid under 18 to purchase an X-Box system every 3 years to continue the support of American companies vs the "evil" dumping practices of the Japanese gaming giants!
I'd date myself, except I'm not into guys.
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Anybody has a link where I could see what this thing looks like? Have they really put it all in somekinda joystick?
"Uber" is not an adjective. It is an adverb that is wishing for something other than "Monkeys" to describe.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
I'm sorry, would someone please enlighten me a bit on this matter?
:)
Who on earth wants to play atari 2600 games?
Think of it this way..
Playing atari games is kinda like bringing back good memories really cheaply.. hell if it comes with pit-fall i'd pay 20 bux to be able to plug into an rca jack anywhere and play.. it's fun..
Think if it this way..
Its the same thing as wanting or going back to an old gf(or bf i suppose.. dunno not, gay) ya know what your getting, when your getting, know where and how to hit all the right buttons and since you've played it alot before you can just shut it off when your done
I got my first one fourth-hand, and it was smooth and awesome. I was always looking for its equal in a stick for a second player (mostly for use with my c64,) and was never able to find it.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
"Name one single atari 2600 game that actually has a decent plot, good replayability, long shelflife and non-repetitive gameplay."
Plot: Do you complain when your game of checkers doesn't have any love interests in it?
Replayability: the name of the game with these old Atari games. You never really beat them- you're mostly competing against yourself.
Shelflife: Witness the plethora of 2600 emulators out there. Geez.
Non-repetitive gameplay: See "plot", above. What are you looking for, final fantasy?
Old Atari games may not have beautiful, amazing graphics, but many of them are unbeatable in the arena of actual gameplay.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
YEEAAAHH!!! I loved that game. That was one of my favorite past times before C64 BASIC.
It'd be cool if someone brought out a colour, handheld Atari system. It wouldn't cost much, I mean, compared to something like the NeoGeo handheld or gameboy.
Just imagine it, sitting on the train, and people start hearing the classic Asteroids noises coming from your handheld.
Within minutes everyone will want a go. Nostalgia at it's best!
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story..."
It's a bit deceptive to refer to it as a portable system considering you need to plug it into a TV to actually to use it. By using the word portable I thought something along the lines of Puma the portable Atari 2600 where a Sega Game Gear has been converted into a portable Atari 2600 complete with its own display.
There is a whole site dedicated to Atari 2600 portable conversion projects that has been discussed in this and repeated in this Slashdot article.
aus.music.scrapbook
Moon Patrol.
? Softwar eID=1159
More (screenshots etc) here:
http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html
Don't answer me. Moderate. Slashdot is about moderation, not discussion.
That's nine less emulators I need to have on my Game cabinet!
Hope the cartriges are easy to port
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
Ice Race. I could play that for hours. I've never played Mario-anything for more than 15 minutes.
I wonder just how long it will be before these things are outselling the Xbox? :P
"I'm tired of all this 'Aren't humanity great' bullshit. We're a virus with shoes" - Bill Hicks
is correctly spelled with an umlaut, or if the keyboard doesn't have that key, it is acceptable to spell it as Ueber.
Why can't I have one with _ALL_ the commercially released games? Connected to some compactflash card or whatever? Think about how much space your old atari carts are taking up. And those 5 million E.T. carts in the landfill.
Same goes for NES, SNES, SMS, Genesis, and PCE and I'm set for life.
Sorry, it's late/early and I'm rambling.
Its the same thing as wanting or going back to an old gf
LOL!@! this is slashdot. mod parent +5, funny
Yeah, the toymax unit I mentioned earlier comes with 10 activision games, one of which is pitfall. You may find it for $20, maybe even less.
Ok,
How about parents with younger children, who don't want to spend much on something that will probably get broken fairly quickly.
It retricts the kids to playing it on the TV which allows for greater control over it's usage than say a GameBoy which they can sit anywhere out of sight with.
The games relied on gameplay rather than complicated plots, much easier for a younger child to master, take 2 young children. Explain to one how to play space invaders, try and explain to the other how to organise the members of thier team in Dungeon Siege and the benefits of +x modifiers and don't forget to keep the 4 or 5 health bars on the left of the screen up...
Just because you do not play with duplo bricks, it does not mean there is no market for such a product.
article says it will plug into "a TV with ATV input jacks (standard on almost all sets manufactured within the past decade)."
Anyone have a clue what "ATV input jacks" are? Do they mean RCA jacks?
ATV sounds like some European thing. Google didn't return any helpful links, mostly talking about Amateur radio TV or All-Terrain Vehicles.
Awesome...
Portable but has to plug into a TV? Well by that merit a PS2 is 'portable'.
To me a portable games console is something likea game-boy.
Its the same thing as wanting or going back to an old gf
An OLD girlfriend? You mean you've had more than one? Good God, share the wealth, man!
Unfortunately the Mega Joy 2 seems to be PAL only. A converter would help, but it'd be nice to just take it anywhere and plug it in.
-Steve
Is if you could somehow download new ROMS to the joystick. Perhaps even the ROMS that are out there on the internet. I wonder if someone could easily hack one of these things to do that? It'd be nice to see some hardware specs.
This is something that would *so* fit ThinkGeek's product line. I hope someone from there keeps an eye on the status of this product and gets them in stock when they are finally availabe.
A little planning goes a long way...
The Atari 2600 - plays great retro games, and allows you to dial long distance phone calls for free on old hardware!
;)
-Evan
Next will come the Atari PBX Rewiring Utility
imagine a beowolf cluster of those! LOL
I assume its just an old-skool RF jack. I guess SCART/SVHS would be overkill for VCS2600 style graphics.
Oh.. oh.. I'm getting moist.
If you want to be seen, stand up. If you want to be heard, speak up. If you want to be respected, sit down and shut up.
This is a cool idea for those of you who were around when Atari was in it's heyday (geez i feel young sayin that..guess i am tho, the NES was my first console) But i think if they really want this to take off they need to release a couple of 'em, that encompass the entire game library, not just a few "best sellers"
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
That doesn't have mean more than 1... he could have had 1, dumped her, and that's been it =]
What?
Come on. One of the greatest games ever.. DOOM on the Atari 2600
mogorific carpentry experiments
Atari still lives!
Oh how I miss those arcades.
Now bring back pinball!
...playing them only makes me realize how far technology has progressed.
Not to disagree in general, but there are a couple of things about those Atari games still worth mentioning:
How about visibility? Those games were almost all a lot easier to see. There are too many state-of-the-art games now, especially 3-d first person shooters, where there is little contrast on the screen and most everything is muddy dark brown on black.
Joysticks? I have yet to see a controller as good as the standard Atari joystick. Of course, I've not paid $50 to get the best state of the art current controller, so maybe there are good controllers among the super expensive ones. But the typical Nintendo/etc style gamepads just don't cut it.
Their ST line was very good and could compete with the Amiga in it's day
The ST was one of the first to show how overpriced and poorly designed the Mac was. An AtariST with the same Motorola CPU as the Mac out at that time running a Macintosh software emulator actually ran Mac software FASTER than the actual Macintosh it was emulating. And didn't it cost something like 1/3 or 1/5 as much as the Macintosh?
I'm glad emulators kept my interest in this old system alive until now! Woohoo!
Oops, sorry, sir. "Emulation costs the gaming industry billions of dollars each year." Yes it does. Yessiree.
This device, however inferior it may be to current game systems, proves that the MAME Critics are justified in their complaints. There is a commercial market for old ROMS. As long as the sales value of these ROMS is above zero, copying unlicensed ROMS, like those for ATARI, is stealing. Okay, maybe each one is about $1.00, but it's still theft, and now it's objectively quantified.
There's already a similar system out there.
Just go to 9the Tee and look at their Arcade Video Game System - complete with two controllers, a light gun, and 76 built-in games. $36.95 Sure, it won't fit in your pocket, but still...
"Population 1,656"
Oh man! no Defender and Bezerk! What about Space Invaders! Those three were the bomb!
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
Here is an idea. Get up off your lazy ass and find it yourself instead of waiting around for monmmy and daddy to do it for you
Posted at +1
:(
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=1, Funny=2, Overrated=1, Total=4.
brings me back to +1.... hehe
Ten Atari 2600 games for $20? Why? They should have put the entire 2600 library in the ROM's and sold it for $20.
I have a hard time seeing ten 2600 games giving me $20 worth of replayability, but maybe that's just me.
Iagreewiththispost.
Recently, I downloaded a Spectrum emulator with the 720 rom. I remember playing that in the arcade when it first came out, and distinctly remember being amazed to see it on the ZXSpectrum.
Well, I can honestly say that within less than 5 minutes, I'd deleted it off my machine. I couldn't believe how crappy the game was, compared to today's standards.
Yeah, I know it was only loaded into 48k, but I guess my memories had upgraded themselves and given the game better sound and graphics.
Some things should stay in the past I guess. Don't get me wrong, it was great to see the game again. It just seems to have lost a bit of its magic, when played back-to-back with, say, Tony Hawks.
...whereas Combat, that game is just classic. I think the whole appeal is the multiplayer aspect. Who cares about graphics, when you're head-to-head with the scores flashing and you need one more kill, on invisible tank pong!
- posts may be recorded for legal or training purposes. Thank you for your co-operation.
As a Lynx owner myself, I can reccomend The GOAT (Games Of All Types) Store. Decent prices and an OK selection, and customer service is great; they sent me a second free game because I screwed up my address on the order form the first time. And, they ship internationally.
Thanks to them, I added Rampart and KLAX to my collection; both of which are great games.
If you don't have it already, Stun Runner is also good for replay value.
But stay away from Hydra and Batman Returns; big stinkers there.
You might also try GameDude; you can buy & sell cartridges from old systems through them, and they're in California, so shipping to BC should be fairly quick. Haven't done business with them in a while, but they were easy to deal with.
As a final note, you can try out games on the Lynx Emulator before you buy them.
Best of luck to you!
I don't suppose this will see the shores of Europe any time soon. We're still waiting the SL-5500 (I'm glad I got mine while over on business).
A C64 version would be cool though, it'd actually be an improvement over the original as we wouldn't have to wait for the loading time (unless we want to lisiten to the often groovy loading music (Ocean) or pretend we're being interrogated by watching a Mutant Camels loader.
Please, please don't brain wash me MR. Torturer...
From my Autobiography - "Lifestyles of the Sad and Desperate"...
I've seen this about 6 months ago at a BJ's warehouse in CT (USA).
*shrug*
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
You know, there is a "portable NES" that hooks up to your TV. It looks like a controller.
Difference: 100 some odd more games.
It is also ~$60 or something like that.
I saw it on QVC a few months ago, and it may have been on HSN. I wonder how easy it would be to turn one into a portable. (since its in seeming wide availability, and is small...)
Oh, back on topic, Pic of the "portable" atari: http://www.qvc.com/img/E/41/E29241.jpg
http://www.angryburrito.com/ The best, completely unfinished software review site ever.
but guys would *love* to get into you!
There are enough trademarks in that story to gag the most jaded lawyer!
CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
.....but Rebecca De Mornay still looks good!
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020514S0 004
But, But, IBM Spent a Billion Dollars on Linux! Why aren't they making money?!
>It's piratanical trolls like you that killed Atari the first time!
...
... as for stock, I do feel this could be a sleeper, but need to research it first.
??? so my debate on buying the product or investing in the company is evil because I pay for software and invest in that software model, maybe you should re-read what I stated.
Atari is getting royalties of of this, and it was the attempt to live off of the 2600 and not investing in new console technology that killed them the first time
btw. at $20 I will be buying one
The software model I use is, you buy our instrument, it acts as your software key, so we give you the latest software (of course our hardware 'keys' are between $5K and $200K depending on model).
TastesLikeHerringFlavoredChicken
This product is likely to be low quality & buggy, and only serve to further sully the Atari brand image.
The similar product that came out a year or two ago with the Activision games, was crap. The games were not the original ROMs. They had differences, some so bad the games were rendered nearly unplayable.
A few examples: The game Atlantis, originally an Imagic game, had the Imagic name removed from the screen and replaced with the Activision branding. More importantly, you could no longer see your shots on the screen, so it was much harder to aim.
Pitfall had screwed up graphics as well. There were other problems with graphics AND with playability, but I can't recall the specifics.
I don't know why it was necessary to change the ROMs, but the result smacked of low Asian pirate outfit quality. Until actually seeing & using one I planned on getting it, as it was easily worth the $15 retail. After using it I determined it wasn't worth the space it would take up on the shelf. It was lousy.
I expect the same from this new Infogrames product.
The offical model number for the joysticks is CX40.
You can ususally track them down on eBay or via google.
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I would really like to see a 5200 version. The graphics of the 2600 pale in comparison to those of the 5200. With the 5200, you routinely would get real arcade level graphics.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Toymax has a similar item already on and off the market. Their version plays 10 activision games like pitfall, river raid, boxing, ice hokey and more. I got mine on ebay for 6 bucks. Search for 10 in 1 games and it should come up. I have one and it is fun but it's hardly a true portable and no 2 player action makes the replay value very low. -peel
I bought a bunch back to the states for Christmas. It was a VERY cheap way to entertain my entire family. My mom has become a Tetris freak, challenging all comers to head to head matches.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Need i say anything more :).
Atari2600
:)
w00h00 *does a jig* Yipeee baby!!!!!!! Hooraah!!! yeahhhhhhhhoooooooo!!!
At Toys R Us, they have an activision 2600 games device which plays something like 10 different games. It's shaped like a controller that plugs directly into the RCA jacks of the tv, so it's portable in the sense that don't actually carry a console around to play.
http://www.toymax.com/ToyCentral/EL/10in1.htm
Picked this up at K-Mart about 2 months ago. Nice idea, the controller sucks though. I like the idea of using a controller that's more like the old 2600 joystick.
This sounds sort of neat, except that Combat won't be nearly as cool if it's single-player only.
-- dR.fuZZo
Usually to be found 'cheapjack' shops, such as Poundstretcher. They usually cost less than £20 and include 20 to 100 games - they're probably illegal, but they're so cheap no-one cares.
If they built a cartridge slot in so I could play other games, I'd be all over it. Until then, I'll continue to wait for Ben's portable 2600.
You can buy new 2600 joysticks (and a bunch of other great stuff) here. I bought two and have been very happy with them.
Activision has been marketing this exact same idea for a while now - including 10 of their own Atari 2600 games as well as a few Imagic titles (some of the best available for the system). The titles in the Activision version are Pitfall, Atlantis, River Raid, Spider Fighter, Crackpots, Freeway, Tennis, Boxing, Ice Hockey, and Grand Prix. It looks like Infogrames may have just taken the idea and applied it to Atari first-party titles.
I can't find the Activision product at any online retailers I know of anymore, but there are plenty of Ebay auctions going on for it right now (just search for Atari 10-in-1).
Both joysticks for my 2600 are pretty much dead
Joypads designed for the Sega Genesis console will work in an Atari 2600 console.
Will I retire or break 10K?
on my post...
Moderation Totals: Offtopic=1, Flamebait=1, Redundant=1, Funny=3, Overrated=1, Total=7.
I don't get why this is newsworthy when "x games in a controller" have been out for a while, and the price cut with the PS2 and Xbox doesn't get a story. Yay!
Actually a 81 928 in good shape goes for about $10K or so, or about 1/6 the original price, even without water damage.
Must be a different game than the one I'm thinking with. It'd be difficult to type 'xyzzy' with just a joystick.
Right... here. A bit bulkier than a GameBoy Advance, but imagine the looks you could get at next week's E3 convention!!!
I'm a huge Atari fan (own a 2600, 2600 Jr, two Jaguars, two Lynxes, a 1200XL, an 800XL and an 800), but honestly, I never liked the ST.
The Amiga was MUCH more impressive to me. I still want to get a 500 or 1000 one of these days.
One of the things not many people know is that the Amiga was actually designed by a lot of the same people who designed the 2600 and/or 400/800, and some of whom went on to design the Lynx.
They share a lot of the same nifty architecture. (Atari 800's "Display List Interrupt" was just the early version of Amiga's "Copper"... and the Atari Lynx has the same feature, though I don't know if it has a specific name)
Atari ST was pretty much Tramiel's idea which he brought over when he moved from Commodore to Atari.
Weird, no?
Imagine a Beowolf Cluster of THESE!!!
Why hasn't someone taken one of these things (as there seems to be a myriad of different ones ranging from the NES to the 2600) and figured out how the games are stored? Then instead of companies releasing an "every game ever" console, which they would never have the rights to do, you could hack it into one yourself. 'Course, you'd have to buy enough flash ram to hold all of them. Not difficult with the Atari 2600, but the NES has something over a gig worth of games, uncompressed.
Now another question: Most of the NES versions of these devices feature obscure unlicenced NES games, like Tekken. (Tekken on the NES? You can bet that it's not Namco-approved.) Does this mean that these semi-portable NES's support -all- mappers? The pirate games almost always used proprietary mappers. For the uninitiated, mappers were custom chips used in the NES cartridges themselves. Most current emulators of the NES don't support all mappers, and so several games just plain don't work.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
This kinda sucks, even for 2600 fans - just 10 games??? Aren't these games like 10k each or something 'wow' like that??
If this thing had every game, or, at least, every game that Atari put out, that might be something...if it had a built in modem and allowed multiplayer the way that SNES9x does, etc., then that might be something...but this?
Nah...
Another reason you might want to play these games is that they really are a lot of fun.
On an Atari 2600 they couldn't cover up a bad game with fancy graphics or 500 levels. The game itself HAD to be fun, because there wasn't anything else there.
I hope it's hackable. 10 games just isn't enough.
(abridged, taken from http://www.infogrames.com/corp_history.php)
1988 - Releases SimCity (distributor)
1992 - Releases Alone in the Dark
1999 - It is announced in November that Infogrames is to acquire the North American video game publisher GT Interactive. This move is significant in that it gives Infogrames a massive inroad into the North American market as well as a catalogue of titles including the infamous Driver and Unreal franchises.
1999 - In the closing days of 2000, Infogrames announces it is to acquire Hasbro (Interactive)and along with it, the properties of Microprose and Atari. Microprose has a long line of impressive titles, specifically on the PC and also the Atari name and properties of Atari including classics like Centipede, Missile Command and Pong.
So, based on the sucess of their other ventures, why would they bother making such a dumb little swap-meet item? I wish them luck, but I don't see this unit selling all that well, except at the $.99 store.
Also, a bit of trivia for you. Do you remember the Nintendo Virtual Boy? This system was actually concieved by Hasbro and sold to Nintendo.
Often in Error, Never in Doubt.
Is there any hardware out there that allows this?
$20?
Well, at the current level of cut-throat competition, I expect to see Sony, MS and Nintendo match that price by the end of the month.
1 - Sam Gave Control of Atari to his sons...
2 - Sons are idiots.. killed company..
3 - the rest is close enough to what you had..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They were the best of their breed, until lack of markting abilty destroyed them.
/dev/null :P
Would love to see TOS/Gem updated and on current level of hardware ( PowerPC, etc ).
( at the same sort of price/power points they had back then.. not some super expensive 'memory lane' machine...
Oh and 'Amiga was better' flames ->
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The 500xj for the Nintendo really sucked, though. It worked great until the start, select, and autofire buttons gave out. These buttons were obviously an afterthought--they were literally stuck onto the surface with adhesive.
Of course, youi'd have to have a II+ kicking around...
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Is that Gemdrop game anything like Magical Drop for Neo-Geo?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Hey, that one was made ages ago: Commodore Executive 64 (SX64/DX64). =)
(Though neither had Datassette port, and I'm not sure about cartridge support - but on C64, floppy loading times were never Utterly Horrible (especially with disk turbo), even if they're slow by today's standards...)
(Oh, and getting a SX64/DX64 is a bit hard. An used laptop, a Linux install and VICE would probably be cheaper =)
What the fuck are you talking about?
Jefe: We have stuffed many pinatas for your birthday celebration!
El Guapo: How many pinatas?
Jefe: Many pinatas, many!
El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: Yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
The Three Amigos
I heard about this news on Jaguar Interactive several days ago, and I am truly saddened by this.
:(
I already have the video games on this "new Atari system" on my original 2600 system! Why would I want to buy a "new Atari" video gaming system when I can just get the games from my bookcase and dust off my original 2600?
Infogrames are not doing anything to actively resurrect the Atari name as they constantly say that they are doing. Let's see what they have released so far...
-Atari Water Bottles during (I think...) the 2001 E3 show.
-Atari Anniversary Edition on Dreamcast and PC (released on Atari's 29th Anniversary?)
-Three or four Infogrames titles for XBox with the Atari Logo slapped all over it
-This little Atari 2600 thing
To whom is Infogrames trying to sell Atari products to? Classic gaming fans can get these games on Emulators or play them on their own 2600s. New gamers would not pay money to play 20 year old games on their TV sets. Infogrames is basically doing this to call attention to itself as the current owner of Atari- and they want to make a quick buck off the games that started it all. It drives me to the point of nausea to see Atari being whored around like this.
Infogrames is not Atari and will never be Atari. THey should just sell the Atari rights and properties to a company that can actually do something constructive with the name- not just trot out 30 year old remakes.
But that's just my opinion.
It was (is) a rather common commercial product for a lot of the other cartridge based systems, it's a wonder the 2600 got skipped over...
It was going to be the Next Big Thing, downloading games over the phone into your Atari. It ended up being a niche product for fanatics.
We were developing, so the Apple was our host platform. Assemble the code into that stretch of RAM, flip the soft switch, and watch it fly -- or crash. The audio part would have been painful.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander