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JAKKS Adds More Namco, Atari Paddle TV Games
Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting the press release discussing JAKKS Pacific's licensing of further classic Namco arcade games for their all-in-one 'TV game' line-up. The new "lightweight, compact, all-inclusive controller... will feature the classic games Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Xevious, and Mappy", and is a follow-up to a previously featured controller which featured other classics such as Pac-Man. JAKKS has also licensed Spider-Man for a stand-alone TV game, joining the other all-in-one games licensed from Atari, Activision, and others. The official site also has a list of forthcoming games, which look to include an as yet unannounced stand-alone Atari 2600 paddle controller.
I have the atari 10-in-1 and love it. My brother got me one of the bootleg 70+ NES games in one devices for christmas and it's pretty cool, but these official releases are a lot of fun. Only complaint is that you can't play the two player modes of some of the games.
Paul Lenhart writes words!
Several such NES versions exist, some of which are legal. Check out this page to find details of some of them.
As for the SNES... After the days of the NES system, video game property rights changed dramatically. During the age of the Atari and Intellivision, the company who owned the system owned all the games, and the developing companies retained no rights.
Nintendo revolutionized this system, which was part of why developers were so happy to make games for the NES. The downside: 90% of the games for the SNES are owned by companies other than Nintendo.
Of course, since Square and Enix merged, they've put out a TV set-top Dragon Warrior game, so it wouldn't be impossible for them to create such a device containing some of their SNES greatest hits... However, a lot of video game companies are still kind of turned off at the whole idea of using solid state memory as a permanent storage medium.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
Ever since these Namco games (and all original 80's arcade games) were actually out in arcades, it was always disappointing that the home versions were so much different, and usually lousy.
I always said "Someday we'll get home versions that are exactly the same."
Didn't think it would take 20-25 years though.
(Not counting MAME of course. I'm talking TV.)
I bought the 10-in-1 last Christmas because it has my all-time favorite 2600 game: Adventure. The conversion wasn't quite 100% though. After finding the "invisible dot" and taking it to the key screen to reveal the Easter egg (credits), I found the credits weren't there but instead some graphic glitch was.
Maybe it was something (code?) crunched out during the process of making the ROMs fit into whatever guts makes up the thing.
But it was still cool as all getup!
I know there are a heck of a lot of knock-off, unofficial ones, though - I even saw one recently with a Famicom cartridge port in it, so you could play Japanese NES games on it
For a list of way too many knock-offs, check out Famiclones. Some of the stranger ones are meant to be mistaken for a SNES, Genesis, or even a Playstation.
Provided you can get the ROMs, you can play thousands of games, for free.