Atari Paddle TV Game Confirmed, Capcom, EA Next

Thanks to IGN Gear for its article confirming the forthcoming Atari 2600 Paddle TV game from Jakks - the news story explains: "Like the Atari TV Games joystick released two years ago... gamers simply plug it directly into the television to experience the old-school games", and indicates the game line-up for the 1 or 2-player versions will include "Breakout, Canyon Bomber, Casino, Circus Atari, Demons to Diamonds, Night Driver, Steeplechase, Street Racer, Super Breakout, Warlords, Warlords Arcade, Video Olympics, Arcade Pong and Pong." We've previously covered announcements of many other licensed TV games from Jakks (Midway, Namco, Activision), but haven't mentioned a forthcoming Capcom TV game "including 1942, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Mega Man, Gun Smoke and Side Arms" - the official Jakks TV Games site also has 'EA Sports' listed as an (unelaborated on) game choice.

Comments

Atari one

[hiroshi912681]

I had the pleasure of playing the original Atari controller, and I could tell, it was NO atari. They're ports. It's slightly entertaining, but I'd rather pay $10 than $20 for it. I don't know much about the first Namco one, other than Pacman's patterns are missing. (I kind of wonder how the vertical screen was handled). If the first namco one had Galaga instead of galaxian, it'd have been mine. They split up my favourites, I'm not going to get them both. All of these things are well emulated, so the only one I could make good use of is the paddle version (sold my atari collection).

Does anyone know what Megaman game is going to be on the Capcom controller? It'd be a crime to humanity if it weren't Megaman 2 or 3. The first is just masochistic. Are the other games arcade ports or NES ports?

Nice and all

[miyako]

these things are nice and all, good when you are yearning for a bit of nostalgia from these few games, but I think companies are still overlooking the killing that could be made by selling roms.
I for one think that the first company to offer an iTMS-esque rom download center could make a killing.
Imagine selling a SNES controller with an emulator built into it. You get the urge to play chrono trigger or Super Mario All Stars you just download the game for a buck or two, upload it to the controller, hook it up to your tv or computer via usb and start playing.
The fact that they are making a profit off of these things, and the sheer number of sites dedicated to (s)nes, genesis, atari, etc emulator shows that there is a market for this.
I'm not the type to think that a game being old automatically makes it a good game, but there are a lot of timeless games out there that are still fun, and a lot harder to play now that functioning hardware is not as readily available.

Re:Let's wait until we can play it ourselves

[josh glaser]

Those points may hold true for other "classic" devices, but Jakks' TV Games are different. They use controllers based on the original arcade/2600 sticks, for example. They're much better than any other "Plug & Play" game.

Where is Kaboom!?

[Anonymous Coward]

How could they leave out the all-time greatest Atari 2600 paddle game?

Have the Namco one

[Mantrid]

I got the Namco one (pac-man etc) for my wife, but thinking "she'll never really play this...", to my surprise she fires it up fairly often. Something about zero load times, simple game play, being able to insta-reset and play a different game...she loves it. Plus it has a "real" arcade joystick. I think games have gotten too complicated for a lot of people to bother playing...but don't try and take away my Far Cry mind you!

Re:I hope it is more sturdy that the original

[Sylver Dragon]

That's wierd, I had the exact opposite experience. The paddles we had lasted for the entire time we had our 2600. Granted that we didn't use them as much as your girlfriend, but Warlords and Breakout we still favorites. The Joysticks on the other hand were absolute crap. We'd kill another one every couple of months; granted, my brother and I had nothing better to do in the afternoons than play with the Atari, and I had a Yar's Revenge addiction. We eventually found that the main failure had to do with the silver button on the board in the joysticks, which controlled movement. And that by using a knife or other small impliment we could reshape the button somewhat and get more life out of the joystick, but even that eventually didn't work after a while. In all, the controllers for the Atari were pretty good for the time, but the didn't stand up to heavy use/abuse.