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brings back good ole memories

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game brings back all the good ole memories I had as a kid playing my pong!!

Classic fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 35 / 36
Date: March 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This compilation of classic Atari games includes Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Pong, Missile Command, Sprint, Tempest, and Warlords. This is a great buy for fans of classic arcade games, offering the additional lure of dual screen action and optional stylus control. Warlords even provides multiplayer action. Each version has both a classic version and a "remix" with new graphics, although in general I found that the remixed versions left me cold.

For the most part, the games work well with stylus control, and a few really shine. Missile Command is particularly impressive, and is the first home version I've seen that really captures the excitement of the trackball controlled coin-op original. Both screens are used. Incoming missiles are first visible on the upper screen, although satellites and bombers fly across the top of the lower screen. Antimissiles are fired simply by tapping the target point. Although stylus control must be done on the lower touch sensitive screen, you can hold down L, and your stylus clicks are transmitted to the corresponding location of the upper screen. However, this is a bit tricky, and by later levels I found myself working on the lower screen entirely. Graphics are a bit simplified compared to the arcade original, but work well on the small screen. The one thing I really miss is huge, expanding Game Over fireball, which has been dropped for some reason. Still, it is not a full recreation of the coin-op. As in most home versions, you do not have independent control of your 3 missile bases, eliminating a strategy element that was present in the arcade. Also, the "smart" missiles are much less smart than in the original version.

Tempest also works quite well with the pad, although it takes a bit more practice to get used to this input method than with Missile Command. You move your man by scratching left or right on the trackscreen. The lower display depicts a one-dimensional roller controller. Perhaps memory fades, but I remember the original having a spinner knob. I wish there was an option to control it by drawing circles, instead of scratching back and forth. Still, the control of your man works very well, with a bit of momentum that lets you recreate the sensation of spinning the controller.

Centipede (which originally had a trackball) also worked pretty well with the pad, but I couldn't get as enthusiastic about it. I'm not sure if it was the control scheme or if I'm just not that enthusiastic about the game anymore. A nice feature is that the two screens does a good job of simulating the sideways monitor of the coin-op.

Breakout works perfectly with the pad, providing impeccable control of the paddle. The two screens again simulate a sideways monitor, although there is a small problem (also evident on Missile Command) in that the screens behave "as if" they were contiguous, when there is actually a small gap between them. This creates a refractive effect that makes it hard to correctly extrapolate diagonal movement of the ball (or missile tracks) crossing from the top screen to the bottom one. But Breakout is just too simple a game to have much appeal. I found myself wishing for Arkanoid, or at least Super Breakout.

Asteroids doesn't really need a trackpad--it was a button control game in the arcades. Still, Atari has provided a pad control mechanism that actually works quite well, although you can also use the buttons. I was never much of an Asteroids fan, but it seemed to work well. All of the games include "Remix" versions with updated graphics. For most of the games, I did not find the remix graphics appealing. Asteroids was an exception, with a novel geometric theme.

Gravitar was ruinously difficult in the arcades. That is preserved here, and made more so by the small DS display. I'm glad to have it, but it really needs a big monitor.

For the price, I'd consider the package to be a bargain. Two of the games, Missile Command and Tempest, are topnotch adaptations that benefit from the touchpad, and retain their addictive appeal.

Some of the other choices are a bit odd. Why Breakout and not SuperBreakout? Why not Millipede instead of Centipede? Why no Crystal Castles? I'm hoping this means that Atari is contemplating a sequel, perhaps one that would rectify the greatest omission: Quantum. Quantum was a brilliantly original Atari coin-op that was never widely distributed, probably because it was released just before the great arcade crash of '83. You used a trackball to draw circles around "particles." It would seem tailor made for the touchpad. Perhaps next time.

I hope that other manufacturers of classic coin-ops follow Atari's example and take another look at their classic games with an eye toward the DS and its touch pad, especially for games with trackballs or other non-joystick controls. I'd love to see a DS version of Reactor, for example.

Sends me back in time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: April 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As a person who was raised on these games, I think this package is great. It really takes me back. Of course, I love the amazing graphics and play in newer NDS games, but really, what beats a game of Pong or Breakout?

I'm giving it an "overall" score of 4 instead of 5 only because it isn't quite the same as using one of those old joysticks.

Pretty Good!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Allright folks,I was hoping they would make a classic series like this. I wish they did it with Namco instead. Here it is in order

Asteroids 4/5
This game is great! But what's up with the touch screen on it? I like this game because of the gameplay. I don't know if I'm seeing things,but the graphics are not good in this. I wish they would just copy off the original,but thier not allowed unforntuntley.

Asteroids Remix 4/5
Why did they make this?! It's crazy! There was no reason to make
another copy of Asteroids. It's just better graphics,and that's it!

Breakout 5/5
I love this game! It works great with your finger and stylus. There's a ball and you have to get all of the bricks to dissapear. It's very challenging and fun!

Breakout Remix 5/5
Hey,this is different!!! Cool! There's a picture of these monster guys and when you hit a block,a bunny comes out of a hat. It's really cool!

Centipede 4/5
I was really disapointed in this game. The touch screen dos'nt work well on this. The game is still fun though.

Centipede Remix 4.5/5
Once again,it's just a copy with different graphics. But I think the control works better in this version

Good deal to remember the good times

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Is a very good option to play the original ATARI games, in a portable console. To be honest, i continously grab my daoughter console and play with these ATARI Games.

This is good. Just give it a chance.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: March 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a fairly good ds game. I don't quite understand why everybody hates it. Just give it a chance. Now don't take me as a "thinking every game is good" kind of kid. I've reviewed Resident Evil 4, DMC 3, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, all of the Silent Hill games. So anyways, this is a very good game. It does have it's cons though. The remixes are very disappointing, being the same exact thing as the regular versions, just new characters. All in all this is a very good ds game. It is the 3rd best DS game that I own and I own 4 DS games. It is worse than Feel the Magic and Warioware Touched, but better than the "not very good at all" Yoshi's touch and go. That is all.

Fair

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I wouldn't say this is the worst game ever. But out of my personal experience I found only 1 game was impossible to control. Also the worst part is that you and a friend need retro atari classics game card to play something like pong.
But on the good side many of the games such as asteroids and missle command were much easier to controll than using the control pad to play.

I would recommend this game to those who love boosting their high scores and to those who miss the days of the simple games of the 80's. It will have good replay value for those.

If your not that type of gamer stay away.

Thanks for reading :)

Not Bad, Mixed Bag

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a retro games fan and have most of the originals of these games somewhere in the basement, and all the emulators on my N-Gage. For the classics you could just stick with the GBA version or an emulator on any other system, but frankly the DS is some of the best portable hardware and makes the classics more enjoyable. A few of the "remix" versions I actually like, including Centipede and Warlords. If you buy it for Tempest be advised that this is by far the weakest game on the title.

get's old after a while

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: August 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

ok this compilation is ok. i'll admit that i'm a sucker for classics and that's why i got this. the first few days with this were really fun just expieriencing the classics. the next couple weeks i didn't play this that much... and now well a couple months after i bought it i barely play it. simply because i don't think that these games are as addicting now as they were then. games like castle and breakout are fun but are you really gonna sit down and play this for ages? in addition the games in super mario ds are more engaging and varied so i play those more often. this is fun but i reccomend buying it onsale because it's simply not worth $30. i'd pay $15 for it but not $30...

The Past Will Have to Wait Some More

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: November 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I just bought this and though some of the games are very true to form like Asteroids, Pong, Break-Out, and Lunar Landing you go away with the feeling of how basic our games were in the 1980's, tho that never stopped me from stuffing quarters into them. Of course many of our old games were a challenge back then but we've really come a long way. My favorite was always Missile Command which was the reason I picked this up. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with this incarnation of the arcade legend. With the original game, and to a lesser degree even the original Game Boy Missile Command, you could control which base to fire your missiles. Not so here and you can't control which base launches your missiles. It's a free-for-all which prevents the standard strategy of using a spread of missiles using the base the farthest from your cursor (which starts at the opposite end of the side you choose, this way you can let loose an even spread of missiles workng your way back to the firing base). The graphics are great but why the heck couldn't the manufacturer have kept with the basic defensive concept of the game?

If you stunk at games like Tempest and Lunar Landing then guess what...not much will have changed. I still can't land that damn lander in Lunar Landing and still not sure what is going on with Tempest! Asteroids is very good but I was never a big fan of it during its heyday, preferring Pac-Man, Gorf, Missile Command, and Space Invaders Deluxe.

So, this was a nice blast from the past, but I'll wait for the Namco Museum release and keep my fingers crossed that it has a higher replay value.

I bought the DS to keep up with legacy games like Zelda, Metroid, and FPS' like MOH and COD--all of which I'm still waiting to be released. I like the concept of the DS, but for the most part the time I find for portable gaming (I travel a lot on business) is spent on my PSP.

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