Old Atari cartridges taking up too much space in your apartment? Have
no fear - a huge portion of Activision's catalog of titles for the
2600 have been squeezed onto a single CD.
(Activision, 1999)
Now, this is a trip back in time! Activision has recycled many of its
early Atari 2600 games for this release, perfectly translated for the
Playstation and looking just like they did nearly 20 years ago.
While the diverse selection of games is nice, this release is missing
some of the extras that made the later Intellivision
collection such a good value - who wouldn't have liked to see some video
interviews with the original Activision programmers and designers, or some more
history of the first game company which focused solely on software? There's
so much history in Activision, from its origins in four expatriate
Atari programmers, that the lack of even text material is
disappointing.
That aside, I give this collection of Atari emulations major points
over the Intellivision collection for one primary reason - the games
are much easier to control. If you recall, the Intellivision emulation
collection uses incredibly convoluted combinations of the Playstation
controller's buttons to cover all the functions of the Intellivision's
12-key touchpad as well as its action buttons. The Atari, with its
single joystick and single action button, was a much easier beast to
control, and the same goes for emulations based on these games.
I only have one question...when can we expect a CD loaded with classic
Odyssey 2 emulations, guys?
Rating:
Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and
addictive game.
Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster
Games emulated (links lead to reviews of the original games):
Four quarters - a couple of minor irritants, but mostly a compelling and
addictive game.
