My history with the Atari 2600
When I get bored of a particular console, I tend to go back in time. That, and I have a rather extreme form of ADD so I’m CONSTANTLY picking up new games and gadgets. As I’ve said before, I’m on a PS2 kick. But then I got this little device. It’s the Atari Flashback 2. Now I’m not going to get into the hardware itself too much just because it’s been out for a while, and if you’re reading this you already know what it is. For those of you who don’t know, this thing is basically a reproduction Atari 2600 sans the cartridge slot (which can be added by someone who is comfortable with a soldering iron). It’s about 2/3 the size of the original system, and instead of switches for things like the power and reset, it has big ugly orange buttons … which is my only big beef with it.
Going back to Need for Speed Underground
We all probably know of the “Fast and the Furious” movies. Some people love them, other people hate them. I’m of neither camp in the fact that I just kind of see it a date movie or popcorn movie. Just something to sit back, watch and have fun.
But the movie did inspire a whole slew of video games, the highest on the list that initially hit (for me anyway) was original Need for Speed Underground from 2003. And I picked it up again recently on the Playstation 2. When I first played it in either 2003 or 2004, I didn’t have any of the then current generation consoles, so I played it on the PC. Which, in reality, is the way it’s meant to be played. Of course, when I first started playing it I was running it on a system that couldn’t quite handle it at full detail. But I didn’t care. I still had a blast with it.