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.
Halo 2600 was released at the Classic Gaming Expo
Who says the Atari 2600 is dead. Now … I’ll admit. I’m not a Halo fan. I personally think the game is slow paced and rather boring. But I do like what other people come with in a game. Despite the fact that this is an Atari 2600 game, and the developer limited himself to using 4K of space. So no bankswitching or any of those things to provide more space. He has managed to create an extremely playable and fun game. And even the enemies are recognizable, and of course, Master Chief is instantly recognizable his his pixelated forrm. The graphics (by Atari 2600 standards of course) are extremely good, the sound is what you would expect from the system, and the control is perfect. If you’ve ever played Berzerk, it plays a lot like that. Only you can’t shoot diagonally. Here’s a little excerpt from his thinking behind the game (you can read the quite long post via the link) :
Changing gaming habits and old systems.
Are you the type of person who’s gaming habits constantly change? Maybe sometimes you play nothing but first person shooters for however long and then find yourself wanting to play an old school top down RPG. Or maybe you jump from system to system like I do. When you’re in a position like me and have lots and lots of choices … you tend to jump around. I have at LEAST 7 computers in this house of varying degrees of usefulness with literally thousands of games, an NES, a Retro Duo (a review of which is elsewhere on this site), Sega Genesis, 32X, various versions of the old Game Boy. A few PS1’s, a few Dreamcasts, a friggin’ Atari Lynx, a Playstation 2 and a ton and a half of those cheesy little Play and Play TV games … although I feel a little guilty not having the Atari Flashback 2 … my 29th birthday is soon. Bear that in mind. ;) And that’s not even all of them.