Do we need an Atari plug & play arcade TV game?

[Math You]

Does anyone think it would be a good idea if Atari or Jakks Pacific made a plug & play TV game with some of Atari's older arcade games built into it?

 

I think Digital Eclipse did a very good job with the arcade version of Warlords on the Atari paddle game. Maybe they could do the same with some of these:

 

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/february0...ri/index2.shtml

 

http://www.digitaleclipse.com/products/Gam...duct.asp?ID=116

[mos6507]

Does anyone think it would be a good idea if Atari or Jakks Pacific made a plug & play TV game with some of Atari's older arcade games built into it?

 

I think Digital Eclipse did a very good job with the arcade version of Warlords on the Atari paddle game. Maybe they could do the same with some of these:

 

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/february0...ri/index2.shtml

 

http://www.digitaleclipse.com/products/Gam...duct.asp?ID=116

 

A lot of these would be vector games which don't look as good on a regular TV.

[Legend]

I'd love to see another paddle plug and play unit. Tempest would be great with the paddle. Or maybe even put warlords on again and include an option to hook up two two-player versions so you could play arcade warlords with 4 players.

 

-Legend

[kevin242]

I'd love to see another paddle plug and play unit. Tempest would be great with the paddle. Or maybe even put warlords on again and include an option to hook up two two-player versions so you could play arcade warlords with 4 players.

 

-Legend

 

You know what would be cool? A Tempest controller with Tempest (of course) and maybe something like Tempest 2000?!? That would be awesome. You could put some paddle games like Breakout, Warlords or whatever... maybe some type of Arkanoid clone. Now that would be cool. I suppose you would need too much hardware to do tempest 2000 right and still make the thing cost less than 30 bucks.... maybe one day.

[Math You]

A Tempest controller with Tempest (of course) and maybe something like Tempest 2000?!? That would be awesome. You could put some paddle games like Breakout, Warlords or whatever... maybe some type of Arkanoid clone.

Maybe all of Atari's vector games could be built into the same controller.

 

http://andysarcade.de/vec_atari.html

 

Lunar Lander - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8465

Battlezone - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7059

Asteroids - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6939

Red Baron - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9289

Asteroids Deluxe - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6940

Tempest - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10065

Space Duel - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9647

Gravitar - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8000

Black Widow - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7139

Quantum - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9189

Star Wars - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9773

Major Havoc - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8601

The Empire Strikes Back - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7708

Edited October 12, 2007 by MRB

[LouisianaJaguar]

God, I would love to have a good port of Major Havoc in one of those - I miss that game!

[jboypacman]

I would be down with it if they made one.

[onmode-ky]

At their most recent quarterly conference call with analysts, Jakks Pacific said this: ". . . this year we will also bring back our top selling classic Atari TV Games." It's a bit of an unexpected announcement, to me, since their TV Games line has been moving farther and farther away from retro material. The other major TV Games products they announced for this year are wireless, Wii-like, motion games, plus extensions of the Eyeclops Bionic Eye brand. To go back to the retro stuff at the same time is a nice surprise.

 

Now, what they said does seem like it could just be a re-release of the previous Atari TV Games (which has so few fans here, of course; however, the Atari Paddles unit was definitely a great buy). Still, there's the possibility that, with the better technology they have now, they're porting Atari arcade games with some degree of fidelity. I still don't see the vector games looking as spectacular as they did on vector monitors or even computer screens, but a decent Tempest in your hands would be killer.

 

Or maybe . . . Jakks Pacific saw how good the Flashback 2 was and engaged Curt V. to design something for them??? Any comment, Curt?

 

onmode-ky

[TwinChargers]

Good deal, now when do they hit the market?

 

Side note, could this be the news Curt was talking about?

[[d2f]Iggy*SJB]

I just hope that doesn't mean they are going to come out with yet ANOTHER damned Pac-Man stick.

 

Some new Gamekeys for the Ms. Pac-Man stick would be nice, though. (Yeah...I'll hold my breath)

 

I would LOVE to see them liscence the old "Donkey Kong" games, and put them on a stick. Donkey Kong, DK Junior, and Mario Brothers would be worth $20. Hell, I'd pay that for those games on a game-key for my Ms. Pac stick.

Production costs would be cheap...but I know Nintendo would probably rape them(and us) on the liscencing, though.

[Vic George 2K3]

I'd like to see a Nintendo TV Games unit, even if it's just Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., and maybe even Popeye if that's possible. Or just the first four games listed.

 

An Atari Arcade TV Games unit would also be nice, though I'm not sure how they would implement that or what translated arcade games would appear on the unit. Maybe the same basic six games that appeared in the Atari Anniversary game collection for Playstation and Gameboy Advance?

[S1500]

Dedicated systems of Atari games, whether it's FB1 or FB2, or the paddle, or anything else, has been beaten to death already.

[Flojomojo]

What would be the point? Atari Anthology runs on Windows, PS2, PS3, XBOX, and XBOX 360. The XBOX version displays the games in 1080i resolution. Apart from custom controllers, how can you top that?

 

To say nothing of MAME, of course.

 

I think the vast majority of the people who want this stuff already have it in one form or another.

[Math You]

What would be the point? Atari Anthology runs on Windows, PS2, PS3, XBOX, and XBOX 360. The XBOX version displays the games in 1080i resolution. Apart from custom controllers, how can you top that?

True, and a PC or Mac could probably do it much better than a console using composite video.

 

Playing games on a big TV with a custom controller still has it's charms though, especially when playing 2 or 4 player games.

[Fort Apocalypse]

Dedicated systems of Atari games, whether it's FB1 or FB2, or the paddle, or anything else, has been beaten to death already.

 

The ticket to be a real winner would be a cheap (<$50), widely distributed (target/walmart), easy to use multi-system emulation game console. Yes, I know - legal issues, technical issues, blah, blah, blah. I think it is time for this to happen though. There is a limited time for people to get on that bandwagon and make it happen before no one really cares anymore.

[S1500]

Dedicated systems of Atari games, whether it's FB1 or FB2, or the paddle, or anything else, has been beaten to death already.

 

The ticket to be a real winner would be a cheap (<$50), widely distributed (target/walmart), easy to use multi-system emulation game console. Yes, I know - legal issues, technical issues, blah, blah, blah. I think it is time for this to happen though. There is a limited time for people to get on that bandwagon and make it happen before no one really cares anymore.

 

Cheap,

Easy to use,

widely available,

legal

 

Pick two. The OneStation fits almost all the criteria, but I've only seen it sale in Asia and on 1 mail order website. With the OneStation, the CPU is put in the cartrdige, and not the console itself, so it lends itself to quite a bit of flexibility to emulating consoles.

 

The Wii is getting there, but fails the "easy to get" criteria, and is not cheap.

 

From the looks of things, Nintendo is the only company forging ahead on the emulation scene with the VC. The rest is just creating a lot of empty hype on these forums.

[Fort Apocalypse]

The OneStation fits almost all the criteria, but I've only seen it sale in Asia and on 1 mail order website. With the OneStation, the CPU is put in the cartrdige, and not the console itself, so it lends itself to quite a bit of flexibility to emulating consoles.

 

The Wii is getting there, but fails the "easy to get" criteria, and is not cheap.

 

From the looks of things, Nintendo is the only company forging ahead on the emulation scene with the VC. The rest is just creating a lot of empty hype on these forums.

 

Yep, but see the OneStation thread. Looks like they have a high failure rate. I'd be interested if it worked reliably, and much more so if it let you easily load games on it. The thing I don't like about the VC is that there is no way to get homebrew games onto it yourself, right? You have to have a Wii and buy the games from Nintendo. That's nice, but I'd rather have something I could put my own homebrews and other games on. And I know - legal issues, etc. I like the idea of portability, but am more interested in a dedicated gaming console that I could load my own games onto. And I'm too cheap to spend more than $50 on it. It's interesting how many times people say this, and that no one outside of Asia has the balls and $$$ to follow through on such a project. The VC is convenient, but I think everyone would be surprised at the number of people that would by a dedicated retrogaming emulation console if you could load whatever games you wanted to on it.

Edited March 11, 2008 by Fort Apocalypse

[nathanallan]

What I've liked lately is the Coleco/Playpal/AtGames handhelds, in this thread. The form factor is very nice, figured like a GBA or a OneStation but hasn't broken yet (I have two versions, both are pretty tough), and have TV-out for the big screen. It would be great if either Atari or Jakks put out one of these, they're a hit with me and everyone I've showed them to (except that one guy at gamecrazy, but that doesn't count). I yanked the picture from that other thread started by Flojomojo.

 

Nathan

Edited March 11, 2008 by nathanallan

[doctorclu]

A Tempest controller with Tempest (of course) and maybe something like Tempest 2000?!? That would be awesome. You could put some paddle games like Breakout, Warlords or whatever... maybe some type of Arkanoid clone.

Maybe all of Atari's vector games could be built into the same controller.

 

http://andysarcade.de/vec_atari.html

 

Lunar Lander - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8465

Battlezone - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7059

Asteroids - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6939

Red Baron - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9289

Asteroids Deluxe - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6940

Tempest - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10065

Space Duel - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9647

Gravitar - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8000

Black Widow - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7139

Quantum - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9189

Star Wars - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9773

Major Havoc - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8601

The Empire Strikes Back - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7708

 

This would just rock. You know I'm surprised these games have not been featured more. Especially Red Baron.

[Math You]

There's a video featuring some Atari vector games on YouTube:

 

[Gorf]

Star Wars - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9773Major Havoc -

The Empire Strikes Back - http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7708://http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php...hp?game_id=7708

 

 

You can forget these two.They were licensed to ATARI GAMES.

Midway would have to do these as I believe they own all Atari

games titles now.

[Flojomojo]

Star Wars

The Empire Strikes Back

 

You can forget these two.They were licensed to ATARI GAMES.

Midway would have to do these as I believe they own all Atari

games titles now.

No, it's a little more complicated than that. First, LucasArts/LucasFilm owns the Star Wars name, and would need to be involved with any new releases.

 

Second, Midway has only has the later Atari properties; the older Atari stuff is the property of Atari/Infogrames. Midway's stuff is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Games

 

Third, and this is good news, all 3 Star Wars arcade games are on the GameCube disc "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike" as unlockable bonuses. The controls with the GameCube controller aren't the best, but it's still neat to be able to play legit versions on the Cube or the Wii with these codes (there's a Passcodes screen in the Options menu):

 

RTJPFC!G / TIMEWARP	Unlocks Star Wars Arcade
!H!F?HXS / KOOLSTUF	Unlocks Empire Strikes Back Arcade Game
!?ATH!RD GAME?YES	Unlock Return of the Jedi arcade coin-op game

[onmode-ky]

At their most recent quarterly conference call with analysts, Jakks Pacific said this: ". . . this year we will also bring back our top selling classic Atari TV Games." It's a bit of an unexpected announcement, to me, since their TV Games line has been moving farther and farther away from retro material. The other major TV Games products they announced for this year are wireless, Wii-like, motion games, plus extensions of the Eyeclops Bionic Eye brand. To go back to the retro stuff at the same time is a nice surprise.

 

Now, what they said does seem like it could just be a re-release of the previous Atari TV Games (which has so few fans here, of course; however, the Atari Paddles unit was definitely a great buy). Still, there's the possibility that, with the better technology they have now, they're porting Atari arcade games with some degree of fidelity. I still don't see the vector games looking as spectacular as they did on vector monitors or even computer screens, but a decent Tempest in your hands would be killer.

 

Or maybe . . . Jakks Pacific saw how good the Flashback 2 was and engaged Curt V. to design something for them??? Any comment, Curt?

 

onmode-ky

 

Sadly, there will be no Tempest in your hands. One of the press releases at Jakks Pacific's TV Games website outlines this year's lineup of traditional TV Games (as opposed to their new, pricey extensions to the brand). The Atari TV Game they mentioned months ago is just a rerelease of the original 2600 joystick model. It's possible they revamped the games to make them more accurate reproductions, but I think it's more likely that they just used the same software as in the 2002 model; I doubt they would expect the returns now on a product previously released 4 years ago to be much, and so they'd probably go the cheapest route.

 

Yes, nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

 

onmode-ky

[Math You]

I'm beginning to think that Atari will never make another hardware product.

 

I emailed them a link to the "build a new Atari computer" thread to see if I could re-kindle their interest in a new/retro product. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...5035&st=250

Edited July 12, 2008 by Math You

[TwinChargers]

At their most recent quarterly conference call with analysts, Jakks Pacific said this: ". . . this year we will also bring back our top selling classic Atari TV Games." It's a bit of an unexpected announcement, to me, since their TV Games line has been moving farther and farther away from retro material. The other major TV Games products they announced for this year are wireless, Wii-like, motion games, plus extensions of the Eyeclops Bionic Eye brand. To go back to the retro stuff at the same time is a nice surprise.

 

Now, what they said does seem like it could just be a re-release of the previous Atari TV Games (which has so few fans here, of course; however, the Atari Paddles unit was definitely a great buy). Still, there's the possibility that, with the better technology they have now, they're porting Atari arcade games with some degree of fidelity. I still don't see the vector games looking as spectacular as they did on vector monitors or even computer screens, but a decent Tempest in your hands would be killer.

 

Or maybe . . . Jakks Pacific saw how good the Flashback 2 was and engaged Curt V. to design something for them??? Any comment, Curt?

 

onmode-ky

 

Sadly, there will be no Tempest in your hands. One of the press releases at Jakks Pacific's TV Games website outlines this year's lineup of traditional TV Games (as opposed to their new, pricey extensions to the brand). The Atari TV Game they mentioned months ago is just a rerelease of the original 2600 joystick model. It's possible they revamped the games to make them more accurate reproductions, but I think it's more likely that they just used the same software as in the 2002 model; I doubt they would expect the returns now on a product previously released 4 years ago to be much, and so they'd probably go the cheapest route.

 

Yes, nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

 

onmode-ky

 

How demoralizing is that? Even if they would have just used the same joystick and put 10 different games in it it would have been nice, but its just the exact same product in newer packaging. Jakks Atari Joystick Site. If I recall, lots of these got marked down significantly after a while, why would they try the exact same thing again 5 years later?