First Reviews: Flashback 9, Legends Flashback, and Bandai Namco Blast!

[+swlovinist]

Reviews are live: I did my best with these reviews. Happy to answer questions. Not perfect but there will be people who will want these. The Flashback 9 and Blast devices are my my preferred products.

 

Flashback 9

 

Legends Flashback

 

Bandai Namco Blast!

[phoenixdownita]

This next Tuesday, I will be reviewing a new product from AtGames, the Flashback Blast! on my channel. There will be several of these coming out, and I will be reviewing one this next Tuesday Sept 25th 3:00 AM PDT on my channel. Happy to discuss it more when it video goes live.

REPOST ( http://atariage.com/forums/topic/277397-atgames-2018-speculation-thread/?do=findComment&comment=4118913) :

 

.... and if you are fast enough

https://www.atgames....flashback-blast

you can purchase it for 0$ ... pretty sure the page should not be reachable but it seems I can start a checkin process, not sure I care to go thru with it just to see what happens, I'm jaded and my expectations on AtGames are so low that I REALLY don't care (std USPS shipping seems reasonable and they take Paypal)

 

 

Also here:

https://www.atgames.us/collections/all

I can see there's something else that is new and called BOOM (also for 0$) ... someone should buy them both

[boggis the cat]

https://www.atgames....flashback-blast

you can purchase it for 0$ ... pretty sure the page should not be reachable but it seems I can start a checkin process, not sure I care to go thru with it just to see what happens, I'm jaded and my expectations on AtGames are so low that I REALLY don't care (std USPS shipping seems reasonable and they take Paypal)

 

 

Also here:https://www.atgames.us/collections/all

I can see there's something else that is new and called BOOM (also for 0$) ... someone should buy them both

There is a Bandai Namco variant listed, too. The pages look like they are ready to go live once they drop the pictures with links in. And the revised pricing. Edited September 23, 2018 by boggis the cat

[Nerf Herder73]

Looking forward to watching it!

Edited September 23, 2018 by Nerf Herder73

[+swlovinist]

Date got moved to Friday. This is a good thing!

[negative1]

watched your review of it.

 

the walmart exclusive is : pacmania

 

looks decent. don't like the controller,

wish it was joystick.

 

later

-1

Edited September 28, 2018 by negative1

[negative1]

the atari ones look terrible,

and are upscaling the atari games

to 1080i

 

only a few games, incorrect controllers

(except the paddles for pong). and overpriced:

=====================================================

The Blast! family includes the Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 1,

Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 2,

Activision Flashback Blast!,

Legends Flashback Blast!

and Bandai Namco Flashback Blast!,

 

all of which come with a USB-powered HDMI dongle that plugs directly into the TV and an ergonomic six-button wireless gamepad.

The Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 3 swaps the wireless gamepad for a pair of wireless game paddles,

which are specially optimized for its selection of classic paddle and ball games.

 

Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 1 features 20 Atari 2600 classics like Centipede, Millipede and Yars’ Revenge.

Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 2 features 20 Atari 2600 classics like Adventure, Asteroids and Missile Command.

*Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 3. features 20 Atari 2600 paddle-based classics like Breakout, Pong and Warlords.

The Activision Flashback Blast! features 20 of the most iconic Activision home classics, including Pitfall!, H.E.R.O. and River Raid.

The Legends Flashback Blast! features Space Invaders and an additional 11 favorites like Burnin’ Rubber and Jungle Hunt.

The Bandai Namco Flashback Blast! features eight arcade mainstays, including Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug.

 

Every Blast! includes high-definition video output, an intuitive menu system, save and resume game functionality and the

ability to rewind a game in progress to recover from a play misstep.

An optional second wireless gamepad can be purchased for games that support two players.

 

 

Volume 3 is a walmart exclusive,

 

full games listing:

https://armchairarcade.com/perspectives/

 

later

-1

Edited September 28, 2018 by negative1

[Swami]

Most commonly used term to describe Legends Flashback: Weird, lol

 

How will this Legends Flashback compare to the Retro Bit Super Retro Cade, which is similarly priced and had fully accessible SD card slot?

[+swlovinist]

Most commonly used term to describe Legends Flashback: Weird, lol

 

How will this Legends Flashback compare to the Retro Bit Super Retro Cade, which is similarly priced and had fully accessible SD card slot?

 

Time will tell. The irony is that people loved that device and so far I compare them to be fairly close in comparison. Only time will tell how added firmware updates to the Legends will make or break this unit.

[Swami]

 

Time will tell. The irony is that people loved that device and so far I compare them to be fairly close in comparison. Only time will tell how added firmware updates to the Legends will make or break this unit.

 

I see an advantage to being able to use the 3- and 6-button Genesis pads on the Legends console vs the very hit and miss use of 3rd party usb controllers on the Retro Cade, as an out-of-the-box advantage. Although, I think people eventually found some early PC usb controllers that worked okay the Retro Cade. What you can load by sd for arcade roms, especially the ones with multiple files in a folder, on the Legends console will be pivotal for the enthusiasts.

[toiletunes]

why does the flashback9 not have audio for the atari games?

[SoundGammon]

Why don't they put in Casino???

 

Better than Blackjack!

[+swlovinist]

why does the flashback9 not have audio for the atari games?

 

It was my capture card. Sounds great, and more importantly plays great.

[revhappy]

How is the controller, gameplay and picture quality of the Namco Blast verses the Pac Man Connect and Play (still on sale)?

[+swlovinist]

How is the controller, gameplay and picture quality of the Namco Blast verses the Pac Man Connect and Play (still on sale)?

 

I like the picture quality of the Blast. The controller feels nice too. Pac Man connect and play is using av hookups so it will not look good on a HDTV.

[negative1]

I like the picture quality of the Blast. The controller feels nice too. Pac Man connect and play is using av hookups so it will not look good on a HDTV.

there's nothing wrong with AV inputs, i use them all the time.

 

the original arcade resolution of the games is very low anyways.

sure they're pixellated, and not smoothed out, like on CRT's,

but that's your own choice.

 

i've got vga monitors, and CRT's also.

 

so i'm not missing out.

 

these new namco blasts have inferior controls,

wireless is terrible compared to wired, and dpads are horrible compared to joysticks.

 

if i can find a compatible wireless joystick that works with it, or a way to wire in

a controller, i would do that.

 

later

| | || | | || |

n eg at iv e 1

[Flojomojo]

If you want analog inputs and wires controls, I dare say these are not for you.

 

I prefer digital HD connections and sitting waaaay back, personally.

[revhappy]

Can you plug an alternative controller, like a d pad into the Flashback 9, or are you stuck with the joystick?

[negative1]

If you want analog inputs and wires controls, I dare say these are not for you.

 

I prefer digital HD connections and sitting waaaay back, personally.

They ARE for me, because they are namco games,

and they ARE actual arcade roms for once.

 

do you think i'm going to pass that up?

 

i've had every single namco collection on every console since the psx (1) came out

with namco museum. dreamcast. original xbox, xbox 360, xbox one, ps2, and

portable systems to, etc, etc.

 

i've skipped every single tv plug and play ever made, because they weren't arcade ports.

 

i came 'this' close to pulling the trigger on the pac-man 256, just to play the emulated kill screen,

but haven't done that yet. (i'm still not sure what it is, its not an arcade clone,

maybe its some weird NES hybrid, or maybe they cloned the arcade to work with nes graphics).

 

for $20, i will definitely be getting it, warts and all.

 

later

-1

Edited October 8, 2018 by negative1

[davidbrit2]

I just picked up the Arcade Legends one tonight. I haven't tried every game on it yet, but it's pretty good overall. I've noticed some audio latency in games (maybe 0.2-0.25 seconds at the most), but actual input/video latency is extremely minimal, so overall it's quite playable. Commando felt very responsive, for example. Granted, I suck at arcade Commando, but I felt like I was sucking about the usual amount.

 

It has save states for many (most?) of the games, but it doesn't appear to do high-score saving. At least it didn't for Lock'n Chase. Video quality is good, being HDMI, but it appears to do non-integer scaling with no real smoothing, so it's slightly rough, but not ugly.

 

The biggest disappointment is that there doesn't appear to be any way to adjust dip switches or operator settings for the arcade games.

 

There's an SD card slot on the back of the device, though it's officially supposed to be used for firmware updates, and there's nothing in the menu to load ROMs from the card. But here's the kicker:

 

https://i.imgur.com/6Qcs4B1.jpg

 

This thing runs Android! If you open up the case (use a PH0 on the four screws underneath the rubber feet), you'll see a tiny surface-mount pushbutton nestled between the HDMI and microUSB ports. Hold down that button and power on the machine to be taken to the bootloader menu. From here, there appear to be various means of installing updates and/or software packages, but I'm not enough of an Android hax0r to do anything productive with this. But considering how easy that was to find, I'd be surprised if we weren't able to install custom emulators and have huge ROM collections on an SD card in short order.

 

The real head-scratcher here is Tetris. It's the old Famicom version of the game from Bulletproof, where you have to press up to rotate, A or B to hard drop, and there's no soft drop. The Tetris Company is generally pretty strict about how Tetris is presented these days, meaning games have to conform with a set of gameplay and cosmetic details that make up what's known as the "Tetris guideline". And this one definitely doesn't conform. No idea how AtGames got it on here.

[Bill Loguidice]

The real head-scratcher here is Tetris. It's the old Famicom version of the game from Bulletproof, where you have to press up to rotate, A or B to hard drop, and there's no soft drop. The Tetris Company is generally pretty strict about how Tetris is presented these days, meaning games have to conform with a set of gameplay and cosmetic details that make up what's known as the "Tetris guideline". And this one definitely doesn't conform. No idea how AtGames got it on here.

 

It's not exactly like the original Famicom version, but yes, I admit it's an odd choice. Perhaps because it's the very first console version (fitting the "Legends" concept).

[+DamonicFury]

I'm interested in the Legends Flashback, but it's going to have to wait... NeoGeo mini and C64 mini are ahead of it in line, as is the already pre-ordered PS1 Mini. (And I feel like I haven't really dug into the NES and SNES minis yet either!) Are we approaching the mini-console saturation point yet? I actually really like these things (who knew what the humble original Atari Flashback would spawn back in 2004?), but there sure seems to be lots and lots of them coming out now!

[onmode-ky]

Well, the 2004 Atari Flashback was the first popular modern plug-n-play system with support for simultaneous 2-player gaming, but its own existence (and that of other 2004 entries into the market) was a response to the surprise popularity of Jakks Pacific's 2003 plug-n-play line, made up of their Atari (10-in-1 joystick--actually from 2002), Namco I (Pac-Man-headlined 5-in-1), and SpongeBob SquarePants TV Games systems. I think Techno Source's first NOAC-based Intellivision plug-n-play systems were also 2003, but most likely, it was the Atari and Namco brandings that put the plug-n-play category on the map. It wasn't actually a brand new category, of course, with bootlegs and Toymax's 2001 Activision system predating the gold rush, not to mention the 1975-1977 home Pong fad.

 

I just picked up the Arcade Legends one tonight.

Can you confirm that the game selection is the same as what Bill's ArmchairArcade.com post lists? His post is the word from AtGames, but it's always best to get a confirmation from a unit obtained from the actual retail channels.

 

Also . . . if you have the time, could you check the system and split the game list into arcade/NES/Genesis?

 

One last request, much quicker than the previous one: try fooling around with booting up the system while holding down various combinations of buttons, to see if you can figure out what the key sequence is to boot into the debug/test mode. We've been able to do that on past Atari Flashbacks (power on while holding Start and Select) and FB Portables, which has helped ID the underlying hardware. Of course, if you're game for a deep dive, you could also just open up your system shell and check out the PCB directly, but I recognize that that might be going a bit far with a pricey new toy.

 

Any info at all would be greatly appreciated, though. My local Walmart has none of the 2018 AtGames lineup yet.

 

onmode-ky

[davidbrit2]

Well, the 2004 Atari Flashback was the first popular modern plug-n-play system with support for simultaneous 2-player gaming, but its own existence (and that of other 2004 entries into the market) was a response to the surprise popularity of Jakks Pacific's 2003 plug-n-play line, made up of their Atari (10-in-1 joystick--actually from 2002), Namco I (Pac-Man-headlined 5-in-1), and SpongeBob SquarePants TV Games systems. I think Techno Source's first NOAC-based Intellivision plug-n-play systems were also 2003, but most likely, it was the Atari and Namco brandings that put the plug-n-play category on the map. It wasn't actually a brand new category, of course, with bootlegs and Toymax's 2001 Activision system predating the gold rush, not to mention the 1975-1977 home Pong fad.

 

 

Can you confirm that the game selection is the same as what Bill's ArmchairArcade.com post lists? His post is the word from AtGames, but it's always best to get a confirmation from a unit obtained from the actual retail channels.

Yes, as far as I can tell, Bill's list matches my unit exactly.

 

Also . . . if you have the time, could you check the system and split the game list into arcade/NES/Genesis?

NES: Mega Man, Mega Man 2, Tetris (Famicom version)

Genesis: Champions World Class Soccer, Judge Dredd, Phelios

 

Everything else is the arcade version, at least according to the menu. I haven't tested everything yet.

 

One thing I did notice is that the audio in Edward Randy is absolutely awful. The game seemed to play okay otherwise.

 

One last request, much quicker than the previous one: try fooling around with booting up the system while holding down various combinations of buttons, to see if you can figure out what the key sequence is to boot into the debug/test mode. We've been able to do that on past Atari Flashbacks (power on while holding Start and Select) and FB Portables, which has helped ID the underlying hardware. Of course, if you're game for a deep dive, you could also just open up your system shell and check out the PCB directly, but I recognize that that might be going a bit far with a pricey new toy.

Reread my last post.

 

tl;dr recap: Yes, there's a button mounted on the motherboard. If you open up the case and hold it down while powering on, you'll be taken to an Android bootloader. From there, you appear to be able to install/flash things either via SD card or ADB sideload. I don't know if any data lines are brought out to the microUSB charging port; my computer didn't show anything connected.

[negative1]

very sad, and typical news.

 

concerning the new namco flashback blast.

Avoid the walmart exclusive one at all cost.

 

It's just the NES versions, and not the arcade ones.

Just tried it out, and same with pac-mania.

 

The box is very misleading, as it shows screenshots

from the arcade versions.

 

Typical. What a waste.

 

Hopefully, the regular one shown here isn't messed up either.

 

Returning it as we speak. I can't stand the NES versions.

 

later

-1

Edited October 17, 2018 by negative1