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Massive Atari collection for iPhone launches tonight


Flojomojo

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I got mine last night and I would say it has been done vary nicely, but the controls are a bit difficult. I would say that this would be a total WIN on the iPad, as it has a much larger screen and can be attached to one of these:

 

post-29022-0-21532200-1302213548_thumb.jpg

 

 

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e762/

 

Not sure if the Atari app is compatible with the iPad or this cabinet, but if it is I would certainly buy it!

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For $15 what the hell, right?

 

On my iPad now, and I have to say, it's great. I have a lot to check out still, but what I have played is really impressive. Great menu system, and hey, the 2600 is #1 in the iPad store!

 

I love the fact that Atari is still getting the love it deserves.

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I ordered and have been playing bait on my iPad. It's pretty decent however controlling the games with the on-screen joystick is lousy. iPad desperately needs some sort of external game controller.

 

 

agreed

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[*]The 2600 box scans are from AtariAge, but I didn't see any mention of that in the credits.

 

Actually only about 1/3 of them are. Another 1/3 come from my personal collection (look for the multilingual manuals :) and the 2600 itself) and the last 3rd from Mike Mika. As to the credit... oops! They were credited when used in the DS version. I'll see what I can do to rectify that.

Edited by JeffVav
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Hey guys... I haven't been around here in ages but this HAD to bring me back. I had suspected for months that a set like this was in the works (ever since the original Centipede, Super Breakout and Missile Command apps disappeared from the App Store).

 

Short review: it's not perfect, but it's still incredible to finally have all of these games in my pocket wherever I go.

 

Long review: I wrote a 2500-word blog entry about it today! http://blog.room34.com/archives/4647

 

@JeffVav: It's cool to have someone who worked on the set here on the forum. Nice work overall! But maybe I can bend your ear on possible improvements for the future... especially the 2600 control modification I suggest near the end of the blog post!

 

Now I need to go play some more Tempest...

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Long review: I wrote a 2500-word blog entry about it today! http://blog.room34.com/archives/4647

 

@JeffVav: It's cool to have someone who worked on the set here on the forum. Nice work overall! But maybe I can bend your ear on possible improvements for the future... especially the 2600 control modification I suggest near the end of the blog post!

 

Thanks! It was quite a detailed analysis. I appreciate that.

 

A couple things you mentioned: Save Mary is the only game in this line-up that differs from the DS line-up, replacing BASIC Programming. BASIC Programming on iOS just wouldn't have been a very sensible experience.

 

As to forming a D-pad anchored wherever you touch the screen, FWIW, we had that in early design tests and it was voted down. I think we tried out about 8 different control schemes that were ultimately abandoned. In any case, we're definitely listening to the response on controls.

 

On the soundtrack, the longer version of the music was a fusion of modern and retro sounds (it evolves into it) but it had to be shortened to keep our download size down. That was the design principle behind the interface too.

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Thanks for checking out my post. A couple more comments on the 2600 controls (since I was just playing it): the d-pad on the joystick games feels too sensitive. It's hard on some games to keep from flying all over the place. I notice this especially on Home Run and Yars' Revenge. Conversely, the paddle slider could be a tad MORE sensitive. Super Breakout would be easier if I didn't have to slide quite so far.

 

Last comment... computer players on 1-player games seem broken: they just mimic whatever you do. I noticed this on Basketball and Warlords.

 

Still, complaints aside... I love this. And I gave it a 4-star review in the App Store. Sorry about all of the boneheads there giving it 1 star because it doesn't have Galaga.

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[*]The 2600 box scans are from AtariAge, but I didn't see any mention of that in the credits.

Not surprised, pretty lame.

 

I know, it's not ideal. It's not as bad as it sounds though. I have had no problem with it anyway.

Half of the nearly 600 reviews (as I write this) gave it one star, mostly for the controls.

 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ataris-greatest-hits/id422966028?mt=8

 

..Al

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Seems to me most of the 1-star reviews are actually because it doesn't have licensed games it COULDN'T have (and which often already ARE in the App Store) or because they're mad about in-app purchase game packs, even though that's clearly explained at the beginning of the description.

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[*]The 2600 box scans are from AtariAge, but I didn't see any mention of that in the credits.

Not surprised, pretty lame.

 

 

Hi Albert, no, no! I promise you that's being corrected as we speak. It was an honest mistake. We're putting in exactly the text we put in the DS version that you and I talked about. BTW, I emailed you about sending you copies of Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 on DS (the credit was in there!) back in December. Did you not receive it? I need an address...

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Hi Albert, no, no! I promise you that's being corrected as we speak. It was an honest mistake. We're putting in exactly the text we put in the DS version that you and I talked about. BTW, I emailed you about sending you copies of Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 on DS (the credit was in there!) back in December. Did you not receive it? I need an address...

Hi Jeff,

 

Thanks, much appreciated. I didn't realize you guys did this project until after I wrote my message, as I started hunting around so I could send an email (which I just did). Sorry for not responding to your email, I've been pretty hectic crazy since starting a new job back in November. I'll go hunt down your email now. Edit: Found it and responded..

 

..Al

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Last comment... computer players on 1-player games seem broken: they just mimic whatever you do. I noticed this on Basketball and Warlords.

 

They're not broken. You're playing a 4-player game (in Warlords) or a 2-player game (in Basketball) without networking. It should say "All Players" next to the controls indicating that you are controlling all players. It was either that or the other players did nothing at all when you weren't networked, and that would make Combat even more dull. Use Game Select to select a 1-player game.

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Seems to me most of the 1-star reviews are actually because it doesn't have licensed games it COULDN'T have (and which often already ARE in the App Store) or because they're mad about in-app purchase game packs, even though that's clearly explained at the beginning of the description.

You're right, after reading more there are many reasons people don't like it, and many of them aren't fair. I don't think giving a poor review because of in-app purchases is fair, or that certain games weren't included. After all, it's a FREE app and nobody is twisting your arm to buy the games once you download it. And there is a clear list of games in the description, so again, no real surprises there. Some are complaining about the borders on Pong, which is a legitimate complaint and I'm sure easily fixed. Personally I think $14.99 is reasonable in order to play 100 emulated Atari arcade and 2600 games on your iPad/iPhone/iPod, as long as the controls are reasonably well thought out for all the games. I'll reserve judgment until I can spend some time trying it out. Does seem like this would be something good to post to the front page of AtariAge, though.. :ponder:

 

..Al

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Some are complaining about the borders on Pong, which is a legitimate complaint and I'm sure easily fixed.

 

I warned my contacts at Atari about Pong. So many people are unfamiliar with the actual original 1972 Pong. It had "bugs" (not really bugs, since the thing is built on TTL not software). We create games exactly, so we recreated these behaviours. So, for example, the paddles would cut off at raster row 256, but the ball would reach row 262. The ball is only 4 pixels high, so could sneak past the paddle at the bottom corner. Likewise, the pots weren't tuned such that the paddles could reach the top of the screen. They came up about 10 pixels short. So, again, the ball could sneak by. Third quirk: the ball wouldn't bounce until it touched the bottom of the screen, so you would see it blip on the bottom for a frame as it wrapped around from the top. You can turn off this behaviour and have the paddles reach the full scope (see Settings) but I'm adamant that arcade authentic behaviour be the default mode "out of the box". (It's bad enough Pong has an AI at all -- borrowed from Video Olympics -- because the arcade Pong never did.)

 

Back when we did the Nintendo DS releases I actually had to write a document that went out with review copies explaining to the press that these were not bugs in the recreation so please don't say we did a bad job because of this. :) No such luxury for user-based reviews on iTunes.

 

I actually want to add a disclaimer to future updates informing the user (just once) that the quirks are intentional. If they still don't read it, there's not much I can do.

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I actually want to add a disclaimer to future updates informing the user (just once) that the quirks are intentional. If they still don't read it, there's not much I can do.

That's very interesting about Pong, thanks for the explanation. As you said, most people are not going to understand that these quirks replicate behavior of the original game, so they're going to blame you for a "poor" implementation based on what they expect in their mind (and perhaps the behavior of most home Pong/TV Tennis games that people played in the 70s). Your idea of a "disclaimer" that appears the first time you play Pong is a good once and should alleviate many of the complaints of this nature. Another idea is to give people the option to play the game as originally intended (with quirks) or play a slightly "enhanced' version that fixes these quirks.

 

..Al

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=

I know, it's not ideal. It's not as bad as it sounds though. I have had no problem with it anyway.

Half of the nearly 600 reviews (as I write this) gave it one star, mostly for the controls.

 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ataris-greatest-hits/id422966028?mt=8

 

..Al

 

I was referring to on-screen controls on iOS in general, not specifically this collection. I don't even have a device current enough to play this, but since I'll probably pick up an iPad 2 soon, I'll probably go ahead and buy this anyway.

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Last comment... computer players on 1-player games seem broken: they just mimic whatever you do. I noticed this on Basketball and Warlords.

 

They're not broken. You're playing a 4-player game (in Warlords) or a 2-player game (in Basketball) without networking. It should say "All Players" next to the controls indicating that you are controlling all players. It was either that or the other players did nothing at all when you weren't networked, and that would make Combat even more dull. Use Game Select to select a 1-player game.

 

I did notice that in one game (can't remember which one), but in Basketball I specifically noted that it said "1 player" on the game select screen ("Console" overlay). (Then again, I seem to remember the 1-player version of Basketball being game variation 2, but this was variation 1.) I'll have to check more closely... but if this isn't a bug, then there may be some incorrect or misleading text on the game select screen.

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Some are complaining about the borders on Pong, which is a legitimate complaint and I'm sure easily fixed.

 

I warned my contacts at Atari about Pong. So many people are unfamiliar with the actual original 1972 Pong. It had "bugs" (not really bugs, since the thing is built on TTL not software). We create games exactly, so we recreated these behaviours. So, for example, the paddles would cut off at raster row 256, but the ball would reach row 262. The ball is only 4 pixels high, so could sneak past the paddle at the bottom corner. Likewise, the pots weren't tuned such that the paddles could reach the top of the screen. They came up about 10 pixels short. So, again, the ball could sneak by. Third quirk: the ball wouldn't bounce until it touched the bottom of the screen, so you would see it blip on the bottom for a frame as it wrapped around from the top. You can turn off this behaviour and have the paddles reach the full scope (see Settings) but I'm adamant that arcade authentic behaviour be the default mode "out of the box". (It's bad enough Pong has an AI at all -- borrowed from Video Olympics -- because the arcade Pong never did.)

 

Back when we did the Nintendo DS releases I actually had to write a document that went out with review copies explaining to the press that these were not bugs in the recreation so please don't say we did a bad job because of this. :) No such luxury for user-based reviews on iTunes.

 

I actually want to add a disclaimer to future updates informing the user (just once) that the quirks are intentional. If they still don't read it, there's not much I can do.

 

I wish all of the 1-star reviewers on the App Store could (wait, I mean WOULD, since of course they COULD) read this before complaining. First of all, it humanizes the faceless entities that produce apps, but more importantly, it shows how much care and attention to detail DID go into this game. Do I think it's perfect? No. But a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's incredibly hard to find a good way to translate the experience of some of these games to a small, handheld, touchscreen device with no physical controls. That aside, you and your team clearly do know what you're doing, and you care about the quality and authenticity of the experience. (And I hope the review I wrote on my blog, before I'd been back here to see what was going on in the forums, conveys that respect adequately, despite any criticisms I give.)

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What... no Android OS version? Its not that android is better... its just not Apple... and Im already enough of a douchebag as it is without owning an apple product to compound it. ;)

 

BAZINGA!

 

You can use emulators like Droid2600 or Atariod if you're using Android OS.

 

I do hope there will be an Android version of this in the future though, multiplayer via Bluetooth would be cool!

 

I'm not very good at using an on-screen D-pad so I'm going to get a Zeemote (tiny Bluetooth joystick) soon.

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Last comment... computer players on 1-player games seem broken: they just mimic whatever you do. I noticed this on Basketball and Warlords.

 

They're not broken. You're playing a 4-player game (in Warlords) or a 2-player game (in Basketball) without networking. It should say "All Players" next to the controls indicating that you are controlling all players. It was either that or the other players did nothing at all when you weren't networked, and that would make Combat even more dull. Use Game Select to select a 1-player game.

 

I did notice that in one game (can't remember which one), but in Basketball I specifically noted that it said "1 player" on the game select screen ("Console" overlay). (Then again, I seem to remember the 1-player version of Basketball being game variation 2, but this was variation 1.) I'll have to check more closely... but if this isn't a bug, then there may be some incorrect or misleading text on the game select screen.

 

I just double checked. For the 2-player game, it says "1: 2-Player Game" with "All Players" next to the controls when playing, and you control both. For the 1-player game, it says "2: 1-Player vs. Computer" with "Player 1" next to the controls, and the AI plays correctly. Perhaps the "1: 2 ..." and "2: 1 ..." label was confusing at a glance? The number before the colon is the game variation.

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Tried it again today and you're right. But I noticed something else... even on the correct 1-player game, the AI moves player 2, but you can still force it to shoot by pressing the button. Was the original that way and I just never noticed?

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I hope the review I wrote on my blog, before I'd been back here to see what was going on in the forums, conveys that respect adequately, despite any criticisms I give.

 

That's what I like about hanging out on AtariAge. I enjoy best the critique from people who understand what it was striving to be. Of course we want to know what we can do to make things better. When, say, we did the Nintendo DS compilation, I wouldn't expect rave reviews, but I'd always read more carefully the ones from people who were admitted retrogamers. If you're not the audience, there's nothing I can do to help you appreciate it.

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