Atari Flashback Classics for the XB1/PS4

[Flojomojo]

 

How would you even do that?

Get shot by saucers.

[moycon]

Get shot by saucers.

When you say this, do you mean the saucers have to destroy all the asteroids? The achievement says " Go an entire level with a score of zero" so I guess the saucers would have to clear the asteroids? If so that would be hard for sure!!

[Flojomojo]

I misunderstood -- I thought the goal was to end a game with zero points, which would still be plenty difficult.

 

I'll give both things a try. It sounds very hard indeed.

[moycon]

I misunderstood -- I thought the goal was to end a game with zero points, which would still be plenty difficult.

 

I'll give both things a try. It sounds very hard indeed.

The only way it might be feasible (well i mean other than being an absolute Asteroids GOD) was if you can enable cheats and give yourself like 256 lives to start. Some of the games can be tweaked so it's possible.

[RawSteelUT]

Been playin' them myself. Without a paddle or trackball for the Xbone, playing Pong or Super Breakout is a bit of a chore.

[negative1]

Been playin' them myself. Without a paddle or trackball for the Xbone, playing Pong or Super Breakout is a bit of a chore.

 

as i mentioned above in my other posts, there are alternate options. i have used paddles and trackballs, and it does help quite a bit.

 

still have to adjust the sensitivity and other settings to get them to work.

 

later

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[mckafka99]

Have Xbox One S versions and havent had a lot of time to test/troubleshoot but I am seeing/hearing with the 2600 games that there seems tobe a small delay between an action and a sound such as a 'press of a button and a fire sound' or when the ball bounces off the bumpers or goes over the roll overs in Video Pinball. Anyone else experienced this?

[jdollatari]

i bought the first volume for 10 with my gold account on xbox one and pong is impossible. enjoying some tempest and black widow though. even at 10 its a bit overpriced 5-7 would be better

[slab0meat]

Pong, Warlords, Sprint, anything like that, I find difficult where I give up almost immediately, using a regular controller.

 

And that Asteroids achievement is probably one of the craziest. I can't imagine too many people ever doing that.

[Major Havoc 2049]

Have Xbox One S versions and havent had a lot of time to test/troubleshoot but I am seeing/hearing with the 2600 games that there seems tobe a small delay between an action and a sound such as a 'press of a button and a fire sound' or when the ball bounces off the bumpers or goes over the roll overs in Video Pinball. Anyone else experienced this?

Of the 2600 games, I've played a bunch of Yars' Revenge and Video Pinball. Emulation is never as tight as the original hardware, but for the two games I mentioned above, the emulation is fairly tight and the games are very playable. Like always, it's the non-joystick games that have issues, with maybe the exception of Centipede and Millipede.

[Atariboy]

Did you try the alternate control option for Sprint and Indy 500?

 

Instead of turning left and right with the analog stick which just doesn't work well at all, the direction you point at is instead the direction you'll move towards. These two end up very playable then and if anything, it almost feels like cheating since it works so well.

 

I'd love to see a future Midway compilation clone this for Super Sprint and Championship Sprint. Heck, even the slower paced examples that I personally view as playable in modern compilations with an analog stick, like Super Off-Road and Badlands, probably would also benefit.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Atariboy

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Did you try the alternate control option for Sprint and Indy 500?

 

Instead of turning left and right with the analog stick which just doesn't work well at all, the direction you point at is instead the direction you'll move towards. These two end up very playable then and if anything, it almost feels like cheating since it works so well.

 

I'd love to see a future Midway compilation clone this for Super Sprint and Championship Sprint. Heck, even the slower paced examples that I personally view as playable in modern compilations with an analog stick, like Super Off-Road and Badlands, probably would also benefit.

 

That's the only way I can play those games. Not ideal, I'd rather use a wheel, but they work.

[moycon]

I need to play these two collections more. Damn Skyrim got me sucked in again.

I have managed to collect a few of the achievements. Still need the beat Adventure #1 in 40 seconds chieve. I think my best so far was like 43 seconds.

[+bcombee]

I've played both sets on my Xbox One.

 

For the arcade games, I found the background music in Crystal Castles kept dropping for me, and the controls were too difficult to use. It really needs a track ball or to be slowed down. For arcade games, I found Tempest played fine, although the controller didn't have the sensitivity to play well. I had much more fun with Black Widow and Major Havok. Missile Command played well also, but the control wasn't good also.

 

I tried a few 2600 games -- I went for the target fun achievement in Air-Sea Battle and found it worked pretty well. I tried Circus Atari too, and the default paddle control was terrible, although I see there's likely a tweak to make it better.

[moycon]

One thing that I think would have made this collection better for modern fans (and I believe it was mentioned before) would have been to have included achievements for every game, similar to the Genesis collection released a few years back.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

By the way, both collections are on sale for $13.50 (each) if you have PS+ right now.

[Agent X]

Are there PS Vita versions in the works? I was looking at a friend's PSN trophies for these collections, and both trophy lists are labeled with PS4 and PS Vita tags.

[BillLoguidice]

Are there PS Vita versions in the works? I was looking at a friend's PSN trophies for these collections, and both trophy lists are labeled with PS4 and PS Vita tags.

 

No. And future volumes are still planned to target just Xbox One, PS4, and, in some cases, PC. There's a wait and see approach to Nintendo Switch, obviously.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

There's a wait and see approach to Nintendo Switch, obviously.

WiiU all over again already? That's gotta be the fastest a console's been written off in history.

[BillLoguidice]

WiiU all over again already? That's gotta be the fastest a console's been written off in history.

Not really. This is not the type of product that would necessarily do well without a healthy install base, plus it's difficult for the companies' involved to take risks. So, if the Switch proves a success and has the type of momentum that the Wii U lacked, then it would make sense to support it. We should know later this year.

 

I really don't think that type of approach has to apply to other companies or other products. Again, this is the type of product that requires a sizable install base. It doesn't necessarily have broad appeal.

 

With the above in mind, I would bet some third parties are hesitant given Nintendo's recent track record.

[Agent X]

 

No. And future volumes are still planned to target just Xbox One, PS4, and, in some cases, PC. There's a wait and see approach to Nintendo Switch, obviously.

 

I figured that it wouldn't be coming to Vita, as you had mentioned that earlier. I suppose I was still holding out a shred of hope.

 

It's curious that the trophies are tagged with "PS Vita", though. It makes me wonder if a Vita version was planned at some point (even if those plans were ultimately scrapped).

 

Anyway, since both of the PS4 collections were on sale on PSN, I decided to take the plunge, and purchased them earlier this morning. I haven't tried them out yet, but I'll report back here with my thoughts, once I put in some quality time.

[Agent X]

Not really. This is not the type of product that would necessarily do well without a healthy install base, plus it's difficult for the companies' involved to take risks. So, if the Switch proves a success and has the type of momentum that the Wii U lacked, then it would make sense to support it. We should know later this year.

 

I really don't think that type of approach has to apply to other companies or other products. Again, this is the type of product that requires a sizable install base. It doesn't necessarily have broad appeal.

 

With the above in mind, I would bet some third parties are hesitant given Nintendo's recent track record.

 

Good points. I understand why Atari and everyone else involved might have to take a "wait and see" stance.

 

Without delving further into the potential "viability" of the Switch, I'd say that (from what we know about the system so far) the Switch seems like it could be very well suited to a classic game collection.

 

There's a certain allure to having Atari's arcade and 2600 games in portable form. The Switch design bears some resemblance to a classic two-player arcade cocktail cabinet. The detachable Joy-Cons would be like having a pair of controllers readily available for head-to-head fun.

 

I think many of these games could have broad appeal, if marketed properly. After all, many of Atari's video games were among the first to have mass appeal in the dawn of the industry, and are still recognized today.

 

I hope the companies involved continue to explore the possibility of bringing it to this system. It would be good to see something like this early in the system's life, where it'll have more of a chance of being noticed among a (relatively) smaller pool of software.

[BillLoguidice]

 

I figured that it wouldn't be coming to Vita, as you had mentioned that earlier. I suppose I was still holding out a shred of hope.

 

It's curious that the trophies are tagged with "PS Vita", though. It makes me wonder if a Vita version was planned at some point (even if those plans were ultimately scrapped).

 

I don't know why it was tagged that. There was never a Vita version planned. We always planned the first two volumes as PS4 and Xbox One, which were the only two viable platforms at the time (the PC was already served with those games by Atari Vault).

[boog]

Is there any data on the total number sold for these compilations so far? Or which platform is selling best?

 

The leaderboards are pretty sparse on PS4, and there are only 427 owners of vol. 1 and 311 owners of vol. 2 being tracked on psnprofiles. Psnprofiles only tracks a fraction of PS4 owners but those numbers still seem pretty low.

[negative1]

Is there any data on the total number sold for these compilations so far? Or which platform is selling best?

 

The leaderboards are pretty sparse on PS4, and there are only 427 owners of vol. 1 and 311 owners of vol. 2 being tracked on psnprofiles. Psnprofiles only tracks a fraction of PS4 owners but those numbers still seem pretty low.

 

the numbers are similar on the xbox one also. although that might not be completely accurate.

 

i know that a lot more were sold on steam for the pc though.

 

later

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