Publisher Thoughts #3: Atari (Launch Titles)

[the_wizard_666]

Here we go with round #3. You all know what the idea is - these are my first thoughts upon playing these titles for the first time. There are no preconceptions of the games here - I have no nostalgia glasses to work around. Also, I haven't played any of these long enough for them to "grow on me." The average play time per variation is around 5 minutes or so, enough for one or two runs through. So if I slag on one of your favorites, feel free to tell me! Also, I'm playing solo, at least until I have a friend willing to play some of these games, so I do accept that some may be infinitely better when not playing against the computer.

 

With regard to the scoring, remember again that 5/10 is a plain old average game, and as such even a 3 or 4 out of 10 isn't necessarily terrible, so please don't take a lower score as hatred for the game. Even some of my personal favorites on other systems would only warrant a score of 3 or 4.

 

Anyway, here's my take on the Atari launch games!

 

AIR-SEA BATTLE: I actually had a lot of fun with this one. I didn't like the Polaris vs Bomber variations much, so that would hinder the score a bit, but overall the Anti-Aircraft and Torpedo variants were a ton of fun, as were the Polaris and Bomber modes. Even Shooting Gallery was sorta okay. Note that I played the Sears version, Target Fun, although as far as I'm aware there are no real differences involved. I would also really like to play this with a buddy sometime...could be great fun! Overall: 7/10

 

BASIC MATH: I don't currently own this. I can't imagine it'll be much good, but in fairness I will hold off rating it until I can actually fire it up.

 

BLACKJACK: I fired it up thinking I was gonna play it for a couple minutes and stop. An hour later I was still going strong! While it's nothing spectacular...it IS just a game of blackjack after all...it does a pretty good job. Props as well for the only game that my wonky paddle controllers would co-operate with, being that it doesn't require precision movements or anything. It's far from perfect...there's no option to split your hand if you draw pairs, for example...but overall it does what it sets out to do. Overall: 5/10

 

COMBAT: Oh man, I really was looking forward to firing this one up. Alas, there's no solo variations, and I don't have many Atari-playing friends. I'll update this whenever I have a friend willing to play it.

 

INDY 500: I think the best thing I could say is that at least I know my driving controller works. Not a very good solo experience, although I do think the variations where you chase down the dots could be interesting with a friend. Alas, I only have one driving controller, so it may be some time before I can try it with a friend. As it is, I'll probably never fire it up again, unless I get another driving controller. Overall: 3/10

 

STAR SHIP: I really wanted to like this one, but alas I just can't. It plays decently, controls are responsive, and everything works as it should, but it just wasn't very fun. The Lunar Lander varation was alright, but not enough to bump up my overall score by much. Overall: 2/10

 

STREET RACER: Unfortunately, unlike Blackjack, this won't work very well with wonky paddles. I'll have to come back to it once I get around to repairing some paddles.

 

SURROUND: Now, this isn't a terrible game, but it's just kinda blah. I mean, there's nothing here that stands out and makes me say "Yes, I like this!" It controls decently, and everything works as it should, it's just not much fun. Overall: 4/10

 

VIDEO OLYMPICS: Again, my borked paddles are preventing me from firing this one up. That said, it looks like just another Pong clone. I'm not expecting much, but I've been pleasantly surprised before.

 

OVERALL: I was hoping to have a near-complete overview of the launch titles, but I just couldn't get a good set of paddles working. Add that to Combat's multiplayer-only setup and I'm left with only 5 of the 9 releases to go by. While every game I played looks positively archaic, they all played reasonably well. Even games that I didn't particularly like were solid enough that I can't say to avoid anything. Even Star Ship, which I personally didn't much care for, still plays well and likely has a few fans out there that thoroughly enjoy it. While the lineup isn't stellar (at least from a solo gaming perspective), it's not terrible either. I honestly think there's something here for every gamer, which makes for a decent, if unremarkable, lineup. Overall: 5/10

 

So what do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Have a suggestion for the next batch of games for me to fire up? You know the drill!

 

Previous threads:

#2: CBS ELECTRONICS

#1: COLECO

[Flojomojo]

You've GOT to find an Atari pal, because playing these solo is kinda missing the point. Good effort at completeness, though!!

[the_wizard_666]

I have a few, it's just a matter of schedules. I'll get there sometime though, don't you worry And yeah, some of these are pretty danged terrible solo.

[reklen]

I don't understand why you would attempt this without working paddles, two driving controllers, or all of the games. It's like saying you are going to review all the Marx brothers movies, but only have four of them. You need to play all the games, with different people in order to review them properly. I've played all the games, in my opinion only Street Racer, Surround, and Starship are dogs. The rest are great. Video Olympics is probably the best Pong Collection. Blackjack is good for what it is, probably was great in 1977, but not a favorite. Air-Sea Battle, Combat, and Indy 500 are just as fun now as they were then. Four out of nine are great games, a pretty good launch in my opinion, remember this predates Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac-Man, even
​Donkey Kong.

[the_wizard_666]

I don't understand why you would attempt this without working paddles, two driving controllers, or all of the games. It's like saying you are going to review all the Marx brothers movies, but only have four of them. You need to play all the games, with different people in order to review them properly. I've played all the games, in my opinion only Street Racer, Surround, and Starship are dogs. The rest are great. Video Olympics is probably the best Pong Collection. Blackjack is good for what it is, probably was great in 1977, but not a favorite. Air-Sea Battle, Combat, and Indy 500 are just as fun now as they were then. Four out of nine are great games, a pretty good launch in my opinion, remember this predates Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac-Man, even ​Donkey Kong.

 

Well, hopefully this clarifies things a bit. First, while the ratings on the individual games is static, the ratings on the overall is not. I won't review a publisher that I don't have at least half the games for because it doesn't give a fair impression. As for the games that I can't play for one reason or another, rest assured that I will be revisiting them, adding a score, and reranking the publisher's overall score if necessary. I will also be playing the multiplayer games with a friend and adding a "second thoughts" section under the original review score. I want to keep my initial solo thoughts as a separate entity rather than replacing them. In this case, I've played 5 of the 9 titles, meaning that I've played enough of the games to have a general idea whether the rest will be good or not...with a 5/10 being average, my thought is that when grabbing a launch game, you've got a 50% chance of having a good time with it. I think I may have to add a separate "multiplayer" score though...as you mentioned, many of the games are designed with multiplayer in mind. That all said, saying that you can't rate them because they're better with a friend is a pretty bad argument when all but Combat have single player modes built into them. If they were only meant to be played with a friend, they wouldn't have those, now would they?

 

Anyway, despite the "low" scores (which I don't feel are entirely bad...as mentioned, some of my personal favorite games will objectively only score a 3 or 4 out of 10), the only game I can't see myself firing up again would be Star Ship. I doubt I'll ever play many of them again solo, but almost every game seems like it'll be at least as good, if not better, with a friend. I fully intend to explore that aspect at a later date, and as mentioned, I will update each listing accordingly with another sentence or two and, if necessary, a second score. These are simply meant as first impressions, not full reviews. Damn near every game has already been reviewed to death, but how many have had someone who's had limited experience with the system give their thoughts on them without nostalgia or other peoples' opinions clouding their views?

 

Speaking of multiplayer, I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine who's really into Atari games and will likely be coming by this weekend. I'll be working on getting a pair of paddles ready to go by then, as well as getting the chance to play some multiplayer rounds on a few games for all three threads. And with luck I'll have a package delivered by then, which contains a couple games for publishers that I've already gone through.