The Golden Age of Atari

[Lord Thag]

So, this isn't about what you probably think. I'm not talking about Imagic or Activision or 1982.

I'm talking about Atariage, now, in 2019.

I was sitting down this weekend with some of the new homebrews from PRGE (Galagon, Wizard of Wor, Baby Pacman) and just kind of shaking my head at how good they are, and how I never in a million years would have thought we'd be playing anything like this when I joined here back in 2004. Hell, even the near-mythical Zookeeper looks to be a thing reasonably soon.

I kinda looked over my shoulder at my cart collection and realized that I now have a whole shelf of Atari 2600 homebrews now. Not only that, but that shelf is pretty much always the one I go to when I grab a game to play these days. Star Castle, Space Rocks, Medieval Mayhem, Thrust, Mappy, Draconian..... and on and on. Dozens of A+ games. Sure I still play some of my favorite classics (a good game is a good game after all), but most of the time, I play homebrews these days. So much care, knowledge and love has gone into so many of these, and there are now more than I can count.

The Atariage homebrew library beats the pants of Activision and Imagic as a whole, just by sheer quantity of excellent games. There, I said it. But it's true.

So this is just a big thank you post: to the devs, the artists, the players/testers, writers, and, of course, Al for banding together for so many years to make this a thing. I mean, it's 2019. We have AI, we can grow organs in a printer, virtual reality is a thing you can buy at Walmart, and we have tablet PCs that make the Star Trek ones Picard used look like crap. It's the future!

Never in a million years would have expected in the 90s, when I started collecting, that the future would include a complete resurrection of one of my favorite consoles. This is truly the golden age of Atari games. And you know what?

We did that. And it's pretty damned awesome.
 

[Atarian7]

When I saw the title of the thread I thought it was going to be about the past.  I agree that now is the best time.  I enjoy my Atari 2600

now a lot more than I did as a kid.  One reason being that the games are much more affordable, so I can buy and play so many different games.

And of course: the homebrews are awesome. 

 

 Another awesome invention is the Harmony Encore cart.  Now I can play games before buying them or never buying them. 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Atarian7

[+adamchevy]

It is pretty amazing where the VCS is today. I would rather play homebrews and games on the VCS over any other console. Mainly because of the innovation that happened both in the beginning of Atari and what continues to happen today.
The 2600 is still a system that inspires programmers to want to make games for it. I don’t think any system could claim that with as much enthusiasm today. It even brings back programmers from its past.
It has such a great community around it as well!

[+cjherr]

Agreed. An outstanding time to be a VCS fan.

[+sramirez2008]

3 hours ago, Lord Thag said:

Sure I still play some of my favorite classics (a good game is a good game after all), but most of the time, I play homebrews these days.

This...

 

2 hours ago, adamchevy said:

It even brings back programmers from its past.

...and this! 

 

Both statements say it all.  Funny, a couple of us were discussing this exact topic at PRGE.  

[+TrekMD]

A golden age indeed!  Who would have though so so many years after the launch of a console meant to play Pong and Tank! 

[Atari2008]

This is such an awesome time to be a 2600 gamer. I love what all the homebrew programmers have done with our beloved console. 

[+sramirez2008]

Golden age for prototypes too.  Arkyology and Pursuit Of The Pink Panther are both pretty good (graphics and gameplay) games.

[Keatah]

On 10/23/2019 at 2:11 PM, adamchevy said:

The 2600 is still a system that inspires programmers to want to make games for it. I don’t think any system could claim that with as much enthusiasm today. It even brings back programmers from its past.
It has such a great community around it as well!

Next it will bring back programmers from the dead!

[Keatah]

On 10/23/2019 at 12:32 PM, Lord Thag said:

So, this isn't about what you probably think. I'm not talking about Imagic or Activision or 1982.

I'm talking about Atariage, now, in 2019..

Yes all that. One could easily say AtariAge is its own brand and developing/publishing house. A complete business built around the VCS. If not a business then at least a hobby.

 

On 10/23/2019 at 12:49 PM, Atarian7 said:

When I saw the title of the thread I thought it was going to be about the past.  I agree that now is the best time.  I enjoy my Atari 2600

now a lot more than I did as a kid.  One reason being that the games are much more affordable, so I can buy and play so many different games.

And of course: the homebrews are awesome. 

 

 Another awesome invention is the Harmony Encore cart.  Now I can play games before buying them or never buying them. 

It is notable they are also rather trouble-free. You plug it in and you play. No DRM or this-n-that online crap. In fact, you don't even need a VCS to play VCS games. Emulation for the console is rather complete.

 

18 hours ago, TrekMD said:

A golden age indeed!  Who would have though so so many years after the launch of a console meant to play Pong and Tank! 

And ONLY Pong and Tank. IIRC the VCS was originally going to have only 6 cartridges available. Pong, Tank, and variants of those like Shooting and Hockey or something. They also initially planned for a 2-3 year max lifespan and that was it!

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Keatah

[+adamchevy]

Next it will bring back programmers from the dead!