Deciphering the Atari 50th Anniversary Collection Game List

[Cousin Vinnie]

I spent some time going through that pretty pimp hype video pinpointing all of the games that will be included in this collection so far, and it looks like you can ID 40-41... there's a computer game I can't identify in one clip.

This isn't your typical nostalgic Atari cash grab... looks worth it so far. 

 

Besides Basketbrawl, the 7800 selection looks pretty boring. I'm also surprised that no one ever contacts you guys for your awesome Homebrews. Those would be so sweet to include in these things.

 

https://www.atari7800forever.com/atari50.html

 

PS: Im uploading three new reviews this week: Silverback tackles Sentinel, Meltdown, and Wizard's Dungeon 

[Jaden (JRH)]

The one that grabbed me the most was Swordquest: Airworld. It will probably be super underwhelming, but I guess it's cool that the game is finally being finished. It at least looks the part of the old Swordquest games, and it even looks like it has a map which is neat.

 

The 7800 selection is really lacking, which is lame. Come on, you can't even get Food Fight on here?

[+DrVenkman]

The preview video included the 2014 (I think?) A8 homebrew YOOMP! which is an awesome game. One of the authors confirmed that the game shown was theirs and “hoped” it would be possible to include it. Makes me think some of the titles - especially for homebrews that involved a team - might be hard to secure the rights from everyone to legally include.

[Cousin Vinnie]

3 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

The preview video included the 2014 (I think?) A8 homebrew YOOMP! which is an awesome game. One of the authors confirmed that the game shown was theirs and “hoped” it would be possible to include it. Makes me think some of the titles - especially for homebrews that involved a team - might be hard to secure the rights from everyone to legally include.

Good point.

[Cousin Vinnie]

19 hours ago, Jaden (JRH) said:

The one that grabbed me the most was Swordquest: Airworld. It will probably be super underwhelming, but I guess it's cool that the game is finally being finished. It at least looks the part of the old Swordquest games, and it even looks like it has a map which is neat.

 

The 7800 selection is really lacking, which is lame. Come on, you can't even get Food Fight on here?

I hope this is a much better game (ie more like Adventure) than crazy, weird, repetitive comic book puzzle thing like the other Swordquests. 

[AAA177]

Cousin Vinnie, do you think there would be any chance of seeing Midnight Mutants on this new product? 

[Cousin Vinnie]

19 hours ago, AAA177 said:

Cousin Vinnie, do you think there would be any chance of seeing Midnight Mutants on this new product? 

Sadly, I think there's an extremely little chance of that. The Munsters license will be tricky. Especially with the new movie coming out. 

 

Atari has sold many IPs of their best games for some reason over the years. It sucks for situations like this. 

 

I bought the Micro Center Atari Fight Stick in 2020 and the 7800 games were only 10 deep, and didn't feature Midnight Mutants. It did have all that I found in the video, Basketbrawl, Centipede, Asteroids, Scrapyard Dog, plus these:

 

 Dark Chambers
Fatal Run
Food Fight
Motor Psycho
Ninja Golf
Planet Smashers
 

That may be the crux of what we get 7800-wise. 

 

Still, thats a pretty good list IMO. Asteroids and Centipede are great versions with great two player options. Fatal Run is unique, Motor Psycho and Planet Smashers are 7800 only games. Ninja Golf is great and so is Basketbrawl. Scrapyard Dog is a decent 7800 only (besides handheld) platformer. Food Fight is great. I think Dark Chambers is better than what most people say about it- especially with two players. It's really only missing Tower Toppler (won't happen), Alien Brigade, Midnight Mutants (probably won't happen), and Desert Falcon for that complete 7800 unique flava. 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by Cousin Vinnie

[AAA177]

Thanks for the reply. That's too bad about the licensing issue. Too bad the company couldn't remove that aspect. Forgot about Desert Falcon, that would be a great one to have on the collection. 

[Cousin Vinnie]

1 hour ago, AAA177 said:

Thanks for the reply. That's too bad about the licensing issue. Too bad the company couldn't remove that aspect. Forgot about Desert Falcon, that would be a great one to have on the collection. 

Pretty good chance of that one... it was on the original Flashback. 

[+jeremiahjt]

1 hour ago, Cousin Vinnie said:

Sadly, I think there's an extremely little chance of that. The Munsters license will be tricky. Especially with the new movie coming out.

The Munsters' license would not be needed. The Munsters are never mentioned and Al Lewis's character is never called Grandpa Munster, only Grampa or whatever he is called. They would need to get permission from Al Lewis's estate or whomever though.  I guess that might be worried about Universal still trying to sue them though.

[Cousin Vinnie]

1 hour ago, jeremiahjt said:

The Munsters' license would not be needed. The Munsters are never mentioned and Al Lewis's character is never called Grandpa Munster, only Grampa or whatever he is called. They would need to get permission from Al Lewis's estate or whomever though.  I guess that might be worried about Universal still trying to sue them though.

right

[RJ]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:00 PM, Jaden (JRH) said:

The 7800 selection is really lacking, which is lame. Come on, you can't even get Food Fight on here?

I saw a preliminary list where i thought they had the ATARI 8-BIT version on there which would be a big mistake.

[Jaden (JRH)]

That's such an Atari thing to do, I wouldn't be surprised. But still, that's really disappointing. I can't imagine anything being wrong with the 7800 version specifically in terms of licensing and emulation. Maybe they chose the Atari 8-Bit version to be different, but different ain't always good.

[SearsRoebuck]

One of the other videos I saw footage of what I think was the arcade version of Food Fight (though the 7800 port is so good I could have been fooled). 

 

Was really hoping to see all these as another DLC in the Atari Vault though (they did one for 5200 + more arcade games), alot of this is retreading (except the 7800/jag stuff) of games that are already in that.  Would have liked to see Night Driver/Quack/Subs/Wolfpack and other Atari arcade games not listed before.

 

Probably I will still get it, especially if the arcade version of Food Fight is in it. 

 

A battle for another day - really wish the post-Warner Communications Atari/Midway arcade games were under the same license - would be great to see an Atari Vault with STUN Runner, Marble Madness 1 + 2, and the later games. 

Edited July 12, 2022 by SearsRoebuck

[Atariboy]

They've never said "only one version per title" for this collection. So just because we see the 8-bit computer version in the game menu doesn't mean that that's the only version present.

 

There's no gameplay video of Food Fight that I can see in the reveal trailer (Which is the only footage we have to go by at the moment), but I wouldn't put much stock in that area anyways. We already know of one slip up that the video editor made when putting it together, grabbing footage likely off YouTube of Asteroids Deluxe for the Atari ST when we've already had Digital Eclipse confirm that there's no ST content.

 

They possibly got fooled into thinking that it was the 7800 version of Asteroids by the cratered appearance of the asteroids, but it shows that the person put in charge of making the trailer didn't exactly have an eye for details and that we shouldn't base too much off what's shown unless it's obviously footage taken from the game build itself (Like all the menu footage). 

 

I sadly don't know if the arcade original will make it (I wouldn't be surprised to see that again remain an exclusive to Microsoft's defunct Game Room service for the Xbox 360), but I'd personally bet on the 7800 port of Food Fight also making an appearance here. Atari SA doesn't exactly have a lot of 7800 IP available to them here without licensing outside content and with the new platforms like the 7800 being one of their big draws here, I don't see them holding back on any available 7800, Lynx, or Jaguar content that's free and clear for them to include.

 

Especially when it's probably the biggest gem for the platform that they have available to them, they'd be idiots to hold back on 7800 Food Fight. 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Atariboy

[Atariboy]

Here's my best attempt at a list based off the trailer. 

 

Atari 2600 (19 games)

• 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (Box montage shot at 0:43)  
• Adventure (Gameplay video & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Breakout (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Canyon Bomber (Gameplay video & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Combat (Gameplay video & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Dark Chambers (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Dodge 'Em (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Demons to Diamonds (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Haunted House (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Missile Command (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Outlaw (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Realsports Baseball (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Realsports Volleyball (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Surround (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Swordquest: Airworld (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Swordquest: Earthworld (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Swordquest: Waterworld (Menu appearance & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Warlords (Menu appearance & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Yars' Revenge (Menu appearance, gameplay video, & box montage shot at 0:43)

Atari 5200 (5 games)

• Bounty Bob Strikes Back (Menu appearance)
• Centipede (While seemingly absent in the game selection menu, a video clip from Atari's commercial for it is used at one point)
• Millipede (Menu appearance; Looks like a mockup box that's been made for the finished prototype utilizing the 2600 game's artwork)
• Star Raiders (Gameplay video & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Super Breakout (Box montage shot at 0:43)

Atari 7800 (4 games)

• Asteroids (Menu appearance & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Basketbrawl (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Centipede (Box montage shot at 0:43)
• Scrapyard Dog (Box montage shot at 0:43)

Atari 8-bit computers (4 games)

• ??? (Can't identify the box that you can just barely see the right side of at 0:53 next to Food Fight)
• Food Fight (Menu appearance)
• Miner 2049'er (Menu appearance)
• Yoomp! (Menu appearance)

Atari Lynx (1 game)

• Asteroids + Missile Command (Gameplay of Missile Command is used as a video underlay at one point)

Atari Jaguar (6 games)

• Atari Karts (Menu appearance, gameplay video, & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Cybermorph (Menu appearance, gameplay video, & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Fight for Life (Menu appearance, gameplay video, & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Missile Command 3D (Menu appearance)
• Tempest 2000 (Menu appearance, gameplay video, & box montage shot at 0:43)
• Trevor McFur (Menu appearance)

Arcade (5 games)

• Asteroids (Gameplay video)
• Centipede (Gameplay video)
• Major Havoc (Gameplay video & box montage shot at 0:43 shows poster for it)
• Pong (Gameplay video)
• Tempest (Box montage shot at 0:43 shows poster for it)

I didn't bother listing off the newly created games shown off in the trailer nor did I include Asteroids Deluxe for the ST. I also didn't list off any sightings from what appears to be the game's bonus area, since things like scans and interviews apparently aren't going to be restricted to only what's included in the collection in playable form (I believe Digital Eclipse said that on Twitter).

Edited July 12, 2022 by Atariboy

[Atariboy]

4 hours ago, Atariboy said:

Atari 8-bit computers (4 games)

• ??? (Can't identify the box that you can just barely see the right side of at 0:53 next to Food Fight)

It's Caverns of Mars.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/boxes/hi_res/cavern_of_mars_cart.jpg

 

Also toss in Missile Command for the Atari 5200. I saw that it was in the bonus area ("Highs and Lows") and was aware Digital Eclipse will be featuring content there about some games not actually playable in the compilation, so didn't list it initially. But I had missed the menu option to play the game. 

 

And correcting a mistake, I meant Swordquest: Fireworld in my 2600 list instead of Airworld. Airworld of course is the final entry that never was, until now.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Atariboy

[DavidD]

On 7/7/2022 at 9:46 PM, jeremiahjt said:

The Munsters' license would not be needed. The Munsters are never mentioned and Al Lewis's character is never called Grandpa Munster, only Grampa or whatever he is called. They would need to get permission from Al Lewis's estate or whomever though.  I guess that might be worried about Universal still trying to sue them though.

They could always do what Warner/Midway did with Super Off Road -- change the image slightly.  They only call him Grampa in the game, right?  A mild graphical edit and the problem is gone...

[Trebor]

1 hour ago, DavidD said:

They could always do what Warner/Midway did with Super Off Road -- change the image slightly.  They only call him Grampa in the game, right?  A mild graphical edit and the problem is gone...

Not having the source code may be an issue for doing something like this as a disassembly would be quite the undertaken.  Something between Al Lewis and Bela Lugosi would be ideal, as we would still avoid looking like Dr. Evil:

 

 

[+Defender_2600]

1 hour ago, Trebor said:

Not having the source code may be an issue for doing something like this as a disassembly would be quite the undertaken.  Something between Al Lewis and Bela Lugosi would be ideal, as we would still avoid looking like Dr. Evil:

 

 

 

I haven't checked but, if the graphics aren't too cluttered, it should be easy enough to replace them.

[Cousin Vinnie]

12 hours ago, Trebor said:

Not having the source code may be an issue for doing something like this as a disassembly would be quite the undertaken.  Something between Al Lewis and Bela Lugosi would be ideal, as we would still avoid looking like Dr. Evil:

 

 

Put sunglasses on him. Ta-Da, It's Cool Gramps. 

[Cousin Vinnie]

15 hours ago, Atariboy said:

It's Caverns of Mars.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/boxes/hi_res/cavern_of_mars_cart.jpg

 

Also toss in Missile Command for the Atari 5200. I saw that it was in the bonus area ("Highs and Lows") and was aware Digital Eclipse will be featuring content there about some games not actually playable in the compilation, so didn't list it initially. But I had missed the menu option to play the game. 

 

And correcting a mistake, I meant Swordquest: Fireworld in my 2600 list instead of Airworld. Airworld of course is the final entry that never was, until now.

Yeah I updated that on the site already. But thanks for telling for me. I found a couple of other tiny hints I originally missed (mainly thanks to smarter people than I)

 

Looks like we both came up with 44

Edited July 13, 2022 by Cousin Vinnie

[Atariboy]

I didn't realize you had made a list, although I now see it in the original post. Had I seen that I wouldn't of bothered duplicating it since it was a bit of a pain to compile (Although I must admit I had fun taking a detailed look at what's actually shown in the trailer). Hopefully it didn't come off as rude that I posted my own list. 

 

Just for complete accuracy, the box for Solaris makes a brief appearance in the bonus gallery footage in the trailer so I suppose deserves a mention as a possible inclusion in the list of games that made a showing in the trailer. I had initially neglected that in my own list even though I saw it, but after noticing the play option for Missile Command and Super Breakout in that same menu area, I'm inclined to include it.

 

We however don't know yet for certain if it's playable like Atari 5200 Super Breakout and Missile Command are, since they scrolled over those boxes in the bonus gallery and we're able to see a play option where as they didn't actually scroll over the Solaris box for us to see. But since I doubt they're including box art for games that they're not including in playable form, I bet it's included.

 

To contribute something to your list on your site, we have a name for the new Haunted House game. It's listed as "Haunted Houses". It's very easy to miss in the trailer, but at the 0:04 mark we're shown the 5200 category for a very brief moment (Which is how we know about Bounty Bob Strikes Back and Millipede) and then the reimagined menu area is briefly displayed. Both showings probably added up to perhaps half a second, so I doubt many people noticed (Or bothered to advance frame-by-frame to check them out if they did).

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Atariboy

[Flojomojo]

I'm enjoying these speculations. The game list is less interesting to me since I can emulate any of it, I'm more curious about the museum/history and collectibles. Digital Eclipse did a nice job with the SNK collection and this is worthy of the same treatment. 

[SearsRoebuck]

On 7/12/2022 at 2:50 AM, Atariboy said:

 

 

There's no gameplay video of Food Fight that I can see in the reveal trailer (Which is the only footage we have to go by at the moment), but I wouldn't put much stock in that area anyways

I can't find the video I originally saw now (and can't remember where I saw it), but there is a pic of Food Fight right on the store page for this on Steam, 5th pic:

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1919470/Atari_50_The_Anniversary_Celebration/

Edited July 13, 2022 by SearsRoebuck