Atari Keychain Games from "Basic Fun": Stay Away!

[jaybird3rd]

Saw a dozen of these pegwarmers on the same aisle in Wal-Mart that has other keychains and cheap party favors, etc. They still are priced at $14.99.

They don't seem to be selling too well, do they? My local Wal-Mart still has a full peg, and a small pile of extras on a shelf underneath it, and I don't think any of them have moved for months. Meanwhile, the Flashback 2 consoles and even the Jakks Pac-Man controllers are all gone.

[fueriose]

I picked up one of these just for the miniature joystick. I feel a bit bad now knowing this guy

got screwed over by Atari. Has anyone else here bothered to mod/use it as a normal joystick?

[Jacob Rose]

I picked up one of these just for the miniature joystick. I feel a bit bad now knowing this guy

got screwed over by Atari. Has anyone else here bothered to mod/use it as a normal joystick?

 

Yes! Like you, I got the idea before I saw this, but it has been done:

 

http://jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?b...read=1167546608

 

Attached is the best photo from the above, IMHO. I'd have linked directly, but they didn't put any named anchors in the page.

[calfranklin]

My wife bought me the Pong keychain unit for Christmas for $5 from Hastings. I haven't even opened it yet. I may just keep it anyway as a novety item. This Pong keychain unit boast of having Pong, Breakout and Warlords in it. It doesn't look too secure for a "plug and play" device. Can the A/V cables be used on other devices? If so, I have my $5 value! Why wouls Atari license an inferior product anyway?

[Asaki]

Exactly where am I supposed to be squeezing this? I've been squeezing it like crazy, and no dice.

 

Oh well, I didn't buy it to play it, anyway

[Asaki]

Wow.

 

I soldered the power connection together (which was slightly rusty for whatever bizarre reason), just to see what the games/controls are like...they're way worse than I thought they would be o_O

 

I can't believe they're trying to sell these things for $15. I'm not even sure if non-Atari fans could find something to like about these, besides the keychain itself.

 

I, however, am pretty happy with the two dollar piece of plastic I found Can't wait to start modding this thing =)

[Retro Rogue]

Wow.

 

I soldered the power connection together (which was slightly rusty for whatever bizarre reason), just to see what the games/controls are like...they're way worse than I thought they would be o_O

 

I can't believe they're trying to sell these things for $15. I'm not even sure if non-Atari fans could find something to like about these, besides the keychain itself.

 

 

I guess it makes the original comment by Basic Fun all the more laughable. They said this about a year ago - I guess time has proven who was right and who was full of it:

 

Hi Jacob,

 

You should buy one and judge for yourself. The negative comments are being made by an "engineer" that worked on the project, but could not finish it. He didn't have the know how to deliver what he promised. The Atari games were done directly with Atari, who not only approved the product, but is quite happy with the results. Do you think Atari would allow a product with their name and games to go to market if it was substandard?

 

Thanks for your comments on a "premium" product. It is out there - splurge and find out for yourself.

 

Basic Fun

[Asaki]

Oh, I "splurged" alright

 

My friend said she wanted to play it before I tore it apart, so I let her, and she was disappointed as well. She never even had an Atari growing up ;D

[TwinChargers]

I see that my local Wal-Mart has them clearanced down to $7. I bought all three and plan on keeping them in the package. 20 years from now, they will still suck, but be they'll be a sucky collectors item. They look cool, but I know that they play horribly from reading what you've all said. I have all 7 of these games in many different forms anyways.

 

On a side note, how durable is the A/V cable? Maybe I'll have to pick up another just to take that out so I can hook my VG Pocket up to the TV.

[TwinChargers]

I see that my local Wal-Mart has them clearanced down to $7. I bought all three and plan on keeping them in the package. 20 years from now, they will still suck, but be they'll be a sucky collectors item. They look cool, but I know that they play horribly from reading what you've all said. I have all 7 of these games in many different forms anyways.

 

On a side note, how durable is the A/V cable? Maybe I'll have to pick up another just to take that out so I can hook my VG Pocket up to the TV.

 

Okay, so I bought another so I could get the A/V cable from it. Of course I played the controller for a bit. The power supply is junk for the most part. Its very touchy to say the least. The controller itself felt like it was going to break there in my hand while playing. I'm not as big of a purist as most of you, so I thought the games, clearly not identical to the 2600 versions (I got the Centipede/Yars Revenge one), still played roughly the same, but with some pretty obvious bugs. Yes, this product does recieve an F in my book, but I bought this to get the A/V cable. Now I'm not sure if its the power supply for the Atari controller or what it is, but it doesn't work at all with my VG Pocket. Why they had the power supply hooked into the A/V outputs is beyond me. So overall this project was a complete failure. I atleast got a cheap mini controller out of all this.

[Asaki]

Has anyone else here bothered to mod/use it as a normal joystick?

 

I did. It works (though the stick, as-is, isn't the best joystick out there), but I'm not finished with it...I want to get some sort of connectors on it that I can plug the cord into, so I can still use it as a keychain.

[villageidiot]

I was thinking about learning to mold parts and do an improved inside for better mini sticks. I don't have a clue right now how to go about this.

[Asaki]

From a short bit of testing, it seems to work a bit better if you push it down a little ways...but would also need something to keep it from being pushed down all the way...something to extend that little nubby tip in the center so it actually hits the board and stops (or something else for it to hit).

 

Curt could certainly shed a little light on it, since he mentioned something about them changing the stick from his proto.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Asaki

[Jacob Rose]

I was thinking about learning to mold parts and do an improved inside for better mini sticks. I don't have a clue right now how to go about this.

 

My solution was just to add a disc of rubbery foam on top of the cross-shaped bit that pushes the directional buttons, as described here (paragraph 7):

 

http://www.designkitten.com/archives/2006/..._keychain_1.php

 

This prevents the ends of the cross from getting stuck in the rubber dome above them when you push to one side, which makes the stick way better.

[webmonkees]

Oops. Didnt learn my lesson from FB1, it seems. Well, sorta. I saw it on clearance for $7 (after laughing at the $19.95 price initally)

and got it for the purposes of 'tiny atari controller' rather than 'tiny Atari videogame'. But now I have to mod it just to get it to work right? Sheesh.

 

Guess I can add it to the collection of 'it looks neat, actual gameplay may not match imagination'.. now that's classic Atari! (artwork on box vs. actual game)

 

Ah well. still haven't opened it. Glad I had self-control in the first place to not buy it at regular price. maybe trade it in on a set of C batteries for the Super Pong and await the eventual Salvation Army example of this to show up, if they don't all get thrown away instead.

[Atari Dogs]

Oops. Didnt learn my lesson from FB1, it seems. Well, sorta. I saw it on clearance for $7 (after laughing at the $19.95 price initally)

and got it for the purposes of 'tiny atari controller' rather than 'tiny Atari videogame'. But now I have to mod it just to get it to work right? Sheesh.

 

Guess I can add it to the collection of 'it looks neat, actual gameplay may not match imagination'.. now that's classic Atari! (artwork on box vs. actual game)

 

Ah well. still haven't opened it. Glad I had self-control in the first place to not buy it at regular price. maybe trade it in on a set of C batteries for the Super Pong and await the eventual Salvation Army example of this to show up, if they don't all get thrown away instead.

 

My Wal-Mart has only discounted them to $9.95. There is only one paddle controller left though. Maybe I will pick one of those up and wait for the joysticks get discounted more. These may be good conversation pieces.

[atwwong]

If I see one for under $1.00 I might waste my money on this Basic Fun "product"...

[Atari Dogs]

If I see one for under $1.00 I might waste my money on this Basic Fun "product"...

 

Conversation:

friend: "What's that?"

me: "An Atari Paddle game."

friend: "Ohh." (thinking dork).

me: "There are a couple games inside, you can hook the paddle up to the tv and play them without an Atari console."

friend: (Dork. zzzz.)

me: "The games aren't as cool as the real Atari"

friend: "Bye." (I am not coming back here again)

[Asaki]

If I see one for under $1.00 I might waste my money on this Basic Fun "product"...

 

I paid $2 for mine, I think it's a pretty fair price.

[Gateway]

Haven't seen these available anymore for at least two months. They were still $15 each at my local Wal-Mart, then they disappeared! I checked out other dept.s of the store including auto to see if they had keychains there, but no dice. (actually they had fuzzy dice, but that's another topic. )

[SRGilbert]

Well, I thought they would at least make fun Christmas tree ornaments, and they do!

 

I know I've paid more that $15.00 for a lot of the ornaments we have, so I didn't mind. I wish Hallmark would make actual Atari ornaments, that would be pretty sweet. You could have a tiny heavy sixer, maybe some mini carts......

[awace]

If by "boycott" you mean "don't buy it," well -- yeah. That's my default setting for poorly-made, exploitative crap. In case you haven't noticed, that describes lots of the retro game cash-ins we've seen over the years. Quality toys like the Flashback 2 are the exception to the rule.

You're right ... those of us who care that these are poorly-made and untrue to the original games have already made up our minds not to buy. But even those who don't care about those things should still refuse to buy them because of the unfair comments Jacob Rose cited above. Any company that spreads lies like that doesn't deserve anyone's hard-earned money, even if it is only $15 to $20.

 

A "boycott" isn't going to be particularly effective. Why? Because the people who buy this crap from Wal-Mart and Hot Topic aren't scouring the AtariAge boards for opinions and reviews before spending fifteen bucks on funny little toys. Basic Fun knows this and they'll make their $$ with or without us.

True, but people are being ripped off, and I still think it's only right to do as much as possible to get the word out. Fortunately, nobody has to scour the AtariAge boards to be duly warned: if you do a Google search for the words atari keychain right now, this thread shows up at the top of the list. It's possible that those who don't even know about AtariAge can find their way here just by doing a little research.

wow i cant belive youre actually giving them crap think about the fact that the chip that they fit into the keychain is so small the i was impressed they actually got it to work PLus the fact that have you ever made a product and got it to production and then sold it to wallmart I bet that would be harder than you thought anyway I like the mini paddle game I know the sound sucks for asteroids but hey its a $14 keychain what do you expect from a single chip blob besides i needed a small video game to put inside my 4 inch b/w tv witch will be useless after june cause the tuner is now worthless I decided to put a Zenith cable box rf modulator inside the battery compartment and then hook a keychain battery compartment permanantly into the tv so now i can just plug the paddle into the tv and it steals power from the tuner and I also took a crappy gemstick atari compatible joystick and fixed the crappy asteroids joystick witch broke 10 minnutes after opening the thing my brother broke it instantly I basicly knew that would happen and actually expected it I think they thought they would be more of a collector item than thinking someone would actully play the thing or even open it thats why my other paddle is mint inside the plastic not opened and i plan not to open it the asteroids joystick I ripped appart to see the blob and was not impressed exept that they got the whole thing onto that mini chip I did however find two test jumpers one just makes it go black or PAL mode and the other one makes orange and brown rainbow pattern so i decied to hook the joystick keychain to the bootleg real atari gemstick SO now it has a regular sized original type joystick and it is actaully easyer to play the game is slow as hell and has no difficulty settings and millipede sucks and centipede would have been a better game to choose you would have think they would have just used adventure witch at least would have made the keychain worth buying I only bought mine cause wallmart was remodling and i thought they were clearing them out and thought cool mabie those would be cool to hook to the b/w tv I dont play them anymore and probably wont uness i get super board.. I do like the paddle version cause the break out game is kind of fun

[awace]

I was seriously considering buying the Paddle Keychain online, but because of the comments on this thread, I decided not to. I love buying things for my keychain and I carry all kinds of weird things on it: a flashlight, a compass, an electronic blackjack game, etc. I also love classic gaming, especially Atari (I bought FB2 even though I already had a 2600 with 150+ cartridges). I am pretty much the target market for this product. I guess Atari & Basic Fun blew it.

 

What I can't comprehend is the decision to go to the "NES-on-a-chip" route, which required programming "simulated" versions of Atari 2600 games in an NES environment. I may be speculating here, but didn't this decision for short-term savings actually cost more in the end? (in terms of lost sales, and the cost for paying a programmer + QA team to oversee the coding, etc).

 

Curt's FB2-on-a-chip that only required 1 internal AA battery sounded much better. If the size of the unit was such an issue, a AAA battery could have been used instead (the drawback being that the battery life is reduced, of course). Instead, you have this poor NES-on-a-chip immitation that needs THREE AAA batteries plugged to the unit from an external pack. I don't think this makes the unit very portable.

 

If I was Atari/Basic Fun, I would have done the following:

 

-FB2 on a chip (no need to re-program the games)

-Only 1 AAA battery needed

-10 original 2600 games for each of the joystick version

-10 original 2600 games for the paddle version

 

Sell it for $14.99 and people on this forum would have enthusiastically bought this quality product at that price. This model would probably cost less than the one that was put out because there would be no need to write new code (save for a menu system) or require the external battery pack.

 

 

I found the email from the Basic Fun representative laughable. Typical "pass-the-buck" mentality BS that permeates modern corporate culture these days, reminds me of a boss that I used to work for who underpaid everyone, and kept blaming the company's problems on ex-employees who had the gall to quit for better prospects.

that would be cool but if you could figure out how to produce a product for $14 that actually woudl do that then tell them how to do it I like the FB II idea I dont know why they didnt just make a joystick 10 player type w a SD stick hole and a 2nd joystick port or jsut reuse the FB case It would be nice just to beable to buy flashback joysticks even w out games to get the joysticks for my atari collection but to expect a company to produce a product from idea to production using cheap china proccess would probably be way harder then we would think i bet it cost more than it was worth to make those keychain joysticks but on the other hand the sound in fb frogger cart sound same to me so youre all right wtf couldnt they just get more sound into asterioids I think i know why 1st off the joystick breaking whell DUH ITS a keychain about $3 worth of a keychain probably was subposed to cost $20 witch failed mysrably cause we could care less about the keychains cause we snapped up the flashback II's mabie its a good thing i didnt open the 3rd keychain cause its still mint in the package witch is what i bet they expected them to be anyway I bet they ran out of memmory cause they had to make that fuken stupid menu witch i think was the dumest thing they could ever have done they could have just had a game select menu that simply said basic fun then game 1 game 2 to let all extra avalible memmory for sound I bet that that asteroids game is 3k cause its not the same you cant have as many rocks on the screen at the same time and the sound never stops the sound emulation is just lame mabie if they picked a game not so suckky like milipede witch used a little more memmory than asteroids mabie they could have used the FB asteroids version witch i know is 8k cause my bootleg REal cartridge can be swapped and it dont even lock up.. so I agree the games could have had more better sound

and the joystick could have just as easly had a namco pacman mini type joystick witch not the same as a real atari joystick would have worked better but I think they were just what they were subposed to be a desk item paper weight or keychain the joystick should have just had a long rubber peice instead of the plastic witch just breaks off in pocket at least the paddle can be used as a keychain at 1st i thought the paddle was cool untill i had to plug it into the battery pack witch i had to take apart and fix the switch and I even had to replace some of the crappy china wires witch broke and needed soldered again I did however like the battery design witch would be good for a camping trip but didnt like the crappy asteroids game they could have just put adventure in there its only 4k but mabie the paddle and keychian games are actually nes ports!!!!!!!!!!!!! chomped onto the F/b menu system as a playable menu game instead of loading stella into a nes cart memmory hole witch explanes the crappy sound and the lame game play..... why didnt they at least get the sound right for asteroids and not have 2 games I would have been satified w asteroids if it was REALe emulation and yars revenge on the FB II the other yars game locks up all the time and deluxe asteroids flips on some of my tv's anyway I just like the keychains for modding purposes and got exactly what i expected a puny keychain w a puny game.. I didnt even expect the games to be as crapy as they were But the asteroids game is kind of fun HMM i wonder what the crappy original atari pacman would have sounded like.. I bet you could pass threw the ghosts.. I think basic fun should just let us download a emulator for the keychains as a reward for having to settle w more games instead of real emulation AT least the FB II lets you put a cart hole and even gives you the pin outs and it actually works the sound even sounds right.. but what do you expect from a $10-15 keychain you have to remember they had to design the thing prototype it make the custom chip blob and then make the button menu reset button and the battery/video pack and they also had to make pal/ntsc too I was amazed the product even made it to production let alone survived wall mart long enough to actually be a product.. whell i guess ET did the same thing but I wouldnt buy et even if you paid me to..

[awace]

I was thinking about learning to mold parts and do an improved inside for better mini sticks. I don't have a clue right now how to go about this.

just do what i did rip off the joystick throw it away and the rubber ring too then take a REAL atari joystick and wire it to the buttons since the atari joystick has a longer cord the wires hanging out shouldnt matter if its for PLAYING then the keychain wont matter I did this w a gemstick a atari compatible knock off atari joystick and it works great the menu and reset buttons are intact and i use it w my b/w tv w the built in zenith rf mod built in so I can change from asteroids w the modded atari joystick permantly soldered to the mini keychain joystick and fire button inputs and swap to the paddle keychain leaving the video /battery pack permantly soldered to the TV's tuner 5v line I stole the 12v for the zenith rf mod from the input power pack for the tv its b/w but asteroids color only makes the rock colored anyway and since the tv signals are going static I figured the keychain would be a good hack/mod for this tv I decided to take some pictures I cant seem to find the joystick but If I find it after my brother remodels his basement I will post picture I did however find a

joystick a centipede /yars revenge in the package oh whell at least the tv still has a use now ..

[awace]

Well, I thought they would at least make fun Christmas tree ornaments, and they do!

 

I know I've paid more that $15.00 for a lot of the ornaments we have, so I didn't mind. I wish Hallmark would make actual Atari ornaments, that would be pretty sweet. You could have a tiny heavy sixer, maybe some mini carts......

I modded a tv to permanltly take a keychain and put a zenith Cable box rf modulator inside the battery compartment pic2

I forgot to post the pictures of my tv mod

1st pic is paddle infront of tv its stealing power from in menu.

2nd is zenith rf mod.

3rd pic is of warlords one of my favouirte games.. even though it does suck compared to the PADDLE jakks version it still is a cool game for keeping the tv instead of throwing the tv away I now have a use for the tv again since the analog tuner inside the tv is useless At least i had a reason to Steal A rf modulator from a cable box... the tv is only b/w but it gets a good picture w the rf mod going directly into the antenna connection soldered plus it still gets regular tv for now at least.

SO even though it cost $14 I figured it gave the tv a new lease on life and since the keychain modlue battery compartment steals power from the tv's power pack I dont ever need batteries again. Plus the tv is 12v and i could run off car lighter plug or 1amp hour battery so they are the perfect mod for this tv when and if i find the asteroids keychian/atrari joystick I will post a update picturre to this post the previous post I forgot to opload pictures to so i put them here.. I didnt mean to say I wasnt mad that the games sucked I just figured they were trying to get them out for that christmas season cause in 2006 Atari hype was rampent w the plug play joysticks and the FB II's so I think the keychains must have been relesased to early before they could be rev F instead of rev a witch we all know sucks but since they failed basic fun probably lost money on the whole keychain so they probably wont release a fixed version but that would be cool if you could buy a 1 game keychain for $10 that actually has a REAL game on it I would buy one.. as far as the realistic look of the keychain they look real enough.. what do you expect from a keychain it wouldnt fit into a gumball machine cause of the battery pack so if not for the batterypack crock the game probably would have been a better version but they probably ran out of budget mabie they made the meny 1st and ran out of time before christmas to revamp game versions or the sound emulation jsut wouldnt fit into the small form factor who knows But you can bet it had to do w $ remember if the keychain costed $25 it proibably would have had 10 games in it the fact they had some at target for $14 but the keychains i only saw at wallmart I was happy they had them cause I didnt even know they had even made a keychain so they suck but at least in 20 years i can say i have a working Atari keychain witch actully plays warlords and break out as for the pong w out 2 players why even bother to turn it on..