So now I have decided that I am going to go through all of the games, giving myself at least 10 minutes with each title, which does not sound like a lot, but let me explain why. The Atari arcade games feel like they were designed to be able to be played right away. There is no lead-up to a plot or complicated story to follow, it is all play as long as you can and try to get the highest score. Because a lot of these are designed from arcade games where you would plunk in a quarter to play, you are not supposed to spend more than a handful of minutes playing before needing to add in more credits to either continue or to move to another cabinet. And because a lot of the Atari 2600 games were based on arcade games, the approach is similar, although there are obvious exceptions like Miniature Golf and Haunted House.
The format will be similar to our regular Game EXP articles and under that banner, although I dropped the "Game EXP" after this initial article because the titles started to get ridiculously long. I started off with the arcade games, playing them in alphabetical order which is the order that they are presented in the game, although I will break the arcade section into four articles covering the following games based on the similarities the games share with each other:
- Asteroids
- Battlezone
- The Bradley Trainer
- Centipede
- Gravitar
- Lunar Lander
- Missile Command
- Pong
- Space Duel
- Tempest
For the Atari 2600 games, the game itself has two sorting methods, either alphabetically or by pre-determined genres. There is some obvious overlap between games that would be in multiple genres like Asteroids as it could also be categorized in the "Space" genre, but instead, it is categorized in the "Arcade at Home" genre. After a brief consultation, I have decided to present the Atari 2600 games using the in-game genre splits, although I will have to split up some genres into multiple articles because some have upwards 11 games and that would be too many to cover in a single article. How I present each game within each of those genres will probably end up being determined by the games themselves and how I feel after playing them all, although I will also just list them alphabetically within each genre. As for the games that will be covered in the Atari 2600 section I have listed them in alphabetical order rather than genre order so there will be at least some level of surprise going into each week, but they will be as follows:
- 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe
- Adventure
- Air-Sea Battle
- Asteroids
- Atari Video Cube
- Basketball
- Battlezone
- Bowling
- Centipede
- Championship Soccer
- Dodge 'Em
- Flag Capture
- Football
- Fun with Numbers
- Gravitar
- Hangman
- Haunted House
- Home Run
- Human Cannonball
- Math Gran Prix
- Miniature Golf
- Missile Command
- Outlaw
- RealSports Baseball
- RealSports Boxing
- RealSports Football
- RealSports Tennis
- RealSports Volleyball
- Sky Diver
- Slot Machine
- Slot Racers
- Sprint Master
- Star Ship
- Stellar Track
- Submarine Commander
- Surround
- Swordquest Earthworld
- Swordquest Fireworld
- Swordquest Waterworld
- Tempest
- Video Checkers
In each article, I will give my experience playing the game and where I come into the game contextually such as if I have played the game before, either on the Atari 2600 or the arcade cabinet. How I feel the game is presented on the DS format regarding controls and readability on either of the New 3DS screens. I will talk about each game on its own merits and will (try to) attempt to not bring in comparisons to modern games, because how could you really compare Submarine Commander to Steel Diver? Because a lot of these games are designed around getting the highest score, I will list my scores for each game I play, when applicable, along with a final verdict as a Yes or No, deciding if I like the game or not and if it is something that I would likely come back and play in the future. This verdict is purely subjective and my own personal opinion and is in no way a judgment on the quality of the game unless I specifically bring up that the game was poorly made, executed, and/or presented.
Well, starting today, Friday, October 7th, and almost every Friday hereafter, we will begin our 18+ week journey looking into the games presented in Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1.**
*P.S. Also thinking I might try something similar with the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection that I have on the Switch, but that one might take longer as there are a few longer-form games like Crystalis and there are 24 games, with eight of the games having both arcade and console versions of their respective games. I think it might be doable though.
**P.P.S. I know that there is an Atari Greatest Hits Volume 2 on the DS, but the DS era was discontinued around September 2020 when Nintendo discontinued production of all 3DS and 2DS units. So even games like Atari Greatest Hits Volume 2 are seeing a rise in prices, even if that price is $29. I am sad though that neither volume 1 nor volume 2 has Demon Attack or any version of Space Invaders, but that is likely because they were not developed by Atari.
P.P.P.S. Now if I could find an inexpensive copy of Intellivision Lives for the DS, I could do another companion series. Hmmmm...
P.P.P.P.S. I should also apologize for the future picture quality of some of the in-game screenshots I will end up using. I tried to take decent pictures of the 3DS screen using my phone, but because of how I needed lights off/on to take pictures of the screen, some of the images are blurrier than I would have liked (especially with the arcade games that use thin vector graphics). Just wanted to give a final heads-up.
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