Most gamers these days aren’t old enough to remember but there was a time the US had plenty of its own video games. We didn’t rely on Japan for almost all our gaming needs, before Nintendo rooted itself into the US gaming market. Back when consoles were oddly shaped boxes with multiple cords and less functionality than a simple fitbit. One of the most well-known of the time was a wooden panel console named the Atari 2600. Seemingly unstoppable, people quickly realized the random blinking lights and pixels big enough to count were kind of crap. It didn’t help that many games for the system were basically ads by 3rd party companies than actual games (even a dog food company for some insane reason). Of course the entire US gaming market came crashing down when Atari spent millions to develop E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. A game still known for being the worst game ever and (as recently proven) thousands of copies were literally dumped into a hole somewhere in New Mexico… and then covered with cement for good measure.
Atari has continued to make games since then, not many but they do still exist. Recently it was announced they will be coming out with a two part collection with 100 games from the Atari 2600 called Atari Flashback Classics Volume 1 and 2. Available on PS4 and Xbox One it will come as two different games (each $20) that feature 50 games each. No word yet on what exactly will be in the collection, which may be difficult with so many possible copyrights for 3rd party games like 007, Mario and Ghostbusters. It seems like an odd move considering the games weren’t even that good in their own time. I can only hope it comes with E.T. so I can finally learn for myself what makes a game done on Microsoft Word so notably bad.
Not only have all these games been gathered into a single spot for the current gen, they also have leaderboards, multiplayer and online functions now. An interesting bonus for true fans of the classic Atari but a little unclear what functions work with what games. So if very classic games and directional pads are your thing then congrats, not only are you old but you can own practically the entire Atari library in early October. I do have to wonder though why it requires two volumes to hold all these games when a single blu ray disk should be able to hold all the games twice over. I won’t be getting it since I already have nearly a dozen games over the holidays but maybe in the drought season I’ll use it to bang out a quick easy one. Honestly I didn’t even know the Atari 2600 had over a hundred games because they all look the same without my glasses.
