Atari's Best Console

[kenomac78]

Since Nintendo and Sega have polls up. Well, what the hell!

[Seldane]

Atari never made a good console!

Not trying to offend, I'm just of the opinion that the NES (FC) was the first console actually worth wasting time on. I'd never voluntarily use anything older than that. Atari's later systems entirely lacked the types of games that I actually like, so... I don't think any Atari system is good.

[MrFulci]

2600 was an excellent system. Never encountered any that gave me problems.

Lynx was also decent, I'd place that second. I knew of someone who had one when it was new, it was pretty cool seeing a colour handheld at the time (1989 or so).

[RuninRuder]

Man, and I thought the Nintendo poll was short on choices.

I'll pick the 2600, since I actually owned one in the distant past.

[PCEngineHell]

Atari never made a good console!

I tend to agree with this statement more often then not except that if they would have made more titles that actually took advantage of the Jags ability to handle higher res high color 2d graphics and presented more titles of Doom,Wolfenstien,and AVP quality the system would have got alot farther then it had. For a system released in 1993 it was not all that weak or anything.

Mostly it was the groups of lame game makers with the few titles they could put out, coupled with the sad fact that only a couple of good companies were putting out good quality titles which killed the system off and made it look under powered. It obviously wasn't that weak of a system hardware wise,as it put out a better looking and running version of Wolfenstien and Doom then anyone else could muster,esp in the case of Doom,compared to the PSX,3DO and Saturn.

I think the Jag would have stood a better chance in the American market if they would have stuck to its obvious strong points,the ability to port over current popular pc titles.Most of the games on the system look and sound like games from PC as it is.Memory storage wouldnt have been a issue, esp with the ugly as hell Jag cd,so memory size couldn't be used as a excuse. Games like Alone in the Dark,Wing Commander,Duke Nukem,and Mega Race should have been ported over.

These games sold well in the 3DO market as they had a strong pc gamer following and people tended to buy up the home ports. War Craft would have been another solid title they should have nabbed up and released. That title was a major seller on the PS1 and Saturn and it would have sold well on jag too if it was released. The Jag could have easily done a port,even on cart.

Most of the people who seemed interested in the Jaguar back then were pc gamers,guys in their late teens on up,who had more serious expectations of the system. The release of the FPS titles along with other gore ladden games like Kasumi Ninja, Ultra Vortek and other pc ports of titles like Syndicate,Flash Back,Brutal Sports Football,and Power Drive Rally gave them alot of false hope I think.

I think it would have also helped if they would have released more arcade game ports of 2d game titles,but this would have required Atari to put forth more effort and drive to get companies to at least give them a license to do so. MK3's proto cart was supposed to be awesome,and NBA Jam was a great port,as was Raiden. I read Total Carnage was the best on the Jag,but I have as of yet not played  a cart of it.

[Kitsunexus]

Michael said everything I was gonna say, Jaguar 4Ever!!!


Random trivia: Atari once had a chance to be the official distributor for the NES. They refused. The rest is history.

[kenomac78]

seldane,

you must be younger than i thought! theres alot of decent 2600 games. and actually a large number of 5200 games were good, but were hampered by a shoddy controller. the 800 computer, was the  exact same hardware and those games rocked!

as for 7800, so much potential, including over 100 sprites on screen with no flicker, but had only a handful of games comepared to NES, or even SMS.
Lynx was great! it was extremly powerful and had some real orginal games, it just the nintendo mind-control machine that kept anyone from buying it.

ah the jag! again same thing as the lynx, i say. plus by getting a head start meant that  developers learning how to do 'next-gen' had cranked out duds in 93 94 and 95 but by the time the PS1 took off,and the jaguar dead, 3-d had been perfected.

anyways i made this thread as, next to the TG16, atari has a dear place in my heart, is not talked about much these days and i wanted to see what people thought.

here's some did you know's:

the 2600 only had 128 bytes of ram! everything was run out of the software. despite this massive games like pitfall 1 and 2, solaris and secret quest some how came to be.
the 2600 first launched in october 1977, and atari formally pulled the plug in january 1992, spanning 3 decades!
the atari 5200 was designed in 79 but to compete with the apple IIc was made into a home computer first, and many 5200 games were ports.
after the 5200 atari never formally developed any hardware in house, 7800, lynx and jaguar were works  developed by outside companies.

atari actually fared well in europe with its PC sales, and while the 2600 may have been seen as old news to ever kid with an NES they remained  profitable until the very end.

the NES rights (in america only) were offered to atari first, we all know this story. but also atari owned a large portion of sega after 1994 and  had talks of crosslicensing sega and atari games, of course club drive for saturn never happened, as we also never saw phantasy star collection on jaguar.

atari's fate came when they merged with a disk drive manufacturer named JTS, which was run by someone i recall being college aged, and JTS itself was out of business soon after, hasbro picked up the ashes, made jaguar developement public domain (awesome) and started the retro bandwagon, only to sell it to infrogrammes who continues to shill crap.

[BonkThis]

If you asked me this when I was 8 id say the 2600. My cousins had it and when ever I visted which was often i would play it non stop. I myself had a 5200. My cousins on the other hand thought my 5200 was superior. Looking back now im all for the 5200 being the better console. Graphially it was superior although the controller was flaky once in a while, it just provided more fun and games that seemed more indepth then the 2600. Pitfall 2, Pengo, Blue Print. These are all great games so the 5200 gets my vote.

I will say that even when i was like 5, my and my cousins were pissed you couldnt put a 2600 cart in a 5200 machine. 5 people and I was upset about backward compatibility!!! I think that truly doomed the system besides the game crash.

[termis]

2600.  It was fun as a kid.

[MrFulci]

keno is right, there are many great Atari 2600 carts out there. I recall, without even having to read the description of the game, that I could expect something good from Activision or Imagic (I think that was the name, they had the shiny labels) branded carts.

- Cosmic Ark is varied and fun, different boards from time to time. If I recall correctly there was a space shooting stage, then you would have an abduction phase where you used your UFO and it's "laser" to pull cows (I guess) aboard. These two stages alternated.

- Haunted House was silly. I actually won the game once. One of the few Atari games you can "win". Surprised myself. Had some nice sound effects.

- Fire Fighter was fun, though I recall sometimes having difficulty with the ladder.

- Most of Activision carts (Barnstorming, Oink, Fishing, Stampede, etc)


One of the more memorable games for me is Commando Raid. It is similar to Missile Command. You have to stop the planes and such from dropping parachuters who will tunnel underground towards your cannon. Once the tunnel is dug, one more parachuter who reaches his target will use the tunnel to plant a bomb to blow up your cannon. Game over!  It was a fun change of pace from Missile Command.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

2600 - enjoyed many, many hours on the old VCS.

As others have already posted, the Lynx and Jaguar were pretty advanced for their time.  It's too bad that Atari didn't better support third party developers.  Lynx SDKs were pricey and the Jag's sucked.  It's no surprise that many of the Jag games weren't very impressive - without a decent SDK, some developers just relied on the 68000 for everything rather than try to tap Tom and Jerry.

[Seldane]

Well, the 2600 was my first console, but I can't say I enjoyed it much (except maybe River Raid II, which I believe it was called). I wasn't at all interested in video games until I got my first NES. That's what hooked me, and never let go.

[rolins]

Voted for the Jaguar. I used to play alot of Raiden and AVP.

[Keranu]

I voted Atari 2600 because of it's huge library of classics and because I haven't played a whole lot of other Atari consoles. I think the Atari 2600 possibly has the best competitive two player games than any other console too.

[SignOfZeta]

I voted Lynx. It completely kicked the shit out of all competition hardware-wise, and some of the softs where actually good too. I like Rampart the most.

The computers were pretty good, but I'm not really enough of an authority on them judge.

The 2600, which I'm sure will win this contest, fucking sucked IMO. Like most people my age it was the only console I had access to back in the day, but that doesn't make it good. As soon as something decent came around, like the Colecovision, the 2600 was worthless.

I've tried to like 2600 games, but I just can't. I still like Warlords and Combat quite a bit, but that's at least %50 due the multi-player aspect. I can really get into NES era stuff, and anything later than that if its good, and I really love quite a few arcade games from the early 80s/late 70s, but the 2600...just blows. Better than an Odyssey, I guess.

Its not because its too old, its just that the software sucks. That and the joysticks require herculean effort in order just to register "left".

Really I didn't need to type that. I could have just said, "Pac Man", and that would have been enogh of a reason to hate the machine forever.

[Keranu]

I still stand as the only person who enjoys the Atari 2600 version of Pac Man .

[TR0N]

2600 follow by the Lynx.

It's about the only systems i'd like by atari.

Still these days, Atari is dead to me since it's a shadow of it's former self.

[GUTS]

Keranu do you honestly sit around playing the Atari version of Pac-Man?

[kenomac78]

i thought that for the time, and the hardware capability, pac-man was good game, as was ET and a few other games that people who are NOT old enough to rememeber the games as they were new continue to pass on some 'worst game ever story' so that they seem to be 'in the know' about gaming from that time period.  yes maybe some people did not enjoy pacman but i know that i for one did like having it at home and played it endlessly.

it just seems that now with the internet, suddenly EVERYONE opened up that pac man box in 1982 to utter dissapointment. as its all you hear from people. where as before i ever got on the world wide web, only one person out of everyone i ever knew said they did not like 2600 pacman. then suddenly in (pick a year) some kids get wind of  the pacman overproduction fiasco and they try it out on stella or something and, yeah, i bet if you gew up woth a PS! the 2600 is going to 'suck' as a comparison.

the power of myth will take you far

also i knew without even looking at a box or anything that activision meant quality. i dont think they put out ONE bad game from 1980-84. the only one i thought wasnt that good to me was dragster, but once you  learn the controls its fun too.  and everytime i ever saw an activision game in the store i got it immediately.  i hope people agree with me that games like pitfall, pressure cooker (especially) and kaboom are still awesome today

[Turbo D]

Jaguar all the way baby  !!! The Jag has some insane 64-bit grafix and some pretty sweet games. I also used to play 2600 when I was younger, that thing rocked too. I miss my 2600, what happened to it?

[BonkThis]

i thought that for the time, and the hardware capability, pac-man was good game, as was ET and a few other games that people who are NOT old enough to rememeber the games as they were new continue to pass on some 'worst game ever story' so that they seem to be 'in the know' about gaming from that time period.  yes maybe some people did not enjoy pacman but i know that i for one did like having it at home and played it endlessly.

it just seems that now with the internet, suddenly EVERYONE opened up that pac man box in 1982 to utter dissapointment. as its all you hear from people. where as before i ever got on the world wide web, only one person out of everyone i ever knew said they did not like 2600 pacman. then suddenly in (pick a year) some kids get wind of  the pacman overproduction fiasco and they try it out on stella or something and, yeah, i bet if you gew up woth a PS! the 2600 is going to 'suck' as a comparison.

the power of myth will take you far

also i knew without even looking at a box or anything that activision meant quality. i dont think they put out ONE bad game from 1980-84. the only one i thought wasnt that good to me was dragster, but once you  learn the controls its fun too.  and everytime i ever saw an activision game in the store i got it immediately.  i hope people agree with me that games like pitfall, pressure cooker (especially) and kaboom are still awesome today

I agree totally! I loved the 2600 pacman for what it was, although once I played the 5200 version it really is much better. But even back in the day I would play what ever version was near me. Heck I loved raiders of the lost ark for 2600 but im sure there are many people out there who hate it.

[offsidewing]

Atari 2600.  Three words sum it up:

Invisible Tank Pong.

Combat for the Atari 2600 is the best game ever.  Actually, I would say the Atari 7800 (which I voted for).  It could play 2600 and 7800 games.  I never did get my Atari Mind Link in the mail.  It must be with my 3 UPC Anakin Skywalker.

[guyjin]

actually, the 7800 doesn't play all 2600 games. http://www.atariage.com/7800/faq/index.html#cat1_4
In fact, if you have a Starpath Supercharger, you should not try to use it on a 7800; it may be destroyed. 

Also, as far as the pac-man issue: I think it made Atari look bad. They had the only 'official' home version of pac-man, but it was ugly compared to the clones on other systems. This may have made people who actually bought the games upset. Being ignorant kids, we didn't give a damn.

[Keranu]

Thank you for supporting me with the Atari 2600 Pac-Man love, kenomac78 and BonkThis! Atari owners back then should be happy just to know that they got a home version of such an arcade hit. It looks nothing like the arcade, but does it really matter? The gameplay is still going around eating pellets which was what made Pac Man fun in the first place.

But it's not for this reason why I like the Atari version of Pac-Man. I feel the Atari port has it's own sort of charm to it with it's graphics and sound. I like how the pellets are extra wide, it makes eating them up feel rewarding because you're cleaning junk off the screen . And the sound effects just have an awesome Atari sound to them, I love it! Also, even though Pac-Man's sprite doesn't change directions when going up and down, I kind of like this for some reason, it makes the controls feel smoother in a weird way.

I don't necessarily think the Atari port is better than the arcade original, but it's definitely a nice port to have because of it's differences.

[SignOfZeta]

it just seems that now with the internet, suddenly EVERYONE opened up that pac man box in 1982 to utter dissapointment.

Believe me, I know what you are saying. Honestly though my first system was a 2600, and I played it, but I also spent a lot of time at the arcades or coin laundries mostly or pizza places, or whatever, so I was well aware that better stuff was out there. I didn't play Pac Man on 2600 in 1982, probably more like 84 and my lawrd it sucks. Its not "pretty good for its time" or whatever. It was a rushed piece of software, and it really really shows. It could have been much better, as evidenced my Ms Pacman for 2600.

[Kitsunexus]

I'm not a fan of the 2600. All of it's games are shit.

This is of course excepting Solaris, one of the best games in the history of gaming.

[Seldane]

after Balloon Fight, obviously.

[Kitsunexus]

after Balloon Fight, obviously.

Balloon Fight sucks. I played it on eReader, not a fan.

The original game is better, anyway...

[GUTS]

Invisible tank pong!!  That was the GoldenEye of the 80s, man I used to play that for hours with my brother.  It wasn't until goldeneye that I found another multiplayer game I liked enough to play for hours and hours.

Best multiplayer games of all time-

Combat
Metal Warriors
GoldenEye
Perfect Dark
Halo

The end.

[Kitsunexus]

OK, you got me there. I will fully admit that Combat is crack. When my dad found his 2600, that's all we would play, until we got Solaris later.

And we got rid of the Atari one day, I don't remember why.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Voted Lynx, though, it was a toss up between that & Jaguar.  I love the 2600, but, their later systems have some great games.

[MrFulci]

I agree with Combat, GUTS, however a key one is missing!

- DOOM for PC!


Doom had a lot of impact with multiplayer gaming of the combat sort.

[Kitsunexus]

Rise Of The Triad multiplayer is more fun than DOOM multiplayer.

Never heard of ROTT? Get educated...

[MrFulci]

I'm familiar with Rise of the Triad, hwoever, it wasn't a game that EVEYONE seemed to have, like DOOM. It was very easy to get modem-to-modem games of DOOM going.

Rise of the Triad had the flamethrowers, trampolines, etc. I thought it was decent, though it's been years since I played. I played it modem-to-modem a few times.

I'm familiar with obscure FPS games, I used to try nearly any FPS in the 90's, at least once they were marked for clearance. Chasm: The Rift was quite a nice $5.00 purchase.

[offsidewing]

Invisible Tank Pong = Awesome.  I will agree with you that nothing much touched it (in the realm of video games I played) in a multiplayer addictive sense until Golden Eye.  One hit kills, Choppers Only, No Radar.  Add 6 beers per player = FUN.  Game Informer did best weapons of all time.  I'm sorry Choppers and or the Golden Gun didn't make it...

Solaris is also awesome.

Computer Lab network death matches of an edmapped version of my highschool = AWESOME.  (Doom).  I fondly remember the chain gun cha-cha.

Anyone ever play One on One for the 7800?  That was the first Video game I ever got as a present.  My parents hid it in a pair of sweat pants I also received as a gift.  My mom bugged me for 30 minutes to try them on and when I finally did, Dr J and Larry Bird duked it out for years...

[Kitsunexus]

Chasm: The Rift was quite a nice $5.00 purchase.

That is a great game, I also like Strife.

[OldRover]

2600, no problem there. Jaguar in second place though.

[GUTS]

Yeah Doom was great, I was just listing console games though.  I also loved Action Quake, played a ton of that way back in the day.

offsidewing- That's exactly how we played GoldenEye too man, that's awesome.  I hate these fuckers that have to have body armor and radar on every FPS (that's why I NEVER play Halo online, everybody uses body armor and radar like pussies).  The reason GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and Halo were so great is that they allowed you to fully customize the game exactly how you wanted to play.  I don't play any fps unless it has one hit kills, pistols, and no radar.

[offsidewing]

GUTS - I hear you with the modern code of honor in FPS!  One hit kills with Pistolas!  Woo-hoo!  We were hardcore purists with Golden Eye /Perfect dark.  I don't want to get too off topic, but you could sit down with three buddies and hash out the ground rules with GE/PD.  You go on-line today (in my experience anyways) and it's a bunch of weenies trying to pad their stats and boast about their rankings.

Bring on 8 Dark Sims (midget sized) in the Felicity any day over some Halo 2 punk b!tch online from Modesto!!

(Nothing wrong with Halo 2 or Modesto, I'm just trying to illustrate a frustration level through a modern and easily identifiable archeotype).

[Kitsunexus]

Nothing wrong with Halo 2 or Modesto

Except that it sucks.

[Seldane]

Halo 2 has been unplayable junk for years now, but the PC release is coming up, and it will rock.

[Kitsunexus]

IMO, Bungie started sucking with Oni (and didn't that use the Halo engine).

They should have just kept on making the Myth games, Myth 2: Soulblighter is FUCKING OWNAGE.

[SignOfZeta]

Best multiplayer games of all time-

Combat
Metal Warriors
GoldenEye
Perfect Dark
Halo

The end.

I think GoldenEye is soooo overrated. Even moreso that Halo. I guess I just don't like FPS games because I hate both of these.

IMO, a great multi-player game is serious business. I'd add Death Tank Zwei, Bomberman SS, and Pac Man Versus to that list.

[Seldane]

IMO, Bungie started sucking with Oni (and didn't that use the Halo engine).

They should have just kept on making the Myth games, Myth 2: Soulblighter is FUCKING OWNAGE.

I've never played any other Bungie games, but I absolutely LOVE Halo! Oh MAN that game is good, I constantly want to play it whenever I don't. While it's immensely popular, I still find it severely underrated. No game has ever gotten as close to perfection as Halo has. Of course, I can't stand the Xbox version as fps games are unplayable on consoles, but the PC game is just wonderful.

[Kitsunexus]

IMO, Bungie started sucking with Oni (and didn't that use the Halo engine).

They should have just kept on making the Myth games, Myth 2: Soulblighter is FUCKING OWNAGE.

I've never played any other Bungie games, but I absolutely LOVE Halo! Oh MAN that game is good, I constantly want to play it whenever I don't. While it's immensely popular, I still find it severely underrated. No game has ever gotten as close to perfection as Halo has. Of course, I can't stand the Xbox version as fps games are unplayable on consoles, but the PC game is just wonderful.

The PC version isn't even the same game, it's a rewrite by Gearbox software that uses the XBOX levels, models and textures.

[Seldane]

Well, it's a port. Not exactly a remake or anything.

[Kitsunexus]

But the Gearbox engine is better. Therefore I stand by my original statement that Bungie sucked starting with Oni.

[offsidewing]

Fan or not, Golden Eye is still the benchmark for Multi-player FPS 10 years after it's release.

Personally, FPS aren't my bag baby, but there may never be a game as defining or with as much impact on a specific genre again as GoldenEye.

Except for Deep Blue...

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Deep Blue - the definitive lame, underwater, shit shmup.

[offsidewing]

How come no one voted for the XE!!  It had Blue Max!!!