Atari Flashback - Which One(s)?

[dgdgagdae]

I think I'd like to get an Atari Flashback 5. I started comparing the different Flashbacks to try to decide if that's the only one I need to get. It looks like each one of them have unique games. Would you recommend picking all of them up eventually, or are some of them stinkers and not worth getting?

[Casati]

I bought a Flashback 2 directly from Amazon, not a 3rd party seller, because I didn't want a counterfeit. It turned out that many of the games had glitches. After viewing an online video about spotting Flashback counterfeits, I examined my console and it turned out to be a counterfeit. Of course, this was long after the time allowed by Amazon to return it. The games play alright for the most part. It has Pitfall and River Raid.

[Steve W]

I never knew there were counterfeit Flashbacks out there! Are they strict knock-offs of the tech inside the Flashback, or are they like cheap Chinese made Famiclones, with wafer-thin motherboards and light, cheap feeling casings?

[Tanooki]

I never heard of a counterfeit flashback either, kind of disturbing a junky tv-games device would have those. Ideally for me if I wanted one of these, and I had the patience and skill to pull it off, I'd buy the 2nd model, and I think it was the 2nd revision of that. That one model has on the board internally etchings in the board to show where to exactly wire in a cartridge slot. It's the one system of the entire lot so well designed it will run any 2600 game thrown at it with a cart slot installed. If you're going to get one, that's the model, and mod it or have someone do that so you have a sturdy little 2600 to play all the games on which has a native modern power supply and RCA jack setup. That model also introduced the ability to use real Atari controllers (joystick, paddle, etc.)

[Flojomojo]

Here's my take on all of the Atari Flashbacks:

Atari Flashback 1: Avoid. It's NES-on-a-chip simulations of old games. There are some interesting choices here (Food Fight, 7800 Asteroids, Solaris) but they aren't true to the originals and the joysticks are goofy.

Atari Flashback 2: Recommended! VCS-on-a-chip, very accurate. Good collection of old games, including some Activision titles. Mod-Friendly if you have the parts and skill to add a cartridge port.

Atari Flashback 2+: Less recommended. Like #2 but with no Activision games but some sports games.

Atari Flashback 3 (60 games)
Atari Flashback 64 (64 games including Space Invaders, wired controllers)
Atari Flashback 4 (75 games)
Atari Flashback 4 Deluxe (75 games, wired paddle controls, and paper posters)

These are OK. These are all from AtGames and have emulated ROMs on a custom chip. Not as accurate as FB2 but a few more games with each successive release. All of them but the 64 have infrared wireless controllers but can also take retro style wired controls.

Atari Flashback 5 (92 games): I would get this one. It is just like the previous AtGames releases, but it has the most games. I'm pretty sure it's running the same hardware and possibly the same software.

[dgdgagdae]

Thanks Flojo, that's helpful. I wasn't aware of the 64. I also had no idea the original FB was a NOAC. I was interested because of the few 7800 games on it, but not now.

[Leo_A]

The regular Atari Flashback 2 is undoubtedly the best of the bunch.


Atari Flashback 5 (92 games): I would get this one. It is just like the previous AtGames releases, but it has the most games. I'm pretty sure it's running the same hardware and possibly the same software.

Yeah, it's the Flashback 4 with unchanged hardware (Including the wireless joysticks) and unchanged emulator. A tester connected to AtGames confirmed that at AtariAge a few days ago.

Other than the new number, the only change is with the game lineup as you said. Off the top of my head without comparing lists, Battlezone is gone due to the selling off of that IP (Which stinks since it's a great game and is one of the few highlights of the unlicensed 1st party 2600 lineup, even though AtGame's emulator had issues running it). And some homebrews and M-Network games are included to bolster the game lineup. I think that pretty much covers the differences.

It also has at least one retailer specific edition. The deluxe Sam's Club model again includes the wired paddles, just like last time around. I don't remember if there are any other retailer bundles for it like the other Flashbacks are getting.

I only got it for the new paddles. Missed out on them the last time around.

[Casati]

I never knew there were counterfeit Flashbacks out there! Are they strict knock-offs of the tech inside the Flashback, or are they like cheap Chinese made Famiclones, with wafer-thin motherboards and light, cheap feeling casings?

The casing doesn't appear to be "light, cheap". From what I've read online, I think there were a lot of counterfeit Flashback 2's. Apparently Sam's Club and many other stores sold the counterfeits.

[thisIsLoneWolf]

For my money, I would go with the Flashback 2 (non plus version), for the same reasons already mentioned.
Adding a cartridge port lets you use it like an original VCS, and having some Activision games built-in, doesn't hurt either. :)

[Steve W]

The casing doesn't appear to be "light, cheap". From what I've read online, I think there were a lot of counterfeit Flashback 2's. Apparently Sam's Club and many other stores sold the counterfeits.
Wow, that's news to me. Although it brings an interesting thought to mind. If that company making clones wanted to, they could go the route of other Famiclone makers and go through shadier retail outlets and just outright pirate games without bothering to license any of them. And throw in a cartridge port for the proverbial sh!ts and giggles. Hell, throw 200 games into a unit, they're mostly 4 kilobytes each anyway, memory doesn't cost that much. Maybe we wouldn't keep seeing crap like Sky Diver, Blackjack or the Swordquest games return with each new model. There are so many third-party games a pirate manufacturer could stuff in there.

[Tanooki]

Well for the whole shits and giggles of it, ATgames isn't against doing the cart slot on an emulator trick or even an SD card with roms in a slot trick too that started with the Genesis emulator in the handheld, and then they went and made a console that uses carts. There's no reason other than just not wanting to do it that they couldn't put a cart slot on the Coleco, the Intellivision, or the 2600.

But as noted 2 months ago, someone saw an ATGames tester on AtariAge and they admitted as much they don't bother changing the emulator (which is disgusting and lazy.) That Genesis is only as good as the handheld, and both of them fail in value at the price they ask because they blatantly refuse to fix the bugs. The most critical by far -- NO SAVE GAMES. Even on a real cart, the ignorant piece of crap code can not allow a real game to save to its real save chip which is unforgivable.