Atari Anthology for PS2, XBox & Atari Flashback too!

[nildem]

Not sure if this is new or not, but whatever. :P No Gamecube version, unfortunately.

Here's the press release:

The largest collection of classic Atari games ever assembled comes home for the holidays as, Atari, Inc. today announced ATARI ANTHOLOGY, a round up of 85 vintage Atari games being released for the first time for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and Xbox video game system from Microsoft. Capturing the nostalgia and sheer fun of the original video game revolution, ATARI ANTHOLOGY is scheduled to hit retail shelves in November at the competitive price point of $19.99 that could make it irresistible for holiday shoppers.

"An entire generation of Atari 2600 and classic arcade game fans have been clamoring for a chance to relive that addictive fun, and now they finally can with ATARI ANTHOLOGY," said Nancy MacIntyre, Vice President of Marketing for Atari's Beverly Studio. "With 85 authentic Atari titles and all original gameplay, ATARI ANTHOLOGY appeals to a diverse audience of both dedicated and casual players alike."

For video game console owners, no better value exists than ATARI ANTHOLOGY, which features 85 games that started a revolution, including 18 arcades games such as Asteroids, Battlezone, Missile Command, and Pong; 62 Atari 2600 games including Gravitar, Millipede and Super Breakout and five bonus titles, such as Off the Wall, Blackjack, Desert Falcon, Steeplechase and Sprintmaster. Adding an innovative twist to each game are new Challenge Modes such as the psychedelic Trippy Mode, Time Warp and Double Speed, all of which push player's skills to the extreme, while a new 3D interface offers a polished portal into all the games.

ATARI ANTHOLOGY spans an impressive array of game categories, including Arcade Originals, 2600 Arcade Games and 2600 Adventure Games, as well as numerous offerings in the Action, Sports, Mind, Casino, Racing and Space genres.

ATARI ANTHOLOGY is expected to be available in November for a suggested retail price of $19.99. For detailed information on these products as well as the Company's entire product lineup, please visit www.atari.com.

[Cobra Commander]

Why the hell would you release something like that and not put it on every console? That kind of game screams multiplatform. I don't get it.

[MegaDrive20XX]

85? Damn...that makes the Intellivison Lives look tame now

[Crush Crawfish]

85??? Holy crap! I'm gonna have to buy this then!

[SamuraiSmurfette]

Why the hell would you release something like that and not put it on every console? That kind of game screams multiplatform. I don't get it.

It might come out for Cube later. The Intellivision collection will be releasing for it shortly. (Don't know the date by heart)

[Lady Jaye]

Here's the complete list of titles:

85 Games That Started a Revolution!

It’s the largest collection of classic Atari games ever! Take a step back in time to the early days of video arcades with an unmatched compilation of unforgettable and authentic Atari titles. All of the games are faithfully reproduced with the great sights, sounds and fast action that made them so popular. Whether you played these games in their original arcade cabinets or on an Atari 2600™ console, you’re sure to find a favorite.

Classic arcade hits:
Asteroids®
Asteroids® Deluxe™
Battlezone™
Black Widow™
Centipede®
Crystal Castles®
Gravitar®
Liberator™
Lunar Lander™
Major Havoc™
Millipede®
Missile Command®
Pong®
Red Baron™
Super Breakout®
Space Duel™
Tempest®
Warlords®

Atari 2600™ titles:
3D Tic-Tac-Toe
A Game of Concentration
Adventure™
Air•Sea Battle™
Asteroids®
Basic Programming
Battlezone™
Blackjack™
Bowling
Breakout®
Canyon Bomber™
Casino™
Centipede®
Circus Atari™
Codebreaker™
Combat™
Crystal Castles®
Demons to Diamonds®
Desert Falcon™
Dodge ’Em™
Double Dunk™
Flag Capture™
Football
Fun With Numbers™
Golf
Gravitar®
Haunted House™
Home Run™
Human Cannonball™
Math Gran Prix™
Maze Craze™
Millipede®
Miniature Golf
Missile Command®
Night Driver™
Off the Wall™
Outlaw™
Quadrun™
Radar Lock™
Realsports® Baseball
Realsports® Football
Realsports® Tennis
Realsports® Volleyball
Sky Diver™
Slot Machine™
Slot Racers™
Space War™
Sprintmaster™
Star Raiders™
Star Ship™
Stellar Track™
Street Racer™
Steeplechase™
Submarine Commander™
Super Baseball™
Super Breakout®
Super Football
Surround™
Swordquest™: Earthworld™
Swordquest™: Fireworld™
Swordquest™: Waterworld™
Video Checkers™
Video Chess™
Video Olympics™
Video Pinball™
Warlords®
Yars’ Revenge®

No Solaris... How could they leave out Solaris??? The most forgetten Atari 2600 game out there!

[max 330 mega]

damn i gotta grab that

[Lady Jaye]

I just saw why Solaris isn't in the Atari Anthology collection (see the other locked thread on this topic):

Atari's keeping Solaris for its Atari 7800-style all-in-one console, the Atari Flashback...

Here's Atari's press release about the Flashback:

BEVERLY, MA, September 7, 2004 – It started a revolution and redefined entertainment for a generation…and today, Atari (Nasdaq: ATAR) proves you can go home again with its Atari® Flashback™ Classic Game Console. Coming in time for the holiday season, Atari Flashback is a stand-alone, plug-and-play unit filled with 20 classic Atari games, including Asteroids®, Centipede®, Breakout® and the never-before-released Saboteur™. Atari Flashback, a hybrid of the classic Atari 2600 and 7800 consoles, is modeled to resemble a smaller replica of the 7800 and plugs directly into the TV, for easy access and instant gratification.


“Today’s huge universe of video games fans got its start with these vintage Atari games and the old Atari consoles,” said Wim Stocks, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “For those gamers, Atari Flashback is a rush of nostalgia and retro fun; for younger gamers, it’s a chance to see where it all began and try their hand at gaming old-school style. It’s a must-have gift for the holidays.”


Returning 20 years after the introduction of the Atari 7800, Atari Flashback is a smaller replica of the original Atari 7800 system and comes with two joystick controllers, power supply and a TV cable so gamers can quickly and easily connect to their TV and start playing. Atari Flashback features 20 classic games that defined a generation of players, as well as one previously unreleased game, Saboteur.



The complete list of games found in Atari Flashback includes:

Adventure™
Air Sea Battle™
Asteroids®
Battlezone®
Breakout®
Canyon Bomber
Centipede®
Crystal Castles®
Desert Falcon™
Food Fight™
Gravitar®
Haunted House™
Millipede®
Planet Smashers™
Saboteur
Sky Diver™
Solaris™
Sprintmaster™
Warlords®
Yar’s Revenge

Atari Flashback be available in November for a suggested retail price of $44.95. For detailed information on Atari’s entire product lineup, please visit www.atari.com.

[Leo_A]

No cartridge port?

Its not a real Atari 7800 then, is it? Its just going to be on hardware like the Atari joystick and paddle things that have been released?

[davidleeroth]

85 games for $19.99. Finally some sense.
Now all they have to do is give us the GC version.

[Pantechnicon]

Atari Flashback, huh? Very interesting. Atari f/k/a Infogrames has taken one more step closer to releasing (dare I hope) a brand new console. Granted that wouldn't be for several years, but one can start to hope. Perhaps Atari is testing the waters, as it were, between the Jakks stuff and this; banking that if sales are good enough on the basis of brand name recognition that maybe one day they'll try their hand at a new concsole. But that's still crazy speculation for another day.

It's nice to see the 7800 finally getting some respect. I'm really curious about those controllers. Some of the games on this machine are supposed to be paddle-games. Do you spin the CX78-style "pain sticks" or can you actually hook up your own paddles? The controllers look detachable. Curiouser and curiouser....

As for why no cartridge port, I think I know the answer to this. At the last CGE one of the guys on the Atari 2600 panel admitted that the Jakks TV Games were actually using - of all things - a Famicom chipset , meaning that the games therein are actuially ports. It wouldn't be surprising if this Flashback thing uses a similar chipset. An eventual cart port on one of these retro consoles would be nice, but I think they'd have to start using the the honest-to-God 6502 again to do it.

BTW, anybody see an MSRP for this Flashback thing? Even though I've got all the listed games I'm probably going to have to break down and buy one since it is, essentially, an Atari console.

[mikeetler]

I think the $45 price tag on the Flashback is a little extreme. It was bad enough when Radica priced the Taito collection at $25 and Genesis at $30, but $45 is really over the top.

[Lady Jaye]

Yup, the MSRP for the Flashback is indeed $45 US.

Too expensive to be successful, IMO. Which is too bad. And I also do wonder whether the joysticks are detachable or not, and whether the Pro Joysticks they're using are like the old ones.

[kevincure]

The guy at Infogrames Atari still doesn't get it. The *reason* this stuff will sell is precisely because of the emulators. I don't think it's a stretch to say that nearly all potential buyers of the Anthology disk have used MAME and the various 2600 emulators. They are classic gaming's lifeblood. Even with emulation, Atari will still sell tons of the disks because, at 20 bucks, it's more convenient for me to throw this disc into an XB than to mod and burn.

[kainemaxwell]

85 games for $20, I'm impressed!! But true, this pak deserves to be on multiple platforms.

[Pantechnicon]

I think the $45 price tag on the Flashback is a little extreme. It was bad enough when Radica priced the Taito collection at $25 and Genesis at $30, but $45 is really over the top.

$45?! That's just ridiculous! If it had a cart slot (or any sort of expansion capabilities) that would be worth considering. Maybe if there were more 7800 titles as well....But to shell out that much for a collection of hard-wired games - most of which have already been seen on the Jakks joystick - is preposterous.

For crying out loud, real 2600's never cost that much at the end of their run! The last time I remember seeing a 2600 available in a regular retail channel was 1992 at Toys R Us. A junior system with one joystick went for $40. It may have even got down to $20, and that's what I think I'm going to wait for on the Flashback. Hello bargain bin...

[Buyatari]

85 games for $20, I'm impressed!! But true, this pak deserves to be on multiple platforms.

I dunno, the Activision package was just for PS2 wasn't it? I see limited buyers on this one why bother with the smaller systems.

And I pose another question.

How do you suppose they got the roms to these games? I doubt they went out and bought a Quadrun off eBay.

I wonder if they just downloaded all these roms off the net and then packaged them up and resold them? How funny.

[Flack]

Right now they are testing the market to see just how dumb and loyal we are and how deep our pockets are. I wouldn't be surprised to see a quick price drop after that $45 joke debuts to crickets.

[TheRedEye]

85 games for $20, I'm impressed!! But true, this pak deserves to be on multiple platforms.

I dunno, the Activision package was just for PS2 wasn't it? I see limited buyers on this one why bother with the smaller systems.

And I pose another question.

How do you suppose they got the roms to these games? I doubt they went out and bought a Quadrun off eBay.

I wonder if they just downloaded all these roms off the net and then packaged them up and resold them? How funny.

True story: there are iNES headers present in the ROMs on both the Konami Classics PC disc and the Zelda bonus disc, meaning that Konami and Nintendo, respectively, download the ROMs from the 'net.

[rolenta]

How do you suppose they got the roms to these games? I doubt they went out and bought a Quadrun off eBay.

I wonder if they just downloaded all these roms off the net and then packaged them up and resold them? How funny.

If you check the credits from the PC version of the collection, you'll see the following names: John Hardie, Sean Kelly, Albert Yarusso, and Alex Biltstein. Also, the collection was put together by Digital Eclipse, and one of the people working for Digital Eclipse is Mike Mika, a major collector.