One of the first articles I wrote for Operation Gadget was about the Atari Classics 10-In-1 TV Game from Toymax. I’ve now had the opportunity to sit down and play several of the games, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a faithful recreation of several classic games from the Atari 2600 console game system.
I played Asteroids, Missile Command, and Centipede for about 15 minutes each. These games were just like I rememembered from the early 1980s. This is good and bad because the Atari games are individually less sophisticated than the games included with the Namco TV Games package that I reviewed earlier. Centipede on the Atari is quite playable, but not as entertaining as Pac-Man in the Namco package.
Like the Namco package, the Atari Classics game has very low sound levels, requiring you to turn up the volume on your TV set quite high. I could tell that the higher-pitched sounds being played on the Atari were there, but they seemed even quieter than the lower-pitched sounds.
The most interesting element of the games that I played was that they all seemed to run faster in their new incarnation than they did on the original 2600. I don’t think I’ve lost anything from my reflexes, but, Centipede seemed almost too fast to me, and probably wouldn’t be fun for young children. Missile Command also seemed faster to me than the classic version.
I thought the most consistant game from classic to the newly-released version was Asteroids. It’s a fine game, but, the graphics are primitive compared to what I remember from the arcade. But, that was also the case on the 2600.
I like both the Atari Classics 10-in-1 TV Game and the Namco TV Game. If I had to pick one, I would probably choose the Namco, because several of its games are arcade quality. For sheer nostalgia purposes, the choice would be Atari Classics. But, I’m keeping both, and I’m sure I’ll play them regularly.