Old Games Become New
Got something for Christmas that I’d been wanting for awhile: an Atari plug-and-play game controller. It has 10 games on it, stuff like Pong and Asteroids, etc. I’ve long been an Atari fan, and this is quite a treat. Aside from the aforementioned (and unmentioned) megahits, there are a few lesser-known titles on here (such as Yar’s Revenge and Circus Atari) that are also really fun to play.
Now, this is not the kind of collection you usually see, which is the arcade classics; this is a recreation of the home system. That’s right kids, the 2600. Lots of monochromatic blocks and more than a little abstraction on the part of the developers (I’d have never guessed those blocks were balloons). They’re the kind of games that those of us that are my age and older remember fondly (and refer to as “classics”), and that today’s kids make fun of. Guess you just had to be there.
Even from a programmer’s standpoint, I look at these games and think to myself, “I could program that!” (and I probably could…….at least the graphics wouldn’t be too hard) But there’s still the fun in the simplicity of these old games. Of course, they were so loved back then because people hadn’t seen the like, and so we ate ‘em up, whereas somebody raised on XBOX and PS2 is likely to wonder what the big deal is.
(Boy, do I ever feel old.)
All that aside, these games are sheer fun. But along with that fun comes a whole heap of frustration. In emulating the controller as well as the games, they’ve also reproduced the inability of those old controllers to behave exactly the way you want. I was spoiled with my PC version of Pong, being able to move the paddle with precision using my mouse. Not so here: getting the balance of joystick usage vs. onscreen movement is a balance I have yet to master (I have yet to win a game of Pong.)
Ten games for $15 and no cartridges or discs to worry about. Genius!
Addendum: OK, I know that these things have been out for months. It takes me awhile to catch up with the outside world sometimes.