Customer Reviews

Activision Anthology

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off,I have to say that I grew up in the 80s and I used to play atari all the time,so my review may be a bit biased.For me, this game had so many memories in it that it was a blast!One of the main reasons I got this anthology was because it included the great game Seaquest in it.I used to play that game for hours on end back in the day!

Some other great games included on it are,MegaMania,Frostbite, SpiderFighter,LaserBlaster,KeystoneKapers,RoboTank,and of course Pitfall.The 80s soundtrack put in the game made it even better;I mean playing these classics while listening to "Safety Dance",
"Tainted Love" or "Were Not Gonna Take It" is priceless in my opinion.If any of these songs do get on your nerves though( you can only listen to Mexican Radio so many times!) you are given the option to turn the music off.I just wish they would have given the option to only play certain songs while leaving other ones out..Oh well.

The only minor complaint I have for this title,is that some of the games included were really,REALLY bad!I mean I remember hating these games when I used to own them as cartridges for the atari 2600.The really bad games include,Dragster(terrible!), Dolphin,TomCat and the "bonus" games Kabobber and Thwoker. However there are enough fun games in here to justify buying it esp. since you can buy this new for pretty cheap. That's a great deal
for a gamer's trip down memory lane.

In conclusion,any gamer in his/her twentites would love this title.As for the younger generation,they probabaly couldn't appreciate this one;but everyone else sit back and have some fun!

For the past few years, Midway and Namco have been rereleasing old games in their collections. They would throw 6 to 8 early 80's games on a cd with nothing extra and charge an insane amount of money. Then along came Activision. Activision obviously learned from Midway and Namco's mistakes. Instead of 6 to 8, you get 45 Atari 2600 games. Want extra features? Ok, how about TV comercials from the 80s and those patches you could earn for their games. But they did not stop there. They added a truely impressive 80's soundtrack to keep you going. There are also added ways of playing the game. For example, one method overlays clouds over the game. Another has a large rotating cube with the game on each side. These extra ways of playing the game are interesting, but you will mostly just play the games the way they were. Overall, this is what a collection should be like. If you want to relive the classics or are interested in where the video game industry first got its start, you should check this out.

These are the classic games I played as a kid. Although primitive, they were *very* addictive and kept you saying, "Just one more game!"

And what a bargain! ... Well worth it. Although about half the games are not really worth playing today, there are several must-have classics:

Pitfall, Pitfall 2 (like 2D Metroid in a jungle), H.E.R.O., Kaboom, Cosmic Ark, Demon Attack.

No kidding, the selection screen is just a few items short of looking like my childhood room. I had my Atari hooked up to a black and white TV because the costs of games kept me from up-grading to a color TV. Just too hard to do when your income was $4 a week for taking out the trash for your parents and $6 a week for delivering the now defunct Washington Star on Sunday mornings.

Just like all of the reviews before this one, the sound track is great (love the Roxy Music), but too short and gets repetitive. I wish they had included more songs and you'll find yourself turning off the music after a few laps. I just about fell out of my chair laughing after unlocking the Hockey comercial with Phil Hartman from his pre SNL days. All of the add media you can unlock is hilarious (what geeks we all were). Like watching retro commercials on Nick at Night.

I remember the Activision games for being cutting edge, especially graphically, in an era where making a game grapically appealing was almost better than making a game that played well.

If you are a gammer and want to flash back to the early days of true gamming, then get this game. It's also fun to watch the look on your kids faces when they see an old Atari game for the first time. It's even funnier when you tell them it took a machine slightly larger than the PS2 to play them on; "Sonny, when I was your age, it took us two hours to get the vertical hold just right for playing, and then we walked five miles to school, in the snow, up-hill both ways, with no shoes".

If your kids are going to follow in your slacker foot-steps with gaming, then it's best they know their history.

If you owned an Atari 2600 or VCS in the 80s, you played these games. Activision made Atari games and kicked it up a notch in terms of graphics and game play. Practically the whole Activision library is here, and even a couple of Imagic games like Atlantis and Demon Attack. There's over 45 games on this disc, including:

Chopper Command
Crackpots
Freeway
Kaboom
Megamania
Pitfall 1 & 2
Plaque Attack
Pressure Cooker
River Raid 1 & 2
Seaquest
Spider Fighter
Stampede

Sports:

Boxing
Enduro
Fishing Derby
Grand Prix
Ice Hockey
Skiing
Tennis

In addition to the games, there's also an 80s music soundtrack to take you back in time as well. You can unlock various rewards for high scores (like patches and clips of the original commercials for these games) and play the games in different ways other than the standard one. There's something for everyone here. Some cute games like Barnstorming, Dolphin, Oink and Sky Jinks. Some games never released on compilations before, like Beamrider, Decathlon, Robot Tank and Space Shuttle. There's even a game of checkers on here. Hard to believe that games with four bits of memory were once the standard. This collection of games proves that going back in time can be fun. Get this game collection, you'll love it!

This is definitely for those people that owned the Atari 2600 in the early 80s... a complete collection of Activision games (in my opinion, the Atari 2600 games that were really worth it!) lovingly packaged with some cool extras, like the TV commercials for the games, to remind you that once upon a time, these were the top selling titles. I also own an Atari Flashback, something I enjoy but missed some important ones for me, like barnstorming and stampede. The gameplay can be a bit different with the playstation 2 controller, but it's still fun! For the arcade titles, there are some other "nostalgia" titles available, but for 2600 throwback purposes, this is the one I know about. Get it!

Activision released their library of Atari 2600 games many times before but this time they succeeded in capturing the nostalgic 80's feel that makes this package a great 'musuem' for those of us who cut our teeth on the early game systems. As you play through the games you unlock items like classic commercials and the patches Activision used to give away. You'll also unlock 'filters' that range from annoying to nausea inducing. As you try to unlock more goodies you may find yourself actually finding some depth to these seemingly simplistic games. In this way, Activision has actually made a game I would've played for 5 minutes into an obsession to achieve a higher score to open a commercial. If that's not enought, they also have ten 80's songs playing in the backround (which can be turned off if you get tired of hearing Safety Dance) and the actual 3-D box and cartridge shots that you can examine (although a better zoom would've been nice). If you had any enjoyment with these Activision classics back in the day or enjoy 80's nostalgia then this is definately worth the price of admission.

Activision Anthology
Back in the 80's almost everyone owned the Atari 2600/VCS.Atari Anthology covers 85 games (18) arcade) and it's fantastic! However,just like the 80's Activision Anthology just rocks it harder! Activision was the first "third party publisher" for the Atari.Made up of former Atari programmers they made the 2600/VCS do things previously thought impossible.Better graphics,more colors,and intense action that to this day tests any gamers skill to the limit!
Not only do you get 45 games but you get an 80's soundtrack! Cool extras like virtual patch's you can earn by hitting a certain score.All the greats are here from the groundbreaking Pitfall (Pitfall2 as well) Laser Blast,River Raid (River Raid 2) Starmaster and Kaboom to name a few.There are also a few classics not made by Activision as well. Demon Attack and atlantis from Imagic are here! Demon Attack being by far one of the best Invaders/galaxian type games ever produced IMO.
Games thought impossible to make work on the 2600 like Space Shuttle,Tomcat the f-14 simulator are amazing.Games that atari made are one upped by Activison like Robot Tank (Battlezone),Spiderfighter/Megamania/Demon Attack (invaders/galaxian/Phoniex)Starmaster (star Raiders almost unplayable on Atari anthology due to a wierd controller sceme)Beamrider (Tempest) Enduro (Pole Position) and many more. They even made the paddle controls work (better but not perfect) for Kaboom!
Even in the new century Activision beats Atari! This is the better anthology but I reccomend both! With Atari Anthology and Activision Anthology you really get an almost complete Atari 2600 experience! And oddly enough playing Demon Attack to the Safty Dance somehow works.

This is Atari greatness at its best! Like someone said, DON'T PASS THIS BY!!! These are the glory dayz of gaming!! They are forever alive within me for they are the ONLY THINGS I have left after the Air Force was done screwing my Life!!!! All I have are my precious vidoe games with their immortal character such as the unforgettables as Link, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Princess Zelda, Toad, Samus, Yuri from Breath of Fire, and Nina, my dark angel also from Breath of Fire. They will NEVER be lost to me and will NEVER leave me!!! LONG LIVE VIDEO GAMES FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!!

My daughter is 6 years old and loves this game. This was one of only two gifts she asked Santa for this year. She loves the games but really enjoys the 80's music that goes along with it. If you like the classic arcade games then you'll like this collection.