Customer Reviews

Activision Classics - Playstation

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I borrowed "Activision Classics" from one of my friends awhile back and for the most part I was impressed. I grew up playing the Atari 2600 and I still play it sometimes, so I couldn't wait to play this game. It has a lot of my favorites such as Pitfall and Megamania. Even better, it has even more games that I haven't ever played but have always wanted to such as Fishing Derby and Frost Bite.

The graphics of the games is identical to that of the Atari 2600, but that's about all that's exactly the same. I have to admit, it is a bit different trying to control these games with a controller instead of a joystick. Once you get used to it, that won't be a problem. The only major drawback I found in this game is that in some of the ones I have for the Atari 2600 such as Megamania and Pitfall, the sounds aren't the same or they have been left out.

If you grew up with the Atari 2600 or used to play it a lot, I would recommend getting "Activision Classics." But if you haven't ever played the 2600, you might not be too fond of these games. If you're a longtime fan of Atari, this will bring back a lot of great memories.

For the money, this is a decent deal; 29 Activision games and 1 Imagic game for less than a buck a pop. As anyone who remembers the Atari will tell you, though, these kinds of games aren't usually engrossing; half the fun is being able to play a game for a few seconds or minutes and then popping in a new game. The more games you have, the more you're likely to do this. So, you'll find yourself constantly stopping games in progress and starting up others...

The overall package has some problems. First, considering the small size of the ROMs, there is no reason Activision couldn't have fit their entire catalogue on here, including Imagic and Absolute games (minus the licensed titles). It might have been difficult to emulate Pitfall II since it contained a separate sound chip, but everything else could have been included easily.

Second, the loading times are bizarre- these games are only 4-8k in size originally; the load times are so long that it seems the emulator is being loaded up fresh every time- this makes switching between games annoying. It would have been a lot more efficient to simply load the emulator into memory first, and then just load a ROM into memory as needed.

Third, an option to use the PSX mouse/trackball or analog/Dual Shock for Kaboom! would have been nice. Kaboom! was a paddle game originally, and digital controls just don't cut it.

Fourth, I would have loved to see some multimedia content. Considering the paucity of the instructions in the manual, scans of the original manual would have been nice; interviews with programmers and/or a multimedia history segment would have been really nice.

For the joystick games (all but Kaboom!), the controls are pretty good. It sometimes would help to have a joystick like the original Atari one, because a control pad doesn't offer the same amount of precision.

Overall, a decent entry in the retro/emulation category. More of a selection than any other title except Activision's Intellivision Classics. A little more polishing and it would have been a 4 star game; as it stands, though, it gets just a 3 for being a plain but competent compilation.

This is a wonderful look back on the way I wasted my early teens. I bought the disc for my 16-year-old brother and we spent the entire night playing Pitfall, Enduro, Chopper Command, River Raid, you name it. I only wish Atari would put together some of their own classics: Joust, Berzerk, Combat, Asteroids, or Space Invaders. Oh no, I'm thirty-one.

I bought this game because I loved the old Atari games. My husband, brother, mother, father, and I all enjoyed the game very much. It reminded us of when we were younger and allowed us some good times and memories. I asked my daughter to come and see what our games used to look like. We compared them to the games of today. She was amazed at the difference. She sat down to watch at first, but she couldn't help herself, soon she picked up the controller and started playing. I had to make her shut off the machine and go to bed. I also love that these games do not have so much profanity and other things that the newer games have. Also they do not spin around so much that you get a headache. Everyone in our family loves this game. It is excellent.

Don't get me wrong, I loved this collection. I'm old enough to rember fighting over the Atari 2600 with my brother and sister. You'll find all the classic old-school games here, and a few not so classic. River Raid 1, River Raid 2, and Sea Quest were the best, and Pit Fall alone was worth the price. If you only have a PS One, and can rember the Atari 2600, get this disk. However, if you have a PS 2 there is another collection under the same title with all the same games as this one as well as some that weren't included on the PS One version. The PS 2 version also has some other nice bells and whistles and is, for my money the better collection.

There have been a lot of Activision classics I used to play 20 years ago, someone missed the cut in this CD, but most I have played before and it renewed my interest to try again and playing it the way I used to play it on the Atari 20 years ago.

I may have been a smart kid, but I always used B difficulty. Now I use the "A" level to advance my knowledge and believe me, my scores have been pretty good the way I remember it.

If anyone still has a PS1, they should get this CD, especially if they have one with the LCD screen for travel purposes.

I bought this CD because it featured one game i played a lot when i was a kid, SEAQUEST.Fortunatly for me this is one of the games that you can play ussing the PS3 dualshock controls without getting too complicated.I tried playing River Raid and eventhough i changed the button controls it is still mighty dificult and not in the least fun.Other games easy to play are BOXING, CHOPPER COMMAND, SKIING and TENNIS.You get 30 old games for a fair price.

I received this product on time and was able to play all the good collection of good old days games.

i really like the atari 2600 version of these games but when i tried to order this it was not available. i'm guessing i would like the game because it takes me back to a simpiler time(1980's)

That's the only way to put it. This is a classic and if had an Atari and you think you would like to go back to the basics for a change. You must have this. It's also good for those who get motion sickness from these new highly 3 dimensional games that these new systems all make now.