Customer Reviews

Atari Anthology

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

 

 

If you like playing classic games on your Xbox, then you definitely need the Xgaming X-Arcade joystick (ASIN B00008ELB0 or B00006I5ZX), preferably the 2-player version. I tried playing Midway's Joust, and the controller was really holding me back. These 80's games depend on "button smashing", and that's something the Xbox controller doesn't handle well.

Atari Anthology contains over 80 classic Atari games from the 80's. This makes it a better deal than the other classic game packs for the Xbox.

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
* Adventure™
* Air*Sea Battle™
* Asteroids®
* Atari Video Cube™
* Backgammon
* Battlezone®
* Blackjack™
* Bowling
* Breakout®
* Canyon Bomber™
* Casino™
* Centipede®
* Circus Atari™
* Combat™
* Crystal Castles®
* Demons to Diamonds®
* Desert Falcon™
* Dodge 'Em™
* Double Dunk™
* Flag Capture™
* Football
* Fun With Numbers™
* Golf
* Gravitar®
* Hangman
* 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™
* Steeplechase™
* Stellar Track™
* Street Racer™
* 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®

I bought this primarily for the real arcade ports. I have had a look at the 2600+ games and there's as awful as I remember them. So that portion, whilst extensive, is only there for a nostalgia kick or if you absolutely have an old 2600 game you loved. The arcade parts are great though. My friend owns a real Asteroids machine and so I know how spot on the arcade version of Asteroids is. Plus the games store your high-scores - an important aspect I think.

Everything is included - overlays, controls, side art and backgrounds are visible to give the true arcade look. They can even be toggled on and off if you'd rather play the arcade game fullscreen. Lots of background info is included as well as fun challenge modes and enhanced graphic options.

If you want pure Atari arcade conversions this is the one to buy - the 2600 games and the background info and extra graphics are just the icing on the cake.

For the price you can't go wrong. Recommended.

Did you used to play with your Atari set for hours and hours? How about the classic arcade games like Battlezone and Crystal Castles? They're all in this collection!

This is just an AMAZING deal - you get over 80 complete, original games in the pack. I am in my 30s and haven't played many of these games since I was a teenager. Yet when I jumped into the Adventure game, I immediately knew all the maps, where to find the keys, were the dragons would be lurking. Playing Yar's Revenge, I became hooked for quite a while, remembering all the techniques to win the game. Somehow my brain has been hard wired to remember these things, and it's really cool to go back to a game now and say "Wow, I had TONS of fun with that!"

There are even full scans of the manuals, so you can read each manual from cover to cover if you wish.

In addition to all the Atari console games, you also get the original arcade games like Battlezone. I was a HUGE battlezone fan, driving my tank around and seeking out the enemy. It is so much fun to be able to play it at home!

It is just astounding that they fit all these games onto one CD. I used to scrimp and save for weeks to get just one cartridge! I would have thought it was a miracle back then to be handed 80 of them in a box and told "here, have fun". I would have played for years on end.

Sure, the graphics are old-style. You get blocks of color without much detail. Even on a big screen TV, it's sometimes hard to figure out what the maps are telling you. But that is part of the charm, of course. Lunar Lander is just as much fun now as it was then. Hangman doesn't need good graphics, nor does chess. Those mind games are a challenge no matter what they look like.

I really don't see a downside here. You pay one price for that CD and you literally could play for years. Each game is complete. There are games for every age group, for every gamer type. It really does prove that in the end, a great game isn't about sound or graphics. It's all about the design.

A must buy!

I am failing to see how any of the previous reviewers could have given positive feedback on these Atari games for XBOX. The games are the good old games we older generation grew up with, but the playability with the XBOX controller is not intuitive and so sensitive that the games are unplayable. Complete illogical buttons are assigned to fire thrusters and navigation. The Ping-Pong and Breakout games as an example are unplayable because the controller is so sensitive that the smallest joystick movement is translated to such a large movement that there isn't a way of attaining accuracy of hitting the ball.

I would like to warn users that this will be the biggest waste of money you have thrown out if you purchase this game. As to the user that gave it a positive feedback, they must be friends and relatives as there isn't a way that anybody can be happy with this game.

I still remember Christmas 1977 when I first received my Atari 2600, it seems just like yesterday... When the Atari made it's way into the 80's everyone seemed to have one. I remember staying up all hours of the night to play these classic games with friends. The Silver Cartrige Age and Atari Comic Books were now popular, and I remember seeing the ads for all the new classic games. I even had the silver jacket with Atari on the back when I was twelve.
Then in 1984, too many games, and so little time... Then the crash, and then in 1985 Nintendo came about. For the next two decades we saw several systems come and go. Then the PC era for video games, and now we have the retro age. Now my kids are playing on the Playstation II the Atari Anthology, we still keep up with the times. Yes, the Atari games have "out of date graphics" but they are fun to play over and over again.
The Atari Anthology and Activision Anthology really do bring back the "good ol' days", but I feel several titles were left out... For instance: Space Invaders, Superman, Joust, Jungle Hunt, Pheonix, Defender, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaxian, and others... The Only way to make EVERYONE happy is to release ATARI ANTHOLOGY II and complete the true collection!!!

I played Atari 2600 and 5200 games incessantly as a kid. When I saw this on the shelf recently it was an instant buy. While the graphics and sound are the real deal, I didn't much enjoy not having the original controllers to play them with, like the trackball, spin wheel, or paddle. Also, I could do without having to "zoom" in past the arcade cabinet facia just so I could have the game "full-screen". In any event, my favorites are on here, including "Tempest" and dozens of others. Not bad.

The item arrive in good time and good shape. It's the games I remember from my childhood and they are great fun. Playing them with the Xbox controller is a real challenge though and I don't want to spend the money for the atari like controller.

This Atari compilation definitely takes video players back in time. My kids don't care for it, the old Atari graphics are not appealing to youth.

Very comprehensive collection, the interface for going through the games is a little overdone. Game play is great, -only the actual arcade versions suffer from weird aspect ratio and resolution quality problems. You can resolve the aspect problems by resizing the screen in options. The resolution appears fuzzy on certain vector based classics like "Tempest", "Black Widow" etc.

I enjoyed playing these games when they were first popular, but playing them on X-BOX was disappointing. I was expecting them to be much better. The quality of the games was not what I expected.