Yeah, the cab was pretty damn ambitious for the time, using a weird raster/3D polygon hybrid engine which was apparently murder to develop, but understandable considering it was the first polygon-based arcade game. The board was monstrous and apparently very prone to breaking down. For some reason the one thing that sticks in my mind about the game in the arcades was the bassy attract music. I loved that. It'd be awesome if Atari could find a way to bring this into the fold. I'd buy it as a standalone "pack". I'd probably need a change of drawers. I doubt it'll happen though; you need a pretty beefy system even by modern standards to emulate Jaguar stuff. (Emulators can't utilize the power of multicore processors, so the one core or single-core CPU it's running on has to be fast.)
Wow, the app store ratings dropped from four to two stars. We know some of the low ratings come from people not loving the controls on a number of games, but I can't help thinking that the larger percent stems from another reason: PONG - yes, it's the grandaddy of all, but this should not have been selected as the freebie game (imo) to get people to stick around. Now hordes of youngins have free rating access to type "what a crappy stupid game - and I have pay for more games? - I thought this was free!". Atari should have included one really good pack of three or four appealing games, rather then to have chosen Pong as the "lure". It's like getting a free sample of some new Need for Speed sequel which gives you access to a solid blue screen with a tricycle to move around. Come to think if it, they were probably better off not staring out as a free game. No biggie - life goes on.. just an observation. lol
I was thinking the same thing. It might have done better ratings-wise if they'd just charged $0.99 and included one of the 4-game packs. They'd have gotten a lot less kids and "casuals" downloading it that way, leaving the people who actually enjoy retro gaming to rate it properly.
Or, of course, people who actually enjoy retro gaming ARE rating it properly now they've had time to examine it, and are scoring it on the basis of the mostly-terrible controls or the dodgy pack contents or the tiny screen areas or the lack of VCS score-saving, rather than just going "OMG IT'S GOT MAJOR HAVOC FIVE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!". Perhaps because they care more about how it plays than whether it reminds them of when they were 12 or not.
Yeah, the controls bite and it runs crummily on older devices... the 2600 version of Crystal Castles crashed my system almost immediately after I started it. A 2600 game is too much for my iPod Touch to handle? Oh please. What rankles me is that the DS versions of these games (spread out across two cartridges) run a lot more smoothly, on hardware that's less powerful. Yeah, I paid ninety-nine cents for one of the game packs, but I don't think I'll be going back for seconds.
It's pretty good!! I'm not sure why everybody is complaining so vehemently about this app. While it is true that some of the controls take a while to get used to, the app is pretty good. In particular, I really like the arcade versions of the games as opposed to the Atari 2600 games. My favorite game is Tempest (arcade)....it really is a great port! =) richmlow
I'll probably change my review once they update it, but this didn't have the nostalgiac value it may be having on others. With the giant updated MAME collection I own, there's been no "missing years" for these classics with me. That said, I think the bar was already set very high knowing how old they are and how good iOs is. The controls are one gripe, but the half screen usage is really unacceptable. Major Havoc uses about 60% of the screen total with the super break out mini game being... well mini. The 2600 games control horribly, but again, with a proper update I can overlook that. Spacing out the buttons more would be my suggestion. (iPhone4) Not sure about how these are working out on iPad.
I just downloaded this and bought the Asteroids pack... Asteroids Deluxe really was one of my all time favorite arcade games growing up... The emulation here works surprisingly well on an Ipod Touch g2. the controls do take some getting used to on the small screen though.... but overall... not bad at all! The controls in the 2600 games are kinda atrocious in portrait mode... really I can't think of a single iOS game with a virtual control pad that has been playable in portrait mode... there really should be an option to play these in landscape mode... Also... I do wish there was an option to buy all the arcade games as one package without having to get the 2600 games. After playing this collection, they seem to be the only ones I'm interested in. Still though... it is definitely a decent collection. even if the 2600 games don't control particularly well on the smaller iOS devices.
Wish I had a few bucks. That Yars' Revenge pack looks incredibly tempting. The Adventure pack doesn't look half bad either. D:
I'm kind of regretting having bought the full pack. I haven't played much after being demoralized by Warlords having weird controls (sliding vertically, while your paddle wraps around the corner is just too hard to get use to) AND with it not supporting 4-player multiplayer on one device on the iPad (and really, could be two player on the iPhone). If they changed the slider so that it moved at an angle across the castles, then not only would it work better (especially if they were tolerant of straying off the line as would probably be natural as you go around the corner), but it would allow for 4 players multiplayer on one device. Then Tempest, again I'm struggling a bit with the controls, but it does feel better then Warlords. I'll probably come back to that one at least. And I haven't really tried anything else yet. After those disappointments, one major and one partial, I found myself wanting to play other things and I haven't gone back. I will go back to it, though. Especially seeing how I already put out the big bucks for it. I should have just bought a pack or two. Oh well.
Yes, the controls do take some getting used to with some titles, and with certain titles, the controls are just plain awkward to terrible. (Any horizontal paddle game with the dial along the bottom and the fire button just above it, eg. Night Driver, Breakout) I do hope Atari can tweak some of the controls here -- both in layout and hopefully with adjustable sensitivity. I'm happy overall with the collection though. But being an old school Atari nut since there were still original games on store shelves, going all-in was a foregone conclusion -- especially since they included several unreleased prototypes and a hack or two.
Circus Atari, a favourite from my youth, is virtually impossible, for this very reason. The colouring of the screen also makes it somewhat difficult to see what's going on, although this could be an issue with the NTSC original, as the version I played way-back-when was the PAL version. For obscure reasons the PAL implementation of the VCS had a smaller colour palette to the NTSC one.
Echo to my previous post, the major problem is I am stuff with unwanted "addition" stuff in a pack. I really don't mind paying a dollar for a title I love. Any issue is, I am not sure what the control would be until I have laid down my money. Even Pong has problem: rebound near the upper left corner is uncatchable!
Dunno. FWIW, I bought the full pack and the Missile Command is not one of my favorites. The other version that is/was out let you tap and it would shoot - not so with this version, at least that I can find. - Greg
