Atari 50: Anniversary Celebration, review of the collection celebrating Atari

arcade He turns 50 and it’s right to celebrate. Unfortunately, it has been forgotten or ignored by many, either because it is a historical brand or also because the video game industry has 50 years. What better way to remember this turbulent experience that went through the ups and downs, reaching the stars, and then touching the deepest parts of hell in a few years, other than with a beautiful historically contextualized collection? Heading the project is Digital Eclipse, a studio specializing in restoring past glory, working on the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, The Disney Afternoon Collection, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection and the very new Teenage, among others. Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection proves to be superior to the competition for its ability to enhance individual games, as well as for the context in which they fell when they were originally released. This is undoubtedly their best work, as we shall see later. Atari 50: Anniversary Celebration review: The schoolbook we would love if we were to delve into the history of Atari and the beginnings of the entire video game industry.

Why a new collection

The highlight of the whole experience is that it works regardless of the games you choose, as they are all perfectly contextualized out of five. interactive timelines, is dedicated to various historical passages in which the company lived until the 90s. So we start with Origins of the Arcade, which chronicles the birth of Atari, founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, and we also refer to their previous company, Syzygy (which was abandoned because the name was already registered). The path follows the development of the section dealing with token transactions (token games) until 1984. Then we talk about the arrival of the Atari VCS, the first home console with successful cartridges (Channel F, we haven’t forgotten you). Naturally, the company’s Warner Bros. We’re facing crisis with the change at the top between Bushnell and Ray Kassar after the acquisition by the company, the arrival of Jack Tramiel who allowed the company to focus on computers, and the release of the latest consoles, the Atari Lynx. and the Atari Jaguar, both very unfortunate. Everything is presented in a highly dynamic way, with in-depth texts, video interviews with the heroes of the time, original information material reproduced in high resolution, and the games themselves, which can be remembered from timelines.

That way you don’t just learn History the company is pleasant, but it is also possible to realize the evolution of the environment in those years; this is well summed up by Atari’s own parable, with the focus shifting from the bazaar to the domestic market and the latter becoming more and more difficult to conquer, possibly impossible to avoid, either because of the fierceness of the competition or because of some valuation error. After all, the video game industry didn’t exist before Atari, so what we now call a bug was actually the result of executives being forced to march arm in arm in an uncertain world, a market that didn’t fully understand its scope. If, in the mid-’80s, Nintendo was successful in reviving the console market with the NES in the United States, it was precisely because Atari was there with all its problems, and Yamauchi and his friends left to manage their platform. . But that, as they say, is another story.

Atari 50: Anniversary Celebration’s way of revealing the story of Atari is probably one of the best possible when it comes to the world of video games, because it gives you access to the beating heart of its object, namely the video games themselves. It is also interesting that the style of the story is not based on legends and that some conflicts are told as they are told in the chronicles of the period without softening too much. For example, Al Alcorn, former vice president of research and development at Atari, told Warner Bros. He got into Warners, Ray Kassar… had a marketing department that didn’t know anything about games. They didn’t play. The marketing department told the techs what to do and basically made the Atari look outdated, old, calcified, filthy. rich company.”

Games

In addition to the timelines, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration offers comprehensive game library It is a part of the collection that also includes nice surprises. Atari’s previous collections, specifically the Atari Vault, have focused on the company’s golden age, followed by the coin operations of the 1970s and early 1980s, and the Atari 2600 game library with some escapes to the Atari 5200. A very different story was made here. Obviously, classics from Asteroids, Breakout, and Crystal Castles are not missing from the ubiquitous Pong, just to name a few. Frankly, these are must-know titles (still very playable, don’t worry) if one wants, after all, to look like an expert in the industry, at least for personal culture. However, alongside the more well-known names, Digital Eclipse did a great job trying to give a truly well-rounded picture of Atari’s history, as well as suggesting less famous titles but indicative in their own way like I, Robot, Canyon. Bomber, Rescuer, or Major Havoc, just to name a few, also takes games from unorthodox systems like the Atari Lynx, Atari 800, and Atari Jaguar.

So here are certain games in the collection that are often never re-offered to the public, such as Atari Karts, a beautiful clone of Mario Kart, Atari Karts, Missile Command 3D, the masterpiece Tempest, an unsuccessful attempt to three-dimensionalize the game Missile Command. 2000 by Jeff Minter, very strange Ninja Golf for the Atari 7800, where after hitting the ball you have to fight with rival ninjas to get the next shot, Basketball Brawl, where basketball and street fights are harmoniously mixed. , almost poetic and much more. Not all of them are masterpieces, of course, but what makes the process particularly relevant is the choice to include titles of all kinds, which aim to provide an overview of the time rather than presenting the usual games known to all. It should be noted that each game is presented with an attractive card showing the platform on which it was made, the year of release and some general information. It’s also notable that prototypes of never-released games exist, such as Centipede for the Atari 5200 or Saboteur for the Atari 2600 (made by the same Howard Scott Warshaw as the infamous ET). visionary bazaar Akka Arrh.

I deserve a separate note seven unreleased games, that is, it was specially made for Atari 50: Anniversary Celebration, which we want to talk about one by one. Of course these are very basic titles, aiming to give you more to try, but still a worthwhile add-on. We start with Haunted Houses, which tries to bring the gameplay of the game, considered the father of survival horror, to 3D and is characterized by a very simple graphic design and instant gameplay. Next, we move on to Neo Breakout, a modern reinterpretation of Breakout with remastered graphics and different game modes. Quadratank is instead a tank fighting game designed for multiple players. Also in this case the game is really direct and is characterized by an intimacy typical of many games of the time. Swordquest AirWorld for the Atari 2600 is the last installment in the Swordquest series that never came to market. Considering that other Swordquests are also in the collection, it’s a really nice gift for enthusiasts and seniors who want to finish the story that some see as an open wound.

Touch Me is instead a clone of Simon. The original was a device originally released in 1979 and presented here for the first time in virtual form. First of all, it should be considered a historical document that explains the various paths Atari has taken throughout its history. VCTR-SCTR The best title among the new proposals in our opinion, because it mixes the gameplay of games made with the Atari vector engine (Asteroids, Lunar Lander, Tempest and others) for a dynamic and paradoxically very fresh and fun product. Finally, Yar’s Revenge Enhanced is a new version of the aforementioned Warshaw masterpiece with revamped graphics and the ability to view the original graphics at any time.

Italian translation

Deserves a separate note Italian translationunfortunately not positive. It’s not a text issue, it’s the errors that make it unreliable. For example, in the Italian text Atari’s founding dates back to 1982 instead of 1972. nevertheless, it is serious enough for such a study, so much so that we preferred the English language without these errors. We hope that the translation will be checked and updated with necessary corrections.