Rick, check out the comments from the original engineer on this project at AtariAge. Originally, this was supposed to be based on his "Atari on a chip", like the Flashback 2. But the company decided to switch to a NES on a chip design, like the original Flashback, joystick, and paddle products. These NES clone chips are dirt cheap, and I'm guessing Atari just licensed their NES versions of the games from their earlier projects to Basic Fun.
So, at least in this case, it's a case of penny pinching leading to the reuse of an already crappy clone on quite different hardware from the original game. But it's good enough for kids who never played the original, and adults who just want a quick, cheap nostalia trip, so I'm sure it's a success in the manufacturer's eyes.
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Rick, check out the comments from the original engineer on this project at AtariAge. Originally, this was supposed to be based on his "Atari on a chip", like the Flashback 2. But the company decided to switch to a NES on a chip design, like the original Flashback, joystick, and paddle products. These NES clone chips are dirt cheap, and I'm guessing Atari just licensed their NES versions of the games from their earlier projects to Basic Fun.
So, at least in this case, it's a case of penny pinching leading to the reuse of an already crappy clone on quite different hardware from the original game. But it's good enough for kids who never played the original, and adults who just want a quick, cheap nostalia trip, so I'm sure it's a success in the manufacturer's eyes.