atari 2600
Latest
Conan takes on the Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 isn't the kind of modern, hip guest you'd normally expect on a late-night talk show, but in the hands of Conan O'Brien it's excellent value - not literally, mind. With his Clueless Gamer spectacles, which clearly don't have a trace of rose tint, our host really doesn't get on with some of the vintage console's most memorable entries. However, like Conan's quiff, one game somehow manages to hold up.
Documentary filmmakers to excavate infamous Atari E.T. landfill
A planned excavation will soon give closure to a long-standing video game urban legend, and may provide new insight into the industry's crash in 1983. Canada-based film production company Fuel Industries has obtained permission from the City Commission of Alamogordo, New Mexico to excavate a landfill containing a large quantity of unsold Atari 2600 games, for the purpose of filming a documentary. Local news outlet KRQE reports that Fuel Industries will have access to the site over the next six months. According to reports in 1983, between 10 and 20 semi-trailer trucks filled with unsold, inoperable, and prototype Atari hardware and software were dispatched from an El Paso, Texas storehouse to a landfill in Alamogordo. The cargo was reportedly dumped, crushed, and encased in concrete. Urban legends state that the film-licensed game E.T. comprised a significant chunk of the dumped material. While E.T.'s gameplay quality is up for debate (some say it's one of the worst games of all time; others claim that it's a misunderstood mediocrity), it was a notoriously poor seller, and played a role in Atari, Inc.'s decision to close and split its assets in 1984. Given the layers of concrete involved, the excavators have a lot of work ahead of them. Recovering these cartridges – or anything recognizable, really – is going to require a lot more than a roadtrip and some shovels.
The Game Archaeologist: GameLine
Modern MMO gamers are blessed with plenty of conveniences that we take for granted. One such convenience is the ability to simply download any online game without having to deal with the hassle of DVDs or CDs (trust me, young people, one day your children will be dubious when you tell them how you'd have to swap in discs to load a game). Game trials, downloadable content, access to a large library of titles, and simply being online are facts of life for us, not cause for us to fall on our knees in total awe. Before Steam was offering us loads of free-to-play MMOs, before Xbox Live Arcade was offering indie titles a platform for exposure, before CompuServe was making headway in online services, there was an odd artifact on the Atari 2600. Yes, that ancient console that has nary an "X" or "Play" in its name. The artifact was GameLine, and whether or not you've heard of it, it was one of the earliest pioneers of downloadable games services. When I found out about it, it just fascinated the crap out of me. I think it will impress you, too.
Atari 2600 turned into an iPhone speaker dock
Etsy shop owner Peter Morris took a much-loved, but now broken Atari 2600 game console and turned it into an iPhone speaker dock. More than just a pretty showpiece, the dock includes 6 EQ settings, an FM radio, a 3.5mm jack for non-Apple devices and a remote control. You can check out pictures of the retro dock on Morris' Etsy page. There's only one unit available for sale and it'll cost £150.00 (US$230) plus shipping. [Via Waylou]
Complete Air Raid fetches over $33k, priciest Atari 2600 sale ever
The world's only complete, in-box copy of Air Raid was auctioned yesterday for $33,433.30, the highest ever sale for an Atari 2600 game. The figure is nearly two grand more than the previous record held by the same game, which went for $31,600 in 2010. This copy is worth more because it also includes the manual, making it complete. It overtook the record when an 11th hour bid almost doubled the previous asking price.This incredibly rare game goes for crazy money even without its box, with the number of known copies barely into double figures. It's so obscure that only the box clearly verifies the game's developer and official title. The seller's story is remarkable too. Working in the video game department of a drug store in the 80s, he was given Air Raid to sell by a visiting rep. After trying it out at home, the seller decided it wasn't good enough for the store and told the rep to take it back. The rep (forehead-slapping-moment imminent) told him to keep it anyway. Nearly three decades later, the rest is $33,433.30 worth of history.
Engadget Giveaway: win an exclusive Atari 2600 with PC components!
We're not going to beat around the bush here: this is one of the most exciting contests we've hosted in a long, long time, and you'll definitely want to enter. Our friends at Atari were kind enough to give us an extremely limited-edition (there are only two in existence) Atari 2600 gutted with modern PC components and signed by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell -- and one lucky soul will be able to call this beauty their very own! The gaming company is doing this to promote the 35th anniversary of the 2600's original release, as well as its latest creation, arcade.atari.com, which is an HTML5-driven, multitouch-supported hub that lets you play eight classic Atari games online (including Pong and Centipede). Not only that, the team -- consisting of Atari and the Internet Explorer team -- put together an SDK to help you build your own games on the classic platform. After you enter to win (all you have to do is leave a comment below), make sure you head over to the Arcade to spend countless more hours in the land of nostalgia. Note: For bragging rights, feel free to post your high score as your comment entry.
How to set up your Raspberry Pi to play Atari 2600 games
So after your brain hurts a bit and you're tired of learning computer science on the Raspberry Pi, you might want to relax with a bit of nostalgia and exercise your thumbs with some retro gaming. Want to revisit your childhood memories of Pong? Ping away. Maybe your kids have been hounding you for a video game console but you don't have the $300 to spring for a PS3. The Pi can help you with this and help teach your kids something, to boot. After some slight software configurations and a hardware purchase or two, you can relive the days of the almighty Atari 2600. Catch us after the break and we'll show you how to get your Pi to play all your totally legal cartridge backups.
Atari 2600s get PC innards, 22,857 times more processing power
Atari games redesigned in HTML 5 may bring back a flood of nostalgia, but they leave out a key part of the gaming experience: the classic hardware. Hard Drives Northwest filled that void by gutting a limited number of authentic Atari 2600s and stuffing them with modern PC components. Packing a Core i7 3.4GHz processor, the retro console now boasts 22,857 times more processing power than it did in its heyday, according to Microsoft's calculations -- more than enough oomph to handle the recent remakes. Other internals include 8GB of RAM, a 120GB SSD and a Radeon HD 6570 graphics card with 1GB of video memory. With support for USB 3.0 and 2.0, eSATA, DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI, the system is well stocked on the connectivity front. Finally, the signature of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell acts as the cherry atop the faux wood grain-toting package. While the souped-up machines aren't up for sale, a pair of them are slated for a giveaway. Glamour shots and the full set of specs await you at the source.
Atari ports classic games to HTML5 for web and Windows 8, lets developers craft their own (video)
Atari is big on nostalgia this year, but it hasn't had much in the way of software to reflect the trip down memory lane beyond the existing mobile apps. Its remedy to that shortfall is full of 2012 buzzwords. The new Atari Arcade includes modern takes on eight classic Atari 2600 games, all built entirely with HTML5 and free to play. As fun as that promises to be, our interest is most piqued by the game library's open-ended nature; this isn't just an alternative to firing up a smartphone. A new Javascript kit lets developers not only build their own games but make money as they see fit, whether it's through ads or in-app purchases. Whether they're new or old, titles work in multiple contemporary browsers, although Microsoft would really, really like you to know that the games are ad-free and touch-optimized for both Windows 8 tablets as well as Internet Explorer 10. We'll try to remember that when we look to relive our Combat memories on a Surface.
Rare Atari 2600 game, Red Sea Crossing, pops up in Philly shop
Red Sea Crossing is one of the rarest Atari games in existence. According to legend, the developer, Steve Schustack, made 100 copies in 1983 and promptly lost track of where they went or what happened to them. Until now, there was just one known, unauthenticated copy of the game on this planet, and after years of hoarding it the owner recently decided to auction it off on Ebay, on August 22.Yesterday, another copy of Red Sea Crossing turned up at Medium Bob's Curiosity Shop in Philadelphia. The boys at Medium Bob's have since recorded themselves playing the game, providing proof of its functionality, which is more than the owner of the original copy has done. The owner of the first copy has since postponed his auction and made offerings to the drama llama over on the AtariAge forums.Medium Bob's is accepting offers on its copy of Red Sea Crossing, but doesn't yet have a plan for proceeding with the sale. It will post details on its Facebook page once it decides a course of action, but for now "the game is buried deep in a vault somewhere near the Earth's core."
Soapbox: In defense of achievements
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. I've heard all the arguments before, trust me. Achievements are a waste of space. They're frivolous, meaningless numbers -- a Skinner Box within a Skinner Box for the weak-willed. They can be far too spammy. And then there's that hoary chestnut: They take precious development time that could be used for better purposes from something you personally want. Achievements are a blight upon our games, binding us to the most base of gamer crowds, the yokels on Xbox Live. We should cast off the chains of achievement oppression and live as free men, women, and Elves once more! OK, enough with the histrionics. Many of these points come down to personal preference, and that's impossible to refute. You like what you like, and I like what I like. Still, I'd disagree that the overall notion of achievements is useless. In fact, I fully embrace them in my gameplay and hope that they stick around for a good long while.
Atari: celebrating 40 years of gaming history
Forty years. That's a long time in the tech industry and Atari knows it. Today it celebrates four decades in the game, and quite the tale it is. Highs, lows and everything in between, Atari has been there. As one of the most influential brands both in gaming and technology, it only seems right to take a look over the company's history and chart some of the more significant twists in its less than straightforward journey. After the break we speak to the man that started it all and the one currently at the helm, as well as some of the many people whose lives were irreversibly changed by its influence. Happy birthday to you, Atari!
Joyride to joystick: Atari controller custom-built from car seat adjuster
So you've survived the robot revolution and you're waiting for either a full-blown apocalypse, or Mr. Anderson. But how are you going to kill time when our new masters are eating controller PCBs for breakfast? With a steampunk joystick, of course. Jason Torchinsky from Jalopnik has done just that, making an Atari 2600 controller by repurposing a power seat control switch panel from a 1980s Oldsmobile. It's no Avenger Controller Elite, but it certainly does the job, and due to a standardized wiring layout it's functional on other hardware of the same era. And for all you MAME heroes, Jason says it would be no more complicated to hook it up to a PC or Mac using a USB keyboard encoder. Follow the source link for a neat walkthrough of the project and jump over the break to see a video of the seat switch in action, shot in the mancave of yesteryear. Update: We've removed the video at the owner's request, but you can check it out at the source link below.
Star Castle finally finds a home on the Atari 2600, gets a redesigned cartridge
Halo may have made its way to the Atari 2600, but wouldn't porting a retro game to this '70s-era console be more appropriate? MAKE Magazine has the skinny on former Atari dev Scott Williamson's port of the Cinematronics shooter Star Castle. Though Atari execs decided the title was too complicated to bring over in the '80s, Williamson took it upon himself to make that transition possible. The result of some serious coding is 8K of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM's worth of good ol' space war. But he didn't stop there -- he redesigned the cartridge with a transparent casing and LEDs that flash during gameplay. Click through to the source link for the full step-by-step.
Choose My Adventure: Insert cartridge
Sooner or later, it had to happen. After years of resisting peer pressure from my fellow Massively writers, disapproving looks from old ladies on the bus, and two strongly worded op-ed columns in The New Yorker, I've finally capitulated to join the ranks of the few... the loud... the CMAers. It's a scary thought, putting the fate of my gaming time into your hands, but so be it. Life is about getting out of your comfort zones, then realizing why those zones were so comfortable in the first place and racing right back to them. But before I reclaim my own destiny, I must navigate this dark valley of capricious voters. I guess it's tradition to kick off a new series by giving y'all the chance to pick my new game of choice, and so until Sunday, you can attempt to dictate to me which title you'd like to see in the spotlight for the next couple of months. I thought long and hard about what games I was OK with trying and ended up with a list that fell into one of three categories: the old-school, the modern F2P wave, and the promising Asian imports. Read on to see the possible paths for my future, and choose wisely -- I'm counting on you!
cTrix's gATARI2600 chiptune "guitar"
The chiptune music scene is known for its creative use of antiquated gaming hardware, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better example of "antiquated" than 1977's Atari 2600. Through a clever mix of custom software, handmade cartridges and three Boss stomp boxes, chiptune artist/modder cTrix has created the gATARI2600, an instrument as massive as it is massively impressive. Check out the video above for cTrix's explanation of the device's components, as well as footage of the monstrosity (the instrument, not cTrix) in action at Blip Fest 2011. Personally, we're still holding out for an Intellivision viola.
Game console pioneer Jerry Lawson dies at 70
Gerald A. "Jerry" Lawson is one of the great unknown pioneers of the video game industry. He passed away this past Saturday morning of unspecified causes, according to an announcement on Digital Press. Lawson will be remembered as the engineer of the first cartridge-based game console (with a pause option!), the Fairchild Channel F, which launched in August 1976 as the Video Entertainment System (VES). He was also the only black member of the legendary Homebrew Computer Club, formed in Silicon Valley in the mid-70s. In the early 1980s he founded and ran Videosoft, which developed a handful of games for the Atari 2600. Additionally, Lawson's Demolition Derby was one of the first coin-op arcade machines, produced in his garage in the early '70s and installed in a southern California pizzeria shortly after Pong debuted. One of its key design features prevented players from stealing "free" games by jiggling the coin switch. Just last month, Lawson was honored during the 7th Annual IGDA Minority Special Interest Group Social Gathering at GDC. Shortly before the event, he was profiled by the San Jose Mercury News. More about his life is revealed in a 2009 interview with Vintage Computing and Gaming. [Photo credit: Maria J Avila Lopez/Mercury News]
Xbox 360 plus Atari 2600 equals Ben Heck's latest mod (also 2,960)
While not his most practical modification to date, Ben Heck has created one of his most unique consoles yet. Check out Heck's Frankensteinian mash-up of the Xbox 360 and Atari 2600 in the hefty, 23-minute-long video posted here.
Ben Heck crafts Atari-styled Xbox-360, takes us back to the '70s
Our man Ben Heck has done it again -- this time, he's taken modding to a new, retro level. Atari requested that Heck create a modded system as a promo for its new games, so our man teamed up with element14 and did what he does best. The master of mods has gutted an Xbox 360 and shoved it into a one-of-a-kind Atari 2600-esque case that he calls 'Xbox 360 1977 Edition.' The system's got switches from old Atari systems had that control disc-ejection and controller synchronization. Just like the classic Ataris, Heck's portable gaming laptop's got wood panels and a black finish -- and it's huge. The best part of this mod? Well, playing Street Fighter on Xbox 360 hidden inside of what would be a modern version of a classic like Atari is pretty cool, in our opinion. As cool a classic like the Virtual Boy though? We'll leave that for you to decide. Oh, and be sure to hit the source link to watch the mod get formed in 23 glorious minutes.
Retro consoles torn apart, ancient innards exposed
If you want to see just how far game consoles have come over the last few decades, check out iFixit's teardown of the Atari 2600. As you can see, there's not much to onetime king of home entertainment. Just look at how complex an iPhone 4 is in comparison! The Atari teardown was part of a full week of retro console deconstructions, including the Famicom, Magnavox Odyssey and even the Virtual Boy. Check them out for yourself -- if you think you can handle all that naked, aging PCB.
