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Just doesn't work well.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 19
Date: December 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I love these old games, and I would have loved to be able to play them however, and this seems like a problem for a LOT of people, but this program just doesn't work well on a modern PC, and not very well on older PC's either.

My main PC is a 2.4 gig P4 with 1 gig of RAM, and an 8x AGP nVidia graphics card with 64 megs DDR driving dual displays, running Win XP Pro. I just can't get this game to work on this computer at all. I tried it out on an older 800 MHz P3 without a video card (Win XP Pro as well) and it sorta worked, except most of the games wouldn't work with a mouse, and not very well regardless. I'm going to try this out on a 233 MHz machine I keep around for my older DOS based games and emulators, but still, this should be able to work on more modern machines. I did get this to work on my friends mediocre machine, and it works well there, when it decides to work.

Atari's tech support is almost non existent ... the basic stuff about upgrading your drivers and not running other apps, but nothing useful. Yes, I do have the very latest drivers and patches installed.

I do know a lot about computers, and have quite a few games installed ... everything from old DOS text games, to emulators (including arcade and 2600 emu's), to the most modern games and so far this is the only game that has given me a real hassle. I suspect I could get it to work but I'm not going to significantly change my computer just for this.

80 classics minus the best.....!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 30
Date: May 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Why is it that everything they come out w/doesnt actually have a collection of the best.. only a few. This cd, like all the rest, is missing the great games like frogger, ms. pacman, and donkey kong!

HORRIBLE

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 29
Date: January 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME IS HORIBLE YOU THINK THAT 20 YEARS LATER THEY WOULD HAVE FIXED THE SKIPPING AND FREAZING WELL THEY DID NOT MOST GAME ARE NOT EVEN THE SAME THING COMPLEAT WASTE OF MONEY IT SUCKS

Great if you've forgotten your childhood entirely

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 28
Date: January 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When you think of an arcade game you don't think of a cheap Commodore 64-style, blocky cheap game with no graphic-detail. In the early 80's Missile command, Millipede, etc. looked pretty good. I can't believe Atari failed to emmulate their own games and instead made it look like someone pirated the concept but not the accuracy. The warranty for this product says you can't return it if it's been opened. Unfortunately I opened it. And then I played some of the games. Things went downhill from there.

My wife doesn't like me to play violent games like GTA, Max Payne, Halo, etc. but this Atari collection insures I'll be playing them for some time to come.

It is a waste of money!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 20
Date: February 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I can't believe that the grahic is worse than the one I played 20 years ago. It is for collection not for playing.

Mildly Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The good thing about these games is that they do work OK on a modern XP system. Some of them are pretty much as I remember the originals, for example Pong, Centipede, Millipede. I've been looking for a Circus Atari type game for a long time - I used to love that game. Well, that one doesn't hold up to the passage of time and the rudimentary graphics make it boring.

If you do get this set; many of the games are hard to play with a mouse, and I found a game pad and a joystick pretty unresponsive. What works best for me is a rollerball.

This package isn't very expensive so if you long for the old Atari games, its satisfying enough. It's not great.

Another Great Atari 2600 compilation.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: December 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Activision Anthology was a great compilation. This one also is too. First there is 18 Atari coin-op games included. 12 of which were included on Atari Anniversary edition. Games like Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command & Tempest. The new games include some lesser known titles like Major Havoc & Black Widow. Then there are 67 Atari 2600 titles. Some of the games include Combat, Adventure, and the Atari 2600 versions of some of those same arcade games that were included in the coin-op section. For example there are arcade & Atari 2600 versions of Centipede & Asteroids. Only games manufactured by Atari are included. For example Pac-Man couldn't be included because Namco owns the rights and Atari got the license for it in the 80's. Because of this Pac-Man wasn't included in the Atari 2600 section. As you know Activision already has their own compilation of Atari 2600 games. Great compilation.

They forgot 2600 Basketball !!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: November 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you've been waiting for Red Baron keep waiting. The turning doesn't work well with the keys no matter what I try. Hopefully it will work better with a stick. You need to tweek the controls on all the games to get them working the way you want. You can load the whole thing to your drive and play without the disk. It says on the box you don't have to load it and can play it off the disk. Why? So it can wear out my drive?? Feh! I'm ticked they left out 2600 BASKETBALL and Championship Soccer. Double dunk? Never heard of it and it bites. There is a 1 player Combat and a playable prototype of 2600 Tempest. Trekies will like the Sears game Stellar Track. It looks confusing at first but it's like Star Raiders on a grid. Some games like Desert Falcon had much better 7800 versions. Wish they were here.

Nostalgic Old Games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: December 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Now I can show my Grandchildren what we played at the Pizza Hut when we were teenagers!
These games played GREAT on my computer, I had no problems whatsoever. (IBM Clone running Win 98 2nd Edit.)
Don't expect 21st century graphics and sound here, these games are prehistoric in comparison.
A GRET buy at this price!

Recycle, Repackage, Rerelease

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 40 / 44
Date: January 20, 2004
Author: Amazon User

While there's a lot that's new here, it's important to note that a lot of these games have been included in other Atari collections (Atari Arcade Hits Vol. #1 & #2 and the Anniversary Pack, which compiled both AAH volumes; many of the VCS/2600 games have been released in other collections). Still we have six new arcade games and likely dozens of old cartridge games now available for 100% legal play on a PC.

There is quite a bit of chaff thrown in with the wheat, and finding what you want can be a chore. All the games may qualify a "classic" in someone's definition, but that someone is not necessarily you. Navigation for the VCS/2600 games requires you to first choose the category of the game and then the game itself - clicking on the help icon will reveal what games are in each category. Shortcuts may be created for each of the arcade games (it may be possible to create batch files for individual VCS/2600 games too, but I haven't explored that yet).

Each game has customizable controls and you may need to fiddle with video and resolution settings to reduce flicker and get games running just right on your computer. Even then, some controllers work better than others for some games - a joystick is the only way to play the arcade game Red Baron with any degree of control. While this can be a hassle, it's important to realize that these games were originally designed to run on standardized equipment; the PC, with its myriad processor, video card, OS, etc., possibilities is the antithesis of old-school consoles. It's worth the time you put into it to get the games running optimally. Don't fight it; do it and start playing.

If you already have one or two of the old collections, go ahead and get this one as well. Pass your old CDs on to a friend; your act of arcade evangelism may make a convert - and provide you with someone to trounce in two-player mode.

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