This collection honors one of the first great companies in the video game industry by reissuing versions of 12 arcade classics for play on IBM Compatible systems. Included are Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede and Millipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, and Warlords. The bundle also features video interviews and press releases from the original games and comes with a souvenir sticker, all in honor of the 30th anniversary of Atari. This PC version also includes a desktop wallpaper and Windows theme.
Atari have brought back all the classic coin-guzzlers onto one handy disc to show that older can be wiser. The games certainly aren't smart or pretty, but that was never the point of them. The buzzwords here are "simple" "fun" and, above all:"addictive".
It's strange, but thirty years on a game that involves propelling a hollow white triangle around a screen filled with big blobs that explode into smaller blobs when you shoot them is still highly addictive and great fun! Most of the games on the list you'll have heard of, with a couple of more obscure ones for the purists:
Asteroids, Asteroids deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, Warlords.
Most of the games were like I remembered them - Pong still has that minimalist feel, and the satisfying "PONG" when you make contact with the ball/white pixel. But the novelty wears off quite quickly, and even Breakout, one of my favorite classic games takes backseat to some more radical arcade kings!
Warlords is probably the best of the bunch. I'd never heard of it but I played it five times more than any of the other games, it's just so damn good! It's essentially a mix of the best games - a bit of Pong mixed with some Breakout action! Basically there are 4 castles in each corner of the screen and a flaming ball in the middle. You have a paddle to protect your castle from the ball, and to lob it back at someone else's castle! It's pretty tough covering two walls from three other players, but then they gradually throw more and more balls into the mix until it's absolute mayhem and your eyes can take no more!
Tempest could possibly be the most confusing of the bunch, and most likely to send anyone playing it on drugs into a hallucinogenic fit. Crystal Castles, which I've heard so much about from the "Oldies" is a bizarre game. The only one featuring color, it is a 3-D version of Pac-Man, except with a cuddly bear instead and you have to run away from trees instead of ghosts...
I needn't go into the ins and outs of each game - chances are you'll only be buying this game if you're old enough to have remembered playing them way back when. This is a shame, as I feel privileged to have reviewed this - it took me away from my cushy RTS games and shallow arcade racers and kicked me hard in the teeth with a shot of mental gaming. Sure, they don't look that good, and all the levels all look the same, but even past the rose-tint value these are great games to waste a few minutes on, or pour whole hours into.
People who downloaded Atari Anniversary Edition have also downloaded:
Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!, Atari Arcade Hits, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary, Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack, Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack 2, William's Arcade Classics, Microsoft Revenge of Arcade, Microsoft Return of Arcade
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