Tag Archives: Atari Flashback Classics

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Yars’ Revenge

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This is it! The final game in Atari Flashback Classics — and it just happens to be one of the most legendary games for the Atari 2600. It’s Howard Scott Warshaw’s all-time classic Yars’ Revenge!

This was one of the all-time best-selling games for the Atari 2600, and with good reason: it was original, it was enjoyable, it was fun and interesting to play. No, it might not look like much today — and indeed looked a bit like something was going horribly wrong with your console even back when it was current — but it’s got that special fun factor where it counts.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Yars’ Return

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For the various Atari Flashback consoles over the years, Atari included a number of “hacks” of its classic games that were decent enough to be considered full sequels.

One such example isΒ Yars’ Return,Β a follow-up to Howard Scott Warshaw’s classicΒ Yars’ Revenge.Β This first appeared on an Atari Flashback console in 2005 and has continued to be distributed on Flashback consoles and in compilations likeΒ Atari Flashback ClassicsΒ — complete with a bug that developer Dennis Debro fixed about a decade ago — ever since. You can even buy a cart copy from Atari’s “Atari XP” initiative now, too.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Xari Arena

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Old games consoles are, as a rule, pretty good at making your ears bleed, but Xari Arena for Atari 5200 takes things to a whole other level by being one of the noisiest games you’ll ever come across.

Don’t let that put you off, though, because what we have here is a highly creative and unusual game that, sadly, never saw an official release back in the day. And that’s a real shame, because as a genuine Atari 5200 exclusive,Β Xari ArenaΒ stands out as an enjoyable and original game that is highly enjoyable for both solo players and pairs.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Wizard

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If you know your Atari history, you’ll recognise the name Chris Crawford. He was responsible for a number of fascinating and innovative games, including the strategy title Eastern Front and the weird-ass social ’em up Gossip.

WizardΒ is a prototype he worked on back in the Atari 2600 days, but it never made it to release for various reasons — chief among which was the fact that Crawford crammed it into 2K, but Atari’s marketing department decided that all games from that point on should be 4K. Silly in retrospect, yet — but at least we can enjoyΒ WizardΒ today.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Warlords

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Sibling rivalry is a terrible thing, particularly when the siblings in question have access to a fire-breathing dragon and flame-reflecting shields. You better hope those builders you hired did a good job on the walls this time around, otherwise you’re in for a fiery evening.

WarlordsΒ is a classic four-player take on theΒ Pong andΒ Breakout formula that challenges players to bat a ball back and forth between four corners of a play area, knock one another’s walls down and eventually be the last one standing. It’s a beloved classic in both its arcade and 2600 incarnations — and supposedly the 2600 version was actually developed first, despite releasing later.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Video Pinball

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Several games from the early years of the Atari 2600 were based on earlier dedicated video game hardware released by Atari — and Video Pinball is a good example.

Offering a simple but surprisingly enjoyable take on pinball — albeit one that only slightly resembles the real thing — Video Pinball is a fun game with which to while away a few minutes, especially if you don’t feel like working your brain too hard.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Video Chess

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After my woeful performance at Video Checkers, I must confess I was kind of dreading Video Chess a bit. But things ended up going rather better than I imagined.

Turns out the special “Beginner” level available in the game is perfectly attuned to a strategically challenged moron like me — and I think I might have actually learned a thing or two about how to play more effectively along the way, too.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Video Checkers

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I am bad at checkers, or draughts as we call it over here, but I’m not going to turn down a chance to play an early game by Carol “River Raid” Shaw.

In fact, legend has it that Carol Shaw’s Atari 2600 version of Checkers put Activision’s similar effort to shame by such a significant degree that she was offered a job with the company. And the rest, as they say, is history. Now in commemoration of such a heartwarming story, enjoy my terrible attempts to beat the lowest difficulty level on a 41-year old video game adaptation of a very simple board game.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z

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Atari A to Z Flashback: Tempest

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One of the nice things about the Atari Flashback Classics collection is how it includes a bunch of previously unreleased prototypes — some of which are really great.

TempestΒ for Atari 2600 is unfortunately not exactly one of the great ones — but it’s an interesting one, nonetheless, largely because no-one seems to know who was responsible for it! Originally assumed to be the work of Carla Meninsky, it seems that it was actually produced by someone else after Meninsky left Atari — but no-one knows who! And no-one is in a hurry to come forward and take responsibility, either…

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z Flashback: SwordQuest WaterWorld

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We’ve done it, everyone; we’ve made it through the SwordQuest games without killing anyone. And thankfully, the last of the three games that actually made it to release is the best by a long shot — though that’s still not saying much.

SwordQuest WaterWorldΒ was initially only released to Atari Club members, making it a very rare cartridge for the dear ol’ 2600 today. But thanks toΒ Atari Flashback Classics, now we can all enjoy its… whatever it offers, but without the prospect of a $25,000 jewelled crown to spur us on. I will say this, at least; this is probably theΒ SwordQuestΒ game you’ll be most likely to actually beat!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z