Atari 2600 Action Pack | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Activision |
Publisher(s) | Activision |
Platform(s) | Windows, Macintosh |
Release | 1995 |
Atari 2600 Action Pack is a 1995 video game compilation developed and published by Activision. The release consists of 15 of companies games made for the Atari 2600 video game console. The game was released during the early popular use of the internet where the popularity of retrogaming began to expand exponentially. This led to companies releasing compilation titles such as the Atari 2600 Action Pack. The games emulator was programmed by Mike Livesay and was his first game he made for the Windows 95 operating system.
The game was announced in 1995 and released the same year for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh based computers. A follow-up, Atari 2600 Action Pack 2, was shown as early as May 11 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995. Several reviewers found the games were not up to the standards of contemporary titles in terms of gameplay and graphics and sound. Some more lukewarm reviews found some of the games to have held up better than others, with criticism aimed towards a lack of content for a compact disc game or grammatical mistakes in the interviews with developers.
In the early to mid-1990s, an fanbase for retrogaming grew through self-published fanzines such as Tim Duarte's 2600 Connection, Joe Santulli's Digital Press and Frank Polosky's Video Magic. In 1997, Ralph Barbagallo of Digital Diner magazine stated that the contemporary interest of older video games was with the emergence of the internet, with Usenet discussion groups like rec.games.video.classic and its own IRC channel and fan websites developed by its users. [1]
Prior to the mid-1990s, older video games would occasionally be re-released for a few consoles. [2] Following a stronger interest of older games, companies began re-releasing their back catalog in commercially, such as with the 1995 release of Atari 2600 Action Pack. [3]
Jeff Vavasour, who was a programmer on Activision's Commodore 64 15 Pack (1995) and Digital Eclipse's Williams Arcade Classics (1995) was pitched to Activision to use his emulator of the Atari 2600 for a compilation of their games after working on the Commodore 64 15 Pack . Activision opted for Mike Livesay, who had also been bidding on the project. [4]
The game was Livesay's first program made for the Windows 95 operating system. [5] Electronic Gaming Monthly announced that the game would initially include 10 to 15 titles. [6]
Atari 2600 Action Pack included 15 games originally made for the Atari 2600 by Activision. [7] In this release, the games can be played with either a keyboard or computer mouse. [6] Each game is selectable and displays the games as Windows icons to look like the original games box art. [8]
The release includes the following games: [7] [9]
Beyond the games, the release also contained commentary from the original developers. [10]
The game was released for Windows on compact disc and 3.5" floppy disk and published by Activision. [11] [6]
Computer Game Review reported it was set to be the first of a four-volume set of releases. [12] A follow-up titled Atari 2600 Action Pack 2 was shown between May 11 and 13th at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995 by Activision. [13]
Publication | Score | |
---|---|---|
Macintosh | PC | |
AllGame | 3/5 [14] | |
Computer Game Review | 65/100 [12] | |
Electronic Games | B+ [15] | |
Next Generation | 1/5 [16] | 2/5 [9] |
PC Games | 37% [7] |
Reviewers in video game magazines Next Generation lacked depth in gameplay, [9] Both Computer Game Review and Next Generation reviewers stated the games would only be fun for a few minutes. [12] [16] The reviewer of the latter magazine said the game was a waste of their high-end graphics card for their Macintosh computer. [16] A review in Wired echoed this, calling the release a "rip-off" as the title featured "subcartoonish graphics, ratchety sound effects, and one-dimensional gameplay." [17] Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World said "there's no reason to play games this primitive today, when everything else out there is so much better." [10] He compared the release to another compilation title, The Lost Treasures of Infocom stating that the Atari 2600 games felt like "relics", while the Infocom titles had held up. [10] David Upchurch of PC Gaming noted the simplicity made the games not work highlighting Boxing, where you the player can't block or duck, and can only punch when an opponent is in range or Freeway where the players movement is restricted to going up and down the screen. [7]
Ardai and David Upchurch of PC Games complimented the background notes about the history of the games featured, with Ardai stating that the game required further copy-editing for spelling errors. [7] [10]
Steven Bauman of Computer Gaming World found the games graphics and sounds to be of low quality, he did find the games had a "certain undeniable charm", as they did not require contemporary elements of games such as boss characters, detailed cutscenes, or codes to encourage replayability. [11] Electronic Games reviewer Russ Ceccola found the games still fun and appreciated their simplicity, specifically highlighting the titles Pitfall!, Chopper Command, Spider Fighter, and H.E.R.O. as the best titles. [11] [15] Michael L. House of the online game database AllGame said that Pitfall!, Fishing Derby, H.E.R.O., Kaboom! and Frostbite were highlights, but said the game lacked enough titles. He said that a compact disc would be able to hold around 50 games with history on each instead of being released as a series, as it made the release become a "fairly obvious money-making scheme." [14]
Outside of game journalists, Vavasour complimented Livesay's emulator for Windows as a "good product". [5] He said that due to Windows performance issues, the Atari 2600 games are forced to drop frames and look less smooth in game action and that he would have developed the game for MS-DOS if it were his project. [5]
Kaboom! is an action video game published in 1981 by Activision for the Atari 2600. The game involves a Mad Bomber dropping bombs at increasing speeds as the player controls a set of water buckets to catch them. The gameplay was based on the Atari arcade video game Avalanche (1978). Kaboom! was programmed by Larry Kaplan with David Crane coding the graphics for the buckets and Mad Bomber. It was the last game designed by Kaplan for Activision, who left the company shortly after it was released. The game was later ported by Paul Wilson for the Atari 5200 system.
Pitfall! is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is populated by enemies and hazards that variously cause the player to lose lives or points.
Phoenix is a fixed shooter video game developed for arcades in Japan and released in 1980 by Taito. The player controls a space ship shooting at incoming enemies that fly from the top of the screen down towards the player's ship. There are five stages which repeat endlessly. The fifth is a fight against a large enemy spaceship, making Phoenix one of the first shooters with a boss battle, an element that would become common for the genre.
Combat is a 1977 shooter video game developed and published by Atari for the Atari Video Computer System. In the game, two players controlling either a tank, a biplane, or a jet fire missiles at each other for two minutes and sixteen seconds. Points are scored by hitting the opponent, and the player with more points when the time runs out wins. Variations on the gameplay introduce elements such as invisible vehicles, missiles that ricochet off of walls, and different playing fields.
Kangaroo is a 1982 four-screen platform game released as an arcade video game by Sun Electronics and distributed in North America by Atari, Inc. Kangaroo is one of the first arcade games similar in style to Donkey Kong without being a direct clone. The player takes the role of a boxing glove-wearing mother kangaroo who is trying to rescue her joey from fruit-throwing monkeys. Jumping is integral to the game, but there is no jump button. Instead, the player pushes up on the joystick—or up and diagonally—to leap. The arcade version of Kangaroo has visible glitches in the graphics, such as sprites briefly flickering.
Super Pitfall is a 1986 side-scrolling non-linear platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Despite the title screen stating that it was reprogrammed by Pony Inc., the development of the NES version was handled by Micronics, a Japanese developer who mostly ported arcade games to the NES.
Robot Tank is a first-person shoot 'em up written by Alan Miller for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1983. It is similar in design to Atari, Inc.'s Battlezone tank combat arcade video game and more so to its 2600 port. Robot Tank adds different systems which can individually be damaged—instead of the vehicle always exploding upon being shot—and weather effects.
H.E.R.O. is a video game designed by John Van Ryzin and published by Activision for the Atari 2600 in March 1984. The game has players control Roderick Hero who traverses a mineshaft avoiding enemies and hazards to rescue trapped miners. He travels through the mines equipped with a hoverpack that allows him to traverse the game levels as well as bombs and laser that let him destroy walls and defeat enemies respectively.
Keystone Kapers is a platform game developed by Garry Kitchen for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1983. The game involves a Keystone Cops theme, with the player controlling police officer Kelly, who traverses the many levels of a department store, dodging objects to catch the escaped thief Harry Hooligan.
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a side-scrolling action-platform video game developed by Activision in conjunction with Kroyer Films and originally published in North America and Europe in 1994. The fourth installment in the Pitfall! franchise, players assume the role of Pitfall Harry Jr. as he embarks on a journey through the Mayan jungles of Central America in an attempt to rescue Pitfall Harry, his father and the protagonist of previous entries in the series, from the evil Mayan warrior spirit named Zakelua. Its gameplay mainly consists of action and platforming mixed with stage-based exploration using a main six-button configuration.
River Raid is a 1982 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Activision for the Atari 2600. Designed by Carol Shaw, the player controls a fighter jet over the River of No Return in a raid behind enemy lines. The goal is to navigate the flight by destroying enemy tankers, helicopters, fuel depots and bridges without running out of fuel or crashing.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600. It was released in 1984 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who must explore in wilds of Peru to find the Raj Diamond, and rescue his niece Rhonda and their animal friend Quickclaw. The game world is populated by enemies and hazards that variously cause the player to lose points and return to a checkpoint.
Grand Prix is a Formula One Grand Prix motor racing-themed video game. It was designed and programmed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1982.
Crackpots is an Atari 2600 game designed by Dan Kitchen and published by Activision in 1983. It was Kitchen's first game for Activision.
Ice Hockey is an ice hockey video game designed by Alan Miller for the Atari VCS, and published by Activision in 1981. Actor and comedian Phil Hartman starred in the commercial for the game.
Activision Anthology is a compilation of most of the Atari 2600 games by Activision for various game systems. It also includes games that were originally released by Absolute Entertainment and Imagic, as well as various homebrew games. The Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions are titled Activision Anthology: Remix Edition, and include the most games. The PlayStation Portable version is titled Activision Hits Remixed.
Megamania is a fixed shooter video game developed by Steve Cartwright for the Atari 2600. It was published by Activision in 1982. In the game, a pilot of an intergalactic space cruiser has a nightmare where his ship is being attacked by food and household objects. Using the missile launcher from their space cruiser, the pilot fends off the attackers. The game was later released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computers.
Enduro is a racing video game designed by Larry Miller for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1983. The object of the game is to complete an endurance race, passing a certain number of cars each day to continue the next day. The visuals change from day to night, and there is occasional inclement weather.
Dragster, released in 1980 for the Atari Video Computer System, is one of the first video games developed by Activision.
Dolphin is a side-scrolling video game created by Matthew Hubbard for the Atari 2600 and released by Activision in 1983. Dolphin requires the player to use audio cues in order to survive.