Everyone gets that touch of nostalgia every once in a while, we get the urge to re-visit our past and play the games that, in the day, were cutting edge, exciting and enormously popular.
In some form or another the classics represented here make up what we see in modern gaming today, of course the modern games are far more complex, graphically superior and driven by, usually, more intense and involving plots – but are they really any better?
You may answer yes immediately, but then why do we all have that feeling of nostalgia? Why do I pine for my days of Starcraft when playing Act of War, long to experience Sonic for the first time when playing the platformers around today and have such fond memories of all those home-made games that came on tapes for the Commodore 64. In those days the games were all we had seen, and were as enjoyable, involving and downright addictive as the over-the-top games we play today. Emulation of old systems is hugely popular, so it is no surprise that Atari regularly release some of their greatest classics on disc for the honest folk to buy and play with no fuss on their games consoles. And this is just what Atari Anthology does.
Reviving a sizable handful of some of their greatest and earliest classics Atari have created a nostalgia packed compilation with each game true to its original form. In fact, knowing how most of these compilations work, each game almost certainly is it's original form – or, at least, a ROM image of the original game played using a near-perfect emulator. So, when you grab the Anthology in hope of satiating your nostalgic desires you can rest assured that each and every game will be exactly as you remember it... aside of course from the fact you are playing it with a sophisticated modern console capable of running every single game on the disc simultaneously.
Atari Anthology contains a whopping 85 games – 18 of which are Arcade Classics including such timeless and famous titles as Asteroids, Tempest and Missile Command. The last 67 are gaming greats from the Atari 2600... the box boasts Gravitar, Millipede, Super Breakout, Video Pinball, Yars' Revenge and Warlords from this collection- few of which I am familiar with. Super Breakout, of course, is another one of those timeless classics that even I played to death in one form or another.
It might be somewhat of a misnomer to call these games retro, given the fact they still exist today in popular and highly playable forms. Take Asteroids for example. It has spawned a million and one all-singing all-dancing modern clones, for all their great graphics they really are only sheep in wolves clothing and fairy lights. The “retro” version is really still the same game, just as playable, different graphics. Atari Anthology essentially gives you a change to re-visit the roots of today’s titles stripping down all the superfluous visuals to the raw, addictive and solid gameplay.
If you have a twinge of nostalgia, own a PlayStation 2 or Xbox and are finding yourself looking at one of those silly all-in-one joysticks that plug into the TV... STOP. Grab Atari Anthology instead. It is an absolute steal at £9.99 for the PS2 and £14.99 for the Xbox (March 2005 Play.com prices). The Xbox is nearly as big as an arcade cabinet, so the experience is all the more authentic!
