/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.5029834]

The Atari 2600 is laughingly, disgustingly primitive and has zero value beyond nostalgia. It was innovative for its time, but so were tar filters for cigarettes. There are no hidden gems, because the 0.01% of the library that isn't shit is already widely known. Graphics don't make a game at all, but with 99.99% of the library they are so barebones that it's insulting to everyone involved.

Why even bother, especially when you have never owned one yourself? I'd rather own a Pong console, although to its credit even the 2600 couldn't fuck up Pong.

[babbage's gramps !RATGzMALLY No.5029847]

This is the kind of thing you post when you have absolutely no appreciation whatsoever for score attack type games. One might even be able to infer that you have poor coordination and a low skill ceiling.

[Anonymous No.5029854]

>>5029847
I actually do. I love arcade games, and if you are into the golden age, then the Atari 2600 is not the place to look for ports

[Anonymous No.5029861]

I love the 2600 but I understand this opinion fully have a nice day

[babbage's gramps !RATGzMALLY No.5029863]

>>5029854
The 2600 version of Warlords is great but the console has dozens of great original arcade style games.

[Anonymous No.5029882]

>>5029834
>simple video games can't be fun

Most of the library were just little competitive games you played against your bros. I'm not sure what you're expecting from the thing. Lengthy single player campaigns full of complex mechanics and story progression that hold up even against modern games? Yeah, no, not possible with the technical limitations and not really the paradigm of games at the time.

Think about it from the mindset of a kid from the time period. You would play imaginary battles with your GI Joes or whatever against your friends and now you suddenly have the ability to control a fucking tank on the television screen and fight each other "for real". It'd be the most amazing thing in your life. And even if they're not at the same level of complexity as modern day competitive games, if you can't have fun playing a few rounds of Combat against a friend, I kind of feel sorry for you.

[Anonymous No.5029904]

>>5029847
I kinda get what both you and OP are saying. It's true that with the right mentality simple old-style arcade games have a certain appeal even if they're antiquated, but in almost no case is the 2600 a preferable way to play those games. Pretty much every arcade game of that era got a better port on another system and none of the 2600 originals really offer anything you couldn't get on other systems either.

A retro enthusiast could definitely have fun with a 2600 but if you upgraded to a 5200 or an intellivision you would pretty much lose nothing in the transition.. The 2600 is the most easily ignored retro console because it really has no must-play games exclusive to it. And I say this as an oldfag who thought it was the most amazing thing ever when it first came out.

[Anonymous No.5029954]

people are still making new 2600 games.

[Anonymous No.5029960]

>>5029834
Dragonstomper is a pretty cool RPG.

[Anonymous No.5029963]

i liked the 5200 better when i was a kid, controller was shit but the games were good

[Anonymous No.5029992]

>>5029904
The 5200's controllers were fragile pieces of shit, so you'd have to look for an aftermarket solution for that.
But otherwise, yes.

[Anonymous No.5029998]

>>5029834
>video games are stupid!
Why are you on a video games board?
>although to its credit even the 2600 couldn't fuck up Pong.
Well, this isn't surprising considering the 2600 was specifically built from the ground up to play Pong and Pong variants.

[Anonymous No.5030029]

>>5029998
>the 2600 was specifically built from the ground up to play Pong and Pong variants

A lot of the weirdness of a lot of Atari 2600 games stem from the fact that the hardware is designed specifically to support Pong-likes. Just getting the thing to do a game that isn't obviously some combination of paddles and balls is really hacky.

[Anonymous No.5030032]

>>5030029
Yes, thank you for posting this obvious fact that I, and anyone else reading the thread, was previously aware of.

[Anonymous No.5030169]

>>5030032
Different guy, but I wasn't aware of it, I learned something.

[Anonymous No.5030327]

>>5029834

[Anonymous No.5030332]

>>5030032
I didn't know that, you needlessly arrogant cunt.

[babbage's gramps !RATGzMALLY No.5030339]

>>5029904
You're the kind of person who plays the All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros aren't you

>>5029992
I have a Coin Controls 5200 joystick. Still a very different experience. The 5200 is basically Atari's first attempt at consolizing their 8-bit computers which they did quite literally with the XEGS.

There's really no point in owning a 5200 if you have an 8-bit but I didn't realize that until I'd collected quite a bit already.

>>5030169
>>5030332
It's interesting to look at the games from that perspective. You can see why the VCS is so fast at certain types of movement compared to its competitors

[Anonymous No.5030358]

>>5029904
Try playing the 5200 version of Pitfall, then come back and repeat this with a straight face.

[Anonymous No.5031101]

>>5030032
You're welcome, but I doubt you know the half of it. You should see what it takes just to get the thing to display an asymmetric background.

[Anonymous No.5031128]

>>5029834
The 2600 was not meant to be played like a modern console. It was meant for short bursts where you would fairly regularly switch out cartridges and mess around.

[Anonymous No.5031130]

>>5029998
No it wasn't.
Atari's Home Pong caused the video game crash of 1977 and Atari only survived because the 2600 was so successful.

[Anonymous No.5031136]

>>5031130
It had some basic pong like hardware, but yeah, it was not meant to just play variations of pong.

[Anonymous No.5031173]

>The Atari 2600 is laughingly, disgustingly primitive

I like it for that reason. A modern game's quality has so many variables - the graphics, the soundtrack, the length, the performance, the DLC practices - that it's easy to lose sight of whether the core gameplay is any good or even what exactly you're supposed to be doing. 2t600 games have no fluff. There's just you and the game, you can see all the interlocking parts of the gameplay system, and either that system is fun or it's not.

I'd even argue that the Pac-Man port is bad not because of its graphics, but because of the maze design.

[Anonymous No.5031202]

>>5029834
zoomer moron: detected
>>5029998
WRONG.
>>5031128
> atari releases console
> wasn't meant to be played like a modern console
what the fuck is this zoomer bullshit?

[Anonymous No.5031217]

Eaux contraire, my misguided millenial friend. I owned an Atari 2600. It seemed fun as a kid with little to no expectations of a video game system, and it was the best thing going at that time.

Looking back, I have no illusions that most games for it were mechanically shallow and bad. Kids are fucking stupid, what do you want me to say heh.

That all said: it paved the way for widespread adoption of consoles, starting with the NES. The fact that we're even having this convo at all is testament to the importance of the 2600 to video games in general.

Side note: I never understood what people saw in Pac-Man (and its umpteen variants) or Frogger. Barely anyone ever talks about Bank Panic because general population has shitty taste in everything.

[Anonymous No.5031240]

>>5031173
>I'd even argue that the Pac-Man port is bad not because of its graphics, but because of the maze design.
That WAS the criticism against it, you fuck.

[Dillweed No.5031246]

>OP complaining about 2nd generation consoles again...

[Anonymous No.5031253]

I always found it weird in how smooth the graphics are. Like uber primitive sprites still but they zip around the screen like they were physically there and not as much like a looping render. Maybe it was the pitch black backgrounds that did it.

[Anonymous No.5031263]

The 2600 really gave Atari a good rep. people dont even talk of their 8 bit computers around here or even their games on newer consoles or old arcades