Activision Classic Games

Activision Classic GamesThe Game: Old Atari cartridges taking up too much space in your apartment? Have no fear – a huge portion of Activision’s catalog of titles for the 2600 have been squeezed onto a single CD. (Activision, 1999)

Memories: Now, this is a trip back in time! Activision has recycled many of its early Atari 2600 games for this release, perfectly translated for the Playstation and looking just like they did nearly 20 years ago.

Activision Classic GamesWhile the diverse selection of games is nice, this release is missing some of the extras that made the later Intellivision collection such a good value – who wouldn’t have liked to see some video interviews with the original Activision programmers and designers, or some more history of the first game company which focused solely on software? There’s so much history in Activision, from its origins in four expatriate Atari programmers, that the lack of even text material is disappointing.

That aside, I give this collection of Atari emulations major points over the Intellivision collection for one primary reason – the games are much easier to control. If you recall, the Intellivision emulation collection uses incredibly convoluted combinations of the Playstation controller’s buttons to cover all the functions of the Intellivision’s Activision Classic Games12-key touchpad as well as its action buttons. The Atari, with its single joystick and single action button, was a much easier beast to 4 quarterscontrol, and the same goes for emulations based on these games.

I only have one question…when can we expect a compilation loaded with classic Odyssey2 emulation? Anyone?