Tag Archives: Atari

The Atari 7800 source code for Asteroids and Centipede ended up in a dumpster in 1996. Actual disks, behind the company's Sunnyvale building, waiting to disappear with the trash. The reason we can still look through some of those files is that someone went in after them at 3 a.m. There are glamorous ways to spend a night in the video-game business. Recovering Atari ST diskettes from a filthy dumpster probably doesn't… Read more

The motion tracker has noticed something. You have not. There is another stretch of corridor ahead, a door you would rather not open, and just enough ammunition to make investigating seem like a decision you might regret. For a moment, Atari’s famous number has left the room. You are far too busy worrying about the Alien. When the Jaguar found the right game, it could do that. Tempest 2000 could turn an… Read more

Atari had wireless controllers planned in 1981. The Atari 2700 would have let you play your VCS cartridges without a cord running from your hand to the television. There were prototypes, an advertisement and a rather handsome new console. What there wasn't, in the end, was a release. Picture a round of Combat: two tanks, two players and someone trying to land a shot around the edge of a wall. The 2700's… Read more

The wave curls over your surfer, and for a moment the little screen seems much too small for what is happening on it. There is blue water, a moving board and just enough time to make a spectacularly bad landing. The television is somewhere else. You are holding California Games in your hands. In 1989, that was a persuasive reason to stop and look at an Atari Lynx. Its screen lit up… Read more

Atari Crosses the Line In the early 1980s the video game market was booming and the Atari 2600 sat in living rooms everywhere. In 1982 a small publisher called Mystique released Custer’s Revenge for the Atari 2600, pitching it as an adults only title. The premise was crude and simple, and it immediately drew attention for all the wrong reasons. Players guided a caricatured General Custer across a screen while dodging arrows… Read more

A guy by the name of Mario over at ModRetro forums put together a nice little Atari 2600 hand held gaming console. Here are the Specs and what Mario has to say: Specifications: 3.5" Screen Uses an Atari Flashback 2 Hopefully will have room for the cartridge slot 2 GBASP batteries for a total of 3.7v, 1200mAh Uses a GBC 5v step-up to power the screen and FB2 FITS IN A POCKET!… Read more