The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Graphic artist Mauri Helme has quite amusingly created 3D animations of classic Atari 2600 video games, including Pitfall, River Raid, Frostbite, Keystone Kapers and the infamous E.T.
Imagine playing these on your trusty old Atari VCS/2600 😉
source: Mauri Helme
story source: laughingsquid
We love River Raid on the Atari VCS/2600. Heck, we love it on pretty much every other 8-bit platform.
When we saw Mauri Helme’s tweet about a gorgeous looking River Raid made with MagicaVoxel, well, we can say that it was an easy question to answer.
Would you play? Atari 2600 River Raid made with #MagicaVoxel and #Blender #b3d pic.twitter.com/tVnVly3AeQ
— Mauri Helme (@maurihelme) June 18, 2021
Attention our fellow Atarians (fans of the old Atari),
The month of June is fast approaching and you all know what that means – it’s #AtariMonth!
To celebrate 49 years of Atari, we are asking you to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and get writing about your affinity for this iconic brand.
This is your opportunity to let your writing juices flow! To get you started, check out Matt Lacey’s Atari story from the last time we ran #AtariMonth for Atari’s 42nd anniversary.
Once you are satisfied with your written masterpiece, just submit it to us here. The most entertaining submissions will be immortalised on ausretrogamer.com!
There is no word limit, so go for your life (just keep it clean)! Article submissions are opened from now till June 25 2021. That means you have (almost) 3 months for your submission, so get cracking you awesome Atarians!
As Daniel Ibbertson (aka: Slope’s Game Room) so eloquently puts it, it’s time to drop a coin into one of the highest grossing video game franchises of all time – Pac-Man!
In this history documentary, Daniel discusses the inspiration and creation behind Namco’s flagship mascot, the troubled development between Namco and Midway when bringing him to western shores as well as the interesting backstory behind the controversial Atari 2600 port.
source: Slope’s Game Room
Our friend and Atari developer extraordinaire, Howard Scott Warshaw, you know, he made Yars’ Revenge and E.T. amongst other notable Atari 2600 games, has released his new book, Once Upon Atari: How I Made History By Killing An Industry, which is available right now on Kindle and Paperback.
Upon the release of his new book, Howard stated that, “I needed to put something fun and interesting into the world. Is it “The feel good book of 2020″? Nah, that’s too low a bar. This book was a labour of love, but a labour nonetheless. If you know me, you know this is a fun read. If you don’t know me, it’s still fun. I’m happy with the result and I hope you enjoy reading it”.
This book provides an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry in the US, and how it shaped the life of one of its key players. Howard’s book offers eye-opening details and insights from someone that was there during Atari’s heyday.
What are you waiting for, go and grab it!
One of the better Atari 2600 video games, Activision’s MEGAMANIA, has now been expertly and lovingly ported to the Commodore 64 by the very clever and prolific game dev, Nick Sherman of Arla Games!
The best part is, MEGAMANIA 64 is totally free! What are you waiting for? Grab the game and fire up your Commodore 64 and get blasting!
image source: Arla Games
Imagine it is September 11, 1977. If you were living in North America, you may have been lucky enough to receive the console that would transform the video games market forever – the Atari VCS (Video Computer System, later rebadged as the Atari 2600).
On this day (September 11) all those years ago, Atari made history by releasing their Atari VCS console, the first commercially successful home video gaming system. The video games market exploded with the VCS, and then imploded in the early 80s, but we won’t speak of the implosion here. Today is a day we celebrate the Atari VCS, that beautiful wood-veneer machine that brought many a joy at home, with families huddling around their TV in the lounge room to play Space Invaders and Pitfall.
I remember my first memory of the Atari VCS as if it were yesterday. My dad and I were walking along the local shopping strip when I stopped at the electronic retailer’s window TV display to be mesmirised by a little triangle shooting dots at flying rocks. The game was of course Asteroids, and I fell in love with the Atari VCS right then and there. I begged my dad to buy the console, but at $300AUD, the answer was always going to be no. Luckily for me, I had cousins that got the Atari VCS, so I liked visiting them even more than I used to. Ah, to be young again and enjoy the wonders of simple games. What were your first memories of the Atari VCS? – engage with us on Twitter or Facebook!
Well, with 30 million units sold worldwide and a long lifespan (games were being released for the VCS/2600 till 1992!), the Atari VCS built the foundation that latter consoles would stand on and make history for themselves. Happy anniversary, Atari VCS/2600!
image sources: gamester81 and blacknerdproblems
Here is something to ponder, what if classic video game consoles were made into cars?
Ponder no more, as Jennings FordDirect from the UK has answered our question – check them out!
image source: Jennings FordDirect
[story source: technobob]
Up until recently Nintendo Switch owners had to watch and endure their contemporary console friends get their Atari classic gaming fix. Well, this is no longer the case!
The Atari Flashback Classics compilation is a collection of 150 Atari favourites for the Nintendo Switch. Taking full advantage of the Switch features, like vertical / TATE orientation (for compatible games), Switch owners now have lots to gloat about to their other console brethren. Let’s just say this straight off the bat – this compilation is choc-full of the legendary publisher’s iconic library of games, with titles from the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 home consoles, along with former Atari coin-op/arcade exclusives.
Of course we were always going to play Atari’s seminal arcade titles first! Well, the scrollable 11 page games menu had the arcade titles first, so it made the choice easier. If there is one gripe here, we just wish that that you could customise the games menu. Anyway, it was game on with Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Pong and Tempest (to start with), and boy, they did not disappoint! These classic Atari arcade games are perfectly converted on the Nintendo Switch, with impeccable controls (each game has a pop control area showing which map buttons to the correspond Switch controls). We also love the bezel artwork, which gives that authentic arcade feeling.
Speaking of artwork, the home console games (Atari 2600 and 5200) get their full box art on the menu and also come with their respective full manual. Some (not all) game manual scans are tad blurry, but it’s still a great example of conservation that helps turn this release into an almost museum-like archive.
source: Atari
Atari Flashback Classics has a slew of features, including a local achievements system, leaderboards and a local (up to four players) and online (two players) multiplayer. These features were designed to bring players together, just like back in the day – a neat little touch.
This massive library of classic Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and Atari arcade games is perfect for those Switch owners craving for a one-stop shop to play old school Atari games either at home or on the go. If you want a fix of classic Atari gaming on your Switch, then grab the Atari Flashback Classics now.
Disclosure: Atari Flashback Classics [Nintendo Switch] was kindly provided by UberStrategist for this review.
The story of Atari has been told many times, from books like Atari Inc: Business Is Fun to umpteen documentaries, but none tell the full and complete story as well as Easy to Learn, Hard To Master: The Fate Of Atari.
Narrated by revered Commodore Engineer, Bil Heard, this documentary delves deep into the Atari history like no other film before it. From Atari’s humble beginnings as Syzygy and the breakthrough of Pong, to the Atari VCS/2600 home console, its subsequent sale to Time Warner and downward spiral to oblivion in the early 80s.
The story is weaved perfectly with many points of view, including former Atari Inc. President, Ray Kassar, who had never told his side of the story prior to this documentary. This is quite important, as stories about Atari had always been told from their former engineers (like Al Alcorn) and co-founder, Nolan Bushnell, so it was refreshing to get management perspective from Ray and Manny Gerard. This is even more poignant as Ray Kassar passed away in December 2017 – making his story even more important when it comes to Atari’s history. Another poignant interview was with old foe, Ralph Baer (Died on December 6 2014), himself a great inventor and the grandfather of video games and the concept of home gaming consoles.
Other notable interviewees include Joe Decuir, Howard Warshaw, Ed Rotberg, Dannis Kable, Dave Rolfe, Eugene Jarvis, Steve Russell, former Nintendo of America President Minoru Arakawa and former Atarian and Activision co-founder, David Crane, to name just a few. If you don’t know the story of Atari or you would like the definitive history on Atari, then we highly recommend Easy To Learn, Hard to Master: The Fate of Atari.
Title: Easy To Learn, Hard to Master: The Fate of Atari
Director: Tomaso Walliser & Davide E. Agosta
Production: Junk Food Films