A Time Capsule – Atari's Greatest Hits Review

I am trying to play all the games ! So far, I have played half the arcade and half the sports titles. This app hasn't received a major update in over five years. That said, the original porting job and game compilation has been superbly done since the beginning. Each game is a small download 1-3 MB, you don't have to download them all at once, and being that Atari servers are probably hosting these downloads, it is impressive after all these years. Each game has a full original paper scan manual, which is historically informational, and helps a great deal to explain how to play tricky games. As an 80s kid, let me tell you all these games weren't easy to figure out. Most of my games were bought or traded from friends, so I didn't get the manual, and didn't even have any clue what the difficulty or game select options did. Here, we can read the manual, and Atari even took the trouble to label onscreen what each game mode entails. There are a ton of familiar arcade and 2600 games like Centipede, Asteroids, Tempest, and adventure here including a lot of lesser titles like Mini Golf and Pong Sports, while not blockbusters, are fun and show what early Atari was innovating during a time that video gaming was a blank slate. A lot of gamers have begged for MFi controller support to help players experience that original controller feeling, but it must involve some tricky coding they are not willing to put in. I would like to see a few small updates. There are a few games that crash on loading including Championship Soccer Realsports Boxing, RS Tennis, and Centipede for 2600. Centipede for Arcade works fine, though. This is a mere annoyance for a full collection owner like me, but could be a serious flaw for people who have purchased those individual games. I would like to see saving and pausing better integrated. There is a functional emulator pause button, but it does not work while accessing the console switches. I have played a game like Pong and had the opponent score a ton of points while I am trying to change the difficulty. Also, games like Adventure would certainly benefit from being able to save even after the app is closed. Also, the controls are surprisingly well adapted, offering digital and analog and offering portrait and landscape, and stationary and drag anywhere d-pad. I would just like to see my controller preferences be the same for every new game I play. It does remember for games you have played, but I am planning on playing all 100, so I will be setting up my controls 100 times, even on the 2600 where most games control the same. Also, it helps that recently played games get listed, but organizing a list of favorites would help. As is, you can filter by system and genre, which does help. Overall, this is a collector's dream. It would just be nice to feel like it will stay updated, and keep working throughout the generations.
Review by EmilyApricot on Atari's Greatest Hits.