Game Review: Atari Flashback 1

In the early 2000's, there were several toy and game companies (most notably Jakk's Pacific) that had been making good money selling Plug'N'Play video games featuring old arcade classics and early console games. (Atari 2600, Mattel Intellivision, et al.) Atari decided they wanted a piece of that action and decided to release their own for Christmas 2004 called the Atari Flashback.

The console resembled an Atari 7800 in appearance, and came with a pair of controllers which resembled those of the Atari 7800. However, the controllers and console were much smaller than the original Atari 7800.

PICTURES

Here's a picture of the unit itself and a few images of a 3D model that I made in college based on the controller.

GAMES

There were 20 built-in games, 5 from the Atari 7800 and the other 15 coming from the Atari 2600. The games which originally required analog paddle controllers were made to work with the included joysticks.

The games emulated on this console are as follows...

Atari 2600

Adventure
Air-Sea Battle
Battlezone
Breakout
Canyon Bomber
Crystal Castles
Gravitar
Haunted House
Millipede
Saboteur
Sky Diver
Solaris
Sprintmaster
Warlords
Yars' Revenge

Atari 7800

Asteroids
Centipede
Charley Chuck's Food Fight
Desert Falcon
Planet Smashers

I have some very raw gameplay footage I recorded a while back with a camera on a tri-pod. this blog was originally going to be a video review but, that didn't happen because of a few technical difficulties. Fortunately, I was at least able to get the raw footage embedded into this blog post.

The titles from the 2600 that I liked best were Battlezone (despite the graphical changes) and Solaris. I have both of those games for the actual Atari 2600 complete-in-box. They are among some of my most treasured games. Just watch this video review of Battlezone and Solaris. You'll see why they are long-time favorites of mine.

The titles from the 7800 that I liked best were Asteroids (of course), Centipede and Planet Smashers. I had Asteroids on the 7800 years ago. I sold all of my 2600 and 7800 stuff once years ago because I was short on cash. I've since been trying to reacquire them from secondhand stores. I've had unbelievable success with getting old 2600 stuff (4 consoles, about a dozen controllers and around 60 cartridges so far) but, not much luck with 7800 games. So far, I've only been able to get a copy of Pole Position II and Dig Dug on that platform, both of which I had years ago. No 7800 consoles as of yet.

Anyway, I had Asteroids on the 7800 years ago. As far as I can tell, the version on Flashback 1 looks and plays exactly like the original cartridge.

Centipede for 7800 looks very close to the arcade original. It's certainly better than the blocky mess with poor controls that was the 2600 version.

Planet Smashers is a space-shooter game, very much like Galaga '88, although nowhere near as complex. If you love space shooters, then this is a lost classic that should have been a big hit. Too bad it came to market in 1990 as one of the last games released for the 7800 console, which was a distant third in the console race of it's time. (NES being #1 and SEGA Master System being #2.) Not to mention that space shooters weren't very popular at that time, the R-Type series likely being the only exception.

If there are any games on here that I can't recommend, it would be Millipede and Crystal Castles for the 2600. While the arcade originals were fantastic, the home ports for 2600 were just terrible. Not only did the graphics absolutely suck (even for the standards of the time) but, the controls in Crystal Castles were also bad. The original cartridge for 2600, which I have in my collection, isn't any better. If you come across that cartridge for 2600 someday, I recommend using a 3-button SEGA Genesis controller instead of a more traditional Atari joystick. The D-Pad does a better job of controlling Bentley Bear than any joystick I've ever used. And that leads us to...

CONTROLLER OPTIONS

You could not use controllers made for the 2600 and 7800 consoles. You had to use the ones that came with this console. Later versions of the Flashback series allowed you to use the controllers from the system(s) they emulated. However, the 'Mini-7800' controllers that came with the console did feature pause and select buttons. Those buttons/switches were usually on the console itself with the original 2600 and 7800 systems, assuming they existed at all. (The Atari 2600 did not have a pause feature.)

HARDWARE DESIGN

This Flashback (and both versions of Flashback 2) was designed by Atari veteran Curt Vendel, whose company Legacy Engineering Group designs other home video game and video arcade products. Atari Inc. gave Legacy Engineering ten weeks to design the product, produce its games, and ready it for the 2004 Christmas Season. To meet this deadline, the The Atari Flashback was based on "NES-on-a-chip" hardware. This does not resemble either of the Atari systems which the Flashback was supposed to emulate. As a result, the games it contained were ports and differed in varying degrees from the original games. That aggravated a lot of purists. I had only noticed differences with one game: Battlezone. Unfortunately, that one is also one of my favorites from the Atari 2600.

My complaints about the hardware are two-fold:

1.) The controllers are too small for extended play. After an hour with them, my hands begin to cramp.

2.) Because of the 'NES-on-a-chip' design, the graphics for the Atari 2600 version of Battlezone included with this device does not have the same graphics as the original cartridge. That aggravates me. The 'new' graphics are okay but, they are not the originals, dammit! A plain green field is not as visually exciting as that multi-colored, almost trippy color scheme employed by the original cartridge.

That being said, this console does have one unique advantage over ALL of it's successors in the Flashback line. The AV cables are NOT attached to the back of the unit. So, if someone trips over the cable, they will simply become unattached from the back of the unit. For whatever reason, the AV cables for the other Flashback units I have (3 & 4) have their AV cables permanently attached to the back of the unit, possibly soldered onto the motherboard like the original Atari 2600 they emulate.

FINAL EVALUATION

Is it worthy of purchase? That largely depends on what kind of gamer you are.

If you're a casual gamer that likes retro stuff, I'd say yes.

If you're a parent looking for something cheap to keep the kids occupied, I'd also say yes.

If you're a hardcore Atari fan... maybe. It depends on your ability to overlook some of the flaws pointed out in this review and others I have found online over time. All the 2600 and 7800 consoles/games out there are not getting any younger (or produced anymore) so, Plug'N'Play consoles that emulate them are a Godsend. I just wish that the emulation was better on Battlezone and that the controllers were larger. I had no problems with the full-size 7800 controllers back in the day. The miniature versions that come with this device are a very different story.

It's not a terrible unit but, it's not a great one, either. You can tell that it was rushed to market. However, it is the only Flashback unit (and probably the only Plug'N'Play device of any kind) that contains the game Solaris. That game is the king of psuedo-3D space shooters. It hit the market in late 1986, when the 2600 was nothing but a good way for Atari to generate quick cash. By that time, Atari made a 5th version of that perennial favorite console called the '2600jr.'  and sold it for $50 or less. Despite that, the game became a classic for the system and a good seller. Hell, it's graphics were easily comparable to anything on the successor system (the 7800), the NES & the SEGA Master System at that time. It is also one of the most challenging Atari games I have ever come across. For me, that one game alone makes this device worth having in your collection.

Prices vary for used Flashback 1 units. I bought mine for around $20 or $25 brand new in 2004. Nowadays, I see them on Ebay for $10. Don't pay much more than that, folks.

- Lord Publius