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What is the best Atari system and what is the worst Atari system (PC's and console variations such as the Atari ST and the Atari 2600 Jr. may be included), what's the best video game on an Atari system, what's the worst video game on an Atari system, and what's your favorite video game created by Atari?
I'd say the best Atari console was the Atari 2600. It had an gigantic library of games which were a lot of fun. The worst Atari console would have to be the Atari 7800, as it didn't offer enough variety from it's previous consoles, and due it being an instant flop, had a very small library of games, not to mention the North American version had a horrible controller.
Some of the best games for the 2600 would be:
- Pitfall
- Keystone Kapers
- Breakout
- Planet Patrol
- River Raid
- Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
- Asteroids
- Missile Command
- Air/Sea Battle
- Phoenix
And many more.
I cannot comment on the Atari computers, as I've never used them.
You do know the 7800 plays all those 2600 games, right? So if the 2600 is great, the 7800 should be even better regardless of how few games it had.
In any case, the Atari 8-bit home console was the finest Atari ever produced. It had an amazingly advanced OS built in, the fastest floppy of the generation, and incredibly strong support by third parties and enthusiast clubs. I cut my teeth on the A8 - it was a great time for computers that only the Amiga came close to matching.
Best Atari system? I would say the 8-bit computer. The ST is nice but most of what I like for it is as good or better on Amiga. The Atari 8-bit is in a similar situation vs. the C64 but, in that case, I think there are a few more instances of the Atari version being better.
Worst Atari system? The 5200 because it's pretty much a 400 with a shitty controller and a smaller game library. It's not a bad system but with the computer line around, there's almost no reason to get one.
Best game on an Atari system? I'll have to think on this but I'm leaning towards Archon.
Favourite game created by Atari? It would probably be an arcade game like STUN Runner, Star Wars, or I, Robot.
The 2600 and Lynx are awesome. The Jag and 7800 had their moments even though I don't think either lived to its potential.
Hold on now. The C-64 was the greatest 8-bit computer of its generation and I have no problem saying its library is much better than that of the Amiga's.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilly Willy
The worst Atari system is the Atari Jaguar. The library was just abysmal, with poor frame-rates (I'm looking at you Checkered Flag and AVP) horrible play mechanics and boring gameplay. This Jaguar owner isn't impressed with its library.
Best 2600 games:
Circus Atari! (aka "play til bored, then let clowns DIE")
Defender 2 (don't shoot men)
Crossbow - it hates you, so much.
Others, probably.
Played alot of 2600 titles. Played a few 5200 and 7800 titles. Owned an Atari XE...HATED IT although some of the Atari 400/800 versions of arcade games were enjoyable.
I usually agree with you, but not in this case. The C-64 often had the better versions of games and even had superior ports of the Atarisoft games.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
I agree the C64 often had better versions. I would pick the C64 over the Atari 8-bit overall easily. I'm just comparing the Atari 8-bit's multi-format situation against the ST's. ST games ported to Amiga often look almost the same. Atari 8-bit games ported to C64 often have different graphics so there's more reason to play both versions.
Some Activision games were better on Atari 8-bit like HERO and Pitfall II. The C64 version of the latter looks more detailed but plays slower. I think I liked Spelunker a bit more on Atari but I would have to play them again. There are a few others but I'm too tired to remember them now.
*edit - and looking at the DK videos, the Atari 800 version has a decent speed advantage. I own both of those but my C64 died a while ago and I bought the Atari version after that so I never properly compared them. Fast speed is one of the reasons I love the Vic 20 port so much even though it looks like shit.
Yeah, the 800 version appears to run faster, but it also looks like Mario is sliding along. Mario also runs faster than he does in the arcade game, so I don't think its accuracy is all that much better. The one thing I don't like about the C-64 version, is the sound of Mario (jumpman's) footsteps, but the overall feel of the game seems more accurate, even compared to the NES version.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
I do know that Mr Do! on the Atari 800 was an excellent port. My room mate had an Atari 800, and the one game he had that I really liked on his computer, was Mr Do!
Far from it in fact, it outsold the Master System by 2:1 in the US alone and made Atari a lot of money. It does have a lot of stinkers but also some really good games too and it plays 2600 games of course.Quote:
Originally Posted by eddiespruce
Back to the question in hand the best Atari machine for me is the Lynx, not only the best handheld of its generation but it also has the best good to bad games ratio of any console IMO.
The worst Atari machine has to be the 5200. Big, ugly and with terrible controllers, big mistake by Atari. The 7800 is the machine the 5200 should have been.
From home computers the Atari STe was probably the best choice. It integrated all the external devices from previous models. It also had (somewhat) easy access to memory sockets so you could use regular SIMM modules to upgrade your machine. The backward compatibility was quite good, but not perfect. Too bad there weren't many STe enhanced titles available that properly used the upgraded hardware.
Atari 2600 - Brilliant, best of it's generation.
No other 2nd gen system could do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4bSrD4ZDQ
Atari 8bit PCs- Brilliant, second place to the C64, it died off a little too soon (too many 2nd gen games) but it was fully capable of doing 3rd gen quality games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAjvlSCf7CE
Atari 5200 - It's an atari 8bit PC with much worse library and one of the worst controllers of all time. Sucks.
Atari 7800 - If it had come out in 7800 when it was supposed to (and the 5200 never had come out), it would have been awesome. Ninja Golf is reason enough to own the system. US controllers suck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b_NJ8o0UUs
Atari ST - I hate it because the Amiga suffered with tons of direct ports from the ST. Still better than IBM PCs of the time or the Macintosh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co0pLnLktGk
Atari Lynx - Brilliant. This thing can do parallax scrolling, 4 channel PCM audio, 16 colors per scanline, full sprite scaling (Not even the NEO GEO can do sprite scaling, only shrinking). It has one of the highest ratios of good to bad games.
Shame for the small library. Not a very good portable either, but there wasn't one till the gameboy color.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nT92LIuir0
(NOTE: Lynx emulation still can't handle the sound...)
Atari Jaguar - Garbage.
Atari made 2D fighters?
...
Best Atari system = the Lynx.
Worst Atari system = the rest.
Atari 2600 and Atari ST were best by a considerable margin
Atari 8-bit was half alright but didn't last long and was underutilised.
Worst would probably be between the Jaguar and 7800.
And jesus am I really going to have to play through hoards of Amiga and Atari ST games right now just to find out which were better on Atari ST?! if these systems follow the general rule, which is that lazy unoptimised ports will always be inferior, and have more issues than the native version on its origin system, then there should be a pretty decent numbers of superior ST versions.
Off the top of my head I'm sure the Amiga version of Commando was just a straight port of the ST version, but with added glitches and collision detection problems.