![]() ![]() The biggest problem is the controls, to the surprise of exactly no one, are horrific. Anyone out there dying for a portable version of Atari's video checkers and 3D Tic-Tac-Toe? Bueller? That's even more true of the Atari 2600 titles, some of which - okay many of which - weren't even all that amazing in their day. Some of Atari's arcade games continue to stand the test of time but frankly, some ought to be left as historical artifacts. The first is that most of these games have been available online as free MAMEs for years now, so charging for them, even given the portable nature of the new apps, seems off. Seems like a fair price, and certainly in line with the gazillion other apps in Apple's warehouse of sometimes dubious quality. After you download it, you can either shell out $14.99 for the complete 100-game package, or buy four-packs of games fronted by Atari's arcade classics ( Centipede, Tempest, Missile Command, etc.) for 99 cents each. The actual app is free, and comes with an iOS version of Pong, the game that, believe it or not, once riveted the nation's gaming attention - at least the part of the nation that hung out in bars and shopped at Sears. To touchscreen nation, it probably sounds like an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime deal. ![]() Last week, Atari (which, almost 40 years after its formation, is now an afterthought subsidiary owned by a French-based publisher) shocked Apple's app store by rolling out Atari's Greatest Hits, an app platform that gives you the opportunity, for the low, low price of $15, to own iOS versions of - hold onto your iPads, kids - 100 Atari 2600 and arcade games. When I look at the logo today, the swoops on either side seem like the front wheels of a car that have just popped off and are spinning crazily across the neighbor's front lawn. The company's bold triple swoops are supposed to represent a vectorized version of Japan's Mount Fuji, a towering and permanent natural wonder. It's become one of those iconic symbols of the prehistoric videogame era, like Pac-Man and the space invaders. ![]() Even if you weren't clutching plastic joysticks and rocking out to ELO in the slammin' 1970s, chances are good you're familiar with the logo for Atari, the purveyors of Pong and the legendary Atari 2600. ![]()
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