A Flashback To The Past

As a child of the ‘80s, I remember my good ol’ Atari Game Console. Growing up, I can recall playing Pac-Man, Centipede and Space Invaders, my favorite video games at the time. I think we still have the old Atari lying around somewhere collecting dust, but I won’t trouble myself to go look for it since Atari launched its latest product.

Atari put its new Flashback 2 Classic Game Console on store shelves October 4th this week. With plug-and-play games being all the rage these days, the Flashback 2 is here, and is modeled after the Atari 2600. It’s the ultimate re-creation of the classic gaming experience. You may have seen the first Atari Flashback Classic Game Console that came out at the end of 2004. That one came with 20 built-in games, but the Flashback 2 has doubled that to 40 games. It includes the popular games such as Pong, Asteroids and Centipede, in addition to other arcade classics that have never before been released for the home console. The Flashback 2 features the same wood grain paneling and look of the Atari 2600, including two classic joysticks, vintage controls and the multi-player capability.

With both Flashback consoles, you can relive the 1980s video game revolution and go back in time with the retro games that started it all. Unlike some re-issues of retro games, the Flashback games are not emulated versions. Each one of the games’ schematics was re-created to work together on a single chip.

If you still have your old Atari controllers, those are compatible with both Flashbacks. Even if you have the original Atari 2600 trackball or paddle controllers, those will also work. Likewise, the new Flashback joysticks will function with the vintage Atari consoles.

If you’re geeky enough, there is a hackable chip available to install. You can solder on a cartridge port to play original old Atari games with your old cartridges. This hack also allows you to hardwire it to your PC to make it into a handheld device. On top of that, look for the two “secret games” you can unlock. The hint is to go to the main menu and do a combination of joystick movements to indicate a special year in Atari’s history. Sorry, that’s all I know about it, but if you fiddle with it, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

The Atari Flashback is available for $30 at Best Buy or your nearest CompUSA.