I was disappointed with last year’s Atari Flashback console. Although it featured 20 games —twice as many as the prior TV Games Atari joystick — none of them looked or played exactly like the originals. Instead, they looked and played like they were reprogrammed for an NES chip (which, in fact, they were). The five 7800 games included with the system looked a little bit more like the originals, but the gameplay was still lacking. The best thing I could say about it was that it included an unreleased game—Saboteur—and it also looked cool (although why it was designed after the 7800 console and controllers was beyond me).
If you are an Atari 2600 fan (and why would you be reading The 2600 Connection if you weren’t?), you may be confused. You’ve no doubt heard about the unreleased prototypes of Saboteur, Save Mary, Frog Pond, Aquaventure, Wizard, and Combat 2. But what about all the other unfamiliar names? Some are intended to be sequels (Yar’s Return), some are graphical hacks (Arcade Asteroids), and others (Atari Climber) are new, but all are homebrews. I’ve got mixed feelings about the inclusion of such titles. First of all, if the Flashback’s main selling point is the nostalgia value, how can you be nostalgic about games you never played before? And secondly, it isn’t as if the unit already contained the entire 2600 catalog. Even discounting licensed titles, paddle games or games with unique controllers, and titles that appeared on the first Flashback, there are plenty of other games to choose from such as Atari Video Cube, Bowling, Double Dunk, Football, Golf, Home Run, Math Gran Prix, Miniature Golf, the Realsports games, Slot Machine, Slot Racers, Star Ship, Stellar Trak, Submarine Commander, Super Baseball, Super Football, Surround, and the Swordquest series. I probably would have included any of these titles before including prototypes or brand-new games. I would have even given these titles priority over Pitfall! and River Raid, as they were released by Activision instead of Atari…not to mention the fact that they’ve already appeared on other TV Games units.
That being said, it is hard not to like the Flashback 2 when it looks like a miniature 2600 console and uses improved versions of the classic Atari joysticks, but with audio/video output jacks instead of RF. Most importantly, the games look and play like the originals…even to the point of including the secret messages in Adventure, Missile Command, and Yar’s Revenge. Everyone has their own favorites, of course, but I would have bought the system just to play Maze Craze (an old family favorite), Combat (who can forget it, as we all owned it!), and Dodge ‘Em. Yar’s Revenge and Adventure are also two of my favorites, but I’ve played them too many times on the first Flashback and the TV Games joystick unit to get excited about seeing them yet again.
The technical minded among us will be excited to learn that the Flashback 2 has been designed to accommodate a cartridge slot. Hardcore Gamer Magazine has already included instructions on how to do so in their September issue, and you can probably find the instructions elsewhere on the Web. With a little work, you can turn your Flashback 2 into a full-fledged miniature 2600. There is also a hidden menu featuring Super Breakout and Warlords (Hint: It has something to do with the year that Pong was introduced), but you’ll need to plug in your own paddle controllers to play these hidden games.
The original Flashback sold well despite looking like a 7800 console and containing games that played differently than the originals. I can only hope that the Flashback 2 — with twice as many games, accurate graphics and gameplay, and an even nicer physical design — sells equally well or better than its predecessor.
DESIGN: 5/5
Except for the buttons, it looks like a miniature 2600 with re-engineered joysticks. What else could you possibly want?
GAME SELECTION: 4/5
A bit too heavy on homebrews and prototypes at the expense of released games. Still, there are 40 titles.
GAMEPLAY: 5/5
The games look and play exactly how we remember them (for better or worse!).
OVERALL RATING: 5/5
Finally, a TV games unit that is more than a conversation piece!
Mark Androvich was a regular contributor to the 2600 Connection from issue #8 through issue #50, when he landed a job as a freelance game reviewer. He is now Editor-in-Chief of PlayStation Extreme magazine.
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