I think back to a year ago when I bought an Atari 2600 with 53 games, the Atari was Jet Black instead of wood paneled labeling it the "Darth Vader" edition. Total cost was $60.
Now when someone pays a large amount of money for something they want, I don't flame about it. I would be hippocritical since i just spent $150 on monday to get the Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2 (no regrets). When someone wants something, they pay what is asked and thats all there is to it.
I'm a little annoyed there isn't much to what the game is about, apparently it was sold in a religious store with "albums". So is it a music game? I couldn't figure that out so easily. But geez, five grand? Like I said I won't judge but god what I could do with $5,000.
I recently came upon this article and really understood the significance of it, but to put it at face value the Xbox outsold or will outsell the Atari 2600 and be the biggest selling American born console.
the Atari 2600 hasn't been made since 1992, and Atari is defunct except as a publisher. So the comparison seems pointless, considering that Atari sold a similar amount of consoles in 4 times the amount of years the Xbox 360 has existed. Many reason that because there are more gamers, and gaming being a mainstream, that is nothing to celebrate about. Indeed, Nintendo has dwarfed Xbox 360 even though it isn't an American born creation, and the Xbox 360 is built in China anyway.
The Atari 2600 is Taiwan made, so what makes the Xbox 360 any less American than say Sony's PS3 is to its loyal fans and roots in Japan? Nothing because Japan sees a loyalty to the PS3 even though its also made in China. We should never consider manufacturing as the roots of a product, merely as an effigy of the designs. I have grown to be insulted by the comment of being a fanboy, and in this I am not really a fanboy as I am a loyal American to buy into the gaming market of Xbox from Microsoft. I won't pretend that the 33 percent failure rate and Red Ring of Death misery to Xbox owners doesn't hurt the console's image, especially considering that Atari 2600's almost never failed to work. But as technology grows, this comparision seems extreme since the current generation is more failure prone than past generations.
This being said, the highest selling American game console is also currently leading the console wars with Sony extremely close behind. It is amazing that a console with bad history in terms of its overheating problems will likely be cemented in history, and is still trying to make history with Natal. Something that may detail its epic presence in the face of its flaws.
Since no one else has touched on the greatest classic gaming franchaise that is Atari, i'd finally taken my time to review one of my 50+ games for my Atari 2600.
Warlords is copyrighted for 1981, and uses the paddle controllers that oddly come as two tied together into one hub like this
Warlords is one of those games that could use as many as four paddle controllers to play the game, it is essentially an enhanced version of breakout. Yes you bounce a ball at other blocks, but your also trying to hit the "fortresses" of the other players whether they'd be A.I. or your friends behind the blocks, you also have your own fortress to defend as well. And by holding in the button of the paddle controller you can hold on to the ball instead of bouncing it and aim it somewhere else as necessary. The winner is the last one with a fortress and declares a winner after a set number of wins for one player.
Here is some gameplay for readers who are curious and want a second opinion ;)
Warlords appeals to me greatly, it is currently my undisputed favorite Atari game. It isn't easy to appreciate these games with an Xbox 360, a Genesis, and a NES in the same room. But games like warlords puts you back into that era, it's a great game to begin with and drive you to play more games like it does for me.
If I had to complain about anything, its that sometimes you hurry and turn your paddle controller too much to reach another side. Why is that a problem? well if you go off a certain amount with the paddle controller, you can have a dead area where turning does nothing at all. This isn't a good thing since the movement is extremely sensitive, but in my experience with the game just fidget the knob impulsively to keep control and check to make sure it'll move.
TJ, Ed, Randy, and Jason talk about the new Ipad again now that Mr. TJ happens to own one. Was it a smart purchase or a regretful one? Listen and find out.
