Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration DLC ‘The Namco Legendary Pack’ launches November 13 - Gematsu
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration downloadable content “The Namco Legendary Pack” will launch on November 13 for $7.99, publisher Atari and developer Digital Eclipse announced.
Here is an overview of the downloadable content, via Atari:
“The Namco Legendary Pack” features the fan-favorite PAC-MAN for Atari 2600, along with an assortment of titles from the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800, including GALAGA, DIG DUG, XEVIOUS, and GALAXIAN. Players can able to jump straight into any game or explore the collection chronologically through Digital Eclipse’s signature interactive timeline featuring developer interviews, archival documents, photos from the era and more.
The full list of titles is as follows:
DIG DUG (2600)
DIG DUG (5200)
DIG DUG (Arcade)
DIG DUG (Atari 7800)
DIG DUG (Atari 8-bit)
GALAGA (7800)
GALAXIAN (2600)
GALAXIAN (5200)
GALAXIAN (Atari 8-bit)
PAC-MAN (5200)
PAC-MAN (Atari 8-bit)
XEVIOUS (7800)
XEVIOUS (Arcade)
PAC-MAN (2600)
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC via Steam and GOG, and Atari VCS.
I've been really enjoying Atari 50 and also been completely and utterly spoiled by it, having games presented in their historical context with loads of information and backstory is incredible, and like. imagine Nintendo doing something like this. they'd never lol
I don't even know what other game company would ever make something this good with their old games. Atari is a unique specimen when it comes to this I think
'Atari 50: The Namco Legendary Pack' DLC Switch Review
When I reviewed the previous Atari 50 DLC here a little over a year ago, I had a feeling we would see more added to this amazing interactive documentary in the future. There are still plenty of games owned by Atari that have yet to make an appearance, and with the company continuing to make new acquisitions, one never knows what could be added to that library. I was rather surprised when the next DLC was announced to not only be with an outside partner, but Namco of all companies. Like before, we get some new games to play and a new timeline to go through. Let's have a look at both.
Digital Eclipse has gotten quite good at the documentary end of these things, and The Namco Legendary Pack is up to the developer's usual standard. The focus here is on the original partnership between Atari and Namco, running from Namco's initial purchase of Atari Japan through to the last fruits of the tie-up during the Atari 7800 era of Atari. While Atari and Namco had many other intersections after that, those aren't within the scope of this DLC. There are also some obvious restrictions here on Atari's end due to the arcade business ownership cutting off at a certain point, and on Namco's end due to some topics it probably didn't want covered. Don't expect anything about Tengen or Ms. Pac-Man, in other words.
Indeed, much of the focus of this timeline is on Pac-Man, with lots of interview videos featuring Tod Frye, the man who handled the top-selling yet often maligned 2600 port of the game. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell chimes in early on to talk about the Atari Japan sale, and former GCC employee Mark Ackerman discusses his work on the 2600 version of Galaxian. It's a somewhat briefer timeline than some of the previous ones, but there is still a lot of interesting stuff in here.
With that said, you can feel the invisible hand of Namco guiding what is and isn't talked about. Pole Position isn't brought up at all despite its importance in this era of Atari, something that might just be down to licensing. None of the Pac-Family spin-off games created by Midway that Atari released home versions of are even so much as mentioned. Nothing about homebrew ports, not even the ones that have gotten official licensed releases this year. Heck, even Tod Frye's obvious Pac-Man T-shirt has been blurred out of every shot.
Some of this can't be helped, of course. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have some of Namco's people interviewed or Pole Position at least mentioned. What does Namco think of that 2600 version of Pac-Man? It's hard to complain too much for the price, but don't expect the documentary stuff to drill down with quite as much depth or breadth as what was seen in the original Atari 50 timelines. I did like hearing Tod Frye discuss his work, and it was a nice treat to see video footage of the unreleased 2600 port of Xevious he worked on even if we don't get to play it. What's in here is very good, though one can't help but let their mind linger on what isn't in here.
Next, I'll do my quick thoughts on each of the included games. I think overall this set of games fits the purview of this DLC for the most part. Pole Position isn't here probably due to licensing, and things like Ms. Pac-Man are likely absent for reasons entirely outside of Atari's control. That there are only two arcade versions in the mix simply comes down to them being the ones that Atari released in North America on Namco's behalf. The North American arcade releases of Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Galaga didn't involve Atari at all, so they aren't here. Okay, game time.
Pac-Man (2600): Love it or hate it, there is no denying the impact and historical value of this version of Pac-Man. It has become something of a joke over time, and some even suggest it played a serious role in the North American console crash. Here's the thing, though: it wasn't that hated back in the day. I think there is value in having it out there again for people to try out.
Pac-Man (Atari 8-Bit): This is a more accurate home conversion of Pac-Man, but it's still pretty far from the real thing in a lot of ways. Still, I'm sure this would have felt more than good enough at the time. In this collection, it mainly serves as a basis for the third version of Pac-Man in the bunch.
Pac-Man (5200): The Atari 5200 version of Pac-Man is emblematic of the console in many ways. It's considerably more accurate to the arcade game than the 2600 version, and even compared to the Atari 8-Bit computer version it's based on, it's faster and feels better to play. On original 5200 hardware, it also showed off the flaws of the included controller's analog stick. Here on modern consoles, it plays very well. Not the arcade version, but you can have some fun with it.
Galaxian (5200): This was the first official home console port of Galaxian, and it's not a bad take on it at all. The enemy behavior doesn't quite line up with the arcade version, but the game feels faster and a bit more exciting overall. That might be due to the playfield being more cramped, but I'm not complaining.
Galaxian (Atari 8-Bit): Basically the same as the Atari 5200 version. If there are any real differences, I sure can't detect them. I'm not sure why this was included outside of trying to get as much in here as possible, but at least we get a nice view of that extremely cool cover art.
Galaxian (2600): Something of a miracle port, and not the only one we'll be seeing in this selection. One of the things that separated Galaxian from a sea of Space Invaders knock-offs was its colorful graphics and more intense gameplay, and this 2600 port manages to preserve both of those to a far higher degree than one might expect. It's quite fun!
Galaga (7800): You know, I posted a list of my ten favorite Atari 7800 games here a while back. This excellent port is in it. This is the only version of Galaga that Atari ever published, so it's the only one we get here. Lucky for us, it's a mighty fine version of the game. Love it.
Dig Dug (Arcade): Yes, Atari handled the original North American release of Dig Dug in arcades. It's very weird to see the Atari logo on this game's title screen. This is the first time we've had this particular variant of the arcade game released on consoles, so it has some merit on that alone. With that said, if you've played the arcade version of Dig Dug in any of the many ways it has been released at home over the years, you've played this. Awesome game, though.
Dig Dug (2600): Here's another miracle port. I really can't get over how accurate this is to the arcade game given the console's limitations. It feels better to play than a lot of Dig Dug ports on far more capable hardware. It even manages to mostly full off the audio, which is not something the 2600 is typically very good at. It's one of my ten favorite 2600 games, so I'm thrilled to see it here.
Dig Dug (Atari 8-Bit): Of the, um, five included versions of Dig Dug in this DLC, the Atari 8-Bit version is the worst. It's a bit slow and it plays differently from the arcade game in various ways. With that said, I don't think this is a bad game at all in a vacuum. It's worth messing around with for a little while just for variety's sake.
Dig Dug (5200): This version is a lot closer to the arcade game than the Atari 8-Bit port in terms of how it plays. It's just a lot smoother, and the presentation is nicer too. Apparently a conversion of this ended up replacing the original Atari 8-Bit version on the market, so you can tell Atari was pleased with it. In Atari 50, we don't have to put up with the silly 5200 joystick either. Not bad, but there's still one to go.
Dig Dug (7800): Oh, it's another of my ten favorite Atari 7800 games. This is an excellent home console version of Dig Dug, and arguably even more fun than the Famicom version thanks to its faster, more intense action. This was a launch title for the 7800, and while it probably felt a little old by the time that machine made it to market, I can look back on efforts like this now and really appreciate them.
Xevious (Arcade): Atari handled the North American release of this arcade game as well, and this is another case where we are seeing this particular variant released on consoles for the first time ever. Atari certainly seems to have had a lot of faith in this one, and with good reason. Xevious is great. I'm not sure why it didn't catch on in the West the way it did in Japan, but I suppose it doesn't matter. As with Dig Dug, I don't mind having yet another way to play arcade Xevious.
Xevious (7800): And another of my ten favorite Atari 7800 games! Wow, 30% of my faves on the console in one handy DLC drop! The Atari 7800 was actually quite capable at chucking a bunch of sprites around the screen without slowing down, and that really comes in handy for Xevious. An impressive port for the hardware, and a fine version of this influential shoot 'em up on the whole.
I think for the asking price ($7.99 USD), The Namco Legendary Pack DLC is easy to recommend. Just the two arcade games alone are more than worth that, and when you add in all of the different console ports it's a great value from a gameplay standpoint. The documentary stuff is a little thinner than I'd like, but I can appreciate there were probably a lot of issues Atari had to work around here. If you love Atari 50, this is a must-have. Namco fans might also enjoy the trip into some lesser-seen ports of these famous games. I wonder where this compilation will go next?
After taking a short look at the reviews on Steam for this collection and reading someone call the games here presented "aged to the point of unplayability" i figured most if not all of the more critical reviews would have been written by [edit: LOST SOULS] who occasionally may not understand that game licenses are expensive on top of being [edit: BLISSFULLY UNAWARE], so i won't bother reading the rest of them. If you feel called out, hi, i'm very excessively rude over something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things and i'm sorry, but i also take back nothing.
Alright, now that the sassy part of this tome is over with, i can concentrate on the positives.
After writing around 20+ separate posts on Backloggd it's time i finally give some attention to the Atari 50 Collection as a whole, and boy oh boy there's a lot to say. First off, if you're one of those people whose main criticism is "it's just a bunch of roms, you can emulate them" or "you can just watch the documentaries on Youtube": well, if you made it this far into the review i'm genuinely impressed that your attention span is this high, even if you're clearly still [edit: UNDERSTANDABLY NOT YET FULLY EDUCATED TO THE ARTS] for thinking you're accomplishing anything by giving out such groundbreaking propositions, as if the concept of piracy didn't already apply to any other piece of media that as ever existed in humankind for those who were interested in partaking it. And yes, i'm a pirate myself, i've emulated more stuff than i can count on my own two feet. I'm not being mean because you're downplaying the act of piracy only because the medium doesn't fit your specific criteria of what's worth spending money on, i'm mean because you're [edit: A TAD SILLY]. Ok, sorry, NOW the sassy part is over.
I wasn't around when any of the games in this collection were still new, not even the stuff on the Jaguar. My first exposure to this company actually comes from Atari Flashback, a big emulation box from the early 00's, and ever since i've had a fascination with this ancient era. I've played the Activision Anthology, i've played Intellivision Lives, but Atari 50 is by far the better collection of the bunch.
Each game, no matter the console, has their boxart scanned and archived, and the same counts for the instruction manual; in the case of the arcades, instead it'll be the flyers and the overlays that get this treatment, stuff that i'm always very appreciative of.
I fucking love that there's also side attractions like fan-made homebrews, classic remakes developed specifically for this collection and especially the unreleased prototypes. Slap a sticker that says "INCOMPLETE" on a cartridge and i'll be all over that shit before you notice, no matter the genre or the overall quality. But yeah, there's plenty of stuff in here that scratches all sorts of itches.
Of course when you're covering such a wide range of consoles over the course of 20 years it's gonna be hard to include EVERYTHING in the collection, but as someone who's not as emotionally attached to any of the missing titles, i really can't say i mind too much. As you can see by the playtime (around 45 hours for those on Backloggd), i did get more than enough bang for my buck, i'm good. I can also understand why some would take issue with the missing stuff, even after calling you [edit: SLURS UNFIT FOR THIS WEBSITE] for that in the first paragraph... it's just that this whole shebang ain't cheap, you know? Activision is never gonna give up their library of 2600 classics for a price that makes sense, even if all they intend otherwise to do with it is let it rot inside a hard drive 'til the end of time. Shit sucks, it is what it is. I'm still very happy with what's included.
Fuck it, you know what? If i REALLY have to be negative i'll just come out and say it: the biggest issue with this collection is that there isn't enough Jaguar and Lynx games. Oh boohoo they don't have Joust, the ungrateful boomer cried, FUCK Joust, where is Battlemorph? I don't wanna hear from some whack ass youtuber or redditor or whichever other class of undesirables what i'm supposed to think of these two consoles, i wanna form an opinion on my own, and if all the games turn out to be shit as foretold, so be it, but i wanna know first-hand. Cybermorph for example actually wasn't that bad, the "where did you learn to fly?" game. That one was actually alright, you guys just suck, get good.
The magazine exerpts and the commercials are so good that i wanna eat them, physically eat them. The sheer excitement and curiosity over this new "game video" technology, with all its incredible possibilities yet unexplored, contaging every possible demographic, all immortalized in its childlike wonder seeping through each page and frame of video.
Yes please, tell me all about how the launch of Pac-Man on the VCS was such a happening that they planned an entire day around it, with parades and special events all over the country. Show me how commercials back in the day had no qualms about downright calling the competition shit, while carefully reminding us that this kind of war only existed for the suits in their big fancy offices and not among the developers themselves or even the consumers through the interview section.
And the critics too! I wanna know what made them tick in the early 80's. I wanna read a reviewer giving a game a full score because it has the option to pause it. I wanna vicariously feel what they were feeling, i wanna feel their sincere amazement at a game having difficulty options, because at the end of the day, are we really better off in modern times, with all these cool innovations and tricks and technological horsepower, if we take them for granted? If they make us feel nothing? Oh, the humanity.... i'm gonna go jerk off for a second and then i'll finish this up.
Alright i'm back. Been a few hours, hope none of you left in the meantime. Anyway, the big thing that elevates Atari 50 from being just a great collection to something that'll stay near and dear to my heart for a good while: the developer interviews. I don't quite know how interesting this sort of content would be to a non game developer, heck i don't even know how many game developers would find it as interesting as i did, but for me hearing all about the problems, so unique for the time, that these cool ass people had to go through (shoutouts to Tod Frye in particular for casually bringing up he did coke in the office) in order to deliver the goods just made me respect this simpler era of gaming and the people who made it what it is so much more than i already did, and i liked them clunky old 80's consoles a lot if you couldn't tell.
Man, what a unique position to find yourself in, being part of what at the time was an incredibly small percentage of people, even among those with programming knowledge... When a game sold in stores to millions of people was the product of 2-3 developers at most, often just 1. And no one knew what the fuck they were doing, that's really what's most charming to me. Everything was still new, Japan and America were doing their own thing, and catching up with each other's ideas years after they were introduced because that's how things were back in the day... Europe was doing weird shit on PCs with tape cassettes and half of the the commercially available games was programmed by 14 years olds. Thrilling.
God bless Digital Eclipse for putting together this incredible piece of history, even if their Mortal Kombat collection was ass.
Old games never lose their charm and only get more and more nostalgic, which is exactly what these eight retro game collections try to hit.
For a hefty dose of nostalgia, players should look no further than these 8 retro game collections that will definitely include some of the titles that they used to enjoy 2-3 decades ago.
Picked up an unsealed copy of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. If you’re a retro gamer, a collector, a historian of any level then this is the game for you. This title has set a new standard for how a celebration style compilation should be done. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up and see for yourself.
