To a child rising up within the UK within the Nineteen Eighties, the Atari 400 and 800 machines appeared impossibly glamorous. Whereas most of my associates had Commodore 64s or ZX Spectrums (together with the occasional Amstrad or Acorn Electron), I solely ever noticed Atari computer systems on cool TV exhibits and films, corresponding to Videodrome and Police Story. Launched in 1979, these two fashions boasted an Antic video processor offering superior graphics for the period, in addition to a sound chip named Pokey for improved audio. They have been, just like the Apple II, seminal machines for younger recreation coders seeking to create new varieties of expertise past easy arcade conversions.
Opening up the brand new Atari 400 Mini was, then, an oddly emotional expertise. The most recent nostalgic launch from Retro Video games is a properly detailed facsimile of the unique laptop, that includes a non-functional model of its famed membrane keyboard in luscious Seventies beige, orange and brown, in addition to 4 joystick ports alongside the bottom (now USB moderately than the unique Atari joystick port customary). The console comes with a brand new model of the traditional Atari CX40 joystick, which subtly provides eight additional buttons, thereby permitting for the truth that Atari 400/800 video games may name on the keyboard to supply additional enter choices.
In-built are 25 video games that present the vary of what was being produced on the 400 and 800 (the 800 was the posher mannequin, with extra reminiscence and a greater keyboard) again within the early Nineteen Eighties. There are quaint house variations of traditional arcade titles corresponding to Asteroids, Millipede and Battlezone, that are, if nothing else, charming reminders of the compromises house console and laptop devs needed to make at the moment. And there are fascinating glimpses of genres to return, together with Paul Allen Edelstein’s Seize the Flag, a two-player first-person chase recreation, and M.U.L.E., a multiplayer colonisation technique recreation that influenced the whole administration sim business.
There are additionally attention-grabbing experiments with producing pacy 3D visuals, within the type of futuristic racing sim Elektra Glide and Encounter! by Paul Woakes, who would go on to make one of many period’s most fascinating 3D sci-fi journey titles, Mercenary.
Whereas just a few of the video games can be acquainted to those that have purchased the C64 Mini or different retro machines, it was typically the Atari 400 variations that got here first, so that you’re getting major supply materials right here. Nicely, nearly. Whereas there’s no authentic {hardware} in use, the emulator that Retro Video games has employed to run all these video games is strong and correct, permitting a really first rate rendition of those 40-year-old treasures.
And whereas they’re undoubtedly historic, many of those titles – together with Boulder Sprint and Lee (initially entitled Bruce Lee, however I’m guessing the licence expired) – maintain up as genuinely playable relics. Both manner, I’ve had hours of enjoyable discovering video games I by no means noticed the primary time spherical in addition to acquainted favourites in numerous guises. Plus, in typical mini console type, there’s a rewind perform to right errors and it can save you video games to reminiscence. It’s additionally potential to tweak the visible settings, choosing a CRT impact which mimics the show type of conventional TVs, and there’s a digital keyboard when you play a recreation that wants additional enter choices. It’s not precisely easy to make use of, however it’s good that it’s there when you want it.
Curiously, one of many promoting factors of the 400 Mini is that it permits you to “load your personal packages” – which is the instruction guide’s euphemistic manner of claiming the console will play recreation information often known as ROMs, which you’ll load in through USB stick. Most individuals will discover these ROMs on the web, although the legality of freely downloading recreation information is ambiguous to say the least – which is why Retro Video games leaves it to the consumer to determine these things out. I examined this side working a number of video games, and it’s an impressively easy course of: the emulator will settle for information in quite a lot of frequent codecs and can play each Atari 400 and 800 titles in addition to later XL/XE variations. If you insert a USB stick containing recreation ROMs, a thumb drive icon seems on the onscreen recreation checklist, and if you click on on it, your added video games are displayed. The system even helps video games that initially got here on a number of disks; plus, you possibly can reconfigure the joystick buttons to match the enter necessities of most video games you strive.
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At £100 the 400 Mini isn’t low cost, and its video games could also be much less compelling to newer gamers who will maybe get extra out of, say, the Mega Drive or PC Engine Mini machines with their juicy 16-bit visuals and recognisable franchises. As an accessible museum piece, nevertheless, it’s a fascinating and well-crafted system, revealing video games I’d by no means performed of their authentic format, in addition to completely recent retro experiences. That is an business that has constantly didn’t safeguard its personal heritage and historical past; official archives are sometimes naked and inaccessible. The mini consoles are a tiny try to deal with this downside in an intuitive and curated format.
I’m now a good distance from that child rising up within the Nineteen Eighties, however lastly enjoying a few of these Atari 400 gems has jogged my memory of him and the issues he was fascinated by. That in itself has made this tiny machine worthwhile.
