The ''Atari Greatest Hits'' series is composed of compilations of Atari

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

s &

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

games ported to the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

and Apple

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. The Nintendo DS games were split into two volumes released in 2010 and 2011 respectively, while the app was released as a

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

model, and allowed for purchase of the extra games. The games include bonus features such as manuals, credits and interviews with Atari founder

Nolan Bushnell Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consu ...

. Releases in the series have received positive reviews from ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' and ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' while receiving more negative reviews from ''

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninte ...

'' and ''

Nintendo Gamer ''Nintendo Gamer'' was a magazine published in the United Kingdom which mainly covered Nintendo video game consoles and software. It was the successor publication to ''N64 Magazine'', later renamed NGC Magazine (1997–2006), and ''Super Play'' ...

''.

Content

Both of the Nintendo DS releases contain an art gallery of pictures from their playable arcade games, Atari 2600 manuals from their playable arcade games and credits that detail the people who helped make them. Both volumes contain two other extras. While Volume 1 has a trivia game that gives players 20 randomly selected questions about Atari and ''Army Battlezone'', a version of ''Battlezone'' commissioned by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

for Atari to train the gunners of the

Bradley Fighting Vehicle The Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) is an American continuous track, tracked armored fighting vehicle of the United States developed by FMC Corporation and now manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, formerly United Defense. It is named for ...

, Volume 2 has eight interviews from

, including video and audio and an

Atari 400 The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 65 ...

Basic engine. ''Atari's Greatest Hits'' was released as an app for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

, and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

in April 2011. The app was free but only included ''

Missile Command ''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. Sega released the game outside North America. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Tempest'' from ...

''. The rest of the games could be purchased as

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

in packs of four, or as the entire collection.

List of games

The following games are included in ''Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 1''. The following games are included in ''Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 2''.

Reception

Volume 1

Writing for ''

'', Craig Harris rated ''Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1'' 6 out of 10, and said that the 30 dollar price was too high. Harris noticed that the Nintendo DS's small screen can not properly display games with

vector graphics Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector displ ...

, like ''Gravitar'', ''Lunar Lander'', and ''Asteroids'', but he praised the title's "excellent multiplayer support" and "spot-on emulations". Alex Morgen at GamingBits.com gave it 3.5 of 5 stars in a generally positive review. Harris and Morgen both said that many of the included titles would not hold gamers' attention for very long. ''

'' rated it 5 out of 10, while ''

'' gave it 22 out of 100.

iOS

'' gave the app a seven out of ten rating, finding it superior to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

's similarly themed

Game Room Game Room was a video game compilation developed by Krome Studios and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Windows Phone 7. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room let players download classic video games and co ...

, and while finding many Atari 2600 games to be dated and that it lacked many games made under the

Atari Games Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner Wa ...

company.

Notes

References

{{Portal bar, Video games 2010 video games 2011 video games Atari video game compilations Code Mystics games IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo DS games Video games developed in Canada