What’s Unsuitable with Atari Celebrating their Adaptation of Pac-Man for the 2600? Nothing!

Final week, Atari gave us a double dose of peculiar bulletins. New DLC for the superb Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, and a new particular version of their 2600+ console are on the way in which, and so they’re themed after the unique online game icon, Pac-Man. Particularly, Atari’s model. 

Sure, what’s broadly thought to be one of many worst arcade translations of its time, Pac-Man for Atari 2600 remains to be a massively vital a part of online game historical past, particularly Atari’s. They’ve now partnered with Namco to lastly carry this horrible port again to the world, coupled with a lot better ports of different Namco classics like DigDug, Galaxian, and even a model new model of Pac-Man for Atari 7800! 

The identical day it was introduced, I got here throughout a submit in a number of Fb teams that struck me as significantly absurd. 

It learn “What’s mistaken with Atari celebrating their adaptation of Pac-Man for the 2600? Loads.” 

Effectively, this I needed to learn. In spite of everything, the notion that Atari shouldn’t be celebrating such a big a part of their historical past appeared ridiculous. However considered one of my driving ideas in life is the belief that I’m by no means the neatest man within the room. There’s at all times one thing I don’t know. Was there some type of unheard-of controversy surrounding Pac-Man’s growth? The expression “loads” means a big quantity, proper? On the very least a couple of! I used to be skeptical, however sufficient to study one thing new. I took the bait, and I clicked. (Isn’t there some type of time period for content material like this?) 

So, what number of issues did the writer record which can be mistaken with Atari celebrating their adaptation of Pac-Man for Atari 2600? 

One… type of. 

So far as I can inform, this text served precisely two functions. One, to inform everybody that Pac-Man for Atari 2600 is dangerous, and two, to be a flimsy excuse to offer hyperlinks to the author’s different content material. The closest it got here to a motive why Atari shouldn’t be “celebrating” the sport was mentioning that Atari themselves refers back to the conversion as “notorious.” I’m sorry, however by no definition is that “loads,” neither is it, in my view, an enough motive for the sport to not be celebrated. 

This bothered me most likely greater than it ought to have. The headline was bait, seemingly meant to get folks like me to click on on the article, which then by no means appropriately addressed the purpose that enticed of us to learn it within the first place. (There’s acquired to be a phrase for this…) 

So, I believed it might be enjoyable to do the alternative. What’s mistaken with Atari Celebrating their Adaptation of Pac-Man for the 2600? Nothing! 

Right here’s why. 

Historic context

Right this moment, should you present someone Pac-Man for Atari 2600, they’ll most likely scoff and write it off as rubbish. They usually wouldn’t be totally mistaken! Pac-Man 2600 is a remarkably poor conversion of Namco’s arcade traditional. However that’s not the entire story. Pac-Man 2600 was phenomenally profitable, as Pac-Man itself was vastly standard, and the power to play it at residence was a fairly large deal. The story of its growth is an enchanting one, and its lasting legacy on the trade is great. Lots of its unfavorable impacts have develop into overblown through the years, too. Some of us prefer to say it singlehandedly kicked off the North American online game crash, which it completely didn’t. It was a contributing issue, certain, however there’s much more to that story, hopefully a few of which will likely be advised within the new Atari 50 DLC! For all its faults, it’s an enormous a part of online game historical past, and any historical past of Atari that’s advised with out its inclusion is an incomplete one. 

The TV present issue

There’s a glimpse of this being coated within the trailer for the Atari 50 DLC, and it made me so completely satisfied to listen to another person say it out loud. I’ve been shouting about this for ages! Should you’ve watched a TV present within the final 20-30 years, and somebody in it’s enjoying video video games, the sound results are nearly assured to be a mixture of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, particularly the Atari 2600 variations. This has solely gotten extra foolish because the years have passed by as the thought of those sound results popping out of a PS5 is ridiculous, but it surely nonetheless occurs! Clearly this doesn’t carry extra consciousness to the Donkey Kong bit, however having the sport accountable for some sound results that tons of individuals have seemingly heard repeatedly through the years is tremendous cool, particularly having that reality identified particularly in Atari 50! 

Preservation

Dangerous video games should be preserved, too, particularly once they’re such an vital a part of online game historical past. The Atari 2600 is the very root of what the fashionable online game market has develop into at present, and its largest blockbusters, most of which had been made by Atari themselves, have been largely unavailable for ages because of them being diversifications of video games Atari doesn’t personal. Sure, the 2600 variations of Centipede, Asteroids, and Missile Command have been available for ages, however a lot of their different largest hits have been misplaced to time, and that features Pac-Man. No, it’s not a very good model of the sport, however for folks making an attempt to study concerning the historical past of the medium, its high quality doesn’t matter. 

It’s an effective way for example the evolution of residence video video games

Regardless of the way you get this re-release of 2600 Pac-Man, it additionally comes with much better variations of the sport. Should you purchase the bodily cart to play in your unique {hardware} or considered one of Atari’s + methods, it comes with the brand new 7800 port which seems nice. Should you purchase it as a part of the brand new DLC pack for Atari 50, that additionally consists of the 5200 and Atari 8-bit ports, which had been each fairly good as properly. So it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re being given a improbable instance of how a lot better issues acquired following the 2600 launch. I do know this most likely appears bizarre, however it is a nice showcase of how a lot went into making good ports of arcade video games within the previous days. Nailing not simply the look, but additionally the texture, was extremely vital, and having a main instance of what occurs once you fail is simply as vital as having one for once you succeed. 

It’s nonetheless Pac-Man

Sure, it is a dangerous model of Pac-Man, however that doesn’t imply it’s not possible to have enjoyable with it. Heck, for lots of children again then, this was their first introduction to Pac-Man. Even with its shoddy controls and baffling visible decisions, the core of what made Pac-Man a lot enjoyable in arcades remains to be right here on this model. There’s completely enjoyable available right here, particularly should you’ve acquired nostalgia for it. It’s true that some followers had been so disillusioned with this conversion that they introduced it again to shops to return, however a a lot bigger proportion of gamers simply saved it and performed it. And whereas it leaves loads to be desired, and was ultimately changed by far superior video games on the 2600 within the type of a wonderful port of Ms. Pac-Man and the chic Jr. Pac-Man, it’s nonetheless a fairly good time for what it’s, so long as you possibly can see previous every part it isn’t. 

That wasn’t so exhausting, was it? I’m conscious that this submit you’re studying has greater than a splash of pettiness in it, however I’ve to say, should you’re somebody who creates content material on the web, don’t waste peoples’ time like this. Don’t make outrageous claims with nothing however sizzling air and hyperlinks to your previous semi-related work to again it up. 

However right here’s the true complicated half. The web site that hosted the submit about how Pac-Man for 2600 is dangerous, The Dot Eaters, is in any other case a fairly glorious supply of details about online game historical past. Heck, the precise headline for the article was simply superb! “Atari Leans Into Having Made the WORST Model of Pac-Man Ever.” Nailed it. Why not simply submit that? This man clearly is aware of what he’s speaking about, and clearly has a ardour for this interest. That’s why it’s so bewildering to me that he would make a submit that appears to suggest he has a difficulty with Atari taking a monumentally vital piece of online game historical past and making it obtainable to fashionable audiences in a approach that every one however ensures that they may also have the ability to play a minimum of one genuinely good port as properly. As somebody who has additionally spent a substantial period of time finding out the historical past of video video games, the notion that Atari ought to in some way fake that this recreation by no means existed isn’t simply mistaken, it’s offensive. 

So, why did he body his submit with a clickbait headline? (I knew there was a phrase for it!) Who is aware of? The writer continues to refuse to really reply any of my questions, and appeared fairly offended that myself (and a number of other different commenters) known as out the dishonest nature of his submit, and its disconnect from the precise content material of his article. 

No matter what this fella thinks of Pac-Man for 2600, its inclusion in Atari 50 and cartridge re-release seem to be a fairly great point to me. Does this open the doorways for much more collaborations sooner or later? Might we get Activision content material? Possibly Taito video games like Area Invaders and Jungle Hunt? Possibly a partnership with Warner Bros to get traditional Halfway stuff like Defender (top-of-the-line promoting video games on the 2600) and Atari Video games titles like Gauntlet and Paperboy? I definitely hope so. 

What’s mistaken with that? Nothing in any respect.