Atari Greatest Hits is a series of video game compilations developed by Code Mystics and published by Atari, Inc. for the Nintendo DS and iOS. Consisting of arcade and Atari 2600 games from Atari, it was released into two volumes released in 2010 and 2011 respectively, while the app was released as a free-to-play 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.
Releases in the series have received positive reviews from IGN and Eurogamer while receiving more negative reviews from Nintendo Power and Nintendo Gamer.
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 for Atari to train the gunners of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Volume 2 has eight interviews from Nolan Bushnell, including video and audio and an Atari 400 Basic engine.
Atari's Greatest Hits was released as an app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch in April 2011. The app was free but only included Missile Command. The rest of the games could be purchased as downloadable content in packs of four, or as the entire collection.
List of games The following games are included in Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 1.
+ Title Arcade2600 3D Tic-Tac-Toe Adventure Air-Sea Battle Asteroids Asteroids Atari Video Cube Basketball Battlezone The Bradley Trainer Bowling Centipede Championship Soccer Dodge 'Em Flag Capture Football Fun with Numbers Gravitar Hangman Haunted House Home Run Human Cannonball Lunar Lander Math Gran Prix Miniature Golf Missile Command Outlaw Pong RealSports Baseball RealSports Boxing RealSports Football RealSports Tennis RealSports Volleyball Sky Diver Slot Machine Slot Racers Space Duel Sprint Master Star Ship Stellar Track Submarine Commander Surround Swordquest Earthworld Swordquest Fireworld Swordquest Waterworld Tempest Video Checkers
The following games are included in Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 2.
+ Title Arcade2600Note Asteroids Deluxe Backgammon Black Widow BASIC Programming Blackjack 3 player support Brain Games 2 player support Breakout 2 player support Canyon Bomber 2 player support Casino 4 player support Circus Atari 2 player support Codebreaker 2 player support Combat 2 player support Combat Two 2 player support 2 player support Crystal Castles Demons to Diamonds Desert Falcon Double Dunk 2 player support Fatal Run Golf Liberator Major Havoc Maze Craze 2 player support Millipede Night Driver Off-the-Wall Quadrun Radar Lock RealSports Basketball 2 player support RealSports Soccer 2 player support Red Baron Return to Haunted House Secret Quest Sentinel Space War Star Raiders Steeplechase Street Racer Super Baseball 2 player support Super Breakout Super Football 2 player support Video Chess Video Olympics 4 player support Video Pinball Warlords 4 player support Yars' Revenge
Reception Volume 1 Writing for IGN, 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, 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. Nintendo Power rated it 5 out of 10, while Nintendo Gamer gave it 22 out of 100.
iOS Eurogamer gave the app a seven out of ten rating, finding it superior to Microsoft's similarly themed Game Room, and while finding many Atari 2600 games to be dated and that it lacked many games made under the Atari Games company.
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