I have the Atari collection for the Nintendo DS and boy, was that a disappointment. I wish I could have gotten my money back. This on the other hand is so much better (and cheaper) that I was not expecting it to be this good. The 11 games come in two versions, classic and Modern (evolved). The controls take getting used to since games like Millipede and Centipede had a control ball, this you have to use joystick or direction buttons. There is also unlockable versions of Atari 2600 games too, over 50 according to the box but I haven't gotten there yet. Highly recommended games. Remember back in the 80s when these were top? An arcade game cost a few thousand and you get all these for $20 with better graphics (but not better controls).

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This is a great collection of classics. I've always loved Tempest. In addition to the classic format, you have the option of playing the enhanced version - both are very cool. This is great to carry along for a quick game. The only caveat is that it does take a bit to get used to the controls for each game. Remember, centipede and millipede originally had a roller ball, tempest had a dial, etc. For some games (the ones just mentioned) must be played with the game held vertically. So, it's a bit awkward at first. You'll get used to it. So many games for a good price.

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For twenty bucks, this PSP title is actually pretty good, especially for the nostaglia value. Most of these games were "state of the art" back a quarter century ago. I remember them well. My favs from the early 80s were BattleZone, Missile Command, and Lunar Lander.

These games are still FUN to play today, in a casual gameplay setting, and you don't even need to read an instruction manual to learn them if never played before.

The "evolved" games are much improved graphically over the originals, and find myself playing them at the exclusion of older editions. However, the PSP and its little joystick "nub" are no match for the likes of a $10,000 arcade game machine of the past, with their optional trackballs, and industrial strength joysticks, but game play is still faithful to the originals. Not to mention, this PSP title has 11 fully playable games in one.

Another purchasing consideration, other than merely the low price, is that this UMD would be great for young children to introduce them to gaming, or to play on a long trip, or waiting to eat in a restaurant, with plenty of entertainment value. Plus, these classic games are harmless, with no mindless violence and X-rated themes.

The only downside other than the less than sterling controller aspects of the PSP while actually playing these games, is the overly challenging aspect to "unlocking" the so-call bonus Atari 2600 games included. That will take many, many hours to accomplish, and most casual (adult) gamers don't have the time or patience to play such games over and over for hours on end. Atari, should have made the bonus games available without any need for "unlocking" them, or at least made it easier to do so.

All things considered, Atari Classics Evolved is deserving of FOUR stars and certainly a worthwhile addition to my PSP collection of games.

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Back in the early 80's, I was a proud owner of many Atari games. My parents would buy me and my brother the latest games, kids from school would come over to check it out and had a relative who worked at Atari and gave us these chip like device that would play on an adapter for our 2600.

I remember playing hours and hours to reach a million and them flip the game (the term used back then to reach a million points and the game's top score would start over at 0) for Asteroid and Defender.

I remember the days of trying to find the first Easter Egg for "Adventure", play "Warlords", "Tempest", "Galaga", "Frogger", "Breakout" and so many Atari games including stinkers such as "Superman" and "E.T.".

So, when I saw this collection on the aisle, I was really trying to decide if I wanted to shell out $20 for a collection of Atari 2600 games. But with all these new games coming out for the next gen consoles and the portable devices, I figured, I'd wait. And sure enough, there was a sale for this collection and the price was quite low for a new game that I couldn't resist.

Upon starting the game, you are greeted with the main 11 games: Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Missle Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest and Warlords.

The first game I wanted to play was "Battlezone" and fortunately, it's based on the arcade version, not the sucky Atari 2600 version. It's the first time in so many years since I played that game and even wasted so many quarters on the game. It was the first "Virtual Reality" game with it's green lined graphics but at the time, it was so cool at that time. So, I switched it to the evolved version and the biggest difference is that things are shaded, more colors, some 3D but nothing super drastic in terms of an update of graphics. But the concept is still the same and fun. These are fun games you can get into such as on a long commute and it's not hard to learn how to play the game(s).

But then I started playing the other ten games and I was thinking, do I really want to play all these games for scores? Knowing there is no CG video, no major storylines. They are straight up games to play for points.

Of course, the incentive of doing well in the game is the better you do, you get awards and when you accomplish those awards, you open up the original Atari 2600 games. Obtain all awards and you open up a total of 58 Atari 2600 games.

Personally, I have no time to sit around and play a game for points like I did when I was a child. So, I ended up downloading the save from GameFaqs.com to open up all unlockable games.

And some games controls worked but I swear some were janky and some really didn't respond well to the PSP's nub stick.

Games like "Adventure" or "Haunted House" worked well with the nub-stick but games like "Home Run", using the buttons not the directional pad or nub-stick (even though you're supposed to be allowed to do) to control my characters really sucked. So, I had some control issues with some of the unlockable Atari games but even the main games such as pong, I just found it difficult to use the PSP's controls and I was easily getting frustrated.

Because of that, I can't see too many people beating the main games to complete the awards to unlock all the Atari 2600 games. Some of the games are not as easy to play on the PSP as I would of hoped.

A lot of games that I enjoyed back then are not on this collection. Some are understandable like Pac Man is a Namco game, Pitfall is an Activision Game and Defender is a Williams game. But I recall doing some Olympic sporting style events on the Atari 2600. But I suppose they may have been 3rd party games.

This collection is pretty much self-explanatory. Do you crave for old school Atari 2600 games? Do you crave of the days of sitting for hours trying to get the highest score on a game? Are you that patient? And do you care to even play some Atari 2600 oldies at this time?

I think those who are nostalgic for those old school years of playing the Atari 2600 will get into it, for me, I was into it but at the same time, either I was lazy or just too busy to want to play these games for scores and for long consecutive hours. It worked in my younger years but not now. I seem to have lost the patience.

But still, for the price you can find this game online these days, and the fact that you get the big hits in their original and evolved designs are very cool. And the fact that you can unlock over 50 games after you accomplish the awards for the main games is a nice touch.

So, a low price for over 70 Atari 2600 games is pretty cool! But it all depends if you care for Atari 2600 old school games or not.

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This is a mediocre collection of many good games, hampered by numerous interface and design problems:

The "evolved" games use the same ugly graphics as the XBOX 360 arcade ports. That's well and good, but I really expected better treatment of the "classic" games, since we've seen good collections from Namco and Capcom. For both the "classic" and "evolved" versions, of the arcade games, the graphics are letterboxed so the once-beautiful vector lines are rasterized and almost as ugly as the GameBoy Advance collection of Atari games. The PSP is capable of so much more.

Compared to the Atari Anthology collection on PS2 and XBOX a few years ago, there are multiple games missing, such as Space Duel and Red Baron. However, there are multiple ways to play Pong on this disc.

The vertical games (Tempest, Centipede, Millipede) are vertical ONLY, requiring you to rotate the PSP in an awkward position like the *optional* modes in some other PSP games. Even in this orientation, they still don't scale up to fill the whole screen like the Namco Museum Battle Collection did so many years ago.

One of the major points of interest for me is that there are over 50 Atari 2600 VCS games on the disc. There are some good Atari properties missing (Star Raiders, Secret Quest, and Solaris are sadly absent, for example). That's not a big surprise, but the disappointing part about this feature is that the player must "unlock" these old games -- all at once -- by laboriously getting EVERY award from EVERY arcade game, 44 in all. I suspect that any arcade fan with that level of skill or interest would already have these games in another format by now.

Considering Atari's financial state, I worry that this could be the last major retro release from the company. It's a shame, because the company has released vastly superior products in the past, namely:

- The Atari Flashback 2 plug-and-play console, with 40+ new and old games with authentic controls;

- The Atari Anthology collection for Playstation 2 and XBOX, with more arcade games, better graphics, a more reasonable unlocking scheme, and 1080i resolution on the XBOX (and XBOX 360 compatible) version.

I suggest passing on this retro collection in favor of the better packages out there: Capcom, Namco, Taito, and Activision have all done a better job on the PSP, in my humble opinion. This one is for completists only.

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This has a nice concept but playing it on the PSP is very difficult, the faster games especially are very hard to control. Still has fun games just harder to control.

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I was very excited to hear this was being released for the PSP and I have not been disappointed. As someone who played many of these games in the arcades in the 80s this collection brings back fond memories of wasting too many quarters just to get my initials on the "High Scores" list. Younger gamers who do not have the nostalgia factor might find the games to be boring, but I am glad to have the collection. Certainly the controls will take getting used to as these games had joysticks and trackballs in their original version, but Atari did a good job of adapting them to the PSP. I like having games on the PSP that I can pick up and play a few minutes at a time, and this is perfect for that (though there are also times I play it for hours on end as well). It is a challenge to unlock the bonus Atari 2600 games, but that is the fun. If they were easy to unlock, why bother locking them to begin with?

Overall this is one of the better "Retro" collections I have found.

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ok admittedly, not all of the titles that you can unlock are worth the effort but Some really are, I will come back to this.

the game is well made with both clasic and evolved versions of each game of the 11 starting titles you must go through them all unlocking EVERY award to get to the 50 classics. but that is what makes this game worth playing and a reward worth going after.

list of the starting titles.

Asteroids

Asteroids deluxe

Battlezone

Centipede

Lunar Lander

Millipede

Missile Command

Pong

Super breakout

Tempest

Warlords

a good list to be sure and with 44 rewards to unlock you have your work cut out for you.

Once you manage to collect 44 awards, you'll unlock the virtual Atari 2600 console where you'll get your hands on tons of classic, old-school games such as Crystal Castle, Night Driver, Yar's Revenge, and Canyon Bomber, to name a few. Many are entirely forgettable, but its still fun to try them all out even if you only spend a few minutes with each one.

Graphics: Loved the redone look and still Love retro asteroids and deluxe. 5 Stars

Sound: 4 stars on the remakes but 5 stars on the retros.

Overall: although it's annoying having to turn the psp sideways to play a few of the games it's still a great collection and worthy of ownership just for having the handheld portability of these greats and I have to say the redone lunar lander is excellent to relax to in the evenings or perhaps I am too much a retro fan who knows but I can say this, Buy this collection if you are an atari fan like me (and own the ps2 atari Anthology) then you will really want this!

5 Stars!!!

Buy it here!

Atari Classics Evolved

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I bought this game to play the 2600 classics. That's really the only reason I bought it. I think their reskins of the classics are bad. To make matters worse, they make you play them in ridiculous amounts to unlock the 2600 classic games, which is probably why everyone is buying this to begin with. I had to go through the dicey process of downloading the one and only save game where someone had gone through the nightmare of unlocking the 2600 games. So if you buy this, go to GameFaqs and download the save game where someone did all the tedious work for you.

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Very fun to play. Love the classic asteroids. Didn't realize how much I missed playing some of these old games. Some of the games get taking used to since you have to turn the PSP up and down. So you use the arrows to move, but have to use the X to shoot. ie. centipede and millipede.

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The Atari classics evolved is a good product, is good remenber anything games of atari.

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I think this game is most enjoyed by people who appreciate classic Atari games. You get 11 games to start and have to unlock 50 more. The evolved versions play exactly the same way but with beefed up graphics. There are 2 drawbacks to this game: 1. The play control for roller ball/paddle games is sub-par with the psp controls.(pong, centipede, etc) 2. Its entirely too difficult to unlock all 50 games. They should have made it where you gradually unlock the games. Other than that, its a fun game and I recommend it for the price.

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I was really undecided on this product but am very happy with this purchase now. While it's true most people won't be able to unlock the 2600 games in this UMD, the 11 arcade classics are fun, well done and worth the price. Some of the evolved classics actually provide improved game play and are more than just a graphics update. All that being said, as with most classic video game collections the PSP controls are not a perfect match to the original games, but many other PSP games the also suffer from controls that are less than ideal so...... that's just part of having a PSP. Four stars until Atari "wakes up" and provides a cheat for all owners to unlock the extra 2600 games (if that ever happens then 5 stars for this product).

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I Gave this Game 4 stars because The controls are awkward with Centipede, Millipede, Pong and Breakout. It's hard to zero in on a position. I found that to be the case with Missile Command as well. However, I must say, Asteriods and Asteriods Deluxe Rock and I'll tell you why. This is the only emulation of Asteriods I have ever found to have that rapid fire you remember from the arcade when you hit rocks. Further more the X button is fire and the O button is thrust much like the positioning of the original arcade buttons. Other emulations have you press up for thrust, and that changes the gameplay considerably. The Asteriods games here are better even than the PC version of Atari's Anniversary edition soley because of the respose of the fire button. I found Warlords very enjoyable and quite satisfing. Lunar lander is fun too. As for Tempest, Centipede, Breakout, Millipede you have to turn your PSP longways to play. Furthermore, if your hoping for Tempest 2000 it's not here. The enhancements have a nice touch to old style gamplay.

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For those people who grew up with the classic Atari games of Asteroids and Centipede, this one has it all and then some. There are also updated versions of the classic games, but I personally think nothing really beats the simple game versions of those days gone by.

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