making the best even better
Written: Aug 26 '00 (Updated Sep 06 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: better controllers, sleek design, more powerful than the 2600, and has backwards compatibility with 2600 games
Cons: got beat out by the NES and the Sega MS
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| zhouse's Full Review: Atari 7800 |
In the fall of 1987, my father purchased the “new and improved” Atari 7800 game system to replace the Atari 2600 that finally gave out earlier that year.
I remember my family and I going to Toys-R-Us to buy my sister and I a Nintendo Entertainment System for acing our math tests. And as we searched the video game section, my dad noticed the display for this new Atari system. Better technology, allowing for better graphics and sound for its games. Newly designed controllers designed for either left or right-handed game players. A new, sleek console with a metallic trim gave it a futuristic look, instead of the 2600’s classic wooden trim. It also came with the arcade classic "Pole Position," a car racing game that gave hundreds of hours of fun. And its price was lower than that of the NES at the time ($130 bucks, I think. I'm not completely sure). So my dad bought this for the 7800 and one 7800 game: "Centipede."
Wow, the games for the 7800 were a big step above the old 2600 games of old. The games had a little more detail to them. A wider range of color and control was present. Memory technology improved, so each cartridge could handle bigger amounts of data, which translated into graphics that was better than the graphics present in the 2600 games. I ended up buying these games for the 7800:
Centipede
Food Fight
Robotron
Xevious
My favorite out of the whole bunch was Food Fight. I reached 150+ levels on this game. The levels don't go beyond a certain point, but I can't remember which level that would be.
The best thing about the Atari 2600 above all else in this: it could play old 2600 games!!! This “backward compatibility” feature is something I wish Nintendo placed on their game systems. I could still play Space Invaders or Pac-Man if I wanted to. Defender was something I could beat again and again. I could even play Berzerk for hours at a time like I did when my 2600 still worked. My old game library, which took my father years to build up, was still good to use.
The Atari 7800 lasted for a few short years, but unfortunately the presence of the NES and the Sega Master System (two game systems that held dominance in the video game market at this time) caused the Atari 7800 lots of problems. This made 7800 games harder to find, and eventually led the Atari 7800 into video game oblivion only a few short years into its gaming existence. It's really a shame because the 7800's games were truly classics in their own right.
The shortage of games also prompted my sister and I to get the two other video game systems that were so popular at the time: either the NES of the Sega Master System. Unfortunately, my sister won out and we then bought the Sega Master System before the NES........
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
zhouse
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Member: Manny Z.
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 57 members
About Me:
Is everyone I know gone?
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