Atari Flashback 2+ Plug-in-Play

Nice collection of games the way we started many, many moons ago. Playing these gems tests one patience due to slow loading and lagging game play ( compared to today's games), but this Atari unit is purely a collectors item for those growing up in the era.Overall, nicely compiled into 1 unit without the need of changing game cassettes (!), however even in today's times slightly too slow to load and operate. We'll keep this stashed away for the grand kids one day...

very unhappy with the 2.0 version....luckily I already have the flashback 8 gold

This system is clearly a later version that was re-released without the Activision games. Despite the images and the description, Pitfall and River Raid are NOT included. They were apparently pulled, and Amazon never bothered to update the images. They might change this in the future, but as of THIS writing, the main product image shows a box with Pitfall on the cover. This is not the box I received. It's a shame, as those were two of the games I was most looking forward to playing.I am enjoying playing Haunted House and Combat again, as they were the first games I ever owned for my 2600 when I was a kid. But, other than those, Adventure and a few other classics, the included games just aren't that great. My old 2600 still worked last I checked, so I am probably better off digging it out and hooking it up. Luckily, this was only $35, but for the money you're better off getting one of the joysticks with 10 games. In the end, there are maybe only ten good games on this system.Regarding the hidden games people have reported, they ARE on this system. Typically, I've only heard of Warlords and Super Breakout being on the hidden menu, but Circus Atari is also available on this system. These are paddle games that do not work with the included joystick controllers. Would have been nice for them to include an updated set of paddles OR include hidden games that will work with the joystick.Side note: Other people have mentioned that in order to select a different game, you have to power the system off and then on again. This has proven true. Though that would be the same as the original system, that is kind of annoying.

When I received an e-mail about being able to play some of my favorite Atari games from my childhood, I got very excited and started looking for the cheapest price for an Atari Flashback 2. Amazon had the best price, as usual, and also processed and shipped the order fast. :)The selection of games on this system is really small and includes a lot of titles I've never played before. There was no Frogger or any other famous games. The most famous games included are Pitfall and Asteroid, which are actually not very exciting and get pretty boring fast! Now that I'm reading reviews, it's amazing how many people buy this product and are disappointed at how easily we were all entertained back then.The unit also flashed multiple colors on the screen in a very fast strobe effect. I made sure it was switched to color and read all of the support pages. However, I could not fix it and some of the games (like Asteroid) were comletely unplayable. Only some colors would show oup on the screen, and others would strobe so fast they gave me a headache and made my eyes hurt. Pong was really the only game that was playable with the strobing.I contacted Amazon about the problem and they did an RMA and sent me another unit. I plugged in the second unit and was extremely disappointed to find out it did the same thing. Instead of going through the hassle of returning it again, I'm just eating the price. Now it will just be a "model" that sits on the desk and looks like the old Atari game.This system has very little appeal in its games and has major problems with the graphics. You would think after so many years (decades even) that making this technology work would be so much easier. However, it looks like making the tech work and harboring the fun that it used to be is an impossible task for Atari. This product is completely useless and I stongly recommened you resist the urge to buy the Atari Flaskback 2 for sentimental reasons.

Anyone expecting an Atari 2600 greatest hits package based on the retro, faux-woodgrain design will be disappointed. Most of the 40 games are prototypes or homebrews, with only a few Atari 2600 arcade classics included for nostalgia value, Battlezone, Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command, Pitfall, River Raid, Breakout, and Warlords. And these common Atari titles are all absent: Berzerk, Defender, Donkey Kong, Galaxian, Gravitar, Joust, Kaboom, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, and Space Invaders. The Flashback 2 does have many obscure Atari 2600 titles though, some good ones (Off the Wall, a pachinko-styled Breakout, Quadrun, play catch with yourself to defeat the enemy, and Saboteur, don't shoot the friendly yellow birds) and some not so good ones (Wizard, a helpless man protected only by a slow-firing pistol gets hunted-down by a ruthless, giant starfish, boringly easy the first six levels if you evade in a predictable clockwise path then very difficult the seventh level).Several of the games are not worth playing due to design flaws. Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe both look different than their originals. For instance, the asteroids were fully colored in the original 2600 but have been rendered with just outlines, attempting to look more like the vector-graphics arcade version. The Asteroids Deluxe asteroids and spaceship haphazardly jitter about the screen like they've had too much coffee and there's some screen roll at times, both of which compromise the gameplay. The screen flicker is extremely bad on a few games including Lunar Lander. In the Caverns of Mars, the entire cavern flickers so most of the screen is constantly flickering or pulsing, which can't be too good for the TV set or person playing it (epilepsy alert).The instruction manual is very minimal with only a paragraph of text for each game. The complete Atari instructions for the Flashback 2 games is available online, but Atari should have included them in a booklet format, especially since it doesn't have the game selection pop-up screens that were included for Atari's 80 Classic Games In One PC game.The Flashback 2 system is easy to hook-up to a TV set, and after playing Atari games on my computer, I look forward to playing them 1) with a joystick rather than keyboard keys, and 2) without computer lag problems. However, the buttons on the Flashback 2 have their share of design flaws. You have to press Power twice to return to the main menu from a game screen. Many games require that you hit the Reset button, rather than the joystick fire button, to play another game. That's precious time wasted when you're itching for a rematch.On the original Atari 2600 woodgrain system, the Difficulty "buttons" were actual levers that you manually adjusted up or down (for difficulty A or B). On the Flashback 2, they are buttons, not levers, so it's not easy to tell whether they're set to difficulty A or B. You have to wait and see what happens in the gameplay to figure this out. For instance, UFOs appear in Asteroids for only difficulty A. If you don't see any UFOs while playing Asteroids, the difficulty is set to B, so just press the button for your player to change it to A. For many other games, it's not so readily easy to tell whether it's set to A or B though I think the default is B.You can use original 2600 Atari joysticks with this system, and the original Atari 2600 paddles are required for the two bonus games, Breakout and Warlords, which can be accessed on the first screen by moving the joystick up 1, down 9, up 7, then down 2 (1972).I probably prefer the Atari games available on my computer disc and online, but the Flashback 2 is a good addition to my Atari collection, though it definitely can't replace the original Atari 2600 woodgrain since the Flashback 2 doesn't have many of the classic 2600 games and does have some annoying design flaws. It's great to be able to play Centipede and Pitfall on the TV like back in the 80s though, and the Flashback 2 may appeal to anyone looking for some retro videogaming action in a newer package without the thrift-store wear and tear or inflated Ebay prices.(also: the Flashback 2 I ordered 'new' from Amazon may have been a return or refurbished because none of the components were stored in factory seal and the instruction manual had some creases.)