Hobbies And Interests
Midway Arcade Treasures 1 and 2
The first Midway collection of about 20 arcade classics includes a few titles originally released for the Atari 2600--including Joust and Robotron. This GameCube release also includes games such as Smash TV, Spy Hunter and Toobin' that were hits on succeeding game systems. Midway followed up with another collection of 20 classics originally released for a number of systems--including Wizard of Wor, one of the most popular Atari 2600 titles of its time.
Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary
This GameBoy release doesn't mark the 50th anniversary of Namco video games but of the company's first toy production. The title includes a number of Atari 2600 and arcade hits such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug and Pole Position. The collection ups the challenge by giving players a limited number of credits, increasing the degree of difficulty common to old-school gaming.
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
This 2005 GameCube title is a spinoff of Pitfall, one of the most-popular Atari 2600 games. In the original, players maneuvered Pitfall Harry over a number of obstacles in search of treasure. The Lost Expedition retains in a modern gaming environment some of the original plot elements and enemies of earlier titles, including Pitfall II for the Atari 2600. Harry can gain new abilities to attack enemies as he finds pages from the Heroic Handbook spread across the jungle. His goal is to rescue a kidnapped archaeologist as well as find the fabled city of gold, El Dorado.
Frogger games
Both Frogger Beyond and Frogger Adventures: The Rescue were released for GameCube. They were sequels more in spirit than in gameplay to the Atari 2600 classic Frogger, which had players controlling frogs as they jumped across busy roads and fast-moving streams. Although the gameplay is still of the hop-and-dodge variety, players in the newer games must complete quests in an adventure setting and have new abilities such as a super-hop that allows frogs to jump over large gaps.
Virtual Console
Although direct Atari 2600 ports have not been released to Nintendo's Wii download service, several updated games from the legacy console are available on the Virtual Console. The NES versions of Dig Dug, Donkey Kong and Galaga are available--all of which appeared for the Atari 2600.