One of the top free apps in the iTunes store this week is Atari’s Greatest Hits.

“Atari’s Greatest Hits brings the best of retro gaming to iOS with 100 Classic Atari Games. This suite brings you the hottest Arcade and 2600 titles from Atari. For those who love the classic gaming experience this handheld breakthrough is sure to guarantee hours of fun.” – From the Press Release

Atari Inc. has enlisted Code Mystics Inc. to develop this application that works equally well on the iPhone and iPad. As stated it is a free app and comes with a shinny interface and PONG.

You can then select from preset packs of 4 games at .99 or purchase the whole collection of 100 games for $14.99. Many games have been enabled with a bluetooth multiplayer feature.

Both classic Atari arcade machine games as well as the venerable 2600′s game collection are well represented in this app. Here is a run down of the game packs.

Asteroid Pack) 1. Asteroid 2. Asteroid Deluxe 3. Asteroids 2600 4. Canyon Bomber – Bluetooth Multiplayer

Battlezone Pack) 1. Battlezone 2. Red Baron 3. Air-Sea Battle – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 4. Submarine Commander

Centipede Pack) 1. Centipede 2. Millipede 3. Centipede 2600 4. Millipede 2600

Black Widow Pack) 1. Black Widow 2. Space Duel – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 3. Desert Falcon 4. Space War

Crystal Castles Pack) 1. Crystal Castles 2. Crystal Castls 2600 3. Surround – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 4. Maze Craze

Gravitar Pack) 1. Gravitar 2. Gravitar 2600 3. Radar Lock 4. Demons to Diamonds – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Star Raiders Pack) 1. Star Raiders 2. Liberator 3. Star Ship – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 4. Human Cannonball

Missile Command Pack) 1. Missile Command 2. Missile Command 2600 3. Fun with Numbers 4. Flag Capture – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Lunar Lader Pack) 1. Lunar Lander 2. Sky diver – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 3. Video Pinball 4. Code Breaker

Super Breakout Pack) 1. Super Breakout 2. Breakout – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 3. Off – the – Wall 4. Circus Atari – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Tempest Pack) 1. Tempest – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Tempest 2600 – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 3. Outlaw 4. Atari Video Cube

Majar Havoc Pack) 1. Major Havoc 2. Secret Quest 3. Sentinel 4. Yars Revenge – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Warlords Pack) 1. Warlords – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Warlords 2600 3. Combat – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 4. Combat 2 – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Adventure Pack) 1. Adventure 2. Haunted House 3. Return to Haunted House 4. Save Mary

Tic-Tac-Toe Pack) 1. 3d Tic-Tac-Toe 2. A game of concentration 3. Backgammon 4. Brain Games

Fatal Run Pack) 1. Fatal Run 2. Dodge ‘Em 3. Night Driver 4. Street Racer – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Quadrun Pack) 1. Quadrun 2. Slot Racers – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 3. Stellar Track 4. Math Gran Prix

Casino Pack) 1. Casino – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Slot Machine 3. Video Checkers 4. Video Chess

Sword Quest Pack) 1. Swordquest Earthworld 2. Swordquest Fireworld 3. Swordquest Waterworld 4. Sprintmaster

Championship Soccer Pack) 1. Championship Soccer – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Golf 3. Double Dunk 4. Basketball

Football Pack) 1. Football – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Home Run 3. Miniature Golf 4. Bowling

Real Sports Basketball Pack) 1. Realsports Basketball – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Realsports Boxing – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER  3. Realsports Tennis – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 4. Realsports Baseball – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Real Sports Football Pack) 1. Realsports Football – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 2. Realsports Soccer – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 3. Realsports Vollyball – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER 4. Video Olympics – BLUETOOTH MULTIPLAYER

Battlezone Pack) 1. Battlezone 2600 2. Super Breakout 2600 3. Super Baseball 4. Super Football

Hangman Pack) 1. Hangman 2. Black Jack 3. Steeplechase

Sadly many of the iTune’s reviews have been less than stellar with accusations of giving a free app with one game and then trying to sell game packs. Missing mega hits like River Raid and Pitfall. And having poor graphics and controls.

Allow me to say, these reviewers just don’t get it. Of course Atari will try to sell game packs, why in the world would they want to spend good money to develop an app and put 100 proprietary games on it for free?

Missing River Raid and Pitfall? This nincompoop doesn’t realize neither one of those games were owned by Atari. They were Activision titles.

Poor graphics and controls? These games are 25 to 30 years old, they are classics. If you’re expecting a revamped Missile Command or a Hi Res Asteroids you wont find it here my friend. These are the unadulterated originals, at best you’ll find the controls have been modernized to play on the iPhone and iPad. This of course is necessary as there is no 9-pin input to plug an Atari 2600 joystick into one of these devices (yet).

All-in-all, the Atari’s Greatest Hits app is solid, and is recommended for any classic Atari fan who wants to play some retro games on the go.

I visited a huge Arcade Auction in Harrisburg Pennsylvania March 19, 2011.

Das Keyboard sees no need for you to see your keyboard. In fact they’re banking on that. And I’m banking that someone forgot to fill the white ink at the keyboard factory.

Go to: Das Keyboard

With a name like “Mario the Modder” you would expect “Mario” to hack and modify Nintendo systems exclusively, but oh no, “Mario” goes super old school and has created one of the most portable Atari 2600 mods to date. Well its not really an Atari 2600 but the Atari Flashback 2, Legacy Engineering’s 2005 commissioned remake of the classic system.

Well “Mario” took a hack saw to it and threw in a little solder and tada! He has created a very portable Atari 2600 he calls Stella, after the original code name for the 2600. Just take a look at his video and photos.

Portable gaming has been around for quite a while. Mattel, Coleco and Milton Bradly started putting electronic games in our hands in the late 70′s throughout the 80′s and our grubby fingers still can’t get enough.

Some handhelds crashed and burned like the infamous Nokia N-Gage, which was a design abomination, while others set the industry standard like Nintendo’s Game Boy systems.

Even the latest round of handhelds attempt to push the bar further than ever before as is the case with the Nintendo 3DS with its adjustable stereoscopic screen that hits stores March 27th and Sony’s NGP with its powerful quad core processor, accelerometer and gyroscope motion sensing set for an Xmas 2011 release.

Both of those systems will surely fly off the shelves and only time will tell which will be the king of portable gaming. Because as we all know there is nothing better than playing the latest Mario game or Sony exclusive. Or is there?
If only I could play World of Warcraft on the train ride to work, or DC Universe or any of the other MMO games that I have to wait to get to a real computer to play. That soon may be a thing of the past if Razor USA Ltd., the high tech mouse manufacturer has anything to say about it.

In January 2011 at the Consumer Electronics Show, Razer unveiled a prototype slightly larger than a Nintendo DS they call the Razor Switchblade. It promises to bring MMO in a more practical way than any laptop can, with innovative features like its 45 programmable LED screen keys that dynamically change for any game. 3G and Wi-Fi support, USB 3.0, with a multi-touch screen.  Headphone and microphone jacks with a mini-HDMI connector. All powered by an Intel Atom processor that ran a version of Windows 7.

A price point and release date wasn’t given for the Razer Switchblade, but Razer said that they are working with “select partners” to produce products based on the Switchblade prototype design.

The Razor Switchblade wasn’t the only portable MMO gaming system that recently tried to make it to market. Panasonic had big plans for a similar system called the Jungle. It was announce in October 2010 but when word got out that Razer USA Ltd. had a superior system on the drawing board, Panasonic pulled the plug on the Jungle portable MMO system in March 2011.

With any amount of luck we’ll all be playing MMOs on the go.

Well it seems someone back in 1989 working at Commodore Magazine had some vision and foresight.

The cover of the May ’89 issue has what looks to be makings of a future MAME Cabinet.

Who would have guessed if we fast forward a few years from when his picture was taken, there would be thousands of computers inside video game cabinet husks truly bringing the arcades home to us via the multiple arcade machine emulator.

It seems everyone has a “best kept secret” on where to find those elusive NES game titles, replacement controllers for their Turbografx or a new old stock Atari Heavy Sixer. So what’s the deal? Where are they finding all these gems? Well, lets take a look at some of the best ways to stock your retro gaming collection.

1. Most everyone would agree for the rock bottom deals it is always best to start at Goodwills, Thrift Stores and Salvation Army outlets. Why? These are where people go to give away their unwanted stuff. Why don’t they just throw it in the trash? Because these types of places give you receipts for your donations that you can deduct from your taxes. Many a Mom has donated their kid’s old video games only to be snatched up by collectors for as little as $2 or $3 a game. A simple search on Youtube under “video game pick ups” will confirm this. It takes a little digging, and you’ll never know what you’ll find but for the sheer fun of the adventure nothing beats these places.

2. What about those people who are too lazy to bring their stuff to the local Goodwill or don’t care about tax donations? Well, those are the folks that usually have Garage Sales. These sales are usually posted in the local penny saver news papers, posted on bulletin boards at supermarkets are even just flyers taped around the neighborhood. Once again you’ll never know what you’ll find at a garage sale and don’t expect to get super rock bottom deals but you wont have to pay sales tax or shipping and of course haggling is expected.

3. Craigslist.org has become a great source for retro collectors. Many times the people selling are locals and you can meet and inspect the items before paying on the agreed price. Again haggling is possible but many times sellers have a firm price.

4. Online auction houses like GameGavel.com and Ebay have always been strong holds of the retro gaming community. Buying and selling is what they do best. GameGavel specializes in the retro gaming biz with reasonable rates and of course Ebay is a behemoth with a wider audience and higher fees. You’ll almost always expect to pay shipping fees with auction houses.

Hopeful you can use these tips to stock your collection and save some cash in the process. Happy hunting!

We all remember those amazing splash screens we would have to stare at as our faithful 1541 disk drive hammered and sputtered away loading game data. A dedicated team of artists and enthusiasts have created a site to showcase new and old commodore 64 pixel art.
You can scour the site by game, artist, year and even graphical format for you ubergeeks. If your an artist that has the skills to create one of these Pixel-Picassos, you can upload it to the site for all the world to see.
Go to: c64 Pixels

I’ve mentioned Virtual Apple already, but why stop there, Virtual Atari is also available for all your 2600 cravings. With a library of about 550 games you can play on your browser it’s no wonder Virtual Atari is considered best at what they do. Set up instructions are displayed with every game and are very easy to understand.
They also have painstakingly amassed the Atari Manual Tome, a scanning of as many Atari 2600 game manuals as they could find.
Go to: Virtual Atari

Pitfall Harry rides again!

How would you like to play over 1400 Apple II and Apple IIgs games right on your modern computer’s browser in seconds? What? Yep, that’s nearly every Apple II game that was ever produced. The good folks at Virtual Apple have made that possible and it’s all free. You will have to install their plugin but have no fear, the site is spyware free and installation is simple. There is a support BBS if you run into a problem or just want to communicate with other Apple II fans. As if the games weren’t enough there are also original manual scans of classic Apple machines and their peripherals.

Go to: Virtual Apple

Ultima III is just one of the many awesome titles listed.