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RETRORADAR: FLASHBACK STRIKES BACK
THE FULL RANGE
Get up to speed on the details of AtGames’ 2017 product range…
Atari Flashback 8 Gold
PRICE: $79.99
■ 120 built-in games (130 in activision edition)
■ two 2.4Ghz wireless controllers
■ two control ports
■ 720p hDMi output
■ optional scanline filter
■ save/pause/rewind feature for all games
part of a larger strategy of
AtGames in modernising what
we’ve been doing for so long. I think
when Nintendo came out [with the
Nintendo Classic Mini: NES], it was
part of making retro gaming more
mainstream, and in the same way we
as a company decided to move in that
direction as well.
A number of early reviews of the
Sega Genesis Flashback went up,
and they weren’t great. AtGames
put out a statement that the initial
review units were faulty, and that
was down to outdated firmware. Is
that correct?
Correct. It was outdated firmware,
it was a number of mistakes that we
made with that initial batch. Those
units are in no way representative of
what will be going out to retailers at
the end of September.
The two complaints in the reviews
were poor wireless control
response and stuttering. Will both
of those issues be fixed?
Correct, as well as a number of others
– it was a pretty severe rollback in
the firmware. I’ll speak frankly, I don’t
know which reviews you saw, but
some of them were also speaking
about the power switch – that’s not
representative of what we’re putting
out at all, either.
» The roster of Mega Drive games misses a few classics,
but it otherwise surprisingly good.
» [Atari 2600] Darran’s looking forward to taking Dig Dug
everywhere with him! [Ed – no he definitely isn’t!]
Are the non-premium
range consoles – the Atari
Flashback 8 and the Sega Genesis
Classic Game Console – are
they using the same hardware
and emulation that was used in
previous years?
They are. So what we call the value
line, which is the same as previous
years, is all the same emulation and
all the same hardware. The premium
line is, as you’ve surmised, completely
new emulation.
The handheld editions of the
machines for this year both feature
Namco games which aren’t
available on the home models –
why is that?
In addition to Activision we also started
working with Bandai Namco this year.
If what you’re asking is why we have
Pac-Man on the portables but not on
the consoles, just like everything else
it purely comes down to licensing.
You’ll see some of the Namco titles
on other systems, and that doesn’t
mean that we’re never going to have
them, but this year we decided just
the portables would be a good entry
point for this.
» As well as
Sega’s games,
the Sega
Genesis Ultimate
Portable
Game Player
includes Rolling
Thunder 2, Pac-
Panic and other
Namco games.
Atari Flashback Portable
Game Player
PRICE: $59.99
■ 70 built-in games
■ 2.8 inch LCD display
■ sD card slot for additional games
■ tV output via standard definition
composite aV
Sega Genesis Classic Game
Console
PRICE: $59.99
■ 81 built-in games
■ Cartridge port for additional games
■ two wired controllers
■ two control ports
■ standard definition composite aV output
Atari Flashback 8
PRICE: $59.99
■ 105 built-in games
■ two wired controllers
■ two control ports
■ standard definition composite aV output
Sega Genesis Flashback
PRICE: $79.99
■ 85 built-in games
■ Cartridge port for additional games
■ two 2.4Ghz wireless controllers
■ two control ports
■ 720p hDMi output and scanline filter
■ save/pause/rewind feature for all games
Sega Genesis Ultimate Portable
Game Player
PRICE: $59.99
■ 85 built-in games
■ save game support
■ 2.8 inch LCD display
■ sD card slot for additional games
■ tV output via standard definition composite aV
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