Atari Acquires Rights to a Dozen ’80s Stern Arcade Games – SEE THEM ALL!
After speculating on what the additional 10 games might be just one day ago, the full list is now here. Jon runs you through a quick overview of the full set of 12 titles for which Atari has now acquired distribution rights.
The publisher said the deal will allow it to create new games based on its newly-acquired franchises, expand the digital and physical distribution of those classic titles, and explore brand and merchandising collaborations.
Atari CEO Wade Rosen explained the acquisition is part of the company’s broader strategy of “commercializing classic retro IP,” and described top-down shooter Berzerk as a perfect example of the sort of title Atari wants to reinvigorate.
“Berzerk is one of those foundational games that so many people first encountered playing on an Atari console,” added Rosen in a press release.
#atari #stern #berzerk #genxgrownup
Game Informer Article:
GameDeveloper Article:
Time Extension Article (12 Games Revealed):
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✔ S O C I A L
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Pandora Box DX comes with several of these games – Frenzy, Moon War, Dark Planet, Armored Car and Tazz-Mania. Dark Planet game play does SUCK as the background is "black". I downloaded the ROM for BERZERK sometime ago as I really enjoy playing that game. I'll have to look for the other games…especially the DUAL-Joysticks as I have a MAME Cabinet setup to play Dual-Joystick Games — Robotron, Smash TV, Crazy Climber, Crazy Climber 2.
I had no idea about FRENZY…and it being "Berzerk 2.0". Thanks for the tip…I look forward to exploring that game play!
Hopefully the game play for the Dual Joystick games is decent…I'll search for the ROMs and try to add them to my Pandora Box DX – (Lost Tomb (82), Rescue (82), Minefield (83).
Lovin it the Lost Tomb is one of 12 but a little fact is a prototype exists called Spy based on the Lost Tomb engine. It's a James Bond copy in buildings not temples. Look it up!
Berzerk is the most faithful reproduction on the Atari 2600. The characters are somewhat "fatter", and it lacks voice. But it is the virtual twin of the arcade classic.
Nice work!
Great to see Atari going forward this is great news as a retro and gaming enthusiast 👌👌👌
Does Atari expect to make money off of this list? Except for Berzerk, Frenzy, and Atomic Castle this list is CRAP! We're getting 3 good games but the other 9 are pieces of garbage. Thanks for nothing Atari.
👍👍👍❤❤❤/|
A Frenzy/Venture crossover would be fun. Unsure who has Venture IP thesedays.
Dual-stick games on the Atari give me fever-chills.
Anyone else remember the holder you'd sit on your lap that two joysticks would fit into?
Berzerk and Frenzy…..
These games look like they would be fun to play on the VCS.
i guess people just want atari to do aaa games, lol. funny. only the big 3 can do that. last i checked atari needs money to do that.
maybe people should lower there expectations. atari just cameback from the dead. thats why they are doing hotels. once society stop killing itself. hotels will do well.
No Scramble? No Super Cobra?
Some cool games there ! Apart from Berzerk and Frenzy, Lost Tomb, Tazz-Mania, Rescue and Minefield look really cool ! Still would have been sooo cool to have Scramble too… oh well.
Vwry cool! This is mostly new games to me. I have never heard of most of those. That’s very cool indeed! Nice scoop. Thanks!
Atomic Castle was never released – it's very much a prototype. If it sees the light of day it's a great find for a game lost to history.
Well, this is a great development! Maybe the new Atari will get to work on remakes.
As a Laserdisc fanatic, I can't wait to see one of the very last Laserdisc holy grails, Atomic Castle!
Legend had it in the day that Berzerk was the first game that someone died playing (apparent heart attack) and was used to publicize the dangers of video games.
I was a fan of both the original BERZERK and its sequel FRENZY back in the 1980s, so the news that the new Atari has acquired the rights to both BERZERK and FRENZY video games is fantastic news to me. I knew that Atari already had the rights to BERZERK in the 1980s during the original Atari 2600 VCS home video game console run, but they have finally gotten rights to FRENZY just seems to be the right thing to happen.
This is wonderful news! I used to play Berzerk all of the time growing up in the 80's. It was a fun game. I even played E.T. and I'm happy to know I wasn't the ONLY one to find that game incredibly dull & Boring!
Sweet lineup! Some odd games I've never heard of Id still love to play. I hadn't heard the entire list announced yet by Atari so I was happy to see it out, will def be reporting on this too 😉 Keep up the great content my friend
I’ve never heard of the other 10 games 😂
An updated version of Berserk would just be fantastic. Looking forward to seeing what they do with these games.
If atari ever does another 50th anniversary collection i like to see berzerk and frenzy on it.
Coin detected in pocket.
Ok so Atomic Castle got me curious, and aparently "arcade games" started even way back in teh 19040s with Atomic Bomber? Something akin to a military bombmer simulator of sorts among others. An article as wikipedia for "Early history of video games" shed some interesting light on the concept. I didn't realize that style of "game" went back that far, I alwyas assume the 70s was where it started
I'm fessing up – I just realized Tazz-Mania isn't, in fact, a dual-stick shooter. Move with a single stick, and then fire with that same stick if you hold down the fire button. (Plus, there's a sort of "smart bomb" button.) 🕹
Make these games dlc for the Atari 50!
Those games look really cool.
Basically Atari bought the rights to the non import games released by Stern Electronics? stroking beard Interesting…
Atari actually seems to be kind of trying lately
$3!?!?! That would make an Atari Flashback around $430! That is insane. Especially when you compare it to most mobile games that are less than that. Talk about greed.
Atomic Castle would look great with todays 3D rendered graphics!
Would love to see an updated version of Berzerk for the VCS. Still have my Atari 2600 version of Berzerk.
All of those twin-stick shooters look really cool.
Stern just got a new CEO. Looks like he’s a purely profit guy. That doesn’t bode well for customers. They’re gonna start nickel and dime’n their customers. My most recent Stern purchase, Rush Premium, had a slew of problems and issues that Stern has ignored. I was afraid to play it. Sold it and I’ll never buy another Stern.
Have you got a cold? your voice sounds different.
“Coin detected in pocket”
That looks really promising! I wonder what Atari will finally make out of it. 🙂
Want Berzerk FPS, all glowy and neon, like.
Well, there goes my idea of Remaking "Berzerk" into an 3rd person shooting adventure… 😢😢😢
It would appear that Atari wanted Berzerk and Frenzy. The other games were just thrown as part of the deal.
Scramble, Super Cobra and Gradius would be great to see on this list. Some or all of them were developed by Konami but Stern marketed Scramble in America.
Sheesh Atari just couldn't break free from their 80s gaming reputation. It's like their only market is those folks who played those old games in the old days.
No Astro Invader?? Bogus!
Atomic Castle was a game in development and never was released. It was believed that there was one or two prototype cabinets. It was supposed to use two laserdiscs to solve the problem of blank screens while the laserdisc player would seek a frame on the disc. It looked very cool. I would love to see this released.
Minefield planes crashing is exactly like planes crashing in Irem’s Red Alert (arcade, 1981).
Love the classic twin-stick games too but they're tough to play with today's controller's. If you're aware of a controller that makes these games playable that would be awesome! Thanks in advance and for another great classic arcade game video my friend.
The moment you realize Atari is still up
And running.