Atari 7800 Review
Atari 7800 by Atari Corp.
YOR: 1986
I've decided to do a system review of the 7800, since it seems like
almost no one on the net has much info. on it. This is basically my opinion.
The Atari 7800 was Atari's third console based system. Atari spent
most of '83 interviewing people on what they wanted in a game system, and
the 7800 was it. It was ready by 1984 for release, but your friends and mine
the Tramiels thought video games were dead at the time, and held it back
until '86. Yet another brilliant marketing tactic by the Tramiels...
The 7800 has a sleek design. It's much smaller than I thought it was
from the pictures, almost the size of the 2600, but a little smaller(not the
2600jr., which it smaller than the 7800). It's lightweight as well. It has
two joystick ports on the front, with two difficulty switches between those,
for 2600 games(more on this later). On the top it has four small buttons,
power, pause, select, and restart. Pause only works on 7800 games.
If you didn't know by now, it's fully backwards compatable with all 2600
games. Some say a couple games don't work on it, such as Time Pilot, but it
works fine on mine, so I guess it doesn't work on certain models of the 7800
or something. You can use the 2600 or the 7800 joysticks on them, (I prefer
the 7800's).
The joysticks are the Pro-line sticks, which are very solid and durable
sticks. They seem to be based on the 5200's joystick design, except the
sticks center, and there's two action buttons, one on each side(which function as one on 2600 games), and there's no number pad, or other buttons. These
are pretty cool joysticks though.
As for it's graphics/sound capabilites, it's hard for me to say right
now until I get more games(I only have Pole Position 2 and Asteroids). From
what I've seen, they are more impressive than the NES', as I haven't seen
a hint of slowdown or flicker anywhere, and there's more on-screen color
as well(especially in Asteroids). The sound seems better from what I've heard
as well, it seems more realistic than NES'.
If you ever can, I'd suggest getting one. It seems quite rare when
someone sells their collection. I'd suggest getting one from B&C
Computervisions, where I got mine. It was only $50 for the system(recon.),
2 joysticks, power supply, switch box, and Pole Position 2. Much better
deal than Telegames' $129.99 offer, although you get a new one, and choice
of two games, I think, so go for whatever you feel is better, but just get
one! It's worth it!
By Adam Pratt