Games vary widely in playability, quality

Kirk Baird

Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2004 | 9:36 a.m.

Looking for a quick and affordable holiday gift for a classic gamer? (Or, really, anyone who wasted hours of their youth in an arcade or playing now-classic game systems from Atari, Nintendo and even Sega Genesis?)

The plug-and-play games are an easy video-game fix to anyone craving to play the classics.

While the games are simple to set up and play install two or three AA batteries (in most cases), and plug a standard RCA audio-video cord into a TV or VCR not all the units are created alike.

Here's a rundown of the options, from best to worst, of 10 popular plug-and-play games.

This plug-and-play game, which features games from the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), is the best of the lot and, ironically, the most difficult to come by.

Made in China, the Power Player is not licensed by Nintendo at least, not when it comes to sales in North America. Consequently, the Power Player isn't readily available in retail stores I bought mine at a swap meet. But for true fans of classic games, the Power Player is tough to beat.

Featuring more than 100 titles, most of them renamed in several ways to expand the games' list to the thousands, the ports of the NES titles are nearly perfect in most cases. There's also an abundance of choices, ranging from sports to near-perfect arcade translations for which the NES became known. It's also fun to guess what the games are based on their titles: Space ET for Space Invaders, Monkey 2 for Donkey Kong Jr., Milk and Nuts for ... well, Milk and Nuts.

The games are housed in a converted Nintendo 64 controller with the 360-degree center joystick glued in place and a slot underneath, presumably for playing NES cartridges. There's also the "Power Gun," which is the light gun used in such games as Hogan's Alley and Duck Hunt, as well as an additional Sega Genesis controller for competitive play.

Overall: This is the best plug-and-play TV game I've played. Maybe Nintendo will take notice and release its own version. Or, better yet, license this plug and play instead.

Atari Paddle 13-in-1 -- Includes: Video Olympics, Casino, Night Driver, Canyon Bomber, Street Racer, Breakout, Super Breakout, Warlords, Arcade Warlords, Pong, Circus Atari, Steeple Chase and Demons to Diamonds. Battery powered. Cost: $19.99, single controller; $29.99, dual controller.

Perhaps realizing a joystick doesn't work well for all games, Jakks Pacific released a plug-and-play game in an Atari 2600 paddle controller. The result is near-flawless control of paddle-based games such as Pong and Warlords. The games themselves -- namely from the Atari 2600 with two arcade versions added -- are near-perfect ports of the originals. Almost all of the titles hold up to repeat plays, except for Steeplechase (impossibly difficult) and Demons to Diamonds (a boring dud).

While the Atari Paddle Controller comes in a single-player version, the two-player controller set is much more fun. It's one thing to beat the computer in Pong; it's another to beat a friend -- repeatedly.

Overall: A top-notch effort with fun classic games made more enjoyable with precise paddle controllers.

Arcade Legends: Genesis -- Includes: Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, Kid Chameleon, Altered Beast, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Flicky. Battery powered. Cost: $19.99.

While popular in its own right, the Sega Genesis was ultimately overshadowed by the Super Nintendo. It's nice to see some of the games for that system in a plug-and-play device. From memory, the games appear to be near-exact duplicates of the originals.

They're also still fun to play, especially Sonic, Golden Axe, Kid Chameleon and Altered Beast. Dr. Robotnik, though, is really nothing more than a knock-off of Tetris, and not nearly as enjoyable.

The controller works well with the games, too, which isn't a surprise considering it was modeled after the original controller. I also appreciated the fact that the plug and play's power unit was designed to look like a mini Sega Genesis console.

Overall: For anyone who owned a Sega Genesis, this plug and play is a welcome flashback.

Namco TV Games -- Includes: Pac-Man, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Rally X and Bosconian. Battery powered. Cost: $19.99.

As with most of the arcade-themed plug-and-plays, the Namco is essentially a joystick mounted on a box. While I had my reservations about how well the four-way joystick would respond in the games, it did quite well -- especially for Pac-Man, where one wrong move in the maze usually results in quick death.

With the exceptions of reconfiguring the vertical games to match the horizontal TV screen and some other minor graphical changes, the games seemed close visual replicas of their arcade counterparts.

The games' sound effects, though, came up short. I found it most aggravating in Galaxian, where the constant deep hum of the space bugs is noticeably absent, creating distracting moments of quiet in the game.

I also missed the voice in Bosconian telling me to "Blast Off!" at the beginning of the game. But that's a bit picky.

I also didn't like having to hit the reset button and sit through the title screen every time I wanted to switch games. And I would have appreciated the inclusion of a pause button as well.

Overall: For the price you can't go wrong. But true aficionados of these games may miss some of the subtleties.

Atari Flashback -- Includes: Adventure, Air-Sea Battle, Battlezone, Breakout, Canyon Bomber, Crystal Castles, Gravitar, Haunted House, Millipede, Saboteur, Sky Diver, Solaris, Sprintmaster, Warlords, Yars' Revenge from the 2600; Asteroids, Centipede, Desert Falcon, Charley Chuck's Food Fight and Planet Smashers from the 7800. AC Adaptor. Cost: $40.

Before I ever played the Atari Flashback I was disappointed. While the size of the box seems to indicate a game system similar in size to the original 7800 after which it's modeled, in fact the Atari Flashback is only slightly larger than the other plug-and-play games. The joystick controllers for the Flashback are small enough to fit in most anyone's hands, which can be good or bad depending on the person.

The games, though, seem to be better ports than those used in the Atari Joystick plug and play. Other than some game play problems with the classic 2600 title Yars' Revenge, there are no noticeable glitches in either graphics or sounds.

The controls work well enough for the joystick-oriented games, but I grew frustrated with having to walk up to the game console to hit the reset button every time I wanted to switch games.

Still, I appreciated the fact two controllers were included for competitive play. (A word of caution: While the joystick ports appear identical to the ports on the original 2600 and 7800 systems, the "classic" controllers will not work with the new system.)

Overall: At $40 the Atari Flashback is a bit pricey for the product; although, the games seem to play better on the system than most of the other plug and plays.

Activision 10-in-1 -- Includes: Crackpots, Atlantis, Pitfall!, Grand Prix, River Raid, Tennis, Spider Fighter, Ice Hockey, Boxing, Freeway. Battery powered. Cost: $19.95.

The Activision 10-in-1 features a single controller with both a button on the base of the unit as well as on top of the joystick. The controller is quite responsive and handles well.

Most of the games are generally faithful reproductions of their original 2600 counterparts, with the exception of Pitfall!, where there were slight graphical variations.

But considering the amount of quality games Activision released to the 2600, I question some of the choices for this plug and play. Freeway, for example, a video-game version of the old joke about the chicken crossing the road, was boring midway through my first game.

And Boxing was never one of Activision's more popular games, either. Where's Kaboom!? Where's Keystone Kapers? Where's Megamania?

Overall: Anyone who had a moderate collection of 2600 games was certain to have an Activision title. The games were that good and that popular. Unfortunately, most of the games on this plug-and-play unit fall into neither category.

Arcade Legends: Space Invaders -- Includes: Space Invaders, Phoenix, Lunar Rescue, Qix and Colony 7. Battery powered. Cost: $25.99.

First off, the version of Space Invaders on this plug and play is taken from the NES cartridge from the late '80s and not the original arcade game.

After that, though, I found the arcade reproductions to be fairly accurate, especially in the case of Phoenix and Qix, two near-forgotten arcade favorites. Lunar Rescue and Colony 7, however, were never classics, and for good reason.

The Arcade Legends plug-and-play unit is wider and sturdier than most other units and also features dual buttons on both sides of the joysticks to the benefit of left- and right-handed gamers. The joystick is very responsive.

Mashing the buttons during a heated battle can grow tiring quickly; however, it's easy enough to switch hands and give an overworked thumb a break.

Overall: For the price, Arcade Legends is short on pluses. There's no reason why the arcade version of Space Invaders, which remains the best version, could not have been included with this package. Still, having great versions of Phoenix and Qix makes this plug and play worth it for fans of classic games.

Atari 10-in-1 -- Includes: Adventure, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Circus Atari, Gravitar, Missile Command, Pong, Volleyball, Yars' Revenge. Battery powered. Cost: $19.99.

The simulated Atari 2600 joystick works fairly well, but many of the games don't seem to be exact. Many sound effects are missing -- or aren't properly emulated -- and there are the occasional graphical glitches, especially in Adventure.

But Yars' Revenge, Gravitar, Missile Command and even Volleyball play well and work well with the joystick. But I wonder why games such as Pong, Breakout and Circus Atari -- that were originally designed to play with paddle controllers -- were included in this selection. As I learned quickly, using a joystick for these games is not an adequate substitute.

Overall: Again, for $19, having Missile Command, Yar's Revenge, Gravitar and even Volleyball isn't bad. But the graphical glitches in the other games should have been resolved.

And why were paddle-controlled games released on a joystick controller?

Ms. Pac-Man TV Games -- Includes: Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Mappy, Xevious, Pole Position. Battery powered. Cost: $19.99.

After playing the first Namco plug and play, I had high hopes for Namco II. But just as with movie sequels, the original is still the best.

The biggest problem with Namco II is the joystick. Playing Ms. Pac-Man is a challenge. The four-way stick never seems to respond to the proper movement.

The controller works best, strangely enough, with the racing game Pole Position. In an ingenious substitution, the round knob on top of the joystick twists to the left or right to steer to the car.

While I missed being able to frantically spin the steering wheel of the arcade game to avoid crashing in hairpin curves, the twist knob works very well when once you get used to it.

Also, Galaga, just as with its predecessor, Galaxian, on the first Namco plug-and-play, is missing some of the sound effects. Plus, the graphics seem vaguely different from the original.

Overall: Ms. Pac-Man is virtually unplayable due to the unresponsive controller, which is a shame since it's the most popular game in this package. Otherwise, the games seem closer to their arcade counterparts than the first Namco plug and play.

Arcade Advanced Konami Collector's Series -- Includes: Frogger, Time Pilot, Gyruss, Rush'n Attack, Yie Ar Kung-Fu. Battery powered. Cost: $15.99.

The multi-directional controller works well with Frogger, and the two buttons on the controller are spaced far enough apart to make dual firing and bombing (as with Scramble) easy enough. The problem is these aren't close to being arcade-perfect ports.

For example: The memorable peppy background music in the original Frogger is noticeably absent in this version. And the game play in Gyruss has been radically altered. Perhaps that's because this version of Gyruss was released as a cartridge for the NES in the late '80s, as I later discovered.

I get the feeling the other games are actually ports from other systems as well. It's not that they're bad games, mind you, it's just that I prefer the original whenever possible.

Overall: The Arcade Advanced Konami Collector's Series plug-and-play is fairly entertaining and the controls work well enough.

It's also a cheaper alternative to most other plug-and-play games -- provided you don't care that these games aren't close to being perfect arcade translations.

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