I grew up on Atari. Now I live my childhood on Gamestation Go

On Christmas Day 1982, I unwrapped my first video game console, an Atari 2600. Even though it had been released in 1977, it was new to me, and I’m pretty sure the reason my parents bought it for me was because the 2600 game had been released around that time: ET: The Extra-Terrestrial. My parents knew I was obsessed with the film, a transformative film that I almost missed because I was too afraid to watch it.

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I was seven years old and I was high. With my huge brown glasses on my nose, and wearing a red t-shirt, I had one of the best Christmases ever. Although I loved the movie, I didn’t progress far in the game, which left me frustrated and confused. I had no idea it wasn’t because I was unskilled, but because it was bad. Even today, people find the game Too complex and impenetrable to play.

(How bad could it be? Copies of the game were verbatim Buried for decades Because it sold very poorly.)

The Atari 2600 comes with Combat and two controllers. I played it for years, and started to become a dedicated gamer like millions of other kids at that age. If you had asked me a few months ago how many games I remembered from the 2600 or its successors, the Atari 5200 and 7800, I would have had a hard time answering. I could name at most a dozen titles.

So, when Atari lent me its Gamestation Go portable gaming console to try out, I was shocked to find dozens of games quickly coming back to me. The moment I saw their cover art, animated screenshots, or just their titles, the memories came rushing back. I’ve played a lot of these.

And the games I couldn’t own or try, I would crave them, pointing them out in the store or flipping through any gaming magazines I could get my hands on.

Asteroids, Berserk, Centipede, Night Driver, Yar’s Revenge – there are so many.

Old games, new console

Gamestation Go, which retails for $179, brings together about 200 of these Atari home console games. But it also includes versions of arcade games, including Crystal Castles, Food Fight and Tempest, as well as the seven Balls of Steel pinball tables, Classic and 2600 versions of Pac-Man, and games from Jaleco and Piko Interactive like Bases Loaded and Bad Street Brawler. Many games can be enjoyed in multiplayer mode by connecting a game console.

It’s a wide-ranging collection of games, and Atari packs them into a great hardware setup with a larger screen than the original Nintendo Switch.

There are no detachable controllers like on the Switch, but the crazy array of controller options makes up for that: the usual D-pad and shoulder buttons, but also a dial you can turn (good for games like Breakout), a trackball wheel (for games like Centipede and Crystal Castles) and even a physical number pad, handy for some Atari 5200 games and if Mattel’s Intellivision titles are added.

It features an HDMI port, three USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a micro-SD slot for side-loading additional games. A solid but flimsy kickstand can support the system. An additional set of small buttons gives you settings, credit, selection and start. Instructions for using the game system, such as navigating in and out of titles, are clear and available from the main menu.

You can perform system updates over the built-in Wi-Fi, but there’s no app store to buy or download additional games.

Retro vs modern

The biggest challenge I faced during my time with Gamestation Go was making time for games from bygone eras, and ignoring the siren call of modern games on modern consoles and PCs.

Did I really want to blast an endless string of centipedes or play extremely slow tennis when I could finish the second chapter of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or jump into a Marvel Rivals match with my friends?

Some of the gameplay of older Atari games, and a few of their remastered remakes, still hold up incredibly well. Missile Command still gets your pulse racing no matter which version you try, and it’s fun to control with the included trackball, even if its marble size makes it difficult to use with the same precision as the larger ball you might remember from the arcade.

The Balls of Steel pinball tables look great and play great, even if viewing them on a horizontal screen can be a challenge to play. Storming with dial or trackball controls is still twisted fun. I found myself particularly drawn to arcade games that I either completely missed, like Cisco Heat All American, or that I remember dropping a lot, like Asteroids.

Missing at work? ET, the game that started it all for me. But there’s Steeplechase, with its kind of horse-like animation, and… Ninja golfWhich is as strange as it sounds.

Involvement with ET

I’m not a big emulation player, although I was curious about the possibilities of it Home hallway cabinets Which allows you to add many more games than those that come standard.

The Gamestation Go makes it easy to access old games, provided you have access to ROM files and a microSD card to store them. The process involves creating a set of folders to store files and then booting from the microSD card when the Gamestation starts up.

In my testing, the Gamestation handled Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 games like a champ. However, online reports vary on how well it reproduces games from more advanced consoles, such as the original Sony PlayStation or Sega Dreamcast.

There is some controversy surrounding ROMs, digital copies of gaming software. Most ROMs are copies of games that are still under copyright, meaning the original creators, such as Nintendo or Sega, legally own them. Downloading or distributing ROMs without permission is illegal in many countries, even if you own the original game. However, some ROMS have been available on Internet ArchiveThere is no shortage of sites that collect files and descriptions for games across many gaming consoles.

Atari offers this ability to play ROMs in hopes that you will find legal means to purchase ROMs or use only ROMs from games in which you already own a cartridge of a digitally purchased version.

For the sole purpose of finding out if ET was what I remembered as a young boy, I found a copy of the game after trying unsuccessfully to find a way to purchase it as a digital file or even a physical copy with an included ROM.

ET’s image appears on the title screen as a chiptune version of John Williams’ theme. When I started it, I got goosebumps.

But that tingling feeling disappeared almost immediately when the match started. I immediately fell into a swamp. I tried to chase down the little dots that were supposed to represent Reese’s Pieces candy, but I was attacked again and again by FBI agents and scientists. I went down into the swamp. Over and over again. Soon I was dead, my strange body turning white to indicate the loss of life. The frustration I felt at the time is now mixed with an adult’s annoyance at how poorly the game is designed. How dare they rush this game to tempt parents of kids like me in the 80s? Who thought this could be fun?

After a few more annoyed minutes, I shut down the game. There’s probably a detailed guide online on how to beat ET easily, but I didn’t bother. I’m done with it for a few more decades, at least.

ET for the Atari 2600, like many other things, belongs to the past.

Should you buy Gamestation Go?

As ET proved, not all early matches were good. Many of them were and still are just rubbish. (Sorry, Swordquest.)

But there are plenty of gems packed into Gamestation Go that keep you hooked, even if only for short periods before you tire of the repetition and want to play something from this century.

But what a warm wave of feelings Gamestation Go will give you the first time you boot up and look at that long list of titles, games you may have once wished for and spent weeks trying to master!

Is it worth buying? It really depends on how much nostalgia is worth it to you these days, or whether the kids in your family are curious about retro games and simulators.

My 7 year old who would have been in 8-bit heaven with so many games to play says it would be stupid not to. But I’ve grown to have some reservations.