I haven't got any Atari consoles right now, but I'm definitely planning to at some point. Currently gathering everything going back in time, more or less - latest acquisition a Mega CD. My brother in law has promised me his Atari 2600 he's had since the 80s, but he needs to patch up his relationship with his dad first. Might take a bit...
Still have 130XE and 7800 but rarely play games on original hardware - too lazy to unpack and connect cables.
I've recently gotten into Atari with the 800XL and it's fantastic. The games really hold to a high standard and they're the type that can be played over and over without getting boring. This is coming from someone raised on the Genesis/SNES. I don't have any problems with the game design philosophies of the late 70s-early 80s. The games are fun and very replayable. I'm so glad I got it.
I can't say I really have much interest in the Atari. It's a little bit too primitive for my tastes, both in terms of technology and game design (a lot of games seem to be designed to pick up play for a little while before you put it away again).
I think the OP has slightly missed the point of the forums - whilst it's true that Atariage is THE place to go to talk Atari, ASSEMblergames was primarily for development discussion - and that is, by and large, the focus of the subforums. Who makes Atari games nowadays, be it 2600 or Jaguar? Yeah... THAT'S why there's no subforum. THE Atari? Which of the consoles, handhelds, home micros and arcade machines from their 24 year history do you mean? I completely disagree - there were great games on Jaguar and Lynx, but also on 2600. Don't forget, without Atari, we wouldn't have the games industry today. I think your comment is rather harsh on Atari - they made many groundbreaking arcade games from Pong (1972) to Return of the Jedi (1984).... and then on as Atari Games through til, well 1996, 1998 or 2001 depending on your perspective. 2600 games continued to be made into the early Nineties... that wouldn't have happened if they weren't still popular.
Actually the 2600 has a pretty lively homebrew community, and to a lesser extent the Jaguar does too. I can't say I know of any 5600, 7800 or Lynx homebrewers.
I get the vibe that most people here are only into the Japanese side of things. I want to point out Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout, Asteroids, Star Raiders, Star Wars, Battlezone, Food Fight, not to mention all the home computer exclusives. A game doesn't have to span 8 worlds, have a big cast of characters, and have a schlock story to be fun.
I think the Jaguar put a bad taste in people's mouths for Atari. Like others have said, they were actually very influential. They've certainly had their issues in both software and hardware, but they absolutely have a big spot in video game history.
Hehe, no I don't think I've missed the point of the forums. If you take a quick look at atariage and its forums, you can see there is a surprising amount of recent and ongoing homebrew development of software for the 2600, 7800, jaguar and lynx and even a surprising amount of recent hardware innovations including flashcarts for the jaguar and lynx, a hardware expansion for the 7800, video out and VGA out modifications for the handheld atari lynx, conversions of atari computer games to atari 5200 cartridges, and many others, not to mention discovery and conversation around countless prototypes and discussion about hardware and software preservation for all atari systems, all topics that would seem in line with the interests of the assembler community. My thread I referenced from the feedback forum is below, the response (and nothing wrong with this, I just find it a little surprising when there is so much activity on these forums for many other very minor console systems) is that there isn't a heck of a lot of interest in atari discussion. http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?50043-Why-no-Atari-forum
Yes, but again - they all go there. Nobody comes here, so there's no point having yet another forum for systems that people HERE aren't programming for. The response was that there is very little discussion on anything bar Jaguar here. Why is that surprising? People here don't talk Atari, so why would we make a dedicated section? It also makes sense, if there are few people interested in Atari here, to point those who are at a thriving community. We never claimed to be a one-stop shop for all discussion about every gaming format. The forum's primary focus is (or was) development, and anyone's welcome to talk Atari dev here, naturally. It's great to see people still coding for Atari platforms - they're good ones to learn the ropes, for sure. On the other end of the scale, we have a PS4 dev forum... with a whole 5 threads. Yeah, that was worthwhile... Conversely, the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had so much interest in the generic Sony forum, they probably warranted their own. Sadly, I think an Atari forum would be on a par with the PS4 one.
To this day I still regret selling my Atari Jaguar. Got it as a prize for a competition in the Atari Age forum, and sold it years later in 2006 when they were plentifuly and cheap in the US, but expensive and rare here in Mexico. They are so expensive now on ebay, and I'm pretty much interested in only a few games. The Lynx tough, is great and this year I was able to find some new cib games for it. My favorite version of Rampart is in that console, I like it better than the arcade.
