Casino Atari
- Atari is one of the oldest companies in gaming, but its modern track record is not so great.
- They recently announced the launch of their own online casino and crypto token.
- This is a stunningly bad idea for a company with such a poor recent track record.
Atari has a troubled history. While the company was the driving force behind the early days of the gaming industry, they’ve struggled since then.
Casino Atari
They’ve recently tried to branch out into various areas. Atari has a hotel chain in the works, which I’m sure will definitely still be happening in this pandemic. But their lousiest idea to date has to be their newest venture.
Casino is an Atari 2600 video game programmed by Bob Whitehead and released in 1978. Supporting up to four players, the game was controlled by the Atari Paddles. Gameplay edit edit source Displayed from an overhead perspective,1 there are three card games to choose from: blackjack, five-card stud poker, and poker solitaire. Casino is the successor to Atari's Blackjack. The look and feel of the two games is almost identical, with the same green background and the same method of paddle control for selecting your choices. Games 1 and 2 are devoted to blackjack. Game 1 is for one or two players and allows you to split a hand.
Atari has just launched a cryptocurrency casino. What could possibly go wrong?
Atari Has No Business Running a Casino, Let Alone Crypto-Based Casino
Has Atari completely lost their minds? It’s one thing to try and push out a modern VCS system. It’s quite another thing to try and run hotels and an online casino with no history of doing either of those things.
Atari isn’t even producing their new console all that well. It’s gone through numerous delays, and they can’t even seem to pay the designers properly. The designer of the VCS is suing them.
Is this a company you want to trust with a casino? Let alone with access to your crypto wallets? If mismanagement of the Atari VCS is annoying, imagine how dangerous mismanagement of an online casino could be.
Would You Really Trust Them?
Since the Atari casino isn’t available yet, it isn’t apparent how many people are going to buy into this idea. I have to assume that the folks who are deeply involved in crypto have a smarter head on their shoulders then to trust a company that has proven itself to be unreliable.
Perhaps the more baffling proposition is investing in Atari Token. This is their own crypto token, which I’m sure will only go up in value. Just like their stock, which has only gone up over the past 20 years. (For legal reasons, that was sarcasm)
Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps the Atari Token and Casino will launch, and both be huge successes. I don’t plan on being an early adopter, or a late adopter for that matter.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.
| Casino | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Designer(s) | Bob Whitehead[1] |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | 1978 |
| Genre(s) | Gambling |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Casino is a collection of card games for the Atari 2600 programmed by Bob Whitehead and published by Atari, Inc. in 1978.[1] Supporting up to four players, the game is controlled by the paddle controllers.[2]
Gameplay[edit]
Displayed from an overhead perspective,[2] there are three card games to choose from: blackjack, five-card stud poker, and poker solitaire. Except for poker solitaire, each game always has the computer as the dealer, and bets are made by rotating the wheel on the controller and then pressing the button.[3]
There are two different blackjack games: Game 1 allows for up to two players and hand splitting, and Game 2 allows for up to four players yet there is no hand splitting. There are variations in the game depending on the setting of the difficulty switches. If the left switch is set to 'A', the computer will shuffle after 34 hands, and if set to 'B', the computer will shuffle after every hand. If the right switch is set to 'A', the dealer will stay (not draw anymore cards) after drawing a 17, and if set to 'B', the computer will stay after drawing an 18 or better. Furthermore, the player will win if he draws the maximum number of cards; in Game 1, that is three or eight hits, and in Game 2, three hits.[3]
Stud poker, which comprises Game 3, allows for up to four players. The computer, as the dealer, issues a card to each of the players and itself. Before the first card is dealt, and after each subsequent hand, until five cards have been dealt, each player must either make a bet or fold. If the left difficulty switch is set to 'A', the dealer's first card is dealt face down; otherwise, it is dealt face up; likewise for the right difficulty switch for each player.[3]
Poker solitaire is different in that no bets are made and there is no dealer; rather, the goal is to arrange cards to create the best twelve poker hands in 25 cards, with five rows, five columns, and the two diagonals. Points are scored depending on the hands created, with a pair yielding 10 points and a royal flush yielding 500 points. The highest possible score is 3340 points.
Legacy[edit]
The game was re-released in 2003 as part of the Atari - 80 Classic Games in One! collection for Microsoft Windows. It was also part of the 2004 Atari Anthology for the Xbox and PlayStation 2.
References[edit]
Atari Casino Tallaght
- ^ abHague, James. 'The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers'.
- ^ ab'Casino (Atari)'. Atari Age. Archived from the original on 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
- ^ abc'Atari VCS Casino Manual'. archive.org.
External links[edit]
- Casino at Atari Mania