Thanks to John Gruber, this morning I discovered the Atari Greatest Hits app. This universal application lets you purchase classic Atari arcade and 2600 console games a la carte or $15 for the whole lot (100 games). For me, there wasn’t even a question. I bought them all. I squandered untold hours of my youth playing these games and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again. Who among us of that age did not become utterly hypnotized by our very first avatar, a tiny square that we pushed around the screen on our Atari 2600 consoles in Adventure. My real weakness, however, is Tempest. This appropriately named game sucked down my quarters like a binging wino back in the day.

Having played with several of the games over breakfast, it is hit and miss with the controls. Tempest, thankfully, does a good job with the virtual spinner but the Fire and Blast All buttons are too far apart from each other. Asteroids is a mess. The spinner is right next to the thrust controls. Any asteroid hunter worth his salt knows you use that thrust button very gingerly.

Overall, Atari Greatest Hits is a very enjoyable trip down memory lane. Check it out.