Play Retro Atari Classics Online

I picked up Retro Atari Classics for the Nintendo DS back in 2005, a collection put together by Atari themselves. It was a solid little package for the early days of the DS, offering a quick hit of nostalgia right on the handheld. It fit right in with that era's interest in bringing old arcade and console games to new, portable hardware.

You control a variety of ships, paddles, and characters depending on the game, with the main goal always being to beat your high score. The touch screen lets you play games like Missile Command by tapping where you want to fire, while the D-pad handles the classic movement in Asteroids and Centipede. The pacing is fast and unforgiving; games like Tempest demand quick reflexes, and the difficulty ramps up sharply after just a few levels. It feels like a direct, no-frills connection to the arcade era, even with the DS hardware in your hands.