The History of Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack

Today we'll talk about Action Pack, the first Atari 2600 emulator, and the first home video game console emulator in history. The video tells the story of its beginnings, the three releases of the collection, and its sequels for Playstation 1 and 2.

 

Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack (1995)

It was a compilation that began to be developed in June 1994 by Michael Livesay for Activision, to emulate Atari 2600 games. Mike had worked at LTI Gray Matter since its inception in 1992, a division of his gaming company called Livesay Technologies Incorporated, which in turn was created in 1986. Mike had been in the gaming world since 1980, being behind several titles for computers. Later, he also worked with games for consoles. The Action Pack is considered the first functional emulation of a home console. The compilation was released around March 1995 for Windows 3.1. There were two versions of this compilation released for Windows 3.1, then re-released on CD-ROM with improvements for Windows 95, and finally re-released for Windows 3.1, 95 and Macintosh. The third collection was released only for Windows 3.1 and 95. All were released in 1995. The collections were divided into fifteen games in the first edition, containing titles such as Boxing, Crackpots, Freeway, Hero, Pitfall and River Raid, fifteen in the second edition, with titles such as Enduro, Keystone, Ice Hockey and River Raid II, and eleven in the third edition, with titles such as Breakout, Combat and Night Driver. The emulator had pause, reset, difficulty change, keyboard and joypad control, PCM and FM sound and volume, and others. Only Packs 1 and 3 provided sound adjustment, with options for disabled, faster and more precise. The emulator also had Mom mode, which simulated the voice of a mother calling her child. Something to prevent the child from playing for so long. You could adjust between rarely (calling every 10 minutes) and constantly (calling every 30 seconds). In addition, it provided a summary of the game, how to play, tips, scores and the history of how each game was created. The emulator was developed with two internal emulators, the 6507 emulator, which is a cheaper version of the 6502 central processor, and a sound emulator based on the TIA sound library. To use the emulator, a computer with a 486 processor was recommended. A Pro Audio Spectrum 16 sound card with the latest sound drivers was also recommended. The Action Pack emulator did not allow the loading of external ROMs, only those that came with the CD. However, third parties created the Action Pack Plugin Hack, which allowed the execution of other ROMs in the emulator. This program was only compatible with the Mac version of the emulator.

In 1995, Activision also developed a collection of Commodore 64 games for Windows. In 1996, they re-released all the Atari and Commodore 64 collections on a single CD for Windows. Mike returned to participate in an Atari collection, now not only as an emulator programmer, but also as project manager, in A Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600 (i.e., a collection of classic Activision games for A26), this time released for the PSX in 1998, with thirty games in total. The collection came with an intro showing the games it offered. On the selection screen, there was a very interactive interface, with the games on the right side like a tabletop cartridge holder, the TV on the left side showing demos of the games, and on top of the TV, the console that had the tape changed each time you changed games. Mike's last participation in the company was in the release of A Collection of Classic Games From The Intellivision for PSX in September 1999, where he also worked on the development of its emulator. At the time, the Intellivision Packs released in 1997 by Intellivision Productions had already been successful, so Mike's emulator did not appear in other releases. Activision released another Atari 2600 collection, Activision Anthology, in November 2002 for PS2, but without Mike's presence. This version is similar to the PSX version, but with more things on the table next to the TV and game holders, such as a radio, joystick, Activision magazine with the names of the collection's programmers, canned drinks, dial-up telephone and the video game in front of the TV. Another difference is the 80s pop/rock soundtrack that accompanies the games. All of this tries to immerse you in the console's lifespan.

Outside of the Atari 2600 emulation project, Mike has been in the gaming world since 1980, producing games for PCs and Apple IIs, such as Miner 2049er (1982), Ming' Challenge (1982), The Heist (1983), Miner 2049er II (1984), Bruce Lee (1984), and others. Miner 1 and 2 and The Heist were created by Mike's company, Livesay Computer Games, created in 1982. Around 1986, he created Livesay Technologies Incorporated, bringing games such as Security Alert (1990) for Commodore 64, Sid Meier's Civilization II (1999) and Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (guécs / guécou) (1999) for PSX, among others. In January 1992, a division of the company was created, called LTI Gray Matter, and it was through it that Mike created the Atari 2600 emulator. It was the company that also took care of the collections A Collection of Classic Games for Atari and Intellivision mentioned above, in 98 and 99, and the production of its own games, such as Gex: Enter The Gecko (1999) for PSX, as well as games with Mike's presence, such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000) for PSX, where he worked on production/programming/engineering, and the games Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000) and Spider-Man (2000) for PSX, Spider-Man (2002) for PS2, X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003) for PS2, where Mike participated in programming/engineering, among others. The last game released by the company was Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (2008) for PS3.