Classic Atari games for X-box?

Recently I saw a little handset that plugged into a TV and offered ten Atari games. Kind of sobering that the blurb said “play the games your parents loved”. Some of the games were good, others I could leave, and many I'd liked a lot were not there. Also, I'd just brought an X-box, so couldn't justify buying another gaming system for a while.

There does seem to be a timeless interest in these games. I know plenty of people who have Pac-man or Space invaders on their computers.

I was reflecting the other day on the vast amount of information that X-box discs seem capable of storing. Just how many Atari type games could you get on one disc? Quite a few I suspect, even if you improved the images.

Games such as Space Invaders, Centipede and Galaxian seem to use similar software. So too do Defender, Chopper Command, SeaQuest and Vanguard.

I'm no programmer, but suspect that these games could share software, so three or four games would take up less space than the same number of different games.

Here are my suggestions for games to include on an X-box Atari disc. Interesting is that nearly all of the games I'd really want were produced by Atari.

Be useful if you could play this against the computer, unlike the original.

I remember there were games with jet fighters, but for most of us the games to play were with tanks or biplanes. With the increased graphics you could actually choose between different aircraft or vehicle types.

• For the biplanes: Sopwith Camels, Spads, Albatross and Fokker triplanes.

• For the Jets: Sabres vs Mig 15s or Phantoms vs Mig 21s

• For tanks: Sherman, T34, Pz IV and Panther.

As an option, different vehicle types could have different characteristic: climb rate, speed, turning circle, armament etc

Mazes for the tanks could be more complicated, but keep the original simple ones too. The tanks had options such as being able to bounce shots (“tank-pong”). There was also a prototype Combat II game that had more complicated terrain for tank battles (rivers etc). These levels could be added.

This would be a good compliment for Combat. Games included Anti-aircraft, Torpedo, Shooting gallery, Polaris, Bomber and Bomber vs Polaris.

I've never played this, but this game might nicely complement the Combat and Air-Sea Battle games.

Berserk is a game that can be rendered in classic 2600 style or have a more advanced option. Classic was a 2-D plan view game, but it should also be possible to play this as a 3D third person game, with a plan view map shown in one corner. Controls should be the same as are used for Splinter cell or more likely Blade II, with the left trigger activating a first person shooter mode, as is done with Terminator Dawn of Fate.

There seem to have been several variants of this, including "Frogger II THREEEDEEP!" –use the best or combine them. Improved graphics on the animals and vehicles would be welcome, and there is obvious potential for a Gore option

Another game where there seem to have been several variants (Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr) –use the best or combine them. Being able to play Mario against Kong, then rescue Kong from Mario would be pretty good. X-box seems to do fire really well, so the flaming barrels should look very good on this

Or Ms Pac-man, Jr Pac-man or a hybrid of the three.

A classic, and with the X-box the rocks would look really realistic.

A personal favourite, and some high definition mushroom clouds would only make it better. The arcade version had a smart bomb, and this could be included as an option

Little needs to be said

Similar to Space invaders, but worth including in its own right. No shelters, more colours and the aliens swooped to attack

Similar idea to Space invaders, but different enough to have as well. The fact that this is against bugs and crawlies means that there is a good potential for a gore and goo option. A 3-D option should also be feasible.

Both these games had the vessel flying back and forth across the screen, both had a radar display so the actual play area was several screens long. Defender had you patrolling an area and preventing aliens from abducting and mutating humans. Chopper command had you escorting and protecting a convoy of trucks. Defender has 20 game variations, while Chopper command had only 4, so possibly the convoy escort missions could be added to Defender. In the arcade version of Defender the smart bomb was fired by a button. In the VCS game you had to land to use it. Both variations could be in a new game.

Not that well known, but a personal favorite, and a game I'd very much like to see again. This had a "Space Chopper" flying across the screen, similar to Defender. Difference was you had to fly through a cavern system and the laser cannon could be fired in four directions. With the X-box controller one thumbstick could direct the ship and the other the weapons turret. This turreted firepower idea could be added to the Defender game as an option.

A side-to-side game like Defender and Vanguard, but with the added wrinkle of a limited oxygen supply while trying to rescue divers from sharks and enemy subs.

Or Super Breakout. Bash down the walls. Good potential for shattering brick graphics, and you could add the option of destroying famous landmarks: Pyramids, Mt Rushmore, Vatican, Coliseum etc

This was a Star Wars game, and probably one of the best games designed for use with the paddles. You used your lightsabre to fend off the attacks of the remote ("Seeker").