Atari Flashback2

Atari Flashback2

Tonight has been one long 1980s nostalgia trip thanks to a $29.95 Atari Flashback2 I found at the local Wal-Mart.

This retro-gaming gadget does a far better job of recreating the early console experience thanks to nice touches such as the accurately recreated Atari 2600 joysticks and the half-size replica of the original black plastic and fake woodgrain design.

Included inside the unit are 40 games, such as Adventure, Pitfall and Combat, as well as 7 unreleased prototype games and 7 new titles created especially for this release.

For around thirty dollars you really can’t beat the nostalgia factor here, particularly from being able to sit back on the couch with those unique one-button Atari joysticks.

Wiki on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans

Wikipedia has an entry up for Hurricane Katrina, the category 5 hurricane that’s predicted to have a good chance of hitting the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.

As the Wikipedia entry on New Orleans suggests, the world-famous town is especially vulnerable to storms as the entire city is located below sea level in a land area that acts like a large bowl, trapping water inside the city.

The city is protected by large rings of levees that keep the surrounding water at bay, while pumps remove any water brought in by storms. However, predictions of storm surges 26 feet higher than normal tides have resulted in a mandatory evacuation order to be issued.