Tech Watch: Joystick Nostalgia

If your fondest video-game memories are of playing Pong in the 1970s or duking it out with Asteroids in the '80s, Atari has two new ways to help you recapture those childhood thrills. One is Atari Flashback, a $40 gaming console that plugs directly into your TV. The other is Atari Anthology, a disc of games for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

These retro games don't have the eye-popping graphics of today's hot sellers, but that doesn't make classics like Centipede and Missile Command any less addictive. To find out how well the updates replicated the originals, I...