Jinks Had a Fan

[Sabertooth]

It looks like one designer may have been a fan of Jinks. I picked these bad boys up at H&M a while back because they reminded me of a Trapper Keeper I once had. It just occurred to me while folding them that the design is also rather Jinks like. I could never get into Jinks but I appreciate the attempt. A for effort, Atari.

 

[RickR]

That pattern is so early 90's.  Jinks was ahead of it's time. 

[Justin]

I like Jinks. I'm probably the only one. I came at it from the standpoint of already having been deeply involved in collecting for Atari systems. So much of what "Atari" means to us is wrapped up in some of those early 2600 games that defined the era. I can't think of Breakout or Super Breakout without thinking of the psychedelic "Buzz Aldrin Space Tennis" man on the box art. Many of those definitive Atari classics reached across all early Atari systems; the 2600, 400/800, and 5200. By the time the 7800 really got up to speed it was a different era dominated by Nintendo, and we thought of games a bit differently. But approaching the 7800 from the standpoint of already being quite "enthusiastic" about Atari's legacy, it felt like the 7800 should have a paddle game.

 

Jinks to me was the natural progression of an Atari paddle game into a platformer. They blended Pong, Breakout and Pinball style gameplay nicely into a platformer with an objective. The game retains that odd psychedelic feel to it as well. Though I wish the 7800 had received a Pinball game and even a new version of Breakout, Jinks still seemed more fun to me than it generally received credit for. Plus the voice at the beginning of the game was very cool. It makes me wish they would have done the same with   "Prepare To Qualify" in Pole Position II.

[Clint Thompson]

I really enjoyed Jinks and remember nothing but having fond memories of it. It was very unusual and unique and so it was interesting and was definitely played more than just a handful of times.