Totally agree was just about to say Combat too. Tanks with rebounding bullets and temporary invisibility. 😅 Then Space Invaders, Pitfall. Then we got an Atari 800xl … Anyone remember Orc Attack?
Adventure is one of my favorite games of all time. I came up with the idea of randomized levels too add to replay ability but thought this would never happen. It actually happened with Atari Vault collection. Hero, Pitfall, River Raid, Berzerk, and a few others are still a blast.
I still play adventure quite regularly it's amazing how many complicated situations you can get in. I've started playing it in stella in debug mod now and again it makes is so the keys and dragons aren't different colours so you have to figure out which keys do what. It's like level 3.5. :P
out of all the Atari 2600 games I own, these are my faves :) Crossbow, Frogger 1 & 2, Midnight magic, Pitfall 1 & 2, Time warp, Dig dug, Plaque attack, Pole position, Radar lock, Challenge, Mario bros, Donkey kong, Asteroids, Space adventure, Spider fighter, Moon patrol, Millipede, Mouse trap, Solaris, Pacman Jr, Mrs Packman, Galaxian, River raid 1 & 2, Desert falcon, Centipede, Ghostbusters, Crystal castles & Q-bert@@markrotondella4689
That's some collection. I had a few of those I only became aware of the Atari Galaxian more recently. I knew there was one but I assumed it would be terrible but they did a great job on that,
My mom brought me to a store I haven't been to before, and they let me test some games on their TV over the counter. I tested a few, but ended with Frostbite. I played that a few times and loved it. I asked my mom to buy me that game, and she did. I played that game for years. It is a great game and I have so may great memories with it.
Yeah it is a shame that the polish they put into Ms and Jr wasn't applied to Pacman. It was their best selling game who knows what they would have sold if it was actually good.
@@markrotondella4689 On the one hand Pac-Man Fever was so strong everyone wanted to play some kind of eat-dots-in-maze game, even if it was a cheesy version like the Coleco Tabletop Arcade handheld or a ripoff like K.C. Munchkin. But if it's true that they manufactured 10 million carts (1 for every Atari VCS sold before its release), then with 8 million sold, they made 2 million extra. Those may have been unloaded in new console sales in 1983, when it was bundled along with Combat. Ms. Pac-Man sold 2 million+ carts in 1983, so maybe the answer is 2 million? Sadly, the industry standard through 1982 was for one programmer to do everything: graphic design, music and sound effects and of course programming. If they had decided to make it a team effort, some of these 1982 projects might have been better. But for Pac-Man it came down to not using an 8K ROM (as Ms. Pac-Man did), as well as having a two-player mode which used RAM to store scores and the locations of remaining dots for the player not on screen. Flicker was a problem that later games (including Ms. Pac-Man) found solutions or workarounds for. Sounds and the maze was bad, too. The VCS/2600 works best graphically when the screen is symmetrical left and right, which the original Pac-Man maze had, so why couldn't he copy the maze? Of course a video game has its monitor in "portrait" while a TV is in "landscape."
Some not listed games I play up to today are Laser Gates, Dragonfire, Megamania and Pressure Cooking. Some games in the list, like Turmoil, could really be great games, but I dislike how they become a hell too fast. Atari in fact have some games like this, Cosmic Ark and Entombed are examples (good games ruined by how fast they become impossible). Well, your list shows some games I dont know and could try. Good job.
Thanks. Laser Gates is one I have only recently become aware of it looks awesome. Dragonfire and Megamania make a lot of peoples top list they are great games. Pressure Cooker is one I think more people should know about it was the first proper time management game as far as I can tell. I think Tapper beat it but it's a little simple Pressure Cooker really was the archetype for the whole genre.
@markrotondella4689 Laser Gates is great, people don't know it, but it has just 4 stages. I have written a guide for it (and Dragonfire too), you can check at gamefaqs. Atari is really curious, some games become impossible too fast, some we can finish (like Adventure and Megamania - yeah, I beat it), and some we can even play forever, lol. I can play Asteroids and Mouse Trap, for example, as long as I want, and will never lose, I need to give up. Oh, another cool games I have not seen been mentioned reading the comments, but If you don't know, you could try: Commando Raid and Megaforce. I'm also happy to see how you interact with all comments. Congratulations.
Superman was also a great game. It doesn't get much love though. What I liked the most about it was that the better you got, the quicker the game was over. For a lot of other games, when you got really good it meant playing for hours which eventually gets boring.
Superman was a very complicated game for the Atari. It had the Adventure code as a starting point (even though it came out after it) I understand. Yeah most Atari games are fun for a short burst although sometimes that is part of their appeal. Have a quick go and then go onto something else.
@@markrotondella4689 I got it out again last year to see if I could beat my best times. If you use the bridge cheat (which should have been a variation) you can beat 1 minute since it takes ~14" to repair the bridge. I studied the map more and found out where they guys start from, so brought my no-cheat time down to 1 minute! As a kid in 1982, my best recorded time was just over 1'30". Some people say they haven't made a better Superman video game since this one!
@@markrotondella4689 Yep, the code was a fork of Adventure. Superman was one of the first video games ever to come out as a licensed tie-in with some media property--this is so common now that we barely think about it, but it had to start somewhere. I appreciate the extent to which they actually captured the character of Superman and the kinds of things he does in this primitive game.
Thank you for including the very end of the Adventure game! I was hoping you would show the complete game!! Great description, incredible game for the time! One of my favs!
Yeah I recorded a lot of games before I got lucky and got this one which was a quick to complete. I remember a lot of convincing to get my parents to this one and it did not disappoint.
Adventure was such a landmark game. First video game RPG. First open-world exploring game. First easter egg (the "secret room.") While it doesn't really hold up today, at the time it was completely revolutionary and groundbreaking; and hence remains one of my all time favorites.
Adventure really was ground breaking. It was the first time a secret was called an easter egg but there are quite a few examples that predate it. Moonlander (1972) had a hidden McDonalds. :P I still play Adventure often. I still is the only Adventure game you can complete in 5 minutes or so and actually feel like you had an Adventure
It actually does hold up today because of the randomness caused by the bat. The one thing it needs is map seeds so that you can play an exact Game 3 layout. Many of them are cake but some are quite tricky!
@@rikk319 Yes, there are a few combinations that are unwinnable. I don't think it is literally having a key in its own castle, but there are other combinations. All the more reason for map seeds. We could share the tougher / more interesting ones.
One that really flew under the radar but is maybe my single favorite 2600 game today (not counting modern homebrews) is Midnight Magic. It's a pinball simulation, which apparently began life as an attempt to port the computer game David's Midnight Magic. But they were likely stymied by the 2600's technical limitations, so they settled for a different layout and it came out better! Weirdly, it is one of the best early pinball sims out there. It wasn't well-known in the 2600's heyday because its release was delayed for years by Atari's bankruptcy and sale--it came out in that belated burst of 2600 cartridges near the end of the platform's life. I think it's a similar story to 2600 Battlezone--the technology made it impossible to replicate the source material, so they had to get creative. Another pretty good, obscure pinball sim is Spectravision's Bumper Bash, which is one of the rarer 2600 cartridges out there. Its layout is a little better than Midnight Magic's, but Midnight Magic has the better physics so I'd still give it the edge.
I’m not sure If I didn’t know about or forgot about Midnight Magic - I was visualizing Video Pinball until I looked it up. It is really impressive. Don’t get me started on the 2600 Battlezone - if it was a modern homebrew I would think it was a masterpiece let alone a 1983 game.
I had totally forgotten about Tutankham I had that one back in the day it was very good, the arcade version looks fun too I'm going to have to give them both a go. :P
@@patsfan4life I disagree. I liked the arcade, as I did many games with multiple stages like Gorf and Phoenix, but the controls were too difficult as you couldn't move the guy much on Atari. It was one of the last new games I got in 1983.
Check out the Tutankham homebrew and it’s sequel for the Commodore 64. It’s really close to the arcade. Such a unique game for its time. It’s great to see new ports of old games and how good they can turn out.
Finally. I have seen so many TH-camrs play space invaders by blowing away the bottom guys first it's shameful. Thanks for actually knowing how to play the game. Hahahaha subbed.
Not a bad list. Completely missed Pitfall 2. Came out near the end of life for the 2600 and had an extra-large (for the time) memory chip in the cartridge. The playable "maze" of the cavern was huge for a 2600 game. Would not see games that size until NES, at least for my basement back in my childhood.
Dodge 'Em, Yar's Revenge, Demon Attack which is similar to Phoenix, Cosmic Ark, Maze Craze, Tutankham, Venture, Mouse Trap, Keystone Kapers. There are some of the one that I still like to play.
@@originalfred66 The logbook challenge for Dodge 'Em was so easy on difficulty B, I'd already done it before getting the blue logbook in 1982. I then put the game away, and only a few years ago got it out again when I realized I'd never beaten it on A difficulty. One has "random" placement of enemy cars, and the other has faster enemy cars. I then beat the two variations: one A, one B. Finally this year, I was able to learn enough fast-random patterns to go all the way through 15 screens with both difficulty switches on A!
Yeah Ice Hockey was on the list till I shortened it and I couldn't decide with Tennis or Real Sports Tennis whether they are actually still good or it is just my nostalgia. I do really like both of them
Played these games in the 80”s with my Brother. He saved the games and controller and dropped them back to me. Now playing with my 10 year old Son. What a blast today! Our favorite is HERO !
Pressure Cooker really deserves more love than it gets. As far as I can tell it is the first proper Task Management game way before it's time. Tapper might have come out before but I'm honestly not sure. Even if it did Pressure Cooker is a more complete version of concept.
Yeah and mercilessly fast. I don’t think the arcade game had sprites based on the weird way the enemies move. The end boss was better but I prefer the rest of the stages in the Atari version.
Great call out for putting berserk and combat towards the top. Space invaders was so awesome (i flipped score back to zero). I was really taken with Raiders of the Lost Ark. what a great title I never hear mentioned.
Don't think I ever managed to clock Space Invader... well I did it with the two bullet cheat. Never really played Raiders it is quite complex for an Atari game.
@@markrotondella4689SI was the first game I "beat". I was pretty proud as a 7-8 year old. I didn't know about the cheat. Raiders remains one of my favorite xmas gifts ever. I actually found and played the game before xmas in '82. 🤫It was so cool, using a parachute to find the secret room and using the medallion to locate the ark with the sun shining through it. First memories that come to mind. Have not played after the 80s, but fond memories.
Even when the guy was slow in Berserk, I never felt that it was an error like not being able to move the ship in Vanguard at higher levels, or trouble moving the guy in Jungle Hunt.
I loved Indy 500!!! It was a 2 player racing game and it came with special controllers that looked like paddles but instead would rotate all the way around with out stopping like the paddles did. Played the ice track for hours- so much fun!
I really wanted to put Indy 500 as the third - if you have real hardware game. It's a great game and part of driving game history. I just couldn't get even so so screen capture with cars moving. Plus it's a bit of an investment with the controllers for just the one game. The variations were fun I liked the Tag one and the catch the Dot one too.
@@markrotondella4689 Sadly, "worth playing today" doesn't fit what I call the best of their launch titles from 1977. It was worth buying in 1981, when I got it. But because it wasn't bundled with the system (like Combat) there was no incentive to make a sequel or any other game that used the Steering controller, like Tempest, Tron, or Wild Western.
It is a shame they didn't at least do a sequel with computer opponents. I guess the paddles were good enough most of the time and they didn't even use them extensively for driving games. Honestly I don't know why none of the modern consoles haven't stolen the design - make it wireless, wack a couple of analogue buttons on it - it would be an awesome controller to play Forza while laying back on the couch.
@@markrotondella4689 They kept bundling Combat with the system, even when adding Pac-Man in 1983, though both games made the system look bad. I got Armor Ambush as an upgrade to the tank fight in Combat. I suppose Time Pilot might have been updated fighter jets, though it's one player. So something like the two together could have replaced it. Likewise if they had ported the Tron arcade game, that has a tank-combat wave. But if they weren't interested in updating Combat, then they wouldn't Indy 500. I think the original arcade game that Indy 500 came from had computer opponents and oil slicks. And they did release in arcades similar games like Super Off-Road some years later.
Ha ha sorry I was going for games where Atari version was the best version. If I was being honest I would probably still put it in there because I played the hell out of it and barely ever played the arcade version because I sucked at it. It is an amazing conversion.
@@markrotondella4689 Oh, gotcha! Yeah, the arcade version had WAY too many buttons and was extremely difficult to play but sure looked cool. Ate plenty of quarters! Those small UFOs were deadly accurate assassins, too. Getting the version at home was like a dream come true but the $40 price tag almost killed me as a 13? year old! Eventually I could flip the score though 😄 Thanks for the great video!!
Thanks :D :D how Atari managed to go bankrupt making games that just took one person to write and they were charging $200 for in today's money. :P I think I paid 70 dollars for H.E.R.O. thank God it was amazing.
Of course everyone is gonna disagree with something. My disagreement is that Haunted House was left off. That game was interesting with the different behavior of the ghost, the bat, and the 1-3 spiders. The different items, like the scepter, and the strats of using them. The 4 floors with the different locked doors, and the strat of being able to carry one thing at a time. The sound effects were awesome and scary; the best use of the sound engine. The different difficulties were great, with level 9 being a challenge for almost any gamer. The increasing difficultly was also very imaginative. It was the items, the layout, the scepter worked on everything but the ghost, the "darkness", and the overall behavior of everything. Level 9 was intense and fast! But the lower difficulties were fun because they were a little more casual and exploratory. Not a bad list overall. I agree with putting Adventure #1, as that game was a true theater of the mind, using the hardware in it's most imaginative way. But I think Haunted House was in a similar vein. Atari couldn't compete with the arcade hardware of the time, but games like those used the Atari's strengths to their max. Btw, good call on Berzerk. Just a fun game. And Pitfall was great for the challenge of getting to any treasure. Hmm, I see Defender isn't there either. That was another miss. But Haunted House was the big one that think was missed. That or Adventure are the first I put on when firing up my emulator.
Yeah Haunted House is definitely iconic I didn't have it back in the day and didn't spend enough time to learn it for this I think. You might notice it is in the title graphic but hard to argue it probably should have been in there. Defender is an amazing conversion that one snuck out because I was looking at game where the Atari was the best way to play the game. Honestly I probably still could have put it in because I have played Atari Defender for hours upon hours but barely never played it on any other platform. Mainly because I sucked at the original.
A great list! Thank you for mentioning Solar Fox! I think you're the first person on TH-cam to do so! I remember playing that one constantly as a kid, but it seems to have been almost lost to time. It was an amazing arcade game as well!
Love that the clip of Berzerk here caught the glitch where a bullet can pass through the gap between the guy's head and his body (the 2600 had built-in player collision detection but it was pixel-based; no concept of a hitbox). There was a whole universe of Space Invaders-derived shooters where you moved left and right at the bottom of the screen and fired upward at invading enemies--the Atari platform turned out to be really good for these, once some fundamental tricks were known, and all manufacturers pumped them out. Atari released a pretty good version of Galaxian, belatedly, and Phoenix. Imagic had Demon Attack, which you mentioned in the Phoenix segment. Activision had Spider Fighter and Megamania. These were all fun games though the multiplication of them probably saturated the market. I think my favorite of the Star Raiders-derived first-person space shooters on the 2600 is a dark horse: Imagic's Star Voyager. It simplified the game, taking out the Galactic Chart strategy element and concentrating on making the first-person combat loop play really well. In that sense, it was going back to simpler arcade shooters like Starship 1/Star Ship, just really refined. A lot of people seem to have been disappointed by the lack of depth and unfavorably compare it to Starmaster, but I think the simplified gameplay made Star Voyager a better fit for a simple platform--they didn't have to struggle so much with the control scheme. In the vein of Combat and Video Olympics, another simple, early one that is an absolute blast if and only if you've got multiple players is Outlaw, their old West shootout game. It's an inherently two-player game--I think there are one-player modes but they're not much fun. But it's like the 1978 version of Halo Slayer mode, great for destroying your dear friends in your living room. The name implies that it's a port of Atari's arcade Outlaw, but that was a light-gun game, completely different--it's actually an unlicensed knockoff of Midway's Gun Fight and Boot Hill. Those had a different control scheme, precursors of the twin-stick shooter. Atari had to make it work with a single joystick per player and they figured out a way--you aim your gun by holding down the fire button and it fires when you release. It actually works pretty well once you get the hang of it and the two-player shootout is just tremendous fun.
Fixed shooters like Space Invaders were really well represented on the Atari it is a genre that I miss we kind of threw the baby out with the bath water when we moved onto scrolling shooters. Yes they are visually more flash but I wish both continued on they were few and far between after the early 80s. I missed Galaxian on the Atari back in the day because I assumed it would be terrible but it is actually fantastic. Space Invaders has no business working on the Atari let alone Galaxian. They use the one player object to display up to 7 across the same row on the screen which means they are reallocating it mid scan line while duplexing it - absolutely nuts. Midways Gun Fight is also the first arcade game to use a CPU so the first commercial video game to actually be a proper computer game. All the games before it were discrete logic so basically computers that could only ever do one thing.
I got Atari 2600 from 1980 and played until about 1985. Probably had about 30-40 cartridges so I’m always amazed by how many of the games on these “greatest hits” lists I’ve never played or even seen. Jungle Hunt is one of my favourites. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this list. Very informative and fun to watch. 🎉
I used to be able to play a game of space invaders forever - rolling the points over multiple times in one go. The only thing that would cause me to die would be mom calling for dinner. Good times.
Agreed on Phoenix and Berserk, as being the best arcade ports on the system and perhaps even more playable than the arcade versions, as you mentioned. I thought Enduro should have made the list for its groundbreaking technical achievement and replayability
@@markrotondella4689 "Passathon" is a good description of so-called race games where your opponent is miles ahead of you and driving slowly for you to catch up, pass and never see again! Of those, Turbo (1981) was my favorite with the Ambulance making you pull over and crossing a narrow bridge; I also played Outrun(1986) and the one you sit on a motorcycle. Perhaps the overhead games like Super Sprint (1986) were more of a race. They brought some back like Super Off-Road (1989). Apparently Indy 500 (one of the original Atari 9 in 1977) was similar to Sprint (1978) but without the oil slicks.
Yes I had Indy 500 back in the day - it was a great game. Could have used a computer opponent and they could have done the slicks with the bullet sprites. Shame they didn't use the driving controllers for anything else.
I got my atari 2600 in 1981 when Space Invaders was the big christmas hit. The base pack came with combat. I still fire up Space Invaders on my MiSTer FPGA on a regular basis. I loved that game as a kid 🙂 There is an "A.I." romhack for combat which allows you to play single player with a computer controller tank. pretty cool.
@@markrotondella4689 it’s hands down the best piece of retro hardware I have purchased. I love all the cores. AO486 and X68000 with the mt32pi are awesome as well :-)
It is also money saving - anytime I start thinking about collecting for Master System or what ever I just have to remind myself I can play them all on Mister. :P
Adventure was just mind-boggling when I popped that cartridge (label then were just some weird alphanumeric symbol and no graphical dragon yet) into my VCS. Multiple screen plays were incredible to me 45 years ago !! They captured the look-and-feel of the game Phoenix perfectly !! I couldn't believe they could do River Raid & H.E.R.O on such primitive 2600 hardware. Got a party? Put on that packing combat game & see how it drew in the crowd !!
I still play Adventure on the regular and recently spent a couple of days getting good at H.E.R.O. Much easier these days with being able to save I must of played it so much back in the day to learn all the levels without it. Those games are 128 byte (RAM) master pieces mind blowing achievements.
It’s unfortunate that you you weren’t a fan of Yars. It was one of the first games that included evolving levels and difficulty that required more than just adapting to faster speed for higher levels. The enemy got faster and smarter while you had to concoct a new strategy using unboosted and unchanged skills. Imagine Bezerk where you could only fire to the right and the enemy robots fire could chase you around the screen. It was an early masterpiece.
@@jasonc2784 I will agree that you could play forever, if you evolved with the enemy. That said, my point still remains, it was still revolutionary game play. Pretty much every other game on the console simply moved faster or swapped to a handful of different level layouts.
This a really solid list. I have most of these and played the heck out of them as a kid. Kaboom, somehow, has always been my favorite but you really need original hardware and a paddle.
Some of the emulators have decent mouse paddle support. I have been trying for ages to find a reasonably priced replacement for paddles on a modern computer. It really is a shame you can't easily play these game now.
Paddles, but also having a CRT is important. The lag in modern flat screens makes a surprising difference. I think the paddle games for the Atari are chronically underrated because most reviewers don't have good ones.
I was really into the system and knew about every game. Maze Craze was a blast for multiplayer! War Lords the same. You listed some games I think some people never heard of. And how could you leave Astroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Ms. Pac-Man off of the list?
I was hoping I would be introducing a few games even to people that had the Atari back in the day. To make it a little easier for myself I only listed game where I think the Atari is the best version of that game. Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Ms. Pac-Man are all amazing conversions and no doubt some of the best games on the system but I think there are better versions on other systems... You could argue Asteroids because it's a very different game on the Atari so kind of it's own thing and I think a bit more enjoyable.
Adventure still is my #1 favorite. I try to play it either in EMU7800 (a 2600/7800 game aggregator for Windows) or on developer Warren Robinett’s website when I have a little time to kill. One game that you didn’t mention but was great fun for me was Atari’s Slot Racers. It has the same premise as Combat, but the duelers are cannon-fitted cars that drive around on a complex street grid. I was a master of it back in the day, and I never got tired of destroying my buddies in it. Another fun one for me was Activision’s Megamania. It has the same basic premise as Space Invaders and its successors, but the enemies are waves of mundane objects such as dice and bow ties, each wave swooping on screen briefly, pulsating and wavering, then swooping off screen so the next wave can swoop on screen. I had a few Imagic games that were visually impressive but too complex for me to figure out completely. (Imagic’s game manuals seemed quite vague to me.)
Oh yeah lot racers definitely has that combat appeal to it. Megamania is great - the Atari had quite the selection of great fixed shooters it's a genre that I miss. For some reason or another I never had any of the Imagic games back in the day although I was aware of them. They are well loved Demond Attack is fantastic (best game box art work ever) but I'll always be a Pheonix man. :P Atlantis feels super stressful.
It's a little weird to be part of history and I really think that is what we experienced from pong to real time 4K ray traced games it's an incredible progression and it fantastic the library of decades of games you can have access to now very cheaply.
@@markrotondella4689 Yesh, and the beauty of it all is that we can remember being amazed by the graphics of every generation along the way. Like the first time we saw a NES game after having played only Atari and Intellivision before. And later the epic war between Sega Genesis and SNES. ( I was team Sega back in the day). Then the era of 3D games with the Sega Saturn, N64 and the very first Playstation. Impossible to forget it.
My father was so worried that Pong would ruin the TV tube, he hardly let us play. It wasn't until my brother bought his own TV that we got a 2600 and played in out room all the time.
@@CCQ75 I worked at a department store, like a Walmart when the Nintendo came out. When the NES showed up at the store Atari had just released a revamped smaller version of the 2600 but the NES killed it because to was so far ahead in tech it wasn't even funny!
Good list. It's astounding that they were able to make Pitfall 2 and HERO on the 2600 - those are relatively complex games. I would have put Superman on this list as well - quite a good game for the time.
I kind of missed the boat on Yars revenge I didn't have it back in the day. I didn't have empire either but I played it quite a bit on friends systems.
I was a big fan of Dark Cavern (also sold as Night Stalker for the Coleco system). While not an actual Atari release it, and Haunted House, were my favorite games from the 1980s.
Dark Cavern does look good I don't remember seeing the M Network Atari games down this part of the world. I feel like I need to give Haunted House more of a go I never had it back in the day.
@@markrotondella4689 My favorite (and first) Choose Your Own Adventure book was a "haunted" house, "Mystery of Chimney Rock." There's not much to Haunted House for Atari. Too bad they didn't adapt that story, or another. Having a couple screens in the dark, like the catacombs in Adventure, would be OK, but the whole game?
Yeah Superman does deserve a mention it features quite a few innovations and firsts. Hard to argue about Defender and Asteroids both great ports that I played the hell out of.
I think it's playable by kids over 10, or 11 (I played it at 12 in 1983). But falling in the pit was a game-killer for little kids, even when putting the game on easy mode with no enemy scientist or enemy F.B.I. agent. That's why so many parents took it back to the store. The last time I played it, I ended on Round 7, I think, meaning E.T. went home 6 times. The game should have been an action-bicycle chase game. We got Paperboy a few years later.
Respect for giving Adventure top ranking. My friend had it on his Atari, but he never wanted to play when I came over (I guess he could always play the Atari), so I only saw snippets, as he was finishing up a game or something. It seemed magical, and once I got an Atari of my own, it was a game I really enjoyed. With the extensive maps, tool use and so forth, it seemed like a deeper game than others for the system. I will admit that I didn't go back to it that often, once I'd moved onto other games. It didn't have the same sort of action-based adrenaline rush for me, but I got my enjoyment out of it, and it I'd still point to it as one of the most perfect games of its era.
We had what seems like a great deal of Atari games, but a fair number of the ones on your list I've never played. I have to say that I don't share the fondness for Combat that a lot of people seem to have. There just isn't a lot to it, and the action is very limited. Honestly the most interesting part was how it would randomly glitch and throw a tank to the other side of the screen. That made things briefly interesting.
I think I like Warlords more in retrospect (and maybe conceptually) than I did at the time (and maybe in practice). That's not to say I didn't like it back then, but we only played it a modest amount. It felt a bit limited, and it required 4 people to be really fun (or 3 at the very least). I think if there was just a little more to it, it might have appealed to me more. Still a cool game though, and like I said, it's one I probably have more fondness for now.
Pitfall is, of course, a classic. Berzerk was fun, but it wasn't something that engaged me as much my very favorite games. Some things I really liked that aren't on your list: • Demon Attack -- We didn't own Phoenix though, and perhaps I would've felt like you do if we had. • Seaquest -- Great action on this one. I remember playing it for hours on end. • Asteroids -- A relatively early favorite of mine. It didn't see as much play later on, but that was perhaps because I wore it out, playing it so much at a time I had few other games. • Megamania -- All those different levels with different action? I've always appreciated multi-stage space games, like Gorf, and it really scratched that itch. The only real shortcoming was that I couldn't sink into the groove of it the way I could some other games, partly because it got very challenging pretty quickly. • Tutankham -- Had a lot of fun playing this one. With its big maps, it had some of the questy/adventurey feel of Adventure.
Yeah I'm glad it's fondly remembered it really is a ground breaking game and a lot of things came together to make it work. You really can't take any element out (even the flickering) without damaging the game.
I think Combat was a great pack in game but once everyone was proficient at it I think you are right it loses a lot of it's appeal. The pong tank variation could still be fun but really the game is at it's best when the players aren't any good at it.
I think Stampede is one game that could actually do with a modern remake - a VR Stampede would be intense. Demon Attack is fantastic I was tempted to cheat and put it with Pheonix but the truth is I'm team Pheonix. Atlantis and Laser Blast a definitely iconic and I do prefer the Atari Asteroids to the arcade version but mainly because I suck at the arcade version. :P
My favorite on this list is Yar's Revenge. It was a fantastic game to spend a little or kill a lot of time! Battlezone was one of my favorites as well, and I still think it has some of the best graphics on the system. Combat was a fun one I used to play with my dad. The Atari had a lot of bad games that I would challenge as even being games, but, when it was right, it was sooo right! I had a lot of fun times with it!
I love Battlezone I would have put i higher but I felt it was personal bias. The graphics are crazy and only 4 years into the system. The player Tank has no business being on the Atari it uses every graphical element to create it, including changing the colour of the screen twice mid scanline to colour the turret.
I hope you caught the game code dissection video about Yar's Revenge. Apparently the flashing invulnerability field was showing actual game's code (encrypted)!
Spider Fighter is another classic Atari game that holds up. It's similar to Space Invaders or Phoenix. In the late nineties when I was in my early twenties, I hooked the 2600 up in the living room of the house I shared with my degenerate friends. Spider Fighter was a big hit and I think the only Atari game that got serious use. We had a dry erase board on the wall and for awhile we kept track of Spider Fighter high scores. This was in 96 or 97, when the 2600 was already considered way old and it was rare to ever see one. Keystone Capers is another good one that is very fast paced , good gameplay, good graphics for the Atari, and has a bit of a sense of humor. Yars Revenge is one of two video games that my dad, now 90, ever got into. He never gamed at all - AT ALL - he didn't even watch movies or tv really - but he became obsessed for a couple of months with Yars Revenge, and years later, with Dr Mario.
Yeah Spider Fighter looks and plays great so fast. Keystone Capers is tops for a lot of people to and there weren't many platformers that were any good on the Atari. Must me something about Dr Mario my sister doesn't play video game but she used to play that one too death.
Breakout sold 1.67 million. Not underrated. Of course Atari was so stupid they released their new game system 5200, with Super Breakout, a Pong-type game. Almost like bundling it with Video Olympics a game from 1977. They should have released it with Pac-Man if they wanted to sell more than 1 million consoles. Pac-Man sold separately helped sell 5 million 2600s in 1982.
Until I got an NES, I loved the 2600. To be honest, I've only heard of 5 of these. Battlezone was one of my favorites... along with Pitfall and Combat.
Nice to see Combat and Video Olympics (almost) make the list. Some games I enjoy that you did not mention are Asteriods, Spy Hunter, Breakout, Omega Race, Q*bert, Montezuma's Revenge, and Wizard of Wor.
I really liked the Atari Asteroids and as much as I liked the look of the arcade game it was too hard for me. Montezuma's Revenge is an excellent game for the Atari that really didn't have many successfully realised platform games.
I got out Q*bert during the Pandemic. That was worth playing on both difficulties to try to beat my high scores. Unlike Empire Strikes Back and Frogger, it isn't listed as selling 1 million+ copies. Breakout sold 1M+ (I cleaned my paddles and won game 1 in 1 ball again) and Asteroids 3M+; though sales don't mean you'd want to play the game again today (cough, Pac-Man, cough).
@@jeremiahthomas8140 Yes, in 2020. I won it as a kid in 5 or less balls. The logbook challenge says to do it on game 1, difficulty B: 5 balls Pro, 3 balls Master, 1 ball Wizard. I don't know how far I've gotten on difficulty A, which makes the bar shorter. But I haven't won any challenge for Super Breakout which requires difficulty A.
Loved space invaders, donkey kong, combat, adventure and played a ton of surround! Cousin had yars revenge which had me hooked and a friend had pitfall which was awesome too.
Thanks. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of River Raid myself mainly because I'm terrible at it. But considering the whole scrolling shooter had only been created the year before it is quite a historically significant game. As far as I can tell it was the first scrolling shooter on a console. Also a huge technical feat when you consider it is playing on a console that doesn't support scrolling and only has two proper(ish) sprites.
My list of Atari games as an 80's kid: Space Invaders, Adventure, Ice Hockey, E.T. (Which I honest to god enjoyed), Frogs & Flies, Yars Revenge, and Kangaroo. I'd say that is a good collection, I was lucky!
Yes that's a strong collection. E.T. is just one of those you need to read the manual games. Yars Revenge is one that I regret not having back in the day.
Nice - I’m surprised at Grand Prix being so high. The graphics are fantastic but I never cared for the game play - I might have just sucked at it. :P Thunderground is one I haven’t played - it looks interesting. Reactor is a game that doesn’t get much love I remember getting it quite late into the Atari and playing it a lot - I haven’t managed to figure it out again to be able to enjoy it with modern eyes. It is such an unusual game.
I remember being able to rent the games from my local "video shop" and the likes of ET , Indiana Jones etc. But Combat and River Raid were our goto games. For years after getting rid of the 2600 (and moving onto computers) my mother would refer to us playig computer games as "ding dinging" - as a reference to River Raid.
Glad you put Adventure at the top! Also glad to see Dragonstomper and Phaser Patrol. Personally I would put Superman on the list as a cousin of Adventure, and Communist Mutants from Space as the best bottom shooter. And also Escape from the Mindmaster, a Supercharger game where you are walking first person through mazes, solving puzzles, and avoiding a bad robot. True fact: once in the 1980s, the Mind Master declared me Awesome. How many people can say that?
I also was one of the few that had a Supercharger back in the day. Shame I didn't keep the tapes I had all of them and they are worth a bit now. I think I was being a bit dodge already putting two supercharger games on there. It was an achievement just finishing Mindmaster I can't remember what rank I got. I've been meaning to try and finish it again.
@@markrotondella4689 Let me remind you of a Mindmaster tip you've probably forgotten. The sixth and final level is a grid of rooms with doors that appear or disappear depending on how you got there. It's profoundly frustrating on the first try, and the second, and the third, and so on. So here is my tip: do NOT go to the room in the top-right corner. Every other room other than that corner room is fine. But when you go to that top right corner, it shuts the doors that lead to the exit at the bottom left, so you have to backtrack a ways to make the doors reset properly. That'll save you a lot of grief.
It will always be Pheonix over Demon Attack for my but it is great game. Dragonfire is well loved but I haven't played it much. Galazians is one that slipped by me back in the day because I assumed it would be terrible on the 2600 but they did an amazing job. I'm not even sure how it works they some how manage 7 Galaxians in a line with another one flying through. Joust I played to death and is a stella conversion.
Yeah it was a cool upgrade. Atari were silly not to do a 32x style upgrade for the system. Just RAM and extra graphics chip with a frame buffer - perhaps a sound chip and suddenly you have a nes. The super charger just added memory and it was a great upgrade.
@@markrotondella4689 My dad bought us an Atari around 1984 (I am Canadian), and unless he bought it separately, it came with Space Invaders. I guess it can depend on the year and the region.
I hadn't heard of most of the games you mention, and some of the others I actually did have, I thought they sucked almost as much as the ET game. However, you did hit some of the best games, River Raid, Pitfall, Space Invaders! Besides these there were a ton of others that were 100x better than all the others you showed. You showed a Frogger knock off but NO Frogger, that is a crime and what about Defender or Asteroids or even a basic favorite if mine Super Breakout. I have it stored away but I still have my old 2600 and about 100 games! Thanks for the video it was a fun view!
Thanks I love the enthusiasm. To make it easier I was sticking to games where the Atari is (in my opinion the best or equal best version of the game). Frogger on the Atari was fantastic both the Parker brothers version and the Starparth one but there are stronger versions of it on other platforms. I played the hell out of Defender but same is true there. I was tempted to put Asteroids in because although the arcade version is beautiful it was too hard for my liking. I wouldn't argue with anyone putting Super Breakout on their list. You should give Frostbite a go it's pretty awesome.
@@markrotondella4689 Raiders of the Lost Ark is really flawed. I don't think I discovered anything on my own that wasn't in the manual. I didn't know I could call Atari and they'd send me the walkthrough which some kids did. Also, the scoring is messed up in two ways. One, you don't see the score as you go (using the grenade, bribing the madman, and losing a life costs you points). Instead it's the height of the manlift in dots or so it's hard to count to 19.5 or 20.5. Another, is he took out some points, so when you get the maximum points it doesn't lift Indy up to the Ark like it said it should. So, I'm not sure why people say they really liked it as one of the best Atari games. Not worth playing today, even with online walkthroughs. It sold based on the name. It probably would have been better if it was an action game where you chase the truck on horseback, then fight the Nazis and drive the truck away.
My older brother lived at home forever and had a lot of disposable income so I got to play many of the ones listed here! The parachute game and fishing derby were funny to play when you got bored and purposely lose like the end of the Simpsons episode where Bart is choking on the Lee Trevino golf! Haha! My friends & I agreed in high school that the funniest characters in Space Invaders was the second to the bottom row with the little guys shooby doing their feet back and forth! Good #1 because Adventure was the one I played the most in addition to Othello.
Hard to argue with Adventure with how ground breaking it was. I also don't think anyone has managed to create another 3-5 minute to finish Adventure game.
I played Defender so much that I fried the cartridge. I didn't get another Defender cart till over a decade later when I found it in a bargain bin for about $5.
It is definitely one of the conversions that had no business working on the Atari. Also the beginning of the for the love of God add a extra button or two to the joystick which continued onto their computers. :P
Adventure was cool. Berzerk was another fun game. I always liked Joust and Superman. I'm a sports guy so I had a couple of different baseball games and tennis. Combat was definitely a favorite too. And you couldn't go wrong with Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man
I never really played much of Superman but Joust on the 2600 is very good. Evidently the M-Network baseball is quite good. Don't forget there is alway Pac-Man Jr if you are a masochist or way better at Pac-Man than me. (it's really hard)
I really recommend Thunderground, Star Trek, Space Jockey, Mountain King, Blueprint, Tunnel Runner, Turbo, Myst and Battle Tank. My Favorite top ten probably even though I haven't tried Myst and Turbo yet.❤ Great games.
Hadn't played Thunderground or Mountain King before. Turbo and Myst look crazy I love that people are still making games for the Atari. I had Battle Tank but it's Battlezone all day for me. ;)
Nintendo baby here so fascinating to learn more about a time I have little knowledge of. Had a knockoff console called a TVboy in the 90s that was filled with Atari games.
The NES is really the first console where it is still easy to go back to. They really nailed it with hardware and the games.But there is still something special about the Atari.
I remember I was trying to install an Atari 2600 emulator on certain machine, and when I set it up finally, I had just like two or three roms available to test, I tried with "Dragonstomper", never heard about it, so I tried with that... I was about 3 hours playing, it was ridiculous. Good game.
I would add a couple of titles: - Solaris (a masterpiece on VCS) - Ms.Pac-Man (different levels, great gameplay) - Pac-Man Jr. (great scrolling environment) - Crystal Castles (excellent arcade conversion) - Kung Fu Master (incredible arcade conversion) not counting some modern homebrews like Mappy :)
Yeah Solaris definitely should be there but my attention span didn't hold out for me to learn to play the game. Ms Pac-Man and Jr are masterpieces of programming although Jr is for pros only way to hard for me. That Mappy home brew is pure which craft I should do a home brew list - the Juno First and Elevator Action ones are amazing too.
Makes me feel old now, remember rushing home from school and Turing on my 2600 and playing pitfall
you and me both :P
you and me both.
Concerning Adventure... "Somebody get this freaking duck away from me!" - Strong Bad
Glad to see I made the list.
4 Phoenix? Great game.
Honestly my fav game of all of these was combat, i remember me and my brother playing it for hours when we finished our chores in vacations
Yeah friends and I played the hell out of combat.
Too bad it didn't have a computer AI version. I got Armor Ambush a couple years later, but few wanted to come over to play Atari by then.
Yes, it was like 60 games in one. I usually played the tank version.
Totally agree was just about to say Combat too. Tanks with rebounding bullets and temporary invisibility. 😅
Then Space Invaders, Pitfall.
Then we got an Atari 800xl … Anyone remember Orc Attack?
Yep playability was great with that game
Adventure is one of my favorite games of all time. I came up with the idea of randomized levels too add to replay ability but thought this would never happen. It actually happened with Atari Vault collection.
Hero, Pitfall, River Raid, Berzerk, and a few others are still a blast.
I still play adventure quite regularly it's amazing how many complicated situations you can get in. I've started playing it in stella in debug mod now and again it makes is so the keys and dragons aren't different colours so you have to figure out which keys do what. It's like level 3.5. :P
out of all the Atari 2600 games I own, these are my faves :)
Crossbow, Frogger 1 & 2, Midnight magic, Pitfall 1 & 2, Time warp, Dig dug, Plaque attack, Pole position, Radar lock, Challenge, Mario bros, Donkey kong, Asteroids, Space adventure, Spider fighter, Moon patrol, Millipede, Mouse trap, Solaris, Pacman Jr, Mrs Packman, Galaxian, River raid 1 & 2, Desert falcon, Centipede, Ghostbusters, Crystal castles & Q-bert@@markrotondella4689
That's some collection. I had a few of those I only became aware of the Atari Galaxian more recently. I knew there was one but I assumed it would be terrible but they did a great job on that,
"Created by Warren Robinet." 💕
Maze Craze, Frogs and Flies, and Journey Escape, and Fantastic Voyage.
My mom brought me to a store I haven't been to before, and they let me test some games on their TV over the counter. I tested a few, but ended with Frostbite. I played that a few times and loved it. I asked my mom to buy me that game, and she did. I played that game for years. It is a great game and I have so may great memories with it.
Great game one of the best. You must have been onto it.
I remember that game.
I didn't have a 2600 when I was a kid, but I gifted that game to my cousin.
My list:
Warlords
H.E.R.O.
Missle Command
Gravitron
Yars Revenge
Kaboom
Battlezone
One of my top games for the 2600 was Joust. Ms. Pac Man was also great. Kaboom is fantastic and I do play it from time to time.
Yes played the hell out of Joust the Atari had a great version.
Yeah ... Ms.Pacman is Pac-man done right. Imagine how much obscene amount of $$$ Atari would have made if that'd happened !!
Yeah it is a shame that the polish they put into Ms and Jr wasn't applied to Pacman. It was their best selling game who knows what they would have sold if it was actually good.
@@markrotondella4689 On the one hand Pac-Man Fever was so strong everyone wanted to play some kind of eat-dots-in-maze game, even if it was a cheesy version like the Coleco Tabletop Arcade handheld or a ripoff like K.C. Munchkin. But if it's true that they manufactured 10 million carts (1 for every Atari VCS sold before its release), then with 8 million sold, they made 2 million extra. Those may have been unloaded in new console sales in 1983, when it was bundled along with Combat. Ms. Pac-Man sold 2 million+ carts in 1983, so maybe the answer is 2 million?
Sadly, the industry standard through 1982 was for one programmer to do everything: graphic design, music and sound effects and of course programming. If they had decided to make it a team effort, some of these 1982 projects might have been better. But for Pac-Man it came down to not using an 8K ROM (as Ms. Pac-Man did), as well as having a two-player mode which used RAM to store scores and the locations of remaining dots for the player not on screen. Flicker was a problem that later games (including Ms. Pac-Man) found solutions or workarounds for. Sounds and the maze was bad, too. The VCS/2600 works best graphically when the screen is symmetrical left and right, which the original Pac-Man maze had, so why couldn't he copy the maze? Of course a video game has its monitor in "portrait" while a TV is in "landscape."
I had Kaboom, great game!
Some not listed games I play up to today are Laser Gates, Dragonfire, Megamania and Pressure Cooking. Some games in the list, like Turmoil, could really be great games, but I dislike how they become a hell too fast. Atari in fact have some games like this, Cosmic Ark and Entombed are examples (good games ruined by how fast they become impossible). Well, your list shows some games I dont know and could try. Good job.
Thanks. Laser Gates is one I have only recently become aware of it looks awesome. Dragonfire and Megamania make a lot of peoples top list they are great games. Pressure Cooker is one I think more people should know about it was the first proper time management game as far as I can tell. I think Tapper beat it but it's a little simple Pressure Cooker really was the archetype for the whole genre.
@markrotondella4689 Laser Gates is great, people don't know it, but it has just 4 stages. I have written a guide for it (and Dragonfire too), you can check at gamefaqs. Atari is really curious, some games become impossible too fast, some we can finish (like Adventure and Megamania - yeah, I beat it), and some we can even play forever, lol. I can play Asteroids and Mouse Trap, for example, as long as I want, and will never lose, I need to give up. Oh, another cool games I have not seen been mentioned reading the comments, but If you don't know, you could try: Commando Raid and Megaforce.
I'm also happy to see how you interact with all comments. Congratulations.
I loved Cosmic Ark; I played it all the time!
@@indiana2096 Yeah a lot of people love that game I have only really had a quick go at it.
Mine were Space Invaders, Pacman, Asteroids, Missile Command, Night Driver. All good games!
Yeah all fantastic ports to the Atari - a little less so with Pacman but if you took it as it's own thing there was a lot of fun to be had there.
I forgot all about Missile Command, it was a classic!
Superman was also a great game. It doesn't get much love though. What I liked the most about it was that the better you got, the quicker the game was over. For a lot of other games, when you got really good it meant playing for hours which eventually gets boring.
Superman was a very complicated game for the Atari. It had the Adventure code as a starting point (even though it came out after it) I understand. Yeah most Atari games are fun for a short burst although sometimes that is part of their appeal. Have a quick go and then go onto something else.
@@markrotondella4689 I got it out again last year to see if I could beat my best times. If you use the bridge cheat (which should have been a variation) you can beat 1 minute since it takes ~14" to repair the bridge. I studied the map more and found out where they guys start from, so brought my no-cheat time down to 1 minute! As a kid in 1982, my best recorded time was just over 1'30".
Some people say they haven't made a better Superman video game since this one!
@@markrotondella4689 Yep, the code was a fork of Adventure. Superman was one of the first video games ever to come out as a licensed tie-in with some media property--this is so common now that we barely think about it, but it had to start somewhere. I appreciate the extent to which they actually captured the character of Superman and the kinds of things he does in this primitive game.
Thank you for including the very end of the Adventure game! I was hoping you would show the complete game!! Great description, incredible game for the time! One of my favs!
Yeah I recorded a lot of games before I got lucky and got this one which was a quick to complete. I remember a lot of convincing to get my parents to this one and it did not disappoint.
Adventure was such a landmark game. First video game RPG. First open-world exploring game. First easter egg (the "secret room.") While it doesn't really hold up today, at the time it was completely revolutionary and groundbreaking; and hence remains one of my all time favorites.
Adventure really was ground breaking. It was the first time a secret was called an easter egg but there are quite a few examples that predate it. Moonlander (1972) had a hidden McDonalds. :P I still play Adventure often. I still is the only Adventure game you can complete in 5 minutes or so and actually feel like you had an Adventure
1978 !
It actually does hold up today because of the randomness caused by the bat. The one thing it needs is map seeds so that you can play an exact Game 3 layout. Many of them are cake but some are quite tricky!
@@jyutzler The randomness can really get you--the game can place the gold key, for example, in the gold castle, making that game unwinnable.
@@rikk319 Yes, there are a few combinations that are unwinnable. I don't think it is literally having a key in its own castle, but there are other combinations. All the more reason for map seeds. We could share the tougher / more interesting ones.
Loved frostbite and enduro best, I have them on my Gameboy now...🌴🌴
That's double retro! :D :D
One that really flew under the radar but is maybe my single favorite 2600 game today (not counting modern homebrews) is Midnight Magic. It's a pinball simulation, which apparently began life as an attempt to port the computer game David's Midnight Magic. But they were likely stymied by the 2600's technical limitations, so they settled for a different layout and it came out better! Weirdly, it is one of the best early pinball sims out there. It wasn't well-known in the 2600's heyday because its release was delayed for years by Atari's bankruptcy and sale--it came out in that belated burst of 2600 cartridges near the end of the platform's life.
I think it's a similar story to 2600 Battlezone--the technology made it impossible to replicate the source material, so they had to get creative.
Another pretty good, obscure pinball sim is Spectravision's Bumper Bash, which is one of the rarer 2600 cartridges out there. Its layout is a little better than Midnight Magic's, but Midnight Magic has the better physics so I'd still give it the edge.
I’m not sure If I didn’t know about or forgot about Midnight Magic - I was visualizing Video Pinball until I looked it up. It is really impressive. Don’t get me started on the 2600 Battlezone - if it was a modern homebrew I would think it was a masterpiece let alone a 1983 game.
When I was a child I also loved "Jungle Hunt", "Tutankham", "Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi. Death Star Battle".
I had totally forgotten about Tutankham I had that one back in the day it was very good, the arcade version looks fun too I'm going to have to give them both a go. :P
Jungle Hunt was a good port
@@patsfan4life I disagree. I liked the arcade, as I did many games with multiple stages like Gorf and Phoenix, but the controls were too difficult as you couldn't move the guy much on Atari. It was one of the last new games I got in 1983.
Check out the Tutankham homebrew and it’s sequel for the Commodore 64. It’s really close to the arcade. Such a unique game for its time. It’s great to see new ports of old games and how good they can turn out.
ESB was a great one too, but got repetitive fairly quickly.
The one I played over and over was pitfall, loved it! Thank you for the great video Mark!
Thanks :D :D
Ah im very partial to this system got it for my 6th birthday with super breakout and e.t. one of the best days of my life
You never forget your first system. :D
ET 🙂
ET Sucked; they ended up burying tons of unsold games because it was so bad!
Adventure, wow. I was 6. There was almost a magic to that game back then.
there is definitely a bit of magic in that code
Finally. I have seen so many TH-camrs play space invaders by blowing away the bottom guys first it's shameful. Thanks for actually knowing how to play the game. Hahahaha subbed.
Haha I know - columns!!! shoot the columns!!!
@@markrotondella4689 Had no idea about the trick to have double bullets. Would've helped immensely about 35 years ago! lol
Not a bad list. Completely missed Pitfall 2. Came out near the end of life for the 2600 and had an extra-large (for the time) memory chip in the cartridge. The playable "maze" of the cavern was huge for a 2600 game. Would not see games that size until NES, at least for my basement back in my childhood.
I only ever played the C64 version of pitfall back in the day. Evidently that version has even more hidden levels. :P
I knew adventure would be first!!! And I used to love to line up that through the neck trick on Berzerk
It was funny this first time it happens and you are - wait did that just happen!? :P
Dodge 'Em, Yar's Revenge, Demon Attack which is similar to Phoenix, Cosmic Ark, Maze Craze, Tutankham, Venture, Mouse Trap, Keystone Kapers. There are some of the one that I still like to play.
Oh Dodge "Em! I forgot about that one I imagine that one is pretty Zen once you get good at it.
Dodge 'Em is one of my favorites. So simple yet so difficult and addictive.
@@originalfred66 The logbook challenge for Dodge 'Em was so easy on difficulty B, I'd already done it before getting the blue logbook in 1982. I then put the game away, and only a few years ago got it out again when I realized I'd never beaten it on A difficulty. One has "random" placement of enemy cars, and the other has faster enemy cars. I then beat the two variations: one A, one B. Finally this year, I was able to learn enough fast-random patterns to go all the way through 15 screens with both difficulty switches on A!
Maze Craze
FOESHOW
These 2 player games were very good head-to-head with a friend: Tennis, Ice Hockey, and, for a nostalgic laugh, Basketball….
Yeah Ice Hockey was on the list till I shortened it and I couldn't decide with Tennis or Real Sports Tennis whether they are actually still good or it is just my nostalgia. I do really like both of them
@@markrotondella4689 Tennis with 2 players and classic joysticks are still fun
Basketball for Atari was the one sport game I had that was better than its counterpart on Odyssey².
th-cam.com/video/3QAoHt0tycM/w-d-xo.html
@@sandal_thong8631 wow the Odessey version must've been bad 😂
Enduro and Missile Command were 2 of my favorites. I could carry on a conversation while simultaneously playing Kaboom!
Kaboom is one of those games that you need to go into a zen mental state to do well at I think.
Played these games in the 80”s with my Brother. He saved the games and controller and dropped them back to me. Now playing with my 10 year old Son. What a blast today! Our favorite is HERO !
HERO is a masterpiece I saved an age to buy it back in the day. Such a good game still today. I got good enough to complete it again last year.
Oh man, Pressure Cooker was one of my favorite games of all time. I loved a bunch of the games, honestly. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Pressure Cooker really deserves more love than it gets. As far as I can tell it is the first proper Task Management game way before it's time. Tapper might have come out before but I'm honestly not sure. Even if it did Pressure Cooker is a more complete version of concept.
Great video! I'd forgotten how good Phoenix looked.
Yeah and mercilessly fast. I don’t think the arcade game had sprites based on the weird way the enemies move. The end boss was better but I prefer the rest of the stages in the Atari version.
Great call out for putting berserk and combat towards the top. Space invaders was so awesome (i flipped score back to zero). I was really taken with Raiders of the Lost Ark. what a great title I never hear mentioned.
Don't think I ever managed to clock Space Invader... well I did it with the two bullet cheat. Never really played Raiders it is quite complex for an Atari game.
@@markrotondella4689SI was the first game I "beat". I was pretty proud as a 7-8 year old. I didn't know about the cheat. Raiders remains one of my favorite xmas gifts ever. I actually found and played the game before xmas in '82. 🤫It was so cool, using a parachute to find the secret room and using the medallion to locate the ark with the sun shining through it. First memories that come to mind. Have not played after the 80s, but fond memories.
Berserk was perhaps the best arcade port on the system
Even when the guy was slow in Berserk, I never felt that it was an error like not being able to move the ship in Vanguard at higher levels, or trouble moving the guy in Jungle Hunt.
Yes, I also loved Raiders.
I loved the invisible dot in Adventure so I could clip through that wall
best in game invisible dot :P
Gosh, this video brings back a lot of memories.
:D :D
I loved Indy 500!!! It was a 2 player racing game and it came with special controllers that looked like paddles but instead would rotate all the way around with out stopping like the paddles did. Played the ice track for hours- so much fun!
I really wanted to put Indy 500 as the third - if you have real hardware game. It's a great game and part of driving game history. I just couldn't get even so so screen capture with cars moving. Plus it's a bit of an investment with the controllers for just the one game. The variations were fun I liked the Tag one and the catch the Dot one too.
@@markrotondella4689 Sadly, "worth playing today" doesn't fit what I call the best of their launch titles from 1977. It was worth buying in 1981, when I got it. But because it wasn't bundled with the system (like Combat) there was no incentive to make a sequel or any other game that used the Steering controller, like Tempest, Tron, or Wild Western.
It is a shame they didn't at least do a sequel with computer opponents. I guess the paddles were good enough most of the time and they didn't even use them extensively for driving games. Honestly I don't know why none of the modern consoles haven't stolen the design - make it wireless, wack a couple of analogue buttons on it - it would be an awesome controller to play Forza while laying back on the couch.
@@markrotondella4689 They kept bundling Combat with the system, even when adding Pac-Man in 1983, though both games made the system look bad. I got Armor Ambush as an upgrade to the tank fight in Combat. I suppose Time Pilot might have been updated fighter jets, though it's one player. So something like the two together could have replaced it. Likewise if they had ported the Tron arcade game, that has a tank-combat wave.
But if they weren't interested in updating Combat, then they wouldn't Indy 500. I think the original arcade game that Indy 500 came from had computer opponents and oil slicks. And they did release in arcades similar games like Super Off-Road some years later.
@@sandal_thong8631 Yeah true a combat sequel first would make much more sense.
Thank you so much. You just brought me back to 8 years old!!!!! LOL!!! !980 is when I got my first Atari.
Oh nice that's what you want with these trips down memory lane... although I still play some of these now and again :P
@@markrotondella4689 Thank you buddy.
No Asteroids? You broke my heart 😢
Ha ha sorry I was going for games where Atari version was the best version. If I was being honest I would probably still put it in there because I played the hell out of it and barely ever played the arcade version because I sucked at it. It is an amazing conversion.
@@markrotondella4689 Oh, gotcha! Yeah, the arcade version had WAY too many buttons and was extremely difficult to play but sure looked cool. Ate plenty of quarters! Those small UFOs were deadly accurate assassins, too. Getting the version at home was like a dream come true but the $40 price tag almost killed me as a 13? year old! Eventually I could flip the score though 😄 Thanks for the great video!!
Thanks :D :D how Atari managed to go bankrupt making games that just took one person to write and they were charging $200 for in today's money. :P I think I paid 70 dollars for H.E.R.O. thank God it was amazing.
Of course everyone is gonna disagree with something. My disagreement is that Haunted House was left off. That game was interesting with the different behavior of the ghost, the bat, and the 1-3 spiders. The different items, like the scepter, and the strats of using them. The 4 floors with the different locked doors, and the strat of being able to carry one thing at a time. The sound effects were awesome and scary; the best use of the sound engine. The different difficulties were great, with level 9 being a challenge for almost any gamer. The increasing difficultly was also very imaginative. It was the items, the layout, the scepter worked on everything but the ghost, the "darkness", and the overall behavior of everything. Level 9 was intense and fast! But the lower difficulties were fun because they were a little more casual and exploratory.
Not a bad list overall. I agree with putting Adventure #1, as that game was a true theater of the mind, using the hardware in it's most imaginative way. But I think Haunted House was in a similar vein. Atari couldn't compete with the arcade hardware of the time, but games like those used the Atari's strengths to their max.
Btw, good call on Berzerk. Just a fun game. And Pitfall was great for the challenge of getting to any treasure.
Hmm, I see Defender isn't there either. That was another miss. But Haunted House was the big one that think was missed. That or Adventure are the first I put on when firing up my emulator.
Yeah Haunted House is definitely iconic I didn't have it back in the day and didn't spend enough time to learn it for this I think. You might notice it is in the title graphic but hard to argue it probably should have been in there. Defender is an amazing conversion that one snuck out because I was looking at game where the Atari was the best way to play the game. Honestly I probably still could have put it in because I have played Atari Defender for hours upon hours but barely never played it on any other platform. Mainly because I sucked at the original.
A great list! Thank you for mentioning Solar Fox! I think you're the first person on TH-cam to do so! I remember playing that one constantly as a kid, but it seems to have been almost lost to time. It was an amazing arcade game as well!
Thanks :D I've never seen the arcade version in the wild. It is such a bizarre game.
Love that the clip of Berzerk here caught the glitch where a bullet can pass through the gap between the guy's head and his body (the 2600 had built-in player collision detection but it was pixel-based; no concept of a hitbox).
There was a whole universe of Space Invaders-derived shooters where you moved left and right at the bottom of the screen and fired upward at invading enemies--the Atari platform turned out to be really good for these, once some fundamental tricks were known, and all manufacturers pumped them out. Atari released a pretty good version of Galaxian, belatedly, and Phoenix. Imagic had Demon Attack, which you mentioned in the Phoenix segment. Activision had Spider Fighter and Megamania. These were all fun games though the multiplication of them probably saturated the market.
I think my favorite of the Star Raiders-derived first-person space shooters on the 2600 is a dark horse: Imagic's Star Voyager. It simplified the game, taking out the Galactic Chart strategy element and concentrating on making the first-person combat loop play really well. In that sense, it was going back to simpler arcade shooters like Starship 1/Star Ship, just really refined. A lot of people seem to have been disappointed by the lack of depth and unfavorably compare it to Starmaster, but I think the simplified gameplay made Star Voyager a better fit for a simple platform--they didn't have to struggle so much with the control scheme.
In the vein of Combat and Video Olympics, another simple, early one that is an absolute blast if and only if you've got multiple players is Outlaw, their old West shootout game. It's an inherently two-player game--I think there are one-player modes but they're not much fun. But it's like the 1978 version of Halo Slayer mode, great for destroying your dear friends in your living room. The name implies that it's a port of Atari's arcade Outlaw, but that was a light-gun game, completely different--it's actually an unlicensed knockoff of Midway's Gun Fight and Boot Hill. Those had a different control scheme, precursors of the twin-stick shooter. Atari had to make it work with a single joystick per player and they figured out a way--you aim your gun by holding down the fire button and it fires when you release. It actually works pretty well once you get the hang of it and the two-player shootout is just tremendous fun.
Fixed shooters like Space Invaders were really well represented on the Atari it is a genre that I miss we kind of threw the baby out with the bath water when we moved onto scrolling shooters. Yes they are visually more flash but I wish both continued on they were few and far between after the early 80s.
I missed Galaxian on the Atari back in the day because I assumed it would be terrible but it is actually fantastic. Space Invaders has no business working on the Atari let alone Galaxian. They use the one player object to display up to 7 across the same row on the screen which means they are reallocating it mid scan line while duplexing it - absolutely nuts.
Midways Gun Fight is also the first arcade game to use a CPU so the first commercial video game to actually be a proper computer game. All the games before it were discrete logic so basically computers that could only ever do one thing.
I got Atari 2600 from 1980 and played until about 1985. Probably had about 30-40 cartridges so I’m always amazed by how many of the games on these “greatest hits” lists I’ve never played or even seen. Jungle Hunt is one of my favourites. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this list. Very informative and fun to watch. 🎉
Thanks :D :D
Same. Aardvark? Never heard of it before this video.
I used to be able to play a game of space invaders forever - rolling the points over multiple times in one go. The only thing that would cause me to die would be mom calling for dinner. Good times.
My father would play it for hours. :P
Agreed on Phoenix and Berserk, as being the best arcade ports on the system and perhaps even more playable than the arcade versions, as you mentioned.
I thought Enduro should have made the list for its groundbreaking technical achievement and replayability
I agree Enduro is an amazing achievement I just wish it was a more conventional race rather a passathon sacrilege I know. :/
@@markrotondella4689 "Passathon" is a good description of so-called race games where your opponent is miles ahead of you and driving slowly for you to catch up, pass and never see again! Of those, Turbo (1981) was my favorite with the Ambulance making you pull over and crossing a narrow bridge; I also played Outrun(1986) and the one you sit on a motorcycle. Perhaps the overhead games like Super Sprint (1986) were more of a race. They brought some back like Super Off-Road (1989). Apparently Indy 500 (one of the original Atari 9 in 1977) was similar to Sprint (1978) but without the oil slicks.
Yes I had Indy 500 back in the day - it was a great game. Could have used a computer opponent and they could have done the slicks with the bullet sprites. Shame they didn't use the driving controllers for anything else.
I got my atari 2600 in 1981 when Space Invaders was the big christmas hit. The base pack came with combat. I still fire up Space Invaders on my MiSTer FPGA on a regular basis. I loved that game as a kid 🙂 There is an "A.I." romhack for combat which allows you to play single player with a computer controller tank. pretty cool.
The MiSTer is a great investment. I love mine, the new developments with Playstation 1 are very exciting.
@@markrotondella4689 it’s hands down the best piece of retro hardware I have purchased. I love all the cores. AO486 and X68000 with the mt32pi are awesome as well :-)
It is also money saving - anytime I start thinking about collecting for Master System or what ever I just have to remind myself I can play them all on Mister. :P
Raider of the lost ark, Dig dug, Enduro and Jungle hunt, 4 little gems.
They would make a lot of peoples top games.
Adventure was just mind-boggling when I popped that cartridge (label then were just some weird alphanumeric symbol and no graphical dragon yet) into my VCS. Multiple screen plays were incredible to me 45 years ago !!
They captured the look-and-feel of the game Phoenix perfectly !! I couldn't believe they could do River Raid & H.E.R.O on such primitive 2600 hardware. Got a party? Put on that packing combat game & see how it drew in the crowd !!
I still play Adventure on the regular and recently spent a couple of days getting good at H.E.R.O. Much easier these days with being able to save I must of played it so much back in the day to learn all the levels without it. Those games are 128 byte (RAM) master pieces mind blowing achievements.
It’s unfortunate that you you weren’t a fan of Yars. It was one of the first games that included evolving levels and difficulty that required more than just adapting to faster speed for higher levels. The enemy got faster and smarter while you had to concoct a new strategy using unboosted and unchanged skills. Imagine Bezerk where you could only fire to the right and the enemy robots fire could chase you around the screen. It was an early masterpiece.
I know I really should put the time in and see if it grabs me but so far it's one where I think I might have missed the boat
@@markrotondella4689 So did you put the time in? YOu are missing out!!!!!!
Yars seemed to be too easy. Went on until you decided to turn it off.
@@jasonc2784 I will agree that you could play forever, if you evolved with the enemy. That said, my point still remains, it was still revolutionary game play. Pretty much every other game on the console simply moved faster or swapped to a handful of different level layouts.
Love yars revenge.
I had to rewind when you said, "Number 9" a few times. Reminded me of something :&)
Haha where did I put my White Album? :P
This a really solid list. I have most of these and played the heck out of them as a kid. Kaboom, somehow, has always been my favorite but you really need original hardware and a paddle.
Some of the emulators have decent mouse paddle support. I have been trying for ages to find a reasonably priced replacement for paddles on a modern computer. It really is a shame you can't easily play these game now.
Paddles, but also having a CRT is important. The lag in modern flat screens makes a surprising difference. I think the paddle games for the Atari are chronically underrated because most reviewers don't have good ones.
George Costanza would be very proud of you for using the Frogger theme!
I was wondering who the GLC was on my high score table. :P
I was really into the system and knew about every game. Maze Craze was a blast for multiplayer! War Lords the same. You listed some games I think some people never heard of. And how could you leave Astroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Ms. Pac-Man off of the list?
I was hoping I would be introducing a few games even to people that had the Atari back in the day. To make it a little easier for myself I only listed game where I think the Atari is the best version of that game. Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Ms. Pac-Man are all amazing conversions and no doubt some of the best games on the system but I think there are better versions on other systems... You could argue Asteroids because it's a very different game on the Atari so kind of it's own thing and I think a bit more enjoyable.
@@markrotondella4689 Oh. Ok. I just remember playing those games for hours! I also wore out Circus Atari. Look at that one if you have never seen it.
I've seen many of these lists. Thanks for including the Starpath games.
Thanks, I actually had one back in the day and most of the games so there was no way they weren't going to be mentioned.
Adventure still is my #1 favorite. I try to play it either in EMU7800 (a 2600/7800 game aggregator for Windows) or on developer Warren Robinett’s website when I have a little time to kill.
One game that you didn’t mention but was great fun for me was Atari’s Slot Racers. It has the same premise as Combat, but the duelers are cannon-fitted cars that drive around on a complex street grid. I was a master of it back in the day, and I never got tired of destroying my buddies in it.
Another fun one for me was Activision’s Megamania. It has the same basic premise as Space Invaders and its successors, but the enemies are waves of mundane objects such as dice and bow ties, each wave swooping on screen briefly, pulsating and wavering, then swooping off screen so the next wave can swoop on screen.
I had a few Imagic games that were visually impressive but too complex for me to figure out completely. (Imagic’s game manuals seemed quite vague to me.)
Oh yeah lot racers definitely has that combat appeal to it. Megamania is great - the Atari had quite the selection of great fixed shooters it's a genre that I miss. For some reason or another I never had any of the Imagic games back in the day although I was aware of them. They are well loved Demond Attack is fantastic (best game box art work ever) but I'll always be a Pheonix man. :P Atlantis feels super stressful.
Our generation is the best! We have seen the evolution of the video games industry from the pong and Atari days to what it is now! We are so lucky
It's a little weird to be part of history and I really think that is what we experienced from pong to real time 4K ray traced games it's an incredible progression and it fantastic the library of decades of games you can have access to now very cheaply.
@@markrotondella4689 Yesh, and the beauty of it all is that we can remember being amazed by the graphics of every generation along the way. Like the first time we saw a NES game after having played only Atari and Intellivision before. And later the epic war between Sega Genesis and SNES. ( I was team Sega back in the day). Then the era of 3D games with the Sega Saturn, N64 and the very first Playstation. Impossible to forget it.
The jumps were dramatic back in the day each Generation is leagues ahead of the previous one.
My father was so worried that Pong would ruin the TV tube, he hardly let us play. It wasn't until my brother bought his own TV that we got a 2600 and played in out room all the time.
@@CCQ75 I worked at a department store, like a Walmart when the Nintendo came out. When the NES showed up at the store Atari had just released a revamped smaller version of the 2600 but the NES killed it because to was so far ahead in tech it wasn't even funny!
Good list. It's astounding that they were able to make Pitfall 2 and HERO on the 2600 - those are relatively complex games. I would have put Superman on this list as well - quite a good game for the time.
Yeah no frame buffer and 128 bytes of RAM they really are impressive.
Pitfall II had a lot bigger ROM built into the cart than the typical 4K but I believe HERO got it done within the typical 4k
Pitfall II had an co processor Display Processor Chip that helped with the sound and graphics. They both had bank shifting to go over the normal 4K.
Amazing video, this took me back many many years, can't believe how many games I forgot about
Thanks - I've been reminded of quite a few I forgot about too in the comments.
In the show Clarence, Clarence and his stepdad play a game called "dragon's cusp" which is a nod to Adventure .
I had a look on the youtube watching him set up the Atari pretty funny. Although composite leads we wish :P
I spent a lot of time playing Yars' Revenge! Also, The Empire Strikes Back was great!
I kind of missed the boat on Yars revenge I didn't have it back in the day. I didn't have empire either but I played it quite a bit on friends systems.
I was a big fan of Dark Cavern (also sold as Night Stalker for the Coleco system). While not an actual Atari release it, and Haunted House, were my favorite games from the 1980s.
Dark Cavern does look good I don't remember seeing the M Network Atari games down this part of the world. I feel like I need to give Haunted House more of a go I never had it back in the day.
@@markrotondella4689 My favorite (and first) Choose Your Own Adventure book was a "haunted" house, "Mystery of Chimney Rock." There's not much to Haunted House for Atari. Too bad they didn't adapt that story, or another. Having a couple screens in the dark, like the catacombs in Adventure, would be OK, but the whole game?
Dark Caverns was a good one. I was happy to have it on the Atari Vault collection add-on pack. Definitely a hidden gem.
Great list. Personally I'd have included Superman. Possibly Defender and Asteroids as well.
Yeah Superman does deserve a mention it features quite a few innovations and firsts. Hard to argue about Defender and Asteroids both great ports that I played the hell out of.
Brings back all the memories of my childhood with my brothers. Oh and dont forgrt E.T. the game. I LOVED IT!
I really should give ET a play through. I do actually have the cartridge. :D
ET is considered one of the worst games ever made.
@@shawbros not to me.
The most underrated 2600 game. It wasn't perfect but it was fun and completely original
I think it's playable by kids over 10, or 11 (I played it at 12 in 1983). But falling in the pit was a game-killer for little kids, even when putting the game on easy mode with no enemy scientist or enemy F.B.I. agent. That's why so many parents took it back to the store. The last time I played it, I ended on Round 7, I think, meaning E.T. went home 6 times.
The game should have been an action-bicycle chase game. We got Paperboy a few years later.
Cool game reviews and list, thank you!
Thanks :D
Respect for giving Adventure top ranking. My friend had it on his Atari, but he never wanted to play when I came over (I guess he could always play the Atari), so I only saw snippets, as he was finishing up a game or something. It seemed magical, and once I got an Atari of my own, it was a game I really enjoyed. With the extensive maps, tool use and so forth, it seemed like a deeper game than others for the system. I will admit that I didn't go back to it that often, once I'd moved onto other games. It didn't have the same sort of action-based adrenaline rush for me, but I got my enjoyment out of it, and it I'd still point to it as one of the most perfect games of its era.
We had what seems like a great deal of Atari games, but a fair number of the ones on your list I've never played. I have to say that I don't share the fondness for Combat that a lot of people seem to have. There just isn't a lot to it, and the action is very limited. Honestly the most interesting part was how it would randomly glitch and throw a tank to the other side of the screen. That made things briefly interesting.
I think I like Warlords more in retrospect (and maybe conceptually) than I did at the time (and maybe in practice). That's not to say I didn't like it back then, but we only played it a modest amount. It felt a bit limited, and it required 4 people to be really fun (or 3 at the very least). I think if there was just a little more to it, it might have appealed to me more. Still a cool game though, and like I said, it's one I probably have more fondness for now.
Pitfall is, of course, a classic. Berzerk was fun, but it wasn't something that engaged me as much my very favorite games. Some things I really liked that aren't on your list:
• Demon Attack -- We didn't own Phoenix though, and perhaps I would've felt like you do if we had.
• Seaquest -- Great action on this one. I remember playing it for hours on end.
• Asteroids -- A relatively early favorite of mine. It didn't see as much play later on, but that was perhaps because I wore it out, playing it so much at a time I had few other games.
• Megamania -- All those different levels with different action? I've always appreciated multi-stage space games, like Gorf, and it really scratched that itch. The only real shortcoming was that I couldn't sink into the groove of it the way I could some other games, partly because it got very challenging pretty quickly.
• Tutankham -- Had a lot of fun playing this one. With its big maps, it had some of the questy/adventurey feel of Adventure.
Yeah I'm glad it's fondly remembered it really is a ground breaking game and a lot of things came together to make it work. You really can't take any element out (even the flickering) without damaging the game.
I think Combat was a great pack in game but once everyone was proficient at it I think you are right it loses a lot of it's appeal. The pong tank variation could still be fun but really the game is at it's best when the players aren't any good at it.
Stampede by Activision, Demon Attack and Atlantis by Imagic, The 2600's version of Asteroids, Laser Blast by Activision. Those were my favorites
I think Stampede is one game that could actually do with a modern remake - a VR Stampede would be intense. Demon Attack is fantastic I was tempted to cheat and put it with Pheonix but the truth is I'm team Pheonix. Atlantis and Laser Blast a definitely iconic and I do prefer the Atari Asteroids to the arcade version but mainly because I suck at the arcade version. :P
My favorite on this list is Yar's Revenge. It was a fantastic game to spend a little or kill a lot of time! Battlezone was one of my favorites as well, and I still think it has some of the best graphics on the system. Combat was a fun one I used to play with my dad. The Atari had a lot of bad games that I would challenge as even being games, but, when it was right, it was sooo right! I had a lot of fun times with it!
I love Battlezone I would have put i higher but I felt it was personal bias. The graphics are crazy and only 4 years into the system. The player Tank has no business being on the Atari it uses every graphical element to create it, including changing the colour of the screen twice mid scanline to colour the turret.
I hope you caught the game code dissection video about Yar's Revenge. Apparently the flashing invulnerability field was showing actual game's code (encrypted)!
My favorites were: Yars’ Revenge, Combat, River Raid, MegaMania, Vanguard, Cosmic Ark and Pac-Man
Fantastic games... yes they got it right with Ms Pac-Man but if you take it as it's own thing Pac-Man is still a fun game.
Spider Fighter is another classic Atari game that holds up. It's similar to Space Invaders or Phoenix.
In the late nineties when I was in my early twenties, I hooked the 2600 up in the living room of the house I shared with my degenerate friends. Spider Fighter was a big hit and I think the only Atari game that got serious use. We had a dry erase board on the wall and for awhile we kept track of Spider Fighter high scores. This was in 96 or 97, when the 2600 was already considered way old and it was rare to ever see one.
Keystone Capers is another good one that is very fast paced , good gameplay, good graphics for the Atari, and has a bit of a sense of humor.
Yars Revenge is one of two video games that my dad, now 90, ever got into. He never gamed at all - AT ALL - he didn't even watch movies or tv really - but he became obsessed for a couple of months with Yars Revenge, and years later, with Dr Mario.
Yeah Spider Fighter looks and plays great so fast. Keystone Capers is tops for a lot of people to and there weren't many platformers that were any good on the Atari. Must me something about Dr Mario my sister doesn't play video game but she used to play that one too death.
Nice selection. Check out Beamrider, Snoopy vs The Red Baron, Fantastic Voyage and Laser Gate if you don't know these games. They're very good!
They are great games. Have you seen the home brews of Scramble and Juno First they are both insanely well done.
@@markrotondella4689 Nice to know, I'll search it. I don't know the homebrew scene. This is a good theme for a video! :)
Beamrider would definitely be on my list.
Breakout with the paddle controllers was one of my favorites. The 2600 version was underrated.
Breakout is definitely a classic. I love a bit of DX-Ball I'd say a new take on Breakout but it's old enough to be a classic it's self. :P
Breakout sold 1.67 million. Not underrated. Of course Atari was so stupid they released their new game system 5200, with Super Breakout, a Pong-type game. Almost like bundling it with Video Olympics a game from 1977. They should have released it with Pac-Man if they wanted to sell more than 1 million consoles. Pac-Man sold separately helped sell 5 million 2600s in 1982.
Played Adventure so much I was able to find the Easter Egg. Good memories.
Yeah we found the dot it back in the day. The flickering with less objects clued us into the fact it was there.
Loved pitfall.
It is a landmark game.
Good list and you had to limit the number of,beers. But chop lifter deserves mention.
That one slipped under my radar I had no idea someone had made one.
Warlords arcade game version was off the hook!
I can imagine I don't think I ever saw it in the wild. The atari homebrew version is very impressive.
That's a wonderful list I have not heard of many of those ones! My favourite games when I was a kid was: Dark Chambers and Quick Step. ❤
Quick Step looks interesting I might give it a go.
Until I got an NES, I loved the 2600.
To be honest, I've only heard of 5 of these. Battlezone was one of my favorites... along with Pitfall and Combat.
I still love the Atari 2600 Battlezone I would have put it higher but I know it would be a struggle for modern eyes.
It sure would be... I also have presbyopia. My eyes are perfect other than being old. 😄
Nice to see Combat and Video Olympics (almost) make the list. Some games I enjoy that you did not mention are Asteriods, Spy Hunter, Breakout, Omega Race, Q*bert, Montezuma's Revenge, and Wizard of Wor.
I really liked the Atari Asteroids and as much as I liked the look of the arcade game it was too hard for me. Montezuma's Revenge is an excellent game for the Atari that really didn't have many successfully realised platform games.
I got out Q*bert during the Pandemic. That was worth playing on both difficulties to try to beat my high scores. Unlike Empire Strikes Back and Frogger, it isn't listed as selling 1 million+ copies. Breakout sold 1M+ (I cleaned my paddles and won game 1 in 1 ball again) and Asteroids 3M+; though sales don't mean you'd want to play the game again today (cough, Pac-Man, cough).
@@sandal_thong8631 You cleared both sets of bricks with one ball?
@@jeremiahthomas8140 Yes, in 2020. I won it as a kid in 5 or less balls. The logbook challenge says to do it on game 1, difficulty B: 5 balls Pro, 3 balls Master, 1 ball Wizard. I don't know how far I've gotten on difficulty A, which makes the bar shorter. But I haven't won any challenge for Super Breakout which requires difficulty A.
@sandal_thong8631 I do not think I have ever cleared both sets with all five balls. Once the bar gets short from hitting the top, it gets really hard.
Loved space invaders, donkey kong, combat, adventure and played a ton of surround! Cousin had yars revenge which had me hooked and a friend had pitfall which was awesome too.
Donkey Kong is pretty impressive for the Atari.
Had Phoenix, but it came out with the Atari Force comic.
How have I never heard their was an Atari comic!?
@@markrotondella4689 They came in certain Space-type games. Like Star Raider, Defender
Loved Pitfall, but to Mute the second one after awhile due to the music got annoying.
Music is not the Atari's strong suit. :P
Solid list. I feel that River Raid gets a little overrated, but this list certainly gives deference to some obscure titles, cheers to that.
Thanks. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of River Raid myself mainly because I'm terrible at it. But considering the whole scrolling shooter had only been created the year before it is quite a historically significant game. As far as I can tell it was the first scrolling shooter on a console. Also a huge technical feat when you consider it is playing on a console that doesn't support scrolling and only has two proper(ish) sprites.
Asterix was my fav. I loved it.
It looks interesting can't say I've played that one.
5:46: I love this awesome masterpiece!
It doesn't get the credit it is due.
Oh my word ...my stomach just turned when I started watching this The memories are deep :-)
Crack open an emulator and take a walk down memory lane. :D
My list of Atari games as an 80's kid: Space Invaders, Adventure, Ice Hockey, E.T. (Which I honest to god enjoyed), Frogs & Flies, Yars Revenge, and Kangaroo. I'd say that is a good collection, I was lucky!
Yes that's a strong collection. E.T. is just one of those you need to read the manual games. Yars Revenge is one that I regret not having back in the day.
I drop my top 100 list here :
1. Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man
2. Pitfall & Pitfall 2
3. Frogger & Frogger 2
4. Qbert
5. H.E.R.O.
6. Enduro
7. Grand Prix
8. Xenophobe
9. Berzerk
10. Tutankham
11. Dark Cavern
12. Dark Chambers
14. Adventure
15. Jungle Hunt
16. Thunderground
17. Mr. Do
18. Dig Dug
19. Wizard of War
20. Amidor
21. Lock 'N' Chase
22. Smurf
23. Robin Hood
24. Crossbow
25. Skiing
26. Double Dragon
27. Kungfu master
28. Crazy Climber
29. Towering Inferno
30. Fire Fighter
31. Haunted House
32. Escape from the Mindmaster
33. Tunnel Runner
34. Crypts of Chaosl
35. Battlezone
36. Robot Tank
37. Space Shuttle
38. Star Trek
39. Barnstroming
40. Jungle Fever
41. Chopper Command
42. Super Cobra
43. Sea Hawk
44. Seaquest
45. Name This Game
46. Polaris
47. Fathom
48. Atlantis
49. Ghostbusters
50. Journey Escape
51. Beamrider
52. Air Riders
53. River Raid
54. Time Pilot
55. Sky Jinks
56. Vanguard
57. Pole Position
58. Sprint Master
59. Night Driver
60. Moon Patrol
61. Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
62. Star Fox
63. Stargate
64. Star Raiders
65. Asteroids
66. Gyruss
67. Defender
68. Laser Gates
69. Galaxian
70. Space Invaders
71. Reactor
72. Threshold
73. MegaMania
74. Spider Fighter
75. Phoenix
76. Turmoil
77. Demon Attack
78. Centipede
79. Missile Command
80. Alien
81. Laser Blast
82. Plaque Attack
83. Superman
84. Rampage!
85. Freeway
86. Kaboom
87. Lost Luggage
88. Sky Diver
89. Joust
90. Fire Fly
91. Frog Pond
92. Pressure Cooker
93. Oink!
94. Shark Attack
95. Adventures of Tron
96. Keystone Kapers
97. Frankenstein
98. Kangaroo
99. Bugs
100. Surround
Nice - I’m surprised at Grand Prix being so high. The graphics are fantastic but I never cared for the game play - I might have just sucked at it. :P Thunderground is one I haven’t played - it looks interesting. Reactor is a game that doesn’t get much love I remember getting it quite late into the Atari and playing it a lot - I haven’t managed to figure it out again to be able to enjoy it with modern eyes. It is such an unusual game.
I remember being able to rent the games from my local "video shop" and the likes of ET , Indiana Jones etc. But Combat and River Raid were our goto games. For years after getting rid of the 2600 (and moving onto computers) my mother would refer to us playig computer games as "ding dinging" - as a reference to River Raid.
We couldn't rent til at least NES I think.
Great Video. Thanks for introducing me to Aardvark
Thanks they did an amazing job on that game.
Glad you put Adventure at the top! Also glad to see Dragonstomper and Phaser Patrol.
Personally I would put Superman on the list as a cousin of Adventure, and Communist Mutants from Space as the best bottom shooter. And also Escape from the Mindmaster, a Supercharger game where you are walking first person through mazes, solving puzzles, and avoiding a bad robot.
True fact: once in the 1980s, the Mind Master declared me Awesome. How many people can say that?
I also was one of the few that had a Supercharger back in the day. Shame I didn't keep the tapes I had all of them and they are worth a bit now. I think I was being a bit dodge already putting two supercharger games on there. It was an achievement just finishing Mindmaster I can't remember what rank I got. I've been meaning to try and finish it again.
@@markrotondella4689 Let me remind you of a Mindmaster tip you've probably forgotten. The sixth and final level is a grid of rooms with doors that appear or disappear depending on how you got there. It's profoundly frustrating on the first try, and the second, and the third, and so on. So here is my tip: do NOT go to the room in the top-right corner. Every other room other than that corner room is fine. But when you go to that top right corner, it shuts the doors that lead to the exit at the bottom left, so you have to backtrack a ways to make the doors reset properly. That'll save you a lot of grief.
Imagic's Demon Attack and Dragonfire were awesome. M-Network had a good baseball game. Galaxian and Joust also kicked ass.
It will always be Pheonix over Demon Attack for my but it is great game. Dragonfire is well loved but I haven't played it much. Galazians is one that slipped by me back in the day because I assumed it would be terrible on the 2600 but they did an amazing job. I'm not even sure how it works they some how manage 7 Galaxians in a line with another one flying through. Joust I played to death and is a stella conversion.
I think people would have been interested to know Dragonstomper used a cassette tape to play.
Yeah it was a cool upgrade. Atari were silly not to do a 32x style upgrade for the system. Just RAM and extra graphics chip with a frame buffer - perhaps a sound chip and suddenly you have a nes. The super charger just added memory and it was a great upgrade.
Didn't Combat come with the Atari console?
Yeah for a long time. In later years it was Pac Man and then a dodgy multi cart in the end.
@@markrotondella4689 My dad bought us an Atari around 1984 (I am Canadian), and unless he bought it separately, it came with Space Invaders. I guess it can depend on the year and the region.
@@toptenguy1 I can't imagine it wasn't a pack-in at some stage somewhere :P
The first ones did.
I hadn't heard of most of the games you mention, and some of the others I actually did have, I thought they sucked almost as much as the ET game. However, you did hit some of the best games, River Raid, Pitfall, Space Invaders! Besides these there were a ton of others that were 100x better than all the others you showed. You showed a Frogger knock off but NO Frogger, that is a crime and what about Defender or Asteroids or even a basic favorite if mine Super Breakout. I have it stored away but I still have my old 2600 and about 100 games! Thanks for the video it was a fun view!
Thanks I love the enthusiasm. To make it easier I was sticking to games where the Atari is (in my opinion the best or equal best version of the game). Frogger on the Atari was fantastic both the Parker brothers version and the Starparth one but there are stronger versions of it on other platforms. I played the hell out of Defender but same is true there. I was tempted to put Asteroids in because although the arcade version is beautiful it was too hard for my liking. I wouldn't argue with anyone putting Super Breakout on their list. You should give Frostbite a go it's pretty awesome.
my favourite was always Missile Command on the 2600
it is a great conversion another game that based on the hardware has no business being able to run on the Atari
Great list! I'd add Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of The Lost Ark, Haunted House, Missile Command and Defender as well.
Yeah they are all great titles although I haven't played Raiders to be honest.
@@markrotondella4689 Raiders of the Lost Ark is really flawed. I don't think I discovered anything on my own that wasn't in the manual. I didn't know I could call Atari and they'd send me the walkthrough which some kids did. Also, the scoring is messed up in two ways. One, you don't see the score as you go (using the grenade, bribing the madman, and losing a life costs you points). Instead it's the height of the manlift in dots or so it's hard to count to 19.5 or 20.5. Another, is he took out some points, so when you get the maximum points it doesn't lift Indy up to the Ark like it said it should. So, I'm not sure why people say they really liked it as one of the best Atari games. Not worth playing today, even with online walkthroughs.
It sold based on the name. It probably would have been better if it was an action game where you chase the truck on horseback, then fight the Nazis and drive the truck away.
Chopper Command!
I loved it as a kid I did give it a hard look to make the list
My older brother lived at home forever and had a lot of disposable income so I got to play many of the ones listed here! The parachute game and fishing derby were funny to play when you got bored and purposely lose like the end of the Simpsons episode where Bart is choking on the Lee Trevino golf! Haha! My friends & I agreed in high school that the funniest characters in Space Invaders was the second to the bottom row with the little guys shooby doing their feet back and forth! Good #1 because Adventure was the one I played the most in addition to Othello.
Hard to argue with Adventure with how ground breaking it was. I also don't think anyone has managed to create another 3-5 minute to finish Adventure game.
Some great choices here. Bouncing bullets in Combat was the best!
Pong tank is fantastic.
Great list and concise look at all of these, thanks.
Thanks :D :D
Thanks :D :D
Atari version of Defender was excellent!
yeah they did an amazing job with that one
I played Defender so much that I fried the cartridge. I didn't get another Defender cart till over a decade later when I found it in a bargain bin for about $5.
It is definitely one of the conversions that had no business working on the Atari. Also the beginning of the for the love of God add a extra button or two to the joystick which continued onto their computers. :P
Adventure was cool. Berzerk was another fun game. I always liked Joust and Superman. I'm a sports guy so I had a couple of different baseball games and tennis. Combat was definitely a favorite too. And you couldn't go wrong with Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man
I never really played much of Superman but Joust on the 2600 is very good. Evidently the M-Network baseball is quite good. Don't forget there is alway Pac-Man Jr if you are a masochist or way better at Pac-Man than me. (it's really hard)
I really recommend Thunderground, Star Trek, Space Jockey, Mountain King, Blueprint, Tunnel Runner, Turbo, Myst and Battle Tank. My Favorite top ten probably even though I haven't tried Myst and Turbo yet.❤ Great games.
Hadn't played Thunderground or Mountain King before. Turbo and Myst look crazy I love that people are still making games for the Atari. I had Battle Tank but it's Battlezone all day for me. ;)
I loved all of them and you got the number order right too.
Thanks :D :D
Nintendo baby here so fascinating to learn more about a time I have little knowledge of. Had a knockoff console called a TVboy in the 90s that was filled with Atari games.
The NES is really the first console where it is still easy to go back to. They really nailed it with hardware and the games.But there is still something special about the Atari.
I remember I was trying to install an Atari 2600 emulator on certain machine, and when I set it up finally, I had just like two or three roms available to test, I tried with "Dragonstomper", never heard about it, so I tried with that... I was about 3 hours playing, it was ridiculous. Good game.
Still not a bad way to kill an hour. :P
I would add a couple of titles:
- Solaris (a masterpiece on VCS)
- Ms.Pac-Man (different levels, great gameplay)
- Pac-Man Jr. (great scrolling environment)
- Crystal Castles (excellent arcade conversion)
- Kung Fu Master (incredible arcade conversion)
not counting some modern homebrews like Mappy :)
Yeah Solaris definitely should be there but my attention span didn't hold out for me to learn to play the game. Ms Pac-Man and Jr are masterpieces of programming although Jr is for pros only way to hard for me. That Mappy home brew is pure which craft I should do a home brew list - the Juno First and Elevator Action ones are amazing too.