Retro Shovel's Top 30 Atari 2600 Games
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2016
- This is our list of the top 30 Atari 2600 games. I'm sure we've missed some great games so feel free to comment below with your list of top 30 games.
30 - Snoopy and the Red Baron
29 - Enduro
28 - Worm War I
27 - Frankenstein's Monster
26 - Towering Inferno
25 - Yar's Revenge
24 - Fishing Derby
23 - TRON: Deadly Discs
22 - Space Invaders
21 - Jawbreaker
20 - Pacman
19 - Pitfall!
18 - H.E.R.O.
17 - Frogger
16 - Solar Fox
15 - Star Wars:Death Star Battle
14 - Carnival
13 - Fast Food
12 - Cosmic Ark
11 - Frogs & Flies
10 - COMBAT
09 - Demon Attack
08 - Track & Field
07 - Frostbite
06 - Mario Bros.
05 - Missile Command
04 - Jungle Hunt
03 - Asteroids
02 - River Raid
01 - Spider Fighter
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Good list of games, I would put them in a different order myself, but like you said it is a retro thing. Pac-man is a great example, even though everyone can agree that it is not a good version, when I was a kid I still played it plenty, as it was the version of pac-man that I could play at home. Games I liked not on the list: Demon Attack, Adventure, Superman and Maze Craze. Good video.
Thanks for the compliment. Completely agree with you on Pac-Man, not a great game but I enjoyed it as a kid. Oh and Demon Attack did make the list, #9 I believe. Definitely see the appeal of the other games you listed as well. Thanks for watching.
Pac-Man was horrible. The reason we played it all the time was the fact that our parents shelled out 30 bucks for the game (i.e. a large amount in 1980). We'd be doing them a disservice if we didn't at least "appear" to enjoy the game and get some mileage out of it. There were many instances that the box art and the game itself did not live up to the hype or be even remotely similar to the arcade original. Ms. Pac-Man was a much better rendition of this classic game.
Mss Pac-man is much better
It's not a good port, but if it was just a standalone game without the Pac-Man name, nobody would have bitched about it. It's actually a good game....It's just not a good port/representation of the original source material
@@redfanrod The box art of the Atari 2600 cartridges were made solely to augment the imagination while playing the games. It was not meant to portray the look of the actual game.
Keystone Kapers should've been on here
Logical Extreme Single player versus multiplayer though, two different animals
Defender, berzerk and moon patrol should have been in there
Defender for 2600 had better gameplay than the arcade game, so definitely.
@@neildennis7294 Uh, no. I was hoping to get Stargate, one of only 5 games released by Atari in 1984 that supposedly fixed the problems with Defender.
@@sandal_thong8631 stargate? I have to play that.
@@neildennis7294 It was one of only 5 games released by Atari in 1984. I think I heard of it and wanted it, but I bought (or was given) my last new Atari cartridges in 1983, Moon Patrol being the best one.
Where’s kaboom?!?!
Great list.
Here’s mine:
30) Combat. So many great memories with my friend. Air-Sea battle an honorable mention here.
29) Secret Quest. The precursor to Zelda.
28) E.T. For nostalgia only. My friend had this and I played it all the time, much to his frustration as he thought it sucked and that my time would have better spent doing anything besides.
27) Klax. Tengen puzzle gem.
26) Joust. Decent port.
26) Kaboom. Great paddle game.
25) Enduro. Favor this over Pole Position, though I had Pole Position II on the 7800, and it was great.
24) Keystone Kapers
23) Asteroids. I know this would be higher on many people’s list. But not mine. Hey at least I have it over Sinistar and Defender.
22) Jr PAC Man
21) Rescue Princess. This is a homebrew from animator Chris Spry that is *heavily* inspired by Super Mario Bros. Crazy that he got a decent looking (and sounding) version on the 2600. Worth checking out
20) Qbert. Decent port.
19) Atari Climber.
18) Millipede. Honorable mention is Centipede. Both are massively better with the arcade trackball. Sorry to those that hold these two in higher esteem.
17) Commando. Great shooter game, late in the Atari 2600 life. Ikari Warriors is an honorable mention.
16) Donkey Kong. This wasn’t bad but was missing a couple level designs. Sorry DK Jr didn’t cut it at 2600, but was a great 7800 game.
15) Yars Return/Yars Revenge (yup, lumping both together)
14) Indiana Jones
13) Seaquest. Honorable mention to another Activision horizontal shooting gem, Command Chopper.
12) Dig Dug. Honorable mention to Mr Do.
11) Toyshop Trouble. Another great homebrew.
10) Space Invaders.
9) HERO
8) Berserk
7) Ms Pac-Man. Big boost when it went to 7800.
6) Missile Command
5) Galaxian. Honorable mention to Phoenix, Worm War, Demon Attack and Spider Fighter.
4) Frogger
3) Wizard of Wor. Huge fan of this game. Probably spent more time playing this with my friend in the early 80s than any other game
2) Pitfall/Pitfall 2 . I realize these are completely different games, but I wanted both on here...
1) Mario Bros.
I am 40 years old but playing every day the river raid with Atari 2600
Ok... So you put "Pac Man" in front of "Yars Revenge", but totally leave out the classic "Ms. Pac Man"??? You, my friend, need to turn in your "Atari Force" patch and official I.D. card... 😊😉
Here here! Utterly inexplicable....
I think having a single Pac Man entry is representative of them all.
@@LeftIsBest001 nah...did you see the 2600 version of pacman?
Granted at the time I never played the arcade so pacman on 2600 was the real pacman lol. I had no idea how bad it was until I was much older.
Yar's Revenge @ 25 is ludicrous.... easily top 5.
Pitfall should be ranked much higher. It's the game that resuscitated the 2600, after the devastation known as Pac-man. Video well done!
Thanks for the compliment. Pitfall is a great game.
No Pitfall II?? Come on.
@@doctorx0079 it’s better on the 5200, anyway. :)
Seeing these videos (which are highly subjective) makes me think the person only has 30 games! Maybe 35 and they left some stinkers out.
Enduro should also be ranked higher. Activision was the best thing that ever happened to the Atari 2600.
I recently picked up a collection of Activision games that were released on CD-rom a number of years ago and, with the aid of DOS-box, have been enjoying playing Enduro.
I played HERO at another country at least 25 years ago and I couldn't remember the name of this game. I searched every so often. Thank you for including it!
Stunned that neither Pitfall 2 nor Phoenix were in there!
Lots of great games missed this list. But coming up with a top 30 list is always very subjective. This was/is my list mostly from games I grew up with. Pitfall 2 was pretty impressive. Phoenix seemed very similar to Demon Attack to me.Thanks for watching.
Not a good list. *STAR WARS ARCADE* nowhere to be seen. Or Solaris - best VCS graphics. Pitfall and Hero ranked very low. So many Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Frogger clones. And some truly awful boring titles. The universally slated Pac-man makes it, but the awesome Ms Pacman is absent. No Pitfall II, River Raid II etc etc. Not good.
@@rootykazooty351 OPINIONS. Everyone has them
Phoenix probably should have been on there
@@retroshovel1222 Funnily enough I was about to say if you have only 40 games then this could be your top 30. If I had to pick the best of the games I had by 1986 or so, I'd be leaving out some better ones I got on the cheap later, or only played at friends' house.
Remember when you had to take a picture of your qualifying high score on Activision games, wait for it to be developed, send it in via snail mail and wait for your patch to arrive?
While I don't agree with the ranking (Enduro and Pitfall! so low; omission of Kaboom!, Adventure, Breakout, Centipede, Moon Patrol, etc.), nor like the demonic voice that announces each ranking, it was fun to see footage of some of these classic games.
Holy shit!!! The parallax scrolling on Jungle Hunt is a sight to behold!!
I had a real problem with the controls. Also, the instruction manual was in B&W and didn't include a catalog of games that came out in late 1982-1983. Probably the last Atari cartridge I bought new.
Great video and list of games. So many of my all time favorites on this list. Just subscribed.
Great list! Thanks for the great memories!
I would have put centipede or millipede on the list . And I loved megamania .
Ms Pac-Man, Phoenix, Tunnel Runner, Keystone Kapers... so many great ones
Excellent list! I appreciate how many licensed titles are on the list. Several I had never heard from! Jawbreaker looks intense!
Nice video, and nice list! Liked, and subscribed.
Wow! Amazing list. All great games. I like to see not so common games get some attention.
Pitfall 2, Haunted House, Laser Blast, Bermuda Triangle, Dark Chambers, Space Attack and Megamania would be on my list.
Warlords is deserving as a single player alone, but with four it's tops hand down, no question.
Ms Pacman and Pacman Jr are far superior than the original game.
Lots of cool games on here though. Cosmic Ark is awesome.
wow another great Underrated channel you deserve way more subs
EXCELLENT list Retro Shovel. I never had an actual 2600 back in the day but I did get expansion module #1 the day after Christmas 1982 when my brother & I FINALLY got our FIRST console - that being the ColecoVision. By 1/1/83 we pooled enough of our after school job $$ to get 4 carts - being Space Invaders, Yars Revenge, Asteroids, and Missile Command. We still had enough $$ left over for a ColecoVision game and we got DK Jr the day it came out...
I'm assuming your list is for 2600 games available back in the day. I notice you left out some EXCELLENT HOME-BREWS - most notably Pac Man 4K (had this come out back in 81 the crash may NEVER have happened), Princess Rescue (SMB 2600), Zippy the Porcupine (Sonic 2600), Berzerk VOICE ENHANCED, Edtris (Tetris 2600), and Asteroids - vector edition.
My only issue is how ANTI CLIMATIC #1 on your list is. While Spider Fighter is a decent game - it doesn't compare to anything on your top ten. Heck - I thought Demon Attack was a much better game; and where are Ms. Pac Man and Jr. Pac Man?? not to mention Stampede, Circus Atari, and Kaboom??
Still seems messed up to me for someone to buy a ColecoVision in 1992-3 then buy an adapter to play Atari 2600 cartridges.
SeaQuest is my #1.
Looks cool. Can't say I've played that one. I'll have to give it a shot. 😃👍
Awesome Vid. Thanks. Never knew Mario Bros was on this system
no pitfall 2, or pacman jr, donkey kong?
Good list overall. Megamania and decathlon was cool too. Pole position and berzerk should defo be in top 30 too !
Coming up with a top 30 list is hard especially since there are so many great Atari 2600 games to choose from. The games you listed are fun too. Berzerk didn't make my list because I enjoy the arcade version so much more with the great robotic voice samples. 🙂
Berzerk was great fun!!
Pole Position was good, but I preferred Enduro from Activision. Maybe not graphically, but I liked the gameplay more.
Spider Fighter as number 1? That's such an amazing game!
Top 10 for Atari 2600 according to my opinion: 1) Zaxon, 2) Defender II, 3) Batlezone, 4) Joust, 5) Space attack, 6) tennis, 7) Quest in Quintana Roo, 8) UFO vs canons, 9) Missile Command, 10) Space attack
Very cool.
Missed only keystone kapers, seaquest and adventure.
nice! missing Joust Centipede, Mash, Fantastic Voyage and Kaboom
Should be titled "30 Games I Played For The Atari 2600"
I've never heard of most of these. I was surprised to see that frogger made the list, it was one of my favorites.
Great list
Dintar's pacman is the best past or present. It has all intermissions and wonderful sound effects!
Where did you find the graphics for those cool looking small boxes of the games?
As usual, I miss Solaris.
One of the most underrated and best Atari 2600 games.
I don't usually count games after 1983, because that was the last year I bought Atari cartridges new. Plus as I discovered, chip prices lowered quickly, so it's not like someone could have made Solaris in 1980 and sold it economically.
Although there are obviously many great Atari 2600 games to choose from - enough to have variances in lists - these are my Top 30, though they're not exactly in order. That would have been too much to assess.
I probably could've made a list of Activision games on their own, being that they were great titles.
Anyway, my top 30 Atari games list is:
1. Adventure
2. Missile Command
3. Yars' Revenge
4. Space Invaders
5. Bowling
6 Enduro
7. Ice Hockey
8. Pitfall!
9. Pitfall ll
10. Decathlon
11. Golf
12. Asteroids
13. Frogger
14. Freeway
15. Galaxian
16. Burgertime
17. Human Cannonball
18. Dodge 'em
19. Jungle Hunt
20. Joust
21. Skiing
22. Tennis
23. Keystone Kapers
24. Super Breakout
25. Kaboom!
26. Gorf
27. Demon Attack
28. H.E.R.O.
29. Millipede
30. Pinball
Didn’t realize as a kid how much an outlet this was. Childhood had its challenges
I spent a lot of time with Spider Fighter and Frostbite. I think Combat came with the Sears version of the console. I remember plugging in the paddles to drive the tank and it would go crazy!
I used the paddles on the jet, and pushing both buttons was like doing left and right on the joystick simultaneously. Weird result.
Spider Fighter was my favorite too!
My alltime game is Atlantis
Good List 👍
Congratulations on friend selection. most Game to this day! I have many games that I consider my favorites, and for me they are timeless...
I'm going to mention 10 of my TOP 100 from atari lol...
- BOXING
- CHOPPER COMMAND
- ENDURO
- FREEWAY
- FROGGER
- FROSTBITE
- KABOOM!
- MEGAMANY
- SEAQUEST
- TENNIS
so what did you think of my list?
Was addicted to Decathlon as a kid.
Ms. Pacman on ATARI was way better than the version of Pacman shown here.
i remember playing some of these games. But, i forgotten where and when I've played it before. seems like so long ago..:p
I disagree with a lot of this list, but I *do* think Spider Fighter is underrated and I like it a lot.
Adventure, which was absolutely ground-breaking, should be there, as should Midnight Magic, an amazingly good pinball sim that was overlooked because it came out relatively late when not many people were paying attention to the 2600. Solaris was Doug Neubauer's attempt to one-up Star Raiders on a more limited platform. Imagic's Star Voyager was the best and simplest of the Star Raiders-inspired first-person space shooters.
Atari's Battlezone and Stargate were technically impressive arcade ports (Battlezone completely eschewed the visual style of the original and instead used a colorful style that played to the platform's strengths). Atari's own port of Phoenix gave Demon Attack a run for its money. Parker Brothers' port of Gyruss gets extra credit just for being a respectable port of Gyruss.
Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man on the 2600 were both far, far superior to the port of the original--proof that Atari could actually make a decent Pac-Man port.
The hacked version of snoopy and the red baron is great.
The 2600 versions of Beamrider and Phoenix are both worth playing.
All great games, and too easy to find another 25 games to add to a longer list. The Box art for Fast Food, I liked that, don't recall seeing the box for it before,; that game is fun to play too, yes the concept is simple but the gameplay is addictive.
I've just treated myself to a Flashback machine for lockdown. Something to burn time and take my mind off things. The modern games just don't do it for me, although my era was more 16 bit and Atari ST. I am loving 'Safe Mary', although as a woman I'd quite like to save a guy (role reversal) - sure these games are more designed with the male in mind.
That makes me wonder what would be designed for a female? I was told shooters weren't to women's liking, but everyone loved Pac-Man. Maybe a cooperative game?
@@sandal_thong8631 Possibly, but I think that it would be misguided. Often perceptions aren't accurate. Many women enjoy some escapism with a shooter. My favourite was the Dizzy Games by the Oilver Twins.
Adventure, Pitfall and Haunted House are my top 3.
Played those a lot of hours. Mapped Pitfall and learned to jump scorpions so I could win at least once. Haunted House could have been better; not much to see there.
Top favorites but not the best. Raiders of the Lost Ark...
Non-linear game play.
Mission specific items and bosses.
Internal clock.
Multiple weapons.
Item shops.
Inventory management.
The first rpg I ever played.
I love Maze Craze. excellent game
Mountain king and raiders of the lost ark and also chopper command
No Joust or Astrosmash ? Keystone Capers ?
Millipede, moon patrol, solaris, venture, dig dug, qbert to name a few
I loved atari joysticks, used them on c64 instead of any commodore versions.... man we flogged those games😂😂😂
You have some unique tastes. I’m surprised Pac Man made your list considering its reputation.
I would have put Defender and Berzeek on my list.
People bought Pac-Man and played it quite a bit during Pac-Man Fever. That's probably why so many imitators sold, too. It did end up selling 7 million Atari 2600 carts (not sure how many of those were returned), so if someone made a list by sales it would be number 1.
Does anyone remember the trick for Space Invaders? Hold down reset button at the same time while turning on console and you get double fire! I could literally wipe out the whole screen in 10 seconds. I turned over Space Invaders at least 10 times. I could be playing for hours on a good day.
Pitfall is a super great game. Many ahead of it on Ur list I never played during that time, so maybe they are better?
Seaquest?
Ms Pacman was way better than Pacman on 2600.
Adventure
Asteroids*
Berzerk*
Bowling
Breakout
Centipede*
Combat
Congo Bongo
Dig-Dug
Frankenstein’s Monster
Frostbite
Gamma Attack
Joust
Jungle Hunt
Kaboom
Mario Bros*
Miner 2049er
Missile Command*
Pitfall
Q*Bert*
River Raid
Space Invaders*
Surround
Video Pinball*
Yars’ Revenge
🕹 Atari the good old days.
cool games
What about KeyStone Kappers...fun game.....and Oink
There is a worm war 1 hack that turns those worms into Zombies!
re enduro at snow scene your car is GONE i cant see anything its supposed to be grey. why it invisible
The following games would make my list but did not make the poster's:
Berzerk!
Starmaster
Star Raiders
Robot Tank
Battlezone
Centipede
Moon Patrol
Super Breakout
Joust
Defender
Some of my favs were
Tunnel Runner
Journey - Escape
Joust
Centipede
Wizard of Wor
Defender
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Megamania
The worst game I ever bought (it was only $0.99) was Sorcerer by Mythicon. I think this company made three games and at least two of them were exactly the same with slightly different graphics (the other being Firefly). I'd played some bad 2600 games, but this was just awful. E.T. was a masterpiece compared to this game.
Mythicon were awful. Firefiry was the worst Atari game I ever played. Everything about that game was shit. The graphics, the gameplay, and in my opinion, the worst sound I ever heard coming out of the VCS
Wow the Snoopy game had good graphics.
Tons of Activision games on there. Go figure they did make some of the best games
no double dragon or ghost busters?
Was waiting for "Adventure" to be No. 1. Do'h! You put Pac-Man on the list - a horrible rendition of the game - and leave Adventure, Maze Craze and Haunted House off the list, not to mention Dark Chambers. Hell, I'd even throw E.T. onto your list. It was actually a good game, contrary to the myth that the game resulted in the game bust of the early 1980s. I had barely heard of half of your picks and own at least a hundred of these games via cartridge. Were you a child of the 1970s and 1980s or is this a perspective from an emulator from the current century? Good video, though. And thanks for the trip down memory lane.
redfanrod This is from his recollection as a kid
@@patsfan4life It's like in the comments where someone names their 5 favorites and you wonder if that's all they had or did they leave a couple bad ones they had off the list.
It's all about the high score 💚
No score in Adventure.
Tron Deadly Discs was an adaptation of the famous Intellivision game. Ciao!
I wish they had ported the Tron arcade game which had 4 stages including light cycles (Surround) a maze fight (Combat/Dark Caverns), a mini Breakout, and a shoot-spiders and enter flashing circle phase. Got chills hearing the music on a TH-cam video just now.
@@sandal_thong8631 Yes!!!! Still remember all of this from the Arcade in the early 80s!!!! Ciao
Should I get an Atari 2600 or NES first
Video Olympics and Indy 500 are both good fun
Part of the original 9 that was released alongside the console. Wish someone who played a lot of 2-player games would do a video of the first three years or 33 games.
no adventure ? pitfall way to low , but still good vid , and pac man was such an emparesment , i remeber at xmas mant kids were not happy back in day , Casino was great game too for 4 players , and superman was great too
Fit aboot megamania an plaque attack Atlantis. Activision made the best games for it. Fars packman 3 Jnr
Pitfall, H.E.R.O. and Yars Revenge (beat by Fishing Derby?) are not even in the top ten? Of course all lists like this are subjective, so anyway. Keystone Kapers is worth looking at too.
No Chopper Command?? No Star Master?? No Tunnel Runner??
Those of you who remember these games are getting old! 😁😀😀
I asked my 11-year old cousin if he wanted to see games I played as a kid. "No."
Well, this is your personal opinion, so I'm not going to bitch about your list like I'm sure plenty of others have already done. Also, people need to realize that the 2600 had over 700 unique games released for it(not counting after-market homebrews), so there are probably lots of great games that you've never played and therefore they didn't make your list. Anyway, I personally would have put H.E.R.O much higher on the list, and I am quite surprised to see you include Pac-Man on the list and not the far superior port of Ms. Pac-Man or Jr. Pac-Man.
Here are some of my favorite 2600 games that didn't make your list: Sword of Saros (why doesn't anyone ever talk about this fantastic game!? It's an absolute MUST play, and one of the first ever RPG's!), Venture, Berzerk, Adventure, Secret Quest, and Dark Chambers.
There's definitely some shooter games fans working on this list...
Megamania is a top ten game
solaris is clearly the best Atari game ever...
also
2) atari video cube
3) real sport tennis
4) keystone kapers
5)oink!
Spider Fighter was good but seriously? Ms. Pac Man is #1. Where is Berzerk? Video Pinball? Megamania? Joust? Dig Dug? Centipede? Adventure? Keystone Kapers? Kaboom? Maze Craze? Chopper Command? Donkey Kong? Props for including H.E.R.O. One of the best ever. Very difficult to master but I finally did back in the day. Yars Revenge, River Raid, Demon Attack, Pitfall, Enduro. All great games. But Combat?!? There is a reason it was included with the console. Not very good.
Dude.. Yars Revenge....🤙
Laser Gates and Atlantis are more fun than Demon Attack and Cosmic Ark in the Imagic department.
Two more games that I liked on Atari areSpiderman and Pinball.
Ditto. I could play Video Pinball forever. I can hear the chirps as the ball goes through the bonus repeatedly.
I loved real pinball. And so I did play Video Pinball forever, using the "nudge" feature to make it increase the number bonus.
Ms.pac man,bezerk,kaboom,pitfall 2
Solaris should've been on there.
Pitfall is #19 in the list ? really ?
Amine Asli should be number 1
@@darinschneider600 Pitfall 2 was far better
spider fighter me encantaba
Nice to see Worm War I get some love-- and I like a lot of your picks. However, I guess there are quite a few games I'd put in. Ms. Pacman over Pacman any day. Even given nostalgia. Midnight Magic would be in there. Centipede. Air/Sea Battle. Aliens. Kaboom. Dragon Fire. Venture. Reactor. Vanguard. Demolition Herby. Dodge Em. Star Wars: the Empire Strikes Back is the better Star Wars game. Turmoil over Jawbreaker. Megamania is better than Spider Fighter. And, if you're counting Supercharger games, the best game ever made for the 2600 is Dragonstomper. It also has a superior Frogger game, The Official Frogger. Definite omissions from your list: 30, 27, 26, 20 (no better than fifth best Pacman game on the system), 19 (most overrated game for the system, unless it's its sequel), 15, 11, 10 (anything requiring two players gets bumped out), 8, 6, 4, 2 (second most overrated game).
I played Dodge 'Em at the store and wanted it. When I got it home I was upset that the enemy car changed lanes! After completing the Logbook challenge and getting a perfect score I put it away. I remembered a couple years ago that it had 3 more options for the enemy when using difficulty A: fast, random start and both. I did beat it on fast and random, but not both.
No donkey kong?
Always preferred on my ColecoVision
Pac-Man for Atari was terrible. I'd replace it with Dolphin but I'd also have Dolphin higher up. I'd have put Keystone Capers somewhere on the list too, that game was sick.