If you didn't get the custom controller that goes with Star Raiders you'll never get it to work. It was designed for the 400/800 computers with a full keyboard, and when it was ported to the 2600 there was another controller that was needed with additional buttons for shields, targeting computer, hyperdrive, etc.
@@dedbattery Sweet! I hope you like it. I still play this game on my last working Atari 8-bit computer. I never played the 2600 version, but hopefully it's as enjoyable as what I've been playing since the early 1980's.
Wow! Have been a lifelong Atari fan and I had never heard of the 2800- What a great find! Thanks for sharing. (Also, River Raid is one of the best games on the system)
Great video. Love seeing the Atari 2800. Thanks for the shout out and being on the show. You were a great guest, the door is open to be a guest anytime!!
I had one of those here in the USA! They were sold here by Sears as the "Video Arcade II". The best part were the controllers that worked as both joystick and paddle depending on the game. As I recall Star Raiders required a special controller to play. The Swordquest games were really complicated and required looking up pages with hidden words in a comic book that came with the game. The Swordquest games were part of a real world contest Atari was running where you would get very expensive gold and jewel encrusted trinkets as prizes. I think each minor item was worth $25k-50k, and the final sword at the end of the contest was worth $100k. Nobody knows what happened to the sword as the contest was cancelled after the second game. Some say it hung on the wall in the CEO's living room for years. 😂
The trick with the holes in ET is that they aren't in perspective. Touch any pixel and you fall in. The symbols at the top of the screen are context sensitive abilities. You can teleport, see if holes have phone parts, call Elliot, phone home, etc.
@@LaPineBear Same. This was a really deep adventure, by 2600 standards. I really wish more people would learn how to play it as intended before surrendering. But I can understand. I used to buy games at yard sales, and we never figured out Indiana Jones needed two controllers.
My favorite 2600 games were Robot Tank, an early FPS where you’re facing one tank after another, and Demon Attack, a simple shooter with a surprising amount of variety. The thing that’s easy to miss about Robot Tank is that your bullets steer as you you turn the tank, so they’re always directly in front of you. Consequently, it’s often smart to fire while the enemy tank is off to the side a bit, and then steer the bullet on target. The AI is basically nonexistent, so they never adjust to counter that. Also, your bullets and the bullets of the other tank will destroy each other if they hit, making a distinct noise, so if you’re close in just hold the fire button so you’ll fire a follow-up shot ASAP. Activision used to have a program where you could take a screenshot of your high score, and receive a patch in the mail. Robot Tank had three patches you could win, depending on your high score
That was so cool...thank you!! For some reason I've never heard of this console. I have to see what the controllers are like! One thing about Atari games was that you REALLY had to read the manuals on some of them. ET was unplayable if you didn't (and actually could be fun if you knew what you had to do). That was fun to watch, thank you!
The 2800 controller is also a paddle if you twist the joystick, a unique feature only the Japanese 2800 has. I would recommend you import an American copy of Kaboom for Atari 2600. It's the best paddle game for the system and one very fun game that holds up well even today.
Ooh. Nice find. I played a lot of river raid and a little bit of star raiders.on the Atari 800xl. (Never really figured it out either , you may need the touchpad controller to get the most out of it)
@@T8staDiM3rda It came with a detailed manual back in the day. The Computer version was released in 1979 or 80 and there was absolutely nothing like it at the time; very advanced in all ways.
2:19 Oh, wow! I had that Atari Video Pinball/Breakout! Was so cool. The little buttons on the left and right of the console were the L/R flippers and the big dial on top was the Breakout paddle. I've been trying to figure out the make and model of that unit and here it is!! 🤯
@@jonathanross149 yah it's a lot of fun, however I always have to laugh at it since you're in a plane yet you can crash into the ground and the boats below.
With Swordquest you need the original comic books that came with the games to play them the goal is find all the letters to spell out the answer to a question. Star raiders you need a special 2nd controller that has a button pad and overlay. A version of the 2800 was sold in the states as a SEARS exclusive as "The Sears Video Arcade System II"
@@dave6575 ohhhh what??? With star quest really that's wild. I wonder if I can find that somewhere. Thanks. Someone mentioned the controller for star raiders so I bought one
Great video, got my start in gaming on the 2600 and old dos based computers in the 70’s and 80’s. Still have my 7800 and for my birthday my wife bought me the 2600+ which is great don’t o play with all of my old cartridges.
@@shawnwade302 nice. Which was your favorite. I'm learning so much from my viewers on this one and about the games. Star raiders needs a different controller. Sword quest needed a comic book, it's wild and awesome
The Atari 2800 was actually certified to sell in the USA. It was on sale, built and sold by Sears, Roebuck & Co. at Sears department stores and catalogs as the Sears Video Arcade II.
E.T. and Pac-Man were released in the same year and imo were the 1-2 punch that killed Atari. Instead of doing damage control, they released the 5200 in November of that year which flopped hard as consumers were not happy and the console just seemed like rehashed arcade games. The Colecovision was released a few months prior and Donkey Kong for it was arguably the final nail in the coffin for the Atari we knew and loved which buried the 5200 with it's wonky joystick that had QA issues. When I would find and buy bundles of 2600 consoles and games way back when out in the wild, E.T., Combat and Space Invaders were always in their collections. So E.T. is one of the most common 2600 games ever. On another note, people may think that 2600 games are all pick up and play. A good number of them require a read of the manual like Star Raiders and the Swordquest series. One thing in your video I didn't see was did you get the 2800 joysticks with it? They were redesigned with a small stick which also rotated for paddle games, and two fire buttons for left/right handers which was pretty cool.
@@Meebzorp5200 yah pac man was worse to play then et, I felt like I could actually play that game but Pac-Man just seems very difficult. Yeah thanks to you and my viewers I have come to realize that a lot of these Atari games that I have I really need manuals for or something else to be able to play I'm so now I'm on the hunt for all the extra things. I did get two of the joysticks with the Atari they look like you described so yes I believe they are the same ones
Interesting system. I had the 2600 back in 1981. My favorites were basketball, football, Pitfall, Demon Attack, Video Pinball, Haunted House, Defender and River Raid. I had many more but those are my standouts. I did have E.T. , didn't care for it. You and your husband will enjoy Combat. It has tanks and planes.
ET was not rare. They just made too many cartridges and it coincided with the market collapse. Combat was the cartridge included with the system. PacMan was fine. I remember seeing it when it was released. A big tv was in the sears store up high (typical display and anyone could play it. Many of these games were heavily restricted by 4 bit and Atari corporate restrictions. I think they did really well. Pitfall 2 and Hero are some good games. I liked lock n chase too.
I grew up during this time and got the 2600 for xmas when I was like... 5, I think it was? I had no idea there was a 2800. I knew of the 5200 and the 7800 because my older brother got a 7800 and I was SO jealous of the graphics, but HATED that controller. Fascinating video.
I live in Poland and once a long time ago I saw the TV game TVG-10, a clone of the famous Pong, back in the early 80s. In 1988 I bought an Atari 65XE and one of my favorite games was River Raid, the Atari XL-XE version was one of the best. I recommend checking out the game Robbo, written in 1989 by a young Pole, 19 years old, one of my favorites for Atari. In 1990, I bought my first 16-bit computer, Amiga 500, and it was a world for me then, those were the times.🕹🕹👍👍
Activision had a better space battle simulator than Star Raiders called Star Master. It doesn't require a special controller to play, I seem to recall it used the difficult switch
E.T. is not a rare game. The problem was that Atari produced _four million_ copies of the game, anticipating record-breaking sales and further system sales thanks to the success of the film the game was based on. To that point, there had never been an unsuccessful Atari game. When players finally got their hands on E.T, most found it to be too esoteric and uninteresting for children, the core target audience. So many tens of thousands of copies were returned to stores as junk, unsellable merchandise. This is what lead Atari to dump the unsold inventory in landfills and largely contributed to the crash of 1984. Still, E.T is not actually a BAD game; just a confusing, unintuitive game that you absolutely need to read the manual to figure out how to play, something kids didn't have the patience for. The 2600 has worse games than E.T, such as the absymal Tax Avoiders or Basic Math, which isn't even a game, it's just solving simple math equansions with the only on-screen graphics being the digits themselves.
I was never a fan of E.T. when I was younger and I gave the game a try but once I got stuck in a hole a couple times and couldn't get out I don't know how I feel about it . I want to play to get the camera pieces since from what I could find that's how you are supposed to play the game. I guess that makes sense if you're thinking that tons of people are going to buy the game because of the movie however the audience isn't really the correct audience for it.
My first system was the Magnavox Odyssey 2. My second system was the Atari 2600. Combat was one of the few games I could beat my brother at. One trick with Space Invaders is that you should take them out a column at a time, it'll slow their advance on you since they have to move farther horizontally. My favorite game would probably be H.E.R.O., or Frostbite. Plaque Attack was pretty fun too. Also Keystones Kapers. Space Shuttle was great, it actually inspired me to write a short story for my sixth grade English class after playing it.
Hmm, a Japanese Atari 2600. That is neat. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid in the early eighty's. A lot of the games you needed the instruction booklet to understand how to play them. For the most part it was a fun system, even though it had some awful games like that E.T. you played. The most frustrating part about gaming back then was that you only had the box to go on when selecting games to buy unless you subscribed to a gaming magazine if your parents let you. Thankfully by the time Nintendo came out VHS rental became a big thing in the US. And a lot of the video rental stores also rented Nintendo games so you could try them before you bought them. Gave you a subscribe and like by the way!! 😁
This was sold in the U.S. as the Sears Video Arcade II; I have one and I think it's really cool. They came with combination joystick/paddle controllers that looked cooler than they actually functioned. In fact mine are broken, so I use the regular Atari joysticks. You'll probably have to import the Star Raiders keypad from the U.S. but they are widely available for not much.
@@RomeoG39 I've never used an original Atari controller but the ones that came with this one are definitely difficult to hold on to even my husband was having difficulty holding it especially for games you had to move quickly
Star Raiders you need a keypad controller to do the different functions. In the earth/fireworld game you need to jump on the moving platforms to reach the door in that level. (google around the instructions are on-line for most any atari 2600 game) Interesting I was wondering how the 2800 could have used four paddle controllers as in the old system there was a dual paddle to one plug - that's fixed with four joyports... I wonder if the 2800 had any exclusive 4-joystick games as it can use an extra two joysticks.
Yup I second this. There was a stand alone keypad (with Star Raiders insert!). I had one back in the day. The game is kinda like the vector Arcade game, Star Wars. Interesting collection you have there!
Hello from Tasmania, there is a lot more to the games specially ET that is an awesome game when you know how to play it, you can find the game manuals to view on line for the instructions at Atari Age as there are different games ,levels and combat with in games you have there, enjoy, hugs :)
@@bowds7 E.T. was more annoying since there was one spot where I kept falling into the hole and when I came back up it put me in the same exact spot so then I would fall back in but I did look up the manual and it talked about collecting the camera pieces so I'm definitely going to give the game a try but I could see where people were disappointed with it compared to the movie
@@dedbatterythanks for your reply, ET is a quest adventure game that you has a timer running down by the moves you make, To get ET home again. Find the pieces to the phone and get to the launch , call home and get to the pick point to where the ship will come and get him. The problem with this game is that it was ahead of it’s time , the instructions went put in one area , they were spread out on each page with the other versions in different languages and you have to know what each symbol means when you are moving around the screens. Game 1 is the hardest and game 3 is the easiest, that’s another problem they had with it , the falling in the holes all the time is how you loose time and is intentional , push left or right when you reach the top to get out , don’t keep pushing up. You have tins to do, things to find people to avoid, once you know how to play it’s an addictive game the principles are like the board game Hero quest, it’s not a simple game and that was its down fall, enjoy hugs :)
I'm sure someone else explained ET was quite a successful game. Sold a lot in the time frame the guy had it's an incredible game. I highly recommend the documentary Atari game over it explains it. There were already problems with Atari regardless of ET watching the documentary is very eye-opening
I first saw Combat (the tank version) in a video arcade where it was a table where four people could play against each other. Missile Command was the first arcade game that use a track ball controller. It was my very favorite. I was happy to get it for my Atari 800. I even bought an Atari CX22 Trak-Ball Controller so I could play it just the way I did in the arcade.
Ah yea Space Invaders is probably my favorite game for the system, and I still play it on occasion. Play game "game 5" (fast bomb). This mode accurately mimicks the Arcade version (as far as difficulty goes). Combat is awsome for two players, and Asteroids and Missle Command are very fun to play, again, pretty good at recreating the Arcade experience.
Some info here: The Epoch Cassette Vision has nothing to do with Atari or the 2600 - it is it's own seperate system. There is the Cassette Vision and the later Super Cassette Vision - both by Epoch. They are not compatible and are 2 seperate systems. There are 11 games for the Cassette Vision and 30 games for the Super Cassette Vision. The Atari 2800 is just the Japanese version of the Atari VCS 2600. You can play the normal US / NTSC Atari 2600 carts on the Atari 2800. Star Raiders needs an extra controller called the Video Touch Pad.
@@MadStalker80 okay thanks for the info. I read an article about a partnership in 1979 with Atari and epoch and the cassette was a rebranded 2600 but I guess you can't believe everything you read. I'll have to look into it more.
@@dedbattery From what I read, Epoch distributed the Atari system in Japan as a seperate system to their own, the Cassette Vision. When they put out their version of "Space Invaders" for their Cassette Vision system, and also as a dedicated console playing only that game, they wanted the Atari system to have a version of that game as well, so Atari actually made Space Invaders at Epoch's request. At least that's what I read about that partnership.
The 2600 was my first game system. My earliest memory playing it was at about 7 or 8 (I’m closing in on 48 now) and it was playing Breakout with my father. River Raid and Missile Command were two of my favorites.
Would be cool to own this in original box to put on the shelf with my collection. I am one of the old Atari fans that never had an issue with E.T. game. I mean the movie was painfully nice and cheesy but I liked the game. It was too complicated for the ones it was geared for but still more entertaining than some of the other games that were released then.
Swordquest had comic books that came with each game in the series, and there was interaction with the game and the comic. I believe those were the only two that were produced.
For star raiders you need another special joystick it's like a TV remote and had 9 or 12 keys on it and the game had a overlay in box so you could use the map properly
Star Raiders needs the 12? button keypad controller. It's actually a really great game, hope you can find one. For E.T. (which is bad, but not nearly as bad as people claim) one important thing is, you can't leave holes moving up, but any other cardinal direction instead. That admittedly is a terrible flaw in the game.
The Swordquest games needed the included comic books, and a lot of trial and error, leaving different treasures in different rooms. Fireworld always seemed unpolished/unfinished compared to Earthworld, which wasn't even all that great on it's own. The Earthworld mini games at least made some sense. The Fireworld ones were often unintelligible or unwatchable.
@@gregsenn that's awesome. I'm enjoying the system but I think I need some other controllers for specific games. I bought the one for star raiders and it had inlays like the jaguar had.
sadly, that was my first game system, I loved river raid the best, had combat, defender, pac man, space invaders and many more. River raid was the best.
The Atari 2600 (jr) had these Game Settings switches which some games also used to change ingame settings or where used as extra inputs. Perhaps in Star Raiders you need to use them to switch views.
Activision had a better space battle simulator than Star Raiders called Star Master. It doesn't require a special controller to play, I seem to recall it used the difficult switch to switch into map mode.
My two favourite arcade games as a kid were Defender and Missile Command. The later you had a large ball that you spun around with your palm to move the cursor around the screen to block the incoming missiles and then buttons for firing your defensive weapons. I also really enjoyed the Atari versions as well.
Lots of games require selecting a mode and hitting the reset button that might work for the Gane that didn't load. And combat is the most replayable game I think it's so much fun.
Also I have atari 2600 they all work I modded one for composite left the heavy sixer original and stole switches off the last one to have 2 in good condition since the case is broken on the 3rd but if I come across a really bad 4 switch I can fix the 3rd without issue since it does load games. It's such a great console for 2 player games simple to the point and just fun.
Combat was the game that was included with the ORIGINAL Atari system, later redesignated as the 2600. Yes, E.T. was an AWFUL GAME!!!! My nephew wanted it for christmas '82 (he'd just turned 7 and didn't know any better). I played it for hours and couldn't figure the piece of shit out (and I was 16). There was a documentary on Netflix a few years ago about the E.T. debacle. Search and you may be able to find it. I seem to remember having Star Raiders and playing it a bit but... that was 45 years ago. I can't tell you anything about it. The Swordquest games I can't tell you anything about as I've never even heard of them. I did have Pac-man and I played it, but probably not as much as others. However, I had Missile Command and loved it. But the big one for me was Space Invaders. A friend of mine and I would spend all day sitting in front of the television playing the damned thing and we very quickly got to the point that we were turning over the score (breaking 10,000 points) without the other getting a chance to play.
@@charlesballard5251 hell yah. Combat looks awesome I can't wait to challenge @imsuriken to it. So what I could find on E.T. you have to find the camera pieces lol. Space invaders is the best I love the sounds it makes.
your missing a special key pad for star raiders, and the swordquest series was great but you need the comic book to complete...it was the first game contest were a kid could win $150,000 dollars in the 80's. enought to buy a home...swordquest is a great story
@@michaelmojica9057 from what I could find and what other viewers are commenting is the 2800 is exactly the same as a 2600 they just put a new case and re-released it with a new number in Japan
That version of Asteroids looks interesting... the asteroids seem to be multi-colored, which they definitely aren't in the "normal" Atari 2600 version... or are they if given some sort of extended hardware which is not present in the normal system?
Atari 2800 was released only in Japan as the 2600 was not released there. It will work in the US & Canada on a different channel as both countries use NTSC back then. Pac-Man is a joke on that system & poorly made.
@@drsysop I did have the connection to go from the Atari to connect to the TVs however I learned that you can use a VHS player so to be able to capture the footage I decided just to run to the local used store real quick and buy a VHS player so that I could play all these games and capture them for you all
Actually, at the time E.T. was considered a decent to mediocre game. Not great. Not awful. It wasn't until the mythology of the New Mexico landfill took hold that it got blown out of perspective.
TH-cam isn’t letting me edit my comment. Star Raiders needs both the joystick and its Keypad controller. [or the OG 2600 keypads or the Kids’ Controller].
Star Raiders requires the 12 key keypad controller in player 2. Activision's equivalent, Starmaster, is manages it without the keypad controller. Note that Star raiders shipped with one form of the controller, the bigger black faced one, but works with either button-pad controller.. ET sucks. it's poorly made, almost unplayable.
Is an Atari 2800 backward compatible with Atari 2600? Some of those games look very simiar, if not identical to Atari 2600 versions? I wonder if some of them are direct ports or even identical.
RE Earth world serries YOU WILL NEVER figure it out there was a contest and you had to put objects in different rooms causing a code like 84 7 meaning page 84 picture 7 in a comic is a word like BRIDGE you dent the codes to atari to win prizes like a REAL GOLD CROWN- well 1 the game IS OVER 2 atari went to hell 3 only 3 games were made so if you JUST play it NOW it be usless
I read an article about an Atari and epoch partnership in 1979, but this may not be true. I apologize, I'll have to do more research on it.
If you didn't get the custom controller that goes with Star Raiders you'll never get it to work. It was designed for the 400/800 computers with a full keyboard, and when it was ported to the 2600 there was another controller that was needed with additional buttons for shields, targeting computer, hyperdrive, etc.
@@stevenposey oh wow okay, thank you. I will look this up.
@@stevenposey just found one....and ordered. Thanks
@@dedbattery Sweet! I hope you like it. I still play this game on my last working Atari 8-bit computer. I never played the 2600 version, but hopefully it's as enjoyable as what I've been playing since the early 1980's.
I had the 2600 version first, and absolutely loved the superior computer version.
Yes fortunately they are cheap, plentiful, and will probably still work after we are all long gone lol
Wow! Have been a lifelong Atari fan and I had never heard of the 2800- What a great find! Thanks for sharing. (Also, River Raid is one of the best games on the system)
@@marksuper4920 yah pretty interesting history of Atari in Japan
Great video. Love seeing the Atari 2800. Thanks for the shout out and being on the show. You were a great guest, the door is open to be a guest anytime!!
I had one of those here in the USA! They were sold here by Sears as the "Video Arcade II". The best part were the controllers that worked as both joystick and paddle depending on the game. As I recall Star Raiders required a special controller to play. The Swordquest games were really complicated and required looking up pages with hidden words in a comic book that came with the game. The Swordquest games were part of a real world contest Atari was running where you would get very expensive gold and jewel encrusted trinkets as prizes. I think each minor item was worth $25k-50k, and the final sword at the end of the contest was worth $100k. Nobody knows what happened to the sword as the contest was cancelled after the second game. Some say it hung on the wall in the CEO's living room for years. 😂
The trick with the holes in ET is that they aren't in perspective. Touch any pixel and you fall in.
The symbols at the top of the screen are context sensitive abilities. You can teleport, see if holes have phone parts, call Elliot, phone home, etc.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 yep I got so stuck at a part with a hole that I just restarted after the 6th time trying to get out
E.T actually was one of my favorites back in the day! Was one of the first as a kid I played that was something different than score chasing.
@@LaPineBear Same. This was a really deep adventure, by 2600 standards. I really wish more people would learn how to play it as intended before surrendering.
But I can understand. I used to buy games at yard sales, and we never figured out Indiana Jones needed two controllers.
When I came home from work 3 days ago, my Atari 2800 was missing.
My favorite 2600 games were Robot Tank, an early FPS where you’re facing one tank after another, and Demon Attack, a simple shooter with a surprising amount of variety. The thing that’s easy to miss about Robot Tank is that your bullets steer as you you turn the tank, so they’re always directly in front of you. Consequently, it’s often smart to fire while the enemy tank is off to the side a bit, and then steer the bullet on target. The AI is basically nonexistent, so they never adjust to counter that. Also, your bullets and the bullets of the other tank will destroy each other if they hit, making a distinct noise, so if you’re close in just hold the fire button so you’ll fire a follow-up shot ASAP. Activision used to have a program where you could take a screenshot of your high score, and receive a patch in the mail. Robot Tank had three patches you could win, depending on your high score
That was so cool...thank you!! For some reason I've never heard of this console. I have to see what the controllers are like! One thing about Atari games was that you REALLY had to read the manuals on some of them. ET was unplayable if you didn't (and actually could be fun if you knew what you had to do). That was fun to watch, thank you!
The 2800 controller is also a paddle if you twist the joystick, a unique feature only the Japanese 2800 has. I would recommend you import an American copy of Kaboom for Atari 2600. It's the best paddle game for the system and one very fun game that holds up well even today.
The Coleco Gemini also has a joystick with integrated paddle. A very good Atari controller. I prefer playing with it over any other 2600 controller.
Ooh. Nice find. I played a lot of river raid and a little bit of star raiders.on the Atari 800xl. (Never really figured it out either , you may need the touchpad controller to get the most out of it)
@@T8staDiM3rda river raid is awesome. So yes for star raiders, someone else commented, which is great, and it is another controller. So I bought one
@@T8staDiM3rda It came with a detailed manual back in the day. The Computer version was released in 1979 or 80 and there was absolutely nothing like it at the time; very advanced in all ways.
My Dad, visiting Japan in the 80's picked up one of these and brought it home. It still works!
@@skykitchen867 wow that's awesome
2:19 Oh, wow! I had that Atari Video Pinball/Breakout! Was so cool. The little buttons on the left and right of the console were the L/R flippers and the big dial on top was the Breakout paddle. I've been trying to figure out the make and model of that unit and here it is!! 🤯
River Raid is an absolute classic
@@jonathanross149 yah it's a lot of fun, however I always have to laugh at it since you're in a plane yet you can crash into the ground and the boats below.
@@dedbatteryThe box art showed the airplane flying in a river canyon , so that sort of explains flying into the ground.
@@sonomabob9043 oooooooooo okay I get it lol
With Swordquest you need the original comic books that came with the games to play them the goal is find all the letters to spell out the answer to a question. Star raiders you need a special 2nd controller that has a button pad and overlay. A version of the 2800 was sold in the states as a SEARS exclusive as "The Sears Video Arcade System II"
@@dave6575 ohhhh what??? With star quest really that's wild. I wonder if I can find that somewhere. Thanks.
Someone mentioned the controller for star raiders so I bought one
Video touch pad
Great video, got my start in gaming on the 2600 and old dos based computers in the 70’s and 80’s. Still have my 7800 and for my birthday my wife bought me the 2600+ which is great don’t o play with all of my old cartridges.
Awesome video. Love seeing obscure Atari consoles. You got a new sub 😊
Liked, subbed, and commenting for the algo. Great video of a system I had never heard of thank you!!
incredible find! Very nice reporting and investigation. I subbed. Good jpb!
@@antonnym214 thank you
With e.t. you have to read the manual, and the easy difficulty is the 3rd option. It's actually a really easy game.
I had every single one of these Atari games for my Atari 2600
@@shawnwade302 nice. Which was your favorite. I'm learning so much from my viewers on this one and about the games. Star raiders needs a different controller. Sword quest needed a comic book, it's wild and awesome
The Atari 2800 was actually certified to sell in the USA. It was on sale, built and sold by Sears, Roebuck & Co. at Sears department stores and catalogs as the Sears Video Arcade II.
@@angelperez7891 yep I read that
i thought that was a typo
E.T. and Pac-Man were released in the same year and imo were the 1-2 punch that killed Atari. Instead of doing damage control, they released the 5200 in November of that year which flopped hard as consumers were not happy and the console just seemed like rehashed arcade games. The Colecovision was released a few months prior and Donkey Kong for it was arguably the final nail in the coffin for the Atari we knew and loved which buried the 5200 with it's wonky joystick that had QA issues.
When I would find and buy bundles of 2600 consoles and games way back when out in the wild, E.T., Combat and Space Invaders were always in their collections. So E.T. is one of the most common 2600 games ever.
On another note, people may think that 2600 games are all pick up and play. A good number of them require a read of the manual like Star Raiders and the Swordquest series.
One thing in your video I didn't see was did you get the 2800 joysticks with it? They were redesigned with a small stick which also rotated for paddle games, and two fire buttons for left/right handers which was pretty cool.
@@Meebzorp5200 yah pac man was worse to play then et, I felt like I could actually play that game but Pac-Man just seems very difficult. Yeah thanks to you and my viewers I have come to realize that a lot of these Atari games that I have I really need manuals for or something else to be able to play I'm so now I'm on the hunt for all the extra things. I did get two of the joysticks with the Atari they look like you described so yes I believe they are the same ones
@dedbattery Check out pac man 2600 16k homebrew. It's amazing and redeems Atari's version.
Interesting system. I had the 2600 back in 1981. My favorites were basketball, football, Pitfall, Demon Attack, Video Pinball, Haunted House, Defender and River Raid. I had many more but those are my standouts. I did have E.T. , didn't care for it. You and your husband will enjoy Combat. It has tanks and planes.
@@StevefromOhio1972 totally forgot about pitfall, I'll need to get it and pinball always love any kind of pinball
ET was not rare. They just made too many cartridges and it coincided with the market collapse. Combat was the cartridge included with the system.
PacMan was fine. I remember seeing it when it was released. A big tv was in the sears store up high (typical display and anyone could play it.
Many of these games were heavily restricted by 4 bit and Atari corporate restrictions. I think they did really well. Pitfall 2 and Hero are some good games.
I liked lock n chase too.
I grew up during this time and got the 2600 for xmas when I was like... 5, I think it was? I had no idea there was a 2800. I knew of the 5200 and the 7800 because my older brother got a 7800 and I was SO jealous of the graphics, but HATED that controller. Fascinating video.
@@Beauc4652 thank you
Welcome to the Atari family. It's old and pixelated, but has a lot of character. 🕹
@@sprrwhwk1 yah seems like fun I just need to find manuals to pay the games lol
Great salvage of a rare find!
Man, i loved Missile Command when i was a kid! Defender, too :)
@@JeffMitchell-lv4zx missile command was fun it's my second favorite out of all the command is tried lol
I live in Poland and once a long time ago I saw the TV game TVG-10, a clone of the famous Pong, back in the early 80s. In 1988 I bought an Atari 65XE and one of my favorite games was River Raid, the Atari XL-XE version was one of the best. I recommend checking out the game Robbo, written in 1989 by a young Pole, 19 years old, one of my favorites for Atari. In 1990, I bought my first 16-bit computer, Amiga 500, and it was a world for me then, those were the times.🕹🕹👍👍
@@rafanowacki2260 I will have a look for that game. Thank you
Wow nice catch! I never knew this system existed...
Activision had a better space battle simulator than Star Raiders called Star Master. It doesn't require a special controller to play, I seem to recall it used the difficult switch
@@jonathanross149 oh okay I'll have to look that up
E.T. is not a rare game. The problem was that Atari produced _four million_ copies of the game, anticipating record-breaking sales and further system sales thanks to the success of the film the game was based on. To that point, there had never been an unsuccessful Atari game. When players finally got their hands on E.T, most found it to be too esoteric and uninteresting for children, the core target audience. So many tens of thousands of copies were returned to stores as junk, unsellable merchandise.
This is what lead Atari to dump the unsold inventory in landfills and largely contributed to the crash of 1984. Still, E.T is not actually a BAD game; just a confusing, unintuitive game that you absolutely need to read the manual to figure out how to play, something kids didn't have the patience for. The 2600 has worse games than E.T, such as the absymal Tax Avoiders or Basic Math, which isn't even a game, it's just solving simple math equansions with the only on-screen graphics being the digits themselves.
I was never a fan of E.T. when I was younger and I gave the game a try but once I got stuck in a hole a couple times and couldn't get out I don't know how I feel about it . I want to play to get the camera pieces since from what I could find that's how you are supposed to play the game. I guess that makes sense if you're thinking that tons of people are going to buy the game because of the movie however the audience isn't really the correct audience for it.
Wow, a 2800…that’s awesome, congrats!:)
My first system was the Magnavox Odyssey 2. My second system was the Atari 2600. Combat was one of the few games I could beat my brother at. One trick with Space Invaders is that you should take them out a column at a time, it'll slow their advance on you since they have to move farther horizontally. My favorite game would probably be H.E.R.O., or Frostbite. Plaque Attack was pretty fun too. Also Keystones Kapers. Space Shuttle was great, it actually inspired me to write a short story for my sixth grade English class after playing it.
@@AutoPilate thanks for the advice I will give that a try. I've seen the odyssey around but it's crazy priced. I'll have to look the other games up :)
Hmm, a Japanese Atari 2600. That is neat. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid in the early eighty's. A lot of the games you needed the instruction booklet to understand how to play them. For the most part it was a fun system, even though it had some awful games like that E.T. you played. The most frustrating part about gaming back then was that you only had the box to go on when selecting games to buy unless you subscribed to a gaming magazine if your parents let you. Thankfully by the time Nintendo came out VHS rental became a big thing in the US. And a lot of the video rental stores also rented Nintendo games so you could try them before you bought them. Gave you a subscribe and like by the way!! 😁
@@teddine7366 yah I'm thinking I need some instruction manuals with most of these games.
@@teddine7366 thank you for the subscribe
This was sold in the U.S. as the Sears Video Arcade II; I have one and I think it's really cool. They came with combination joystick/paddle controllers that looked cooler than they actually functioned. In fact mine are broken, so I use the regular Atari joysticks. You'll probably have to import the Star Raiders keypad from the U.S. but they are widely available for not much.
@@joysticksnjukeboxes that's pretty cool. It looks a little different as well correct?
@@dedbattery The Sears Video Arcade II pretty much looks the same as the 2800 except for the name plate.
@@joysticksnjukeboxes nice
I did look it up and I noticed the writing on it is different
Painful hands was part of the Atari 2600 experience! Seriously. But we still loved it.
@@RomeoG39 I've never used an original Atari controller but the ones that came with this one are definitely difficult to hold on to even my husband was having difficulty holding it especially for games you had to move quickly
The Swordquest games had clues in an included minicomic. I never figured it out, to be honest. Maybe as an adult, I'd have better results.
Star Raiders you need a keypad controller to do the different functions. In the earth/fireworld game you need to jump on the moving platforms to reach the door in that level. (google around the instructions are on-line for most any atari 2600 game)
Interesting I was wondering how the 2800 could have used four paddle controllers as in the old system there was a dual paddle to one plug - that's fixed with four joyports... I wonder if the 2800 had any exclusive 4-joystick games as it can use an extra two joysticks.
Yup I second this. There was a stand alone keypad (with Star Raiders insert!). I had one back in the day. The game is kinda like the vector Arcade game, Star Wars. Interesting collection you have there!
Yep. Video touch pad
Hello from Tasmania, there is a lot more to the games specially ET that is an awesome game when you know how to play it, you can find the game manuals to view on line for the instructions at Atari Age as there are different games ,levels and combat with in games you have there, enjoy, hugs :)
@@bowds7 E.T. was more annoying since there was one spot where I kept falling into the hole and when I came back up it put me in the same exact spot so then I would fall back in but I did look up the manual and it talked about collecting the camera pieces so I'm definitely going to give the game a try but I could see where people were disappointed with it compared to the movie
@@dedbatterythanks for your reply, ET is a quest adventure game that you has a timer running down by the moves you make,
To get ET home again. Find the pieces to the phone and get to the launch , call home and get to the pick point to where the ship will come and get him. The problem with this game is that it was ahead of it’s time , the instructions went put in one area , they were spread out on each page with the other versions in different languages and you have to know what each symbol means when you are moving around the screens.
Game 1 is the hardest and game 3 is the easiest, that’s another problem they had with it , the falling in the holes all the time is how you loose time and is intentional , push left or right when you reach the top to get out , don’t keep pushing up.
You have tins to do, things to find people to avoid, once you know how to play it’s an addictive game the principles are like the board game Hero quest, it’s not a simple game and that was its down fall, enjoy hugs :)
I'm sure someone else explained ET was quite a successful game. Sold a lot in the time frame the guy had it's an incredible game. I highly recommend the documentary Atari game over it explains it. There were already problems with Atari regardless of ET watching the documentary is very eye-opening
I first saw Combat (the tank version) in a video arcade where it was a table where four people could play against each other.
Missile Command was the first arcade game that use a track ball controller. It was my very favorite.
I was happy to get it for my Atari 800. I even bought an Atari CX22 Trak-Ball Controller so I could play it just the way I did in the arcade.
Ah yea Space Invaders is probably my favorite game for the system, and I still play it on occasion. Play game "game 5" (fast bomb). This mode accurately mimicks the Arcade version (as far as difficulty goes). Combat is awsome for two players, and Asteroids and Missle Command are very fun to play, again, pretty good at recreating the Arcade experience.
Look, a Sears Video Arcade II! Rebranded back to Atari!
@@toejamandearl8110 yep
I thought that was pretty interesting.
Some info here: The Epoch Cassette Vision has nothing to do with Atari or the 2600 - it is it's own seperate system. There is the Cassette Vision and the later Super Cassette Vision - both by Epoch. They are not compatible and are 2 seperate systems. There are 11 games for the Cassette Vision and 30 games for the Super Cassette Vision. The Atari 2800 is just the Japanese version of the Atari VCS 2600. You can play the normal US / NTSC Atari 2600 carts on the Atari 2800. Star Raiders needs an extra controller called the Video Touch Pad.
@@MadStalker80 okay thanks for the info. I read an article about a partnership in 1979 with Atari and epoch and the cassette was a rebranded 2600 but I guess you can't believe everything you read. I'll have to look into it more.
@@dedbattery From what I read, Epoch distributed the Atari system in Japan as a seperate system to their own, the Cassette Vision. When they put out their version of "Space Invaders" for their Cassette Vision system, and also as a dedicated console playing only that game, they wanted the Atari system to have a version of that game as well, so Atari actually made Space Invaders at Epoch's request. At least that's what I read about that partnership.
@@KurtWoloch okay interesting
What a freaking score. Be sure to jam in a TSR-1 2450. Also Fishing Derby is a must-have.
@@tenminutetokyo2643 ooooo I love fishing. Okay I will find them
The 2600 was my first game system. My earliest memory playing it was at about 7 or 8 (I’m closing in on 48 now) and it was playing Breakout with my father. River Raid and Missile Command were two of my favorites.
@@someonesane that's awesome
@@dedbattery - And my age is showing, lol. I meant “Missile Command”, not Mission Control. Edited my post to fix it.
Great video. Congratulations Ona rare console.
Never heard of this 2800, great find!
@@WalterGrimsley it's a 2600 just called a 2800 in Japan
Would be cool to own this in original box to put on the shelf with my collection. I am one of the old Atari fans that never had an issue with E.T. game. I mean the movie was painfully nice and cheesy but I liked the game. It was too complicated for the ones it was geared for but still more entertaining than some of the other games that were released then.
I had Atari 7600.,. River raid was one the games we owned , .same with breakout and Popeye. We had Qbert
@@nickadimouse1 ooo is Qbert a 2600 game? I've never played it but know what it is and it would be fun to try it.
Swordquest had comic books that came with each game in the series, and there was interaction with the game and the comic. I believe those were the only two that were produced.
For star raiders you need another special joystick it's like a TV remote and had 9 or 12 keys on it and the game had a overlay in box so you could use the map properly
I picked up a 2800 last year. The sears arcade ii was my first ever console which is the same system so wanted to pick up the Japanese variant.
@@jaredbrown691 oh nice. What's your favorite game?
Star Raiders needs the 12? button keypad controller. It's actually a really great game, hope you can find one. For E.T. (which is bad, but not nearly as bad as people claim) one important thing is, you can't leave holes moving up, but any other cardinal direction instead. That admittedly is a terrible flaw in the game.
@@patsk8872 oh okay I will try that
The Swordquest games needed the included comic books, and a lot of trial and error, leaving different treasures in different rooms.
Fireworld always seemed unpolished/unfinished compared to Earthworld, which wasn't even all that great on it's own. The Earthworld mini games at least made some sense. The Fireworld ones were often unintelligible or unwatchable.
Played hundreds of hours on the 2800 - our first video game.
@@gregsenn that's awesome. I'm enjoying the system but I think I need some other controllers for specific games. I bought the one for star raiders and it had inlays like the jaguar had.
The four controller ports were standard for Atari computers and consoles, at least in the early days.
As is that metal RF shield inside.
Very cool! Never seen this before.
sadly, that was my first game system, I loved river raid the best, had combat, defender, pac man, space invaders and many more. River raid was the best.
The Atari 2600 (jr) had these Game Settings switches which some games also used to change ingame settings or where used as extra inputs. Perhaps in Star Raiders you need to use them to switch views.
@@Ranimetion there is another controller that had inlays for different games, just learned that from another viewer so I bought one
Star Raiders requires the Video Touch Pad controller & the joystick both to be able to play.
Activision had a better space battle simulator than Star Raiders called Star Master. It doesn't require a special controller to play, I seem to recall it used the difficult switch to switch into map mode.
Combat was the game that shipped with the system. It's only real flaw is that it requires two people.
My two favourite arcade games as a kid were Defender and Missile Command. The later you had a large ball that you spun around with your palm to move the cursor around the screen to block the incoming missiles and then buttons for firing your defensive weapons. I also really enjoyed the Atari versions as well.
@@ayellowbeard hhhmmm so maybe another controller would be easier for misssile command. I really liked that game is was my second favorite.
@@dedbattery Try the Atari Trackball CX22
Lots of games require selecting a mode and hitting the reset button that might work for the Gane that didn't load. And combat is the most replayable game I think it's so much fun.
@@christopherdecorte1599 I never thought about select
I'll give that a try
Thank you
Also I have atari 2600 they all work I modded one for composite left the heavy sixer original and stole switches off the last one to have 2 in good condition since the case is broken on the 3rd but if I come across a really bad 4 switch I can fix the 3rd without issue since it does load games. It's such a great console for 2 player games simple to the point and just fun.
Yes, I've played all of those before on emulators.
The 2600 Star Raiders was sold with a special joystick, I will have to check, I might have two, if I do, maybe we can work something out.
We still played Combat even when i had a snes because it was so fun
That is a monster capacitor inside of it.
@@jeromewink557 I was thinking the same thing lol the original Xbox had large ones as well.
Combat was the game that was included with the ORIGINAL Atari system, later redesignated as the 2600. Yes, E.T. was an AWFUL GAME!!!! My nephew wanted it for christmas '82 (he'd just turned 7 and didn't know any better). I played it for hours and couldn't figure the piece of shit out (and I was 16). There was a documentary on Netflix a few years ago about the E.T. debacle. Search and you may be able to find it. I seem to remember having Star Raiders and playing it a bit but... that was 45 years ago. I can't tell you anything about it. The Swordquest games I can't tell you anything about as I've never even heard of them. I did have Pac-man and I played it, but probably not as much as others. However, I had Missile Command and loved it. But the big one for me was Space Invaders. A friend of mine and I would spend all day sitting in front of the television playing the damned thing and we very quickly got to the point that we were turning over the score (breaking 10,000 points) without the other getting a chance to play.
@@charlesballard5251 hell yah. Combat looks awesome I can't wait to challenge @imsuriken to it. So what I could find on E.T. you have to find the camera pieces lol. Space invaders is the best I love the sounds it makes.
Star Raiders is a great game, but you need a touch pad controller to toggle from map to view port and for shields.
@@basili1328 yep another commenter let me know so I bought one of the controllers :)
I believe you need the keypad controller for the space game.
@@JohnZyski yep, just bought one, glad viewers let me know of I wouldn't have looked for it
Awesome :)
Me: I think you mean 2600 young lady.
Also me: Well there you go.....
It was called the 2800 in Japan
@@005AGIMA yep in Japan it's marked as a 2800
your missing a special key pad for star raiders, and the swordquest series was great but you need the comic book to complete...it was the first game contest were a kid could win $150,000 dollars in the 80's. enought to buy a home...swordquest is a great story
2800 was one of the best
I suggest you watch the AVGN episode about sword quest. 😊
I've never heard of the system 2800, but I'm curious. The specs. 😮
@@michaelmojica9057 from what I could find and what other viewers are commenting is the 2800 is exactly the same as a 2600 they just put a new case and re-released it with a new number in Japan
You need the keypad controller for star raiders
@@guymatteson6321 someone mentioned that so I bought one
Lol I didn't realize there was a controller like that with inlays like the jaguar
Poor flushcuts
I think the 2800 controller is different from the classic 2600 controller. See if you can find a 2600 controller it will be more comfortable.
I never knew an Atari 2800 existed. Good video by the way. Jesus loves you!
I have river raid on Activision Anthology on the PS2
That version of Asteroids looks interesting... the asteroids seem to be multi-colored, which they definitely aren't in the "normal" Atari 2600 version... or are they if given some sort of extended hardware which is not present in the normal system?
Atari 2800 was released only in Japan as the 2600 was not released there. It will work in the US & Canada on a different channel as both countries use NTSC back then. Pac-Man is a joke on that system & poorly made.
@@drsysop I did have the connection to go from the Atari to connect to the TVs however I learned that you can use a VHS player so to be able to capture the footage I decided just to run to the local used store real quick and buy a VHS player so that I could play all these games and capture them for you all
toethumbs
Actually, at the time E.T. was considered a decent to mediocre game. Not great. Not awful. It wasn't until the mythology of the New Mexico landfill took hold that it got blown out of perspective.
TH-cam isn’t letting me edit my comment. Star Raiders needs both the joystick and its Keypad controller. [or the OG 2600 keypads or the Kids’ Controller].
They are also a computer keypad controller for the basic programming cartridge
Star Raiders requires the 12 key keypad controller in player 2. Activision's equivalent, Starmaster, is manages it without the keypad controller. Note that Star raiders shipped with one form of the controller, the bigger black faced one, but works with either button-pad controller..
ET sucks. it's poorly made, almost unplayable.
Is an Atari 2800 backward compatible with Atari 2600? Some of those games look very simiar, if not identical to Atari 2600 versions? I wonder if some of them are direct ports or even identical.
The Atari 2800 is just a repackaged version of the 2600.
@@stphinkle it is a 2600 but in Japan it was labeled a 2800 so same games
Are you using a makeup brush for the dusting of the inside?
@@DarkZenith yah sometimes I just it on the plastic, hold the alcohol better
Why the heck does the 2800 have four controller inputs?
I’m gonna guess that your audience retention graph spikes hard at 5:55
You need to have the keypad to play star raiders.
RE Earth world serries YOU WILL NEVER figure it out there was a contest and you had to put objects in different rooms causing a code like 84 7 meaning page 84 picture 7 in a comic is a word like BRIDGE you dent the codes to atari to win prizes like a REAL GOLD CROWN- well 1 the game IS OVER 2 atari went to hell 3 only 3 games were made so if you JUST play it NOW it be usless
So those are just Atari 2600 games. In what way is the Atari 2800 different from the 2600, other than how the console itself looks?
@@thewhyzer there isn't, from what I could tell just the name. Oh and the controllers
Huh, cool never heard of the Atari 2800.