If there is anything which really astounds me, it is the fact that these games are still fun to play in their own way...I still think the 2600 is an amazing system.
I agree. It might just be the nostalgia talking, but there’s a lot of fun to be had. It’s great to put some music on in the background and get sucked into a high score “Atari groove”. Addictive.
There really are so many great arcade ports that came out on the 2600, Berzerk, Joust, Millipede, Centipede, Moon Patrol, Jungle Hunt, Phoenix, Popeye, Dig Dug, Tapper, Track and Field, Breakout, Stargate, Commando, Galaxian, Gravitar, Q*Bert, Pole Position, Jr Pac-Man and Vanguard to name a few.
The Atari 2600 was literally made to emulate the earlier arcade titles at home, if very simply. So games like Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missile Command while excellent were planned from the get-go technologically. Later ports like Star Wars (Incredible) and Ms Pac Man - and the Activision/Imagic era were awesome feats of using zero extra resources. I think the best one still is "Adventure" where ONE programmer tried to recreate the "Colossal Cave Adventure" (Known later as ZORK) but the 2600 hardware didn't have the resources for the simplest text. So in less memory than one of the thumbnail graphics we see on the side he made a graphical adventure with the first known easter egg. Awesome vid!
One of the lesser known carts for the 2600 was a text-based adaptation of the Star Trek game that was popular on the HP-2000 and probably other computer systems as well. The cartridge is often severely derided, and it has a couple of severe gameplay weaknesses (e.g. the rating one gets for completing a mission doesn't adequately factor in its difficulty) but the ability of the 2600 to pull off that game at all is really something.
@@flatfingertuning727 I was about to say WTF - coz - th-cam.com/video/ImbDmRUG8qQ/w-d-xo.html - but yeah, found "Stellar Track" - actually played that on Apple computers way back... However a text adventure even the simplest proof of concept is still exponentially bigger. From what I understood the biggest crippler was some rigid limits the Atari 2600 itself had on its memory space and program it could handle. I had a period of nostalgia where I thought I'd do a kit and slap on a modern USB drive so a game that looks like a 2600 could be a vast adventuring world, etc. and even have the cartridges made. Sadly not possible. Now there were plenty of games that had extra chips, but these took bizzaro memory tricks to make work and cost big sacrifices that had to be accounted for again with incredibly good programming skills. Got total respect for say "Halo 2600" and people who go through all that effort to retromake things, but I think I'll just dabble with nostalgia but thank G-d for modern systems.
You're right about those first 3 games; I think Space Invaders made the Atari VCS. Unfortunately, Atari wouldn't retire bad games from its catalog, or the entire system by 1982. If they had gone all-in on the 5200, releasing it with Pac-Man (instead of Super Breakout, an advanced Pong, omg), the video game crash of 1983 might not have happened. These other arcade ports like Pac-Man for 2600 were just bad; I'd rather have the quarters and drop me off at the arcade.
Phoenix and Vanguard were both outstanding. The port of Donkey Kong not so, but still enjoyable given the limitations of the VCS. It is remarkable to think that they could get so much functionality out of the hardware - developers these days should take note of what a proper programmer can do! Great channel, keep up the good work!
Wow! I used to play this with my cousins all the time, we literally only imagined there was a version that would allow you to use a shield... Super Nice!
Shields were awesome, but the bad thing was, if you didn't wait until a large Asteroid was just about to hit you, they'd burn out and destroy your ship before you passed through the asteroid!
Kung Fu Master does not have an additional chip for audio. The only 2600 game that does that is Pitfall II. While some games have extra ROM and RAM via bankswitching, Pitfall II is the only (non-modern) cartridge that has a full-blown processor in it and that's why it won't work on any multi-carts (at least ones that don't have an FPGA or a powerful processor of their own to emulate that DPC).
I still play a lot of these now. In fact I've been on a big Asteroids and Missile Command fix lately. I like how Atari, in an attempt to be family friendly changed the story around Missile Command from a cold war story to an intergalactic alien theme.
That's right, they did. With the general in the commercial though it still comes off like a war against Russia although there's a throwaway line in there about "it's interplanetary war." The explosions on the ground still look like nuclear mushroom.clouds though lol.
@@litjellyfish Call me biased, because I got the 2600 version of Kangaroo 20 years before I ever tried the physical arcade machine! Going from the 2600 port to the original machine, I instantly knew what to do and made it to the second stage on my first quarter before it was game over! For me, that's the sign of a decent port!
Steve Martin ok let’s agree on decent :) I played it a lot in the arcades and was very disappointed on the port, especially the gameplay. Compare that to the Ms Pac-Man port or even the Donkey Kong port that I felt was a lot more close to arcade in playability. Then as you say I probable depends if you come from arcade first or 2600 first.
Are you familiar with the Starpath SuperCharger? It was an accessory/cartridge that added more RAM, and connected to standard tape recorder through the audio jack. The games games for it came on cassette tapes. Anyway, it had it's own licensed version of Frogger, and by far it was superior to the Parker Brothers version in just about every way.
Yeah, I wanna do a seperate video specifically about the Supercharger. In the process of setting up a new camera so we can look at the actual hardware and not just the raw gameplay footage. Supercharger Frogger was awesome.
My fav ports not mentioned were Popeye, Reactor, Moon Patrol, Dig Dug, Pengo, Kangaroo and Congo Bongo. Non ports were Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark (actually good but a very hard learning curve), Haunted House, Astroblast, Keystone Kapers, Montezuma's Revenge, Adventures of Tron, Tutankham and River Raid.
Cosmic Ark is one of my favorite Atari 2600 games. Up there with the native-to-Atari-2600 River Raid. I'm sure I'm not the only one who plays Asteroids for the 2600 by never moving from the center of the screen (or at least trying not to)... though I always turn the left difficulty to "B" so the UFOs appear. I'm sure staying still on the arcade version will get me killed.
Not to nitpick but it's "Ms. Pac-Man", not "Mrs. Pac-Man". Nice showcase of some arcade ports. I had Tutankham for the 2600, later discovering it was an arcade game first. Asteroids was one of my faves on the Atari and I was definitely around back then for those commercials. Love seeing Christopher "Mr. Belvedere" Hewett in the Missile Command advert.
Oh Rampage. I was 13, and it was literally the best game ever made. Well, at the time. Never played the home version, though. Arcades were still around, though they'd started to wane. I had a paper route, so I always had some change to play games at the arcade in the mall.
I know serious collectors usually turn their noses up at emulation, but I have spent years curating complete romsets for basically every commercially relevant system with box art and synopsis - and I've made custom builds for the Pi3 (not plus) and Odroid XU4. If you ever want a copy, let me know. I'm not selling anything, I just like to share my hobby :)
Damn, Kung Fu Master is impressive! Some great games on this list, I didn’t even know about Rampage, that’s pretty badass. I’ve been meaning to play the 2600 version of Tapper but that’s a rare one apparently.
I am young enough that I shouldn't need to care about Atari games, yet I do, even if I don't clock in at 20 at the time of this comment. I suppose I enjoy these things because they have an interpretive style, giving you your own experience. Sure, you could play Donkey Kong and see "Mario hopping over a bunch of barrels ascending a skyscraper", but you could envision much more, and that isn't even all there is to see. I just love the thought of Donkey Kong as a gorilla bodyguard for this woman who is being chased after by a small gremlin man who often steals things you are looking for, such as purses and umbrellas. I also learned about the context behind Rampage; I didn't see the film, and no one had told me and I had somehow forgotten about the game. But I kinda want to go find both and see what they're like. This is a really great place to learn interesting things, and I enjoy what I see and hear. Thank you!
I remember running in to buy Ms PAC Man because I figured this time they had to have the intermission scenes. I was addicted to that music, especially the first one. As you know I was terribly disappointed. It wasn’t until I was finally able to get a real stand up with the chip that made it fast that I was finally able to find happiness. ;)
Yeah the 2600 got so long in the tooth it became more tooth than animal. ^_^ All things considered Star Wars games were pretty good on the system. Funny my greatest amount of time playing Missile Command still goes to the 2600 one using a joystick, worth noting they've done a Trak-Ball compatible series over at Atariage. Space Invaders is great, and that's coming someone that only tried it on 2600 last year, never had it on the family Atari. Played plenty of Asteroids as the goal was simple and very easy to pick up and play, working on a controller design to remedy the U&D issue. Cosmic Ark only came on my radar when I started collecting but it became a fast favorite to put in rotation. 2600 Kung Fu turned out really great, glad Activision was around then to do it. Wait you're telling me there was a time before I existed? ^_^ Had no idea Rampage was on 2600 bitd but hope to find a copy now since it's pretty good given the limits imo. Moon Patrol is pretty good. ;)
You should try playing selecting different game variations on Asteroids. You can change the behavior of pulling back on the controller, the number of points per extra life (configurable as 5000, 10000, or 20000), make the asteroids move more interestingly, etc.
Awesome video! My favorite arcade ports on the 2600 were Vanguard, Centipede and Indy 500. Vanguard I had never played before but loved on the 2600. In fact I was quite disappointed when I finally played the arcade version. Centipede was cool and remember it coming with that little mini poster of the trackball you could buy but I never got. I imagine it'd be even better with that. And Indy 500 was cool even though it had its own set of controllers (and the paddle controllers didn't work if I recall). You should cover Basic Programming next. That thing was crazy (with the keyboard controllers you could combine for a bigger keyboard and the crazy overlays).
Games where people looked and moved like people (roughly anyway) on the 2600 where amazing at the time. I remember my dad bringing home Pitfall and seeing that little guy with moving arms and legs. It was incredible when compared to games like Adventure where a person was represented by a square . It was (and still is) fun to live through so many advancements, but nothing beats good game play. Atari can still be so much fun.
The clip of Kung Fu Master really took me back. I played the hell out of that game on the 2600 back then and haven't so much as thought of it for the longest time. Now I wanna fire it up.
Spy Hunter for the 2600 was pretty good. I recall that it used two joysticks, and came with a plastic holder for both joysticks and some Velcro to attach and hold them in place. Innovative for the time.
I was 8 years old in 1980 when I got my first Atari 2600... I'm not using hyperbole when I say that it was magical... I was a heroin addict for 13 years and my life it's completely straightened up now , but let me say that the best heroin High I've ever had never compared to playing my Atari 2600 back in 1980. my favorite game was actually ET. It's starting to get some respect now. And it was a great game. It was very dynamic and got a bad reputation for no reason.
The 2600 has so many great ports of arcade games. Even more now thanks to the home-brew community. If you haven't already you should try out a few like Scramble, Lady Bug and the Pac-Man and Donkey Kong updates.
The Donkey Kong VCS homebrew is shockingly good. I would say it is the best-looking port on any console system prior to the NES, and really shows how flexible the 2600 was since it was done with no additional hardware- just a larger ROM. Even with expert knowledge and more resources, the Intellivision and Colecovision wouldn't be able to get as close. The Intellivision runs at half the resolution of the 2600, while both the Intellivision and Colecovision have tiny 16-color palettes (compared to 128 colors on the 2600) meaning most games have to make some severe and often odd-looking color choices. Even the much-vaunted Donkey Kong and D2K Arcade for the Intellivision had to make Kong a pea-green color.
There were more than a few game modes on Asteroids, you could get rid of the random teleport and change to a thruster that would just propell you forwards. You could then go pacman style from left to right but also top to bottom. A much more fun experience. I remember space invaders also having a multitude of game modes, with moving barriers, invisible barriers, inpenetrable barriers and any combination of those.
Just come across your channel randomly and I'm loving the Atari 2600 coverage, even though I was born in 86 and grew up with the 8 and 16 bit consoles and only got my first 2600 in 2009 it quickly became my favorite console.
I actually enjoyed The Empire Strikes Back more than the Star Wars port. But, I also enjoyed playing E.T. My taste in video games wasn't the greatest as a kid. However, I do have fond memories of playing TESB for hours on the 2600.
You always upload your videos basically at the start of my work day on Friday. This is great because it gets me excited for the weekend. I also am looking forward to you doing some arcade games
If you don’t like warping when pulling down in astroids. On game selection number 9, When you pull down you will use shields instead, however you only can use the shields a few seconds or you’ll explode. You have just Enough time for an astroid to pass over you with the shields on.
While the 2600 port of Star Wars isn't the greatest 2600 game, I've always been shocked that they even managed to make a respectably recognizable port of the arcade version. It's astounding just as a technical demo. I think few people saw it because that was around the time of the videogame crash. I was hopelessly addicted to both Missile Command and Asteroids on the 2600. Liked Space Invaders too but I didn't get as good at it.
...and now that I think about it, it's really weird that Parker Brothers sold the Atari 2600 port of an Atari game. But I guess they had the Star Wars home console game license.
I always liked Venture on the 2600. I played that game a lot back in the day. The gameplay is pretty spot on, but it doesn't have a level or scoreboard.
The Atari 2600 version of Asteroids actually offers a game option to use a shield rather than a teleport. It basically shuts off hit detection for a short time. It may run out before a larger asteroid completely passes through your ship, but at least you don't teleport randomly.
What's interesting is how the laser cannons in Star Wars The Arcade Game sound almost like Colonial Viper lasers from Battlestar Galactica. :) My favorite arcade port downs on the 2600 were: Berzerk, Defender, Asteroids, Missile Command, Zaxxon (from Coleco), and Star Wars the Arcade Game. Remember when Atari was going to release a voice emulator module for the 2600? (I don't think it ever made it into production, but I would've loved to have seen that come out for Berzerk)
The first phase of Cosmic Ark is similar to (? knock off of) an arcade game called Space Zap. It happens that when I was 7 years old in 1981, I went to an arcade for the first time. Space Zap was the very first video game I ever played. Check out a video of it if you are not familiar with it. I remember it like it was yesterday. The control panel was at my shoulder level. There were so many games to choose from and the visuals and sounds were just overwhelming. I think the title attracted me to that particular game. I remember hammering away at the control buttons in a semi random fashion, which was reasonably effective if you were fast enough.
rebel detail epic decade-and-a-half run..... probably actually relevant until about 89 (Sega Genesis) - one reason being Atari failed to come out with another system in the entirety of the 80s that was attractive enough for 2600 owners to ditch their system and upgrade
I'm old enough to remember that console 'ports' tended to be watered-down, pitiful recreations of what was available at the mall arcade (or Showbiz Pizza!). Now it's the other way around. If you were to tell me back in 1984 that consoles would end up being thousands of times far superior to an arcade machine, I would have never believed you.
There is actually a "cheat" for Space Invaders on the 2600 - or perhaps the better word is glitch. If you hold down the game reset switch before turning on the console, then let the switch go, you get two shots at a time instead of one. However, if you use any of the switches after that, you lose the power-up. That means no game select and if you want a new game after dying, you have to do the glitch again.
I have thoroughly enjoyed these videos Aaron. I can't say thanks enough for the hard work being put into your vids. I especially loved the commercials! There are honestly way too many games to mention. Please do more of these if you ever can. Keep it up!
You should try Draconian. It's a homebrew port of Namco's Bosconian and is incredibly faithful to the arcade, even featuring every single line of speech heard in the original arcade game. It also features all the stages from both the Namco and Midway releases plus 2 sets of brand new stages PLUS and randomized version. I own a CIB copy of the game and it runs beautifully on my 4 switch Atari VCS.
No problem man. You're seriously doing yourself a disservice if you love Space Invaders and you never try that version. The individual aliens themselves have great animation to them and I could go for years without playing it and still visualize quite a few of them since they really had character to them on the 5200 that I felt was absent on every other version I've ever played. And when you get to the final wave of new aliens, in a frantic battle where they're so close to the ground that you don't even have your bases to protect you anymore, the coders managed this really cool effect with the colors. I can't even explain it. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
Kung Fu Master was AMAZING. In Argentina we didnt get any 8bit until 1992 (appart from a few lucky ones that got a national versión of the c64) so the gap between Arcade and the home console was huge! As a fan of beat em ups, I've always tried to get one on my Atari, but my parents couldnt find any. Ir course, they didnt exist! When They got me Kung Fu Master in 1990, I just couldnt believe it. I was so amazed, that that day I put off my favourite meal to keep playing.
One that again pushed the limits of the hardware was Omega Race, originally put out by Midway but made for the Atari 2600 by CBS Electronics (because everyone had to make video games back then. It had special controllers because the paddle had to more 360 degrees and the controllers themselves had chips to aid in game play.
A few odd 2600 ports: Double Dragon, Spy Hunter, Commando, Ikari Warriors. And on a side note, I personally like 2600 Pac Man. Compared to the arcade version, it sucks; however, it isn't on any official release so to me it's unique! BTW, Zaxxon was worse!
I remember as a kid winning money playing my Dad who thought he could beat me at Frogger, this was about 1983 or so. That was an awesome game to play. I'm trying to remember when Rampage hit the arcades how many quarters I spent in one of those. Megaforce wasn't a bad game either, that one was pretty good, based off that movie.
My friend had Rampage for his Nes and I had it for the Master System...oh yeah, he was envious of the quality of mine. I had an Nes as well but I always got to choose my games (divorced parents two Christmas's). This happened with the Sega Genesis and the Snes as I had them both the year they came out. All I had to do was...but mom/dad is going to get me tjis one..."Oh yeah well....insert insanity here..." I now have the full cabinet in my home arcade sitting next to my Neo Geo MVS candy cab!
Who remembers the Atari port of H.E.R.O? Even though it was blocky, it was sooo good. Also Skate Boardin'. Mutiple screens. Atari definitely pushed the limits.
An idea for an episode would be Atari 2600 exclusives. Games that were never ported to other systems or included in any modern compilations. An example might be chuck the wagon or other licensed games.
Nice video and what makes this even better are all the awesome comments. Didn't see the four way shooter Vanguard or the platformer Kangaroo so I'll add them. Also I have a soft spot for Defender even though it was a mediocre port but they made up for it in Defender II so want to mention that nice recovery similar to what happened with Pac-Man/Ms. Pac Man. Back then graphics were so bad our imagination was just as key as our reflexes to get us through a game...
2600 Missile Command lacks the trak-ball and more fluid graphics of the arcade classic, but Imagic designer Rob Fulop did an amazing job capturing the “soul” of the game. I’d never seen 2600 Kung Fu. An astonishing port, given the hardware! As other’s have pointed out, there are other fabulous ports, especially Berzerk and Jr. Pac-Man.
I had a love/hate relationship with Exidy's Venture. Also, Centipede. I got a cheap QuickShot trackball at a Camelot Music Store in the Winter Park Mall and was king of the hill :)
Come hang out on the Friday Night Arcade Discord! ► discord.gg/T5HpGhM
You should consider doing a video like this for the Coleco Vision.
If there is anything which really astounds me, it is the fact that these games are still fun to play in their own way...I still think the 2600 is an amazing system.
I agree. It might just be the nostalgia talking, but there’s a lot of fun to be had. It’s great to put some music on in the background and get sucked into a high score “Atari groove”. Addictive.
There really are so many great arcade ports that came out on the 2600, Berzerk, Joust, Millipede, Centipede, Moon Patrol, Jungle Hunt, Phoenix, Popeye, Dig Dug, Tapper, Track and Field, Breakout, Stargate, Commando, Galaxian, Gravitar, Q*Bert, Pole Position, Jr Pac-Man and Vanguard to name a few.
... and Defender!!! I love the simplicity of Defender II on the 2600...
Millipede would have been sufficient, as it was significantly better than Centipede.....
Man, I loved Berzerk. If you could line up correctly, their shots would pass through your 'neck'.
Of those I played Phoenix most. Liked it on the Atri way better than on the arcade. It's so addictive, I still have it on my mobile phone today. :)
@@meneerjansen00 how do you play it on a phone? No joypad...
The Atari 2600 versions of "Centipede", "Joust", and "Dig Dug" were also quite fun to play as well. :D
The Atari 2600 was literally made to emulate the earlier arcade titles at home, if very simply. So games like Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missile Command while excellent were planned from the get-go technologically.
Later ports like Star Wars (Incredible) and Ms Pac Man - and the Activision/Imagic era were awesome feats of using zero extra resources.
I think the best one still is "Adventure" where ONE programmer tried to recreate the "Colossal Cave Adventure" (Known later as ZORK) but the 2600 hardware didn't have the resources for the simplest text. So in less memory than one of the thumbnail graphics we see on the side he made a graphical adventure with the first known easter egg.
Awesome vid!
One of the lesser known carts for the 2600 was a text-based adaptation of the Star Trek game that was popular on the HP-2000 and probably other computer systems as well. The cartridge is often severely derided, and it has a couple of severe gameplay weaknesses (e.g. the rating one gets for completing a mission doesn't adequately factor in its difficulty) but the ability of the 2600 to pull off that game at all is really something.
@@flatfingertuning727 I was about to say WTF - coz - th-cam.com/video/ImbDmRUG8qQ/w-d-xo.html - but yeah, found "Stellar Track" - actually played that on Apple computers way back... However a text adventure even the simplest proof of concept is still exponentially bigger.
From what I understood the biggest crippler was some rigid limits the Atari 2600 itself had on its memory space and program it could handle. I had a period of nostalgia where I thought I'd do a kit and slap on a modern USB drive so a game that looks like a 2600 could be a vast adventuring world, etc. and even have the cartridges made. Sadly not possible. Now there were plenty of games that had extra chips, but these took bizzaro memory tricks to make work and cost big sacrifices that had to be accounted for again with incredibly good programming skills.
Got total respect for say "Halo 2600" and people who go through all that effort to retromake things, but I think I'll just dabble with nostalgia but thank G-d for modern systems.
You're right about those first 3 games; I think Space Invaders made the Atari VCS. Unfortunately, Atari wouldn't retire bad games from its catalog, or the entire system by 1982. If they had gone all-in on the 5200, releasing it with Pac-Man (instead of Super Breakout, an advanced Pong, omg), the video game crash of 1983 might not have happened. These other arcade ports like Pac-Man for 2600 were just bad; I'd rather have the quarters and drop me off at the arcade.
Atari did an excellent port of Berzerk. A miss there.
True, they nailed that one
You really should've covered Jungle Hunt. It's shockingly close to the arcade.
Luis Chambers I liked it a lot, but shockingly close? No.....
@@patsfan4life with 2600 by the 80's "shockingly close to the arcade" translates to: " kind of like and almost as fun as".
People have been shockingly brainwashed by marketing-speak.
Space War, Berzerk, Reactor, Breakout, Centipede, Vanguard, Venture, Pole Position, Star Trek: Strategic Operation Simulator, Outlaw, Phoenix
Phoenix and Vanguard were both outstanding. The port of Donkey Kong not so, but still enjoyable given the limitations of the VCS. It is remarkable to think that they could get so much functionality out of the hardware - developers these days should take note of what a proper programmer can do!
Great channel, keep up the good work!
pro-tip: Atari asteroids game varients 9-16 will give you shields instead of warp.
Good to know, thanks. I'm bad about checking out the variants.
Nice
Wow! I used to play this with my cousins all the time, we literally only imagined there was a version that would allow you to use a shield... Super Nice!
180 flip is superior to shields.
Shields were awesome, but the bad thing was, if you didn't wait until a large Asteroid was just about to hit you, they'd burn out and destroy your ship before you passed through the asteroid!
Kung Fu Master does not have an additional chip for audio. The only 2600 game that does that is Pitfall II. While some games have extra ROM and RAM via bankswitching, Pitfall II is the only (non-modern) cartridge that has a full-blown processor in it and that's why it won't work on any multi-carts (at least ones that don't have an FPGA or a powerful processor of their own to emulate that DPC).
MrTBoneSF luckily it plays just fine in emulation 😊
For what it's worth, I purchased the most recent incarnation of the Harmony Cartridge recently and it will run Pitfall 2. First thing I tested.
Nailed it
I still play a lot of these now. In fact I've been on a big Asteroids and Missile Command fix lately. I like how Atari, in an attempt to be family friendly changed the story around Missile Command from a cold war story to an intergalactic alien theme.
That's right, they did. With the general in the commercial though it still comes off like a war against Russia although there's a throwaway line in there about "it's interplanetary war." The explosions on the ground still look like nuclear mushroom.clouds though lol.
Space Invaders the first KILLER-APP on a video game console. People bought the console just to play that game
The only consoles I ever had was Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Sega Master System. I loved all 3!
For official commercial releases, Gyruss and Kangaroo. If you count home brews, then Juno First.
Steve Martin kangaroo was a terrible port
@@litjellyfish Call me biased, because I got the 2600 version of Kangaroo 20 years before I ever tried the physical arcade machine! Going from the 2600 port to the original machine, I instantly knew what to do and made it to the second stage on my first quarter before it was game over! For me, that's the sign of a decent port!
Steve Martin ok let’s agree on decent :) I played it a lot in the arcades and was very disappointed on the port, especially the gameplay. Compare that to the Ms Pac-Man port or even the Donkey Kong port that I felt was a lot more close to arcade in playability. Then as you say I probable depends if you come from arcade first or 2600 first.
Are you familiar with the Starpath SuperCharger? It was an accessory/cartridge that added more RAM, and connected to standard tape recorder through the audio jack. The games games for it came on cassette tapes. Anyway, it had it's own licensed version of Frogger, and by far it was superior to the Parker Brothers version in just about every way.
Yeah, I wanna do a seperate video specifically about the Supercharger. In the process of setting up a new camera so we can look at the actual hardware and not just the raw gameplay footage. Supercharger Frogger was awesome.
It also had Dragonstomper, the first ever console RPG.
@@willmistretta nope that was Adventure on the Atari 2600. Riddle of the sphinx also predates it and I think haunted house.
@@alistarokemble836 I consider all of those to be adventure games, not RPGs. No experience system for persistent character progression.
Will Mistretta Please tell us the difference between and Adventure game and an RPG on 8 bit system?
Love me some Berserk, Galaxian, and GORF on the 2600. Very well done ports, endlessly enjoyable to this day when I'm in the mood for them.
My fav ports not mentioned were Popeye, Reactor, Moon Patrol, Dig Dug, Pengo, Kangaroo and Congo Bongo. Non ports were Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark (actually good but a very hard learning curve), Haunted House, Astroblast, Keystone Kapers, Montezuma's Revenge, Adventures of Tron, Tutankham and River Raid.
TR47 Dig Dug was good
I had no idea Kung Fu was ported to the 2600. That looked like a really decent port. Wow!! This was a great episode!!
It's not. The controls are terrible.
They're not great.
I havent played the nes version. Is it better or the same as the 2600 version?
Cosmic Ark is one of my favorite Atari 2600 games. Up there with the native-to-Atari-2600 River Raid.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who plays Asteroids for the 2600 by never moving from the center of the screen (or at least trying not to)... though I always turn the left difficulty to "B" so the UFOs appear. I'm sure staying still on the arcade version will get me killed.
Missile Command was my absolute favorite ATARI game.
Not to nitpick but it's "Ms. Pac-Man", not "Mrs. Pac-Man". Nice showcase of some arcade ports. I had Tutankham for the 2600, later discovering it was an arcade game first. Asteroids was one of my faves on the Atari and I was definitely around back then for those commercials. Love seeing Christopher "Mr. Belvedere" Hewett in the Missile Command advert.
Awe crap, did I mispell it on the text overlay?! I thought I double checked lol.
Lol i almost made the same comment till i noticed you beat me to it😜
@@FridayNightArcade It's in the voice-over, you say it a couple of times. :-)
Oh... well that's just because I'm terrible at pronunciation :D
Its all good😀
FUN FACT: There's an even closer port of Asteroids by Starpath called Suicide Mission. Why not check that out?
I'll have to look into that.. .thanks!
@@FridayNightArcade You're very welcome sir. Hope you have a fun time :D!
Oh Rampage. I was 13, and it was literally the best game ever made. Well, at the time. Never played the home version, though. Arcades were still around, though they'd started to wane. I had a paper route, so I always had some change to play games at the arcade in the mall.
Holy cow! I did not know Parker Brothers had a 2600 port for Star Wars. I had the Colecovision version purchased from Child World that was fun.
Cpt Blu Bawlz I never knew this either! It looks amazing!
I know serious collectors usually turn their noses up at emulation, but I have spent years curating complete romsets for basically every commercially relevant system with box art and synopsis - and I've made custom builds for the Pi3 (not plus) and Odroid XU4. If you ever want a copy, let me know. I'm not selling anything, I just like to share my hobby :)
TheWarmotor Does your curation include the c64?
Defender was my favorite 2600 game. I would play it for hours 🕹️
Damn, Kung Fu Master is impressive! Some great games on this list, I didn’t even know about Rampage, that’s pretty badass. I’ve been meaning to play the 2600 version of Tapper but that’s a rare one apparently.
Pole position and defender are 2 of my favorites. Cintepede and galaga my all time favorite arcade games.
Play the shields game on Asteroids, to avoid the rando teleporting.
I am young enough that I shouldn't need to care about Atari games, yet I do, even if I don't clock in at 20 at the time of this comment. I suppose I enjoy these things because they have an interpretive style, giving you your own experience. Sure, you could play Donkey Kong and see "Mario hopping over a bunch of barrels ascending a skyscraper", but you could envision much more, and that isn't even all there is to see. I just love the thought of Donkey Kong as a gorilla bodyguard for this woman who is being chased after by a small gremlin man who often steals things you are looking for, such as purses and umbrellas. I also learned about the context behind Rampage; I didn't see the film, and no one had told me and I had somehow forgotten about the game. But I kinda want to go find both and see what they're like.
This is a really great place to learn interesting things, and I enjoy what I see and hear. Thank you!
FYI- DK is the bad guy and Jumpman (a.k.a. Mr. Video) is the good guy
I remember running in to buy Ms PAC Man because I figured this time they had to have the intermission scenes. I was addicted to that music, especially the first one. As you know I was terribly disappointed. It wasn’t until I was finally able to get a real stand up with the chip that made it fast that I was finally able to find happiness. ;)
I liked Imagic's Demon Attack.
lehighguy1 not an arcade port.....
Yeah the 2600 got so long in the tooth it became more tooth than animal. ^_^ All things considered Star Wars games were pretty good on the system. Funny my greatest amount of time playing Missile Command still goes to the 2600 one using a joystick, worth noting they've done a Trak-Ball compatible series over at Atariage.
Space Invaders is great, and that's coming someone that only tried it on 2600 last year, never had it on the family Atari. Played plenty of Asteroids as the goal was simple and very easy to pick up and play, working on a controller design to remedy the U&D issue.
Cosmic Ark only came on my radar when I started collecting but it became a fast favorite to put in rotation. 2600 Kung Fu turned out really great, glad Activision was around then to do it. Wait you're telling me there was a time before I existed? ^_^ Had no idea Rampage was on 2600 bitd but hope to find a copy now since it's pretty good given the limits imo. Moon Patrol is pretty good. ;)
You should try playing selecting different game variations on Asteroids. You can change the behavior of pulling back on the controller, the number of points per extra life (configurable as 5000, 10000, or 20000), make the asteroids move more interestingly, etc.
Awesome video! My favorite arcade ports on the 2600 were Vanguard, Centipede and Indy 500. Vanguard I had never played before but loved on the 2600. In fact I was quite disappointed when I finally played the arcade version. Centipede was cool and remember it coming with that little mini poster of the trackball you could buy but I never got. I imagine it'd be even better with that. And Indy 500 was cool even though it had its own set of controllers (and the paddle controllers didn't work if I recall). You should cover Basic Programming next. That thing was crazy (with the keyboard controllers you could combine for a bigger keyboard and the crazy overlays).
Games where people looked and moved like people (roughly anyway) on the 2600 where amazing at the time. I remember my dad bringing home Pitfall and seeing that little guy with moving arms and legs. It was incredible when compared to games like Adventure where a person was represented by a square . It was (and still is) fun to live through so many advancements, but nothing beats good game play. Atari can still be so much fun.
Phoenix great port for the Atari 2600 :-)
The clip of Kung Fu Master really took me back. I played the hell out of that game on the 2600 back then and haven't so much as thought of it for the longest time. Now I wanna fire it up.
Spy Hunter for the 2600 was pretty good. I recall that it used two joysticks, and came with a plastic holder for both joysticks and some Velcro to attach and hold them in place. Innovative for the time.
I was 8 years old in 1980 when I got my first Atari 2600... I'm not using hyperbole when I say that it was magical... I was a heroin addict for 13 years and my life it's completely straightened up now , but let me say that the best heroin High I've ever had never compared to playing my Atari 2600 back in 1980. my favorite game was actually ET. It's starting to get some respect now. And it was a great game. It was very dynamic and got a bad reputation for no reason.
The 2600 has so many great ports of arcade games. Even more now thanks to the home-brew community. If you haven't already you should try out a few like Scramble, Lady Bug and the Pac-Man and Donkey Kong updates.
The Donkey Kong VCS homebrew is shockingly good. I would say it is the best-looking port on any console system prior to the NES, and really shows how flexible the 2600 was since it was done with no additional hardware- just a larger ROM. Even with expert knowledge and more resources, the Intellivision and Colecovision wouldn't be able to get as close. The Intellivision runs at half the resolution of the 2600, while both the Intellivision and Colecovision have tiny 16-color palettes (compared to 128 colors on the 2600) meaning most games have to make some severe and often odd-looking color choices. Even the much-vaunted Donkey Kong and D2K Arcade for the Intellivision had to make Kong a pea-green color.
MrTBoneSF where can I get it
There were more than a few game modes on Asteroids, you could get rid of the random teleport and change to a thruster that would just propell you forwards. You could then go pacman style from left to right but also top to bottom. A much more fun experience. I remember space invaders also having a multitude of game modes, with moving barriers, invisible barriers, inpenetrable barriers and any combination of those.
Just come across your channel randomly and I'm loving the Atari 2600 coverage, even though I was born in 86 and grew up with the 8 and 16 bit consoles and only got my first 2600 in 2009 it quickly became my favorite console.
Though I'm sure people here have already said this, but I would suggest Berzerk as a perfect port on the 2600.
Keystone Kaper, Dragonfire, Jungle Hunt, Freeway, Fishing Derby, Basketball, Plaque Attack, Barn Storming, Berzerk, Crypts of Chaos, Combat, Air Sea Battle, Concentration, Bowling, Fathom, Fast Food, Frog & Flies, Indy 500, Lost Luggage, Pitfall, Sea Hunt, SPider Fighter, Surround, Tapeworm, Tank Plus,
ATARI 2600 COMMERCIAL
PROBABLY BEFORE YOU WERE BORN
*Hits laptop with walking cane* How about probably not? You young whippersnapper! >:(
I actually enjoyed The Empire Strikes Back more than the Star Wars port. But, I also enjoyed playing E.T. My taste in video games wasn't the greatest as a kid. However, I do have fond memories of playing TESB for hours on the 2600.
Rexfellis not an arcade port....
You always upload your videos basically at the start of my work day on Friday. This is great because it gets me excited for the weekend.
I also am looking forward to you doing some arcade games
If you don’t like warping when pulling down in astroids. On game selection number 9, When you pull down you will use shields instead, however you only can use the shields a few seconds or you’ll explode. You have just Enough time for an astroid to pass over you with the shields on.
My faves = Berzerk, Centipede, Vanguard, Crazy Climber, and Kangaroo.
Diskoboy1974 good ones
You missed Q-bert on the 2600
One of my top 10 2600 games.
While the 2600 port of Star Wars isn't the greatest 2600 game, I've always been shocked that they even managed to make a respectably recognizable port of the arcade version. It's astounding just as a technical demo. I think few people saw it because that was around the time of the videogame crash.
I was hopelessly addicted to both Missile Command and Asteroids on the 2600. Liked Space Invaders too but I didn't get as good at it.
...and now that I think about it, it's really weird that Parker Brothers sold the Atari 2600 port of an Atari game. But I guess they had the Star Wars home console game license.
Thanks for reminding me of space zap! I’ve been trying to remember that for years now! Thought I imagined it!
Rampage and kung fu master on atari 2600 has got to be the Mandela effect... Lol
I always liked Venture on the 2600. I played that game a lot back in the day. The gameplay is pretty spot on, but it doesn't have a level or scoreboard.
The Atari 2600 version of Asteroids actually offers a game option to use a shield rather than a teleport. It basically shuts off hit detection for a short time. It may run out before a larger asteroid completely passes through your ship, but at least you don't teleport randomly.
What's interesting is how the laser cannons in Star Wars The Arcade Game sound almost like Colonial Viper lasers from Battlestar Galactica. :)
My favorite arcade port downs on the 2600 were: Berzerk, Defender, Asteroids, Missile Command, Zaxxon (from Coleco), and Star Wars the Arcade Game.
Remember when Atari was going to release a voice emulator module for the 2600? (I don't think it ever made it into production, but I would've loved to have seen that come out for Berzerk)
Loved missle command
1:28 Donny Osmond *loves* him some Star Wars.
The first phase of Cosmic Ark is similar to (? knock off of) an arcade game called Space Zap. It happens that when I was 7 years old in 1981, I went to an arcade for the first time. Space Zap was the very first video game I ever played. Check out a video of it if you are not familiar with it. I remember it like it was yesterday. The control panel was at my shoulder level. There were so many games to choose from and the visuals and sounds were just overwhelming. I think the title attracted me to that particular game. I remember hammering away at the control buttons in a semi random fashion, which was reasonably effective if you were fast enough.
Didnt realize atari was around til 92
rebel detail epic decade-and-a-half run..... probably actually relevant until about 89 (Sega Genesis) - one reason being Atari failed to come out with another system in the entirety of the 80s that was attractive enough for 2600 owners to ditch their system and upgrade
probably before you was born ... nope i was alive in those days :v
Definitely not Crystal Castles and Mr Do!
you missed "Crazy Climber"
Crossbow and Gravitar were also terrific ports. Also while it's pretty far removed from it, Yar's Revenge was based upon Star Castle.
Nice. Though I'm surprised you missed Double Dragon for the Atari 2600.
Most people do not like it, but I am a fan.
I'm old enough to remember that console 'ports' tended to be watered-down, pitiful recreations of what was available at the mall arcade (or Showbiz Pizza!). Now it's the other way around. If you were to tell me back in 1984 that consoles would end up being thousands of times far superior to an arcade machine, I would have never believed you.
There is actually a "cheat" for Space Invaders on the 2600 - or perhaps the better word is glitch. If you hold down the game reset switch before turning on the console, then let the switch go, you get two shots at a time instead of one. However, if you use any of the switches after that, you lose the power-up. That means no game select and if you want a new game after dying, you have to do the glitch again.
I have thoroughly enjoyed these videos Aaron. I can't say thanks enough for the hard work being put into your vids. I especially loved the commercials! There are honestly way too many games to mention. Please do more of these if you ever can. Keep it up!
You should try Draconian. It's a homebrew port of Namco's Bosconian and is incredibly faithful to the arcade, even featuring every single line of speech heard in the original arcade game. It also features all the stages from both the Namco and Midway releases plus 2 sets of brand new stages PLUS and randomized version. I own a CIB copy of the game and it runs beautifully on my 4 switch Atari VCS.
Try Space Invaders for the 5200. All these years later I think it's by far the best version of the game ever made.
Thanks for the tip - I'll have to look into that.
No problem man. You're seriously doing yourself a disservice if you love Space Invaders and you never try that version. The individual aliens themselves have great animation to them and I could go for years without playing it and still visualize quite a few of them since they really had character to them on the 5200 that I felt was absent on every other version I've ever played. And when you get to the final wave of new aliens, in a frantic battle where they're so close to the ground that you don't even have your bases to protect you anymore, the coders managed this really cool effect with the colors. I can't even explain it. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
the dude can it be emulated
Could you do an episode or series of NES games on 2600 that would be awesome I had no idea Kung Fu was on there and I want to see more
Zaxxon, Joust, Dig Dug, and Sinistar. All really well done ports.
Cosmic Ark is a sequel to "Atlantis" which most dismiss as a Missile command clone though it's more "Tower Defense" proto.
Kung Fu Master was AMAZING. In Argentina we didnt get any 8bit until 1992 (appart from a few lucky ones that got a national versión of the c64) so the gap between Arcade and the home console was huge! As a fan of beat em ups, I've always tried to get one on my Atari, but my parents couldnt find any. Ir course, they didnt exist! When They got me Kung Fu Master in 1990, I just couldnt believe it. I was so amazed, that that day I put off my favourite meal to keep playing.
I'll be damned. Starting at 2:51, the General in the Missile Command commercial is none other than Mr. Belvedere himself, Christopher Hewett. Awesome.
One that again pushed the limits of the hardware was Omega Race, originally put out by Midway but made for the Atari 2600 by CBS Electronics (because everyone had to make video games back then. It had special controllers because the paddle had to more 360 degrees and the controllers themselves had chips to aid in game play.
Kung Fu Master looks like Alex from The Clock Work Orange.
Awesome video! Really appreciate the inclusion of the vintage commercials. 👍
Thanks for mentioning Space Zap! I played that on a tabletop in someone's shop, but didn't remember the name.
A few odd 2600 ports: Double Dragon, Spy Hunter, Commando, Ikari Warriors.
And on a side note, I personally like 2600 Pac Man. Compared to the arcade version, it sucks; however, it isn't on any official release so to me it's unique! BTW, Zaxxon was worse!
Commando, Ikari Warriors, Solar Fox, Moon Patrol
I remember as a kid winning money playing my Dad who thought he could beat me at Frogger, this was about 1983 or so. That was an awesome game to play. I'm trying to remember when Rampage hit the arcades how many quarters I spent in one of those. Megaforce wasn't a bad game either, that one was pretty good, based off that movie.
Awesome - thanks so much for sharing. Love to hear stories like this.
Cosmic Ark is the most surprising, not only looks better than the arcade version it is based but has extra levels that add more depth.
Phoenix and Battlezone. I actually like the VCS version of Phoenix better than the arcade. version.
Jr. Pacman was always my personal favorite on the 2600. Scrolling games weren't an easy task to make at the time.
My friend had Rampage for his Nes and I had it for the Master System...oh yeah, he was envious of the quality of mine. I had an Nes as well but I always got to choose my games (divorced parents two Christmas's). This happened with the Sega Genesis and the Snes as I had them both the year they came out. All I had to do was...but mom/dad is going to get me tjis one..."Oh yeah well....insert insanity here..."
I now have the full cabinet in my home arcade sitting next to my Neo Geo MVS candy cab!
The hyperspace in Asteroids is annoying but if you use the game select to move up afew levels (13,14 iirc ) u get a far more useful shield.
Who remembers the Atari port of H.E.R.O? Even though it was blocky, it was sooo good. Also Skate Boardin'. Mutiple screens. Atari definitely pushed the limits.
Galaxian is my favorite port ever! on any system!
I enjoyed the 2600 port of Galaxian back in the day, so much so that I was kinda bitter we never gotten an official Galaga port.
You should try the enhanced version rom , it’s amazingly good . Atariage dot com
The 2600 version of Star Wars was pretty good, my only complaint was the control made it hard to target.
Agreed - it was more awkward than I felt like it should be.
Much much Respect for the Amazing innovation Atari has brought to gaming
An idea for an episode would be Atari 2600 exclusives. Games that were never ported to other systems or included in any modern compilations. An example might be chuck the wagon or other licensed games.
My favorite @600 port was Moon Patrol or Battlezone
Nice video and what makes this even better are all the awesome comments. Didn't see the four way shooter Vanguard or the platformer Kangaroo so I'll add them. Also I have a soft spot for Defender even though it was a mediocre port but they made up for it in Defender II so want to mention that nice recovery similar to what happened with Pac-Man/Ms. Pac Man. Back then graphics were so bad our imagination was just as key as our reflexes to get us through a game...
Missle command is awesome with the trackball control, bring back the trackball control.
2600 Missile Command lacks the trak-ball and more fluid graphics of the arcade classic, but Imagic designer Rob Fulop did an amazing job capturing the “soul” of the game. I’d never seen 2600 Kung Fu. An astonishing port, given the hardware! As other’s have pointed out, there are other fabulous ports, especially Berzerk and Jr. Pac-Man.
Yes, Atari later released a 2600 track ball, but lamentably it was not compatible with 2600 Missile Command.
I had a love/hate relationship with Exidy's Venture. Also, Centipede. I got a cheap QuickShot trackball at a Camelot Music Store in the Winter Park Mall and was king of the hill :)
I always loved Defender