Tank was the name of the original Atari arcade cabinet. When the game was being converted to the home version, the programmer added the air battle games & it was renamed to Combat, which was the pack-in game for the 2600. Quite a lot of people still referred to it as Tank because they were familiar with the arcade version.
Yes! I'll never forget the first time playing adventure. No clock. No score. Open world. Inventory. Items. A quest. A storyline. Wish they would've made 10 different RPG games like Adventure. And yes- I found the "secret room" in fifth grade! Someone on the playground told me how to do it; and I couldn't believe it when his advice worked.
same here! i was in 7th grade and someone told me you push the cursor, or character gainst a wall and it says "Created By Warren Robinette". Great times!! I love Adventure! I will play it tonight!
The Imagic games really knocked my socks off as a kid. Cosmic Ark, Atlantis, and Riddle of the Sphinx all sparked my imagination and impressed me technically.
Demon Attack was better than space invaders. I also really enjoyed River Raid 1 & 2, along with Chopper Command. I had a game where you would have to shoot a path through a ufo looking space ship that had a rotating disc with an empty slot that your bullets would have to pass through to blow it up. Does anyone know what this game was called?
Imagic also made its games for Intellivision, which is the system I had. For the time, Imagic games' graphics were great. I had Atlantis and Micro-Surgeon. Micro-Surgeon must have been inspired by the 1966 movie, Fantastic Voyage, as one pilots a surgical probe through a patient's body and zaps illnesses (including tapeworms!).
Imagic was awesome! Their greatest accomplishments were their Texas Instruments Home Computer ports. They pushed the limits with the superior hardware. Check out Super Demon Attack which was arcade level quality at the time. The unreleased Dragonfire is visually stunning. Fathom very impressive. Microsurgeon was the most technically superior game for the system with the multiple screens and zoom in view the other versions did not include. Makes me wonder what could have been. I believe Activision had the rights to some of their titles. Unfortunately many of them are no longer available. I would really like to see a collection released of all the Imagic games for the multiple systems they developed for.
Excellent list. A large part of the 2600's appeal, even to this day, is seeing how far the technically limited capabilities of the original hardware can be pushed.
It’s crazy how much memory had to do with limitations. It would have been unaffordable to make an advanced cartridge with a megabyte of memory. Otherwise these games would have looked far better than you ever thought possible. Donkey Kong VCS is a great example of homebrew games you would have never seen back in the day.
@@AngryCalvin Something to mention: Limitations can lead to creativity. As an example, the book "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Suess came out due to a bet with the author. The challenge was to write a compelling story using 50 words or less. In the same way, the limitations of the 2600 lead to Programmers having to become more creative in a way that wouldn't have happened if there had been high capabilities.
TIMESTAMPS 0:01 INTRO 0:20 Adventure 1:16 Battlezone 2:06 BMX Air Master 2:57 Commando 3:44 Double Dragon 4:09 Escape from the Mind Master 5:25 F-14 Tomcat 6:14 Frogger 7:09 Ghostbusters 7:51 Hero 8:45 Ikari Warriors 9:38 Jungle Hunt 10:24 Kung Fu Master 11:19 Millipede 12:12 Montezuma's Revenge 13:10 Pete Rose Baseball 13:56 Phoenix 14:57 Pitfall II 16:27 Quadrun 16:56 River Raid II 17:43 Solaris 19:26 Space Invaders 20:19 Space Shuttle 21:22 Tapper 22:21 Tunnel Runner 22:56 Xenophobe 23:40 OUTRO 23:59 END Awesome video; many thanks for posting. Atari 2600 Pac-Man was the first video game I'd ever played on a home console back in the very early 80s, but Space Invaders (...the second game I'd ever played) is the game that made me a gamer... I still play it to this day on occasion (there's a cool rapid-fire trick, too! For anyone curious/interested... ruclips.net/video/piotWam68AY/видео.html). Cheers! \m/, (*o*) ,\m/
I quite liked the 2600 port of KLAX. The idea of porting a Arcade game from 1990 to a console from 1977 is insane. Still plays well and the rotation effect on the blocks is well done.
That was part of the thrill back then. These days, and even 25-30 years ago, you could do a search for "complete list of atari 2600 games" and that was that. Before the Internet era, you'd come across games you'd literally never knew existed before.
I didn't like the 2600 port. It controlled awful. That having been said, a trackball version, with the up and down reversed was available for a while, and was a much better experience
One game for the 2600 to mention is Ms. Pacman. Unlike the Pacman released for the 2600 (which was panned, although I think it would have fared better had it not been called Pacman), Ms. Pacman is virtually identical to the arcade version. The only difference is that it is a one-player game. Considering the limitations of the 2600, it is a reasonable change considering how much the 2600 version got right.
Combat blew my mind. Blasting a tank so hard across the battlefield boundaries and have it appear on the opposite side of the TV screen was the most powerful thing I've seen on Atari 2600.
I have a weird joystick controller that causes the tank to go into turbo mode for some reason, doubling it's speed, and making the engine sound higher pitch....I have no idea why it does that, it's like as if the controller is literally hacking the rom somehow. 🤷🏼 It's the weirdest glitch on the Atari 2600 I have ever witnessed.
Just a point of correction. Escape From the Mind Master was not the pack-in game for the Starpath Supercharger. In fact, when the Supercharger was released, it was listed as a "Coming Soon" title for future release. PHASER PATROL came packaged with all Superchargers.
Adventure is a game i play all the time on an emulator. Something I didn't realizer until I was an adult was that the red dragon will actually chase the bat if the bat is holding the white key. I'm sure the other dragons would do this if they could keep up. He will only divert to kill you when he ends up in your screen. I find this quite hilarious.
The video misses the really mind blowing part about Battle Zone - it's doing a pretty good job of modeling 3D - like you can hear a tank fire off screen, throw it in reverse, and watch the shell pass in front of you! Compare that to Robot Tank's idea of "stop looking at the bullet and it won't hit you", and you realize how smart it is.
Omega Race was a very good port worthy of mention here. It required a peripheral that slid over the joystick and daisy chained to the controller jack. It added a second button to fire your weapon. The joystick button was used for thrust to move the space ship.
I didn't know about that controller peripheral, interesting! I found a workaround by using a weird little rectangular controller that has a small joystick on one side, a paddle/dial on the other side, and a single button. It's a bit awkward to maneuver around, but it works.
Great list. And they are games from the 80s, made with the tools from that time. 2600 is so unique because the hardware is super limited by at same time the lack of video memory let the software do all sort of tricks.
@@GregsGameRoom yeah i notice that for alot of consoles later in its lifespan games got graphically better! Devs really figured out the ins and outs of the consoles full potential!
@@GregsGameRoom Mine is hooked up to an old mp3 player. The only other game I had back then besides Phaser Patrol was Fireball...which was a super breakout clone.
This is a good video. I grew up with the 2600 since the beginning. Many of these I’ve never seen. The Super Charger is completely new also. Very informative. Well done.
My brothers and I loved Pitfall II, Space Invaders, and Armored Ambush. It's surprising that Keystone Cops didn't make this list I loved that one, but my all-time favorite is Lock'N'Chase.
11:43 You're talking about "racing the beam". The 2600 had no VRAM, so you had to draw all of the graphics as the cathode ray beam scanned across a single line. By moving the two sprites, the two "bullets", and the one "ball" around the screen during each scan line, you can fake the appearance of more sprites than the console actually supported. The ball was a square and the bullets were two rectangles half that height. Graphics like the mushrooms were drawn with either the ball or the bullets which is why they're so simple.
Close. The two missiles, the ball, and the sprites don't really have a 'height'. The missiles and ball are just a single 'dot', that can be stretch horizontally to some degree (NUSIZ/CTRLPF). Any 'height' they have is caused by showing the object at the same position across multiple scanlines. Sprites are just 8-bits wide, so you had to swap the graphics out on subsequent lines to draw anything interesting. This would be awful, except that the limits here are per scanline, unlike systems like the intellivision, where MOBs could only appear once per frame. There are also some neat tricks that let you reuse the same sprites on the same scanline, allowing for things like the famous 6-digit score routine.
The thing I love about late era games for most of these systems (even the NES) is that you can see what 6, 7 years of working with the console and figuring out the back to front tricks of it can achieve. The 2600 was designed as you say to play very simple games with simple abstract graphics. The NES's early titles are often just as rough looking, relatively speaking. But get to those late era games, and the programmers were performing miracles with this technology, because they'd gotten the handle on the ins and outs and how to do neat graphical tricks within the meager memory allowed.
Correction to the Supercharger segment; Phaser Patrol was the game included with the Supercharger not Escape from the Mind Master which was a stand alone release, number 5 in the series.
The ColecoVision version of Montezuma's Revenge was the first game that really made me understand that the 2600 could be surpassed. I was blown away by it.
Two games that always impressed me and are still fun are Starmaster and Mountain King. Starmaster was so unique in the way that you used the radar screen and had to manage so many systems, and yet it was still fun, intense, and accessible. Mountain King was a great platformer that blew my mind, once I figured out how to properly jump and what I was actually supposed to do.
I picked up a Starpath Supercharger on clearance back in the '84 crash along with Suicide Mission and Escape from the Mind Master. They both melted my brain that the humble 2600 was capable of games like this. A few years ago I played the home-brew version of Donkey Kong Arcade and practically soiled myself with shock. Other than not having slanted girders on the first level, the game was as close as it could ever be on the 2600. And the home-brew port of Star Castle, a game that was thought to be impossible on the 2600 (their approximation of the game style back in the day turned into Yar's Revenge) but some crazy programmer took on the challenge.
Honestly the fact that people are able to push the 2600 to it’s limits even in the home brew market is great Even so out of all of the Atari consoles, the 2600 is my personal favorite
The amazing thing is that Jay Miner described in a documentary how they were forced to leave out many of the planned hardware assited features in order to keep the price of the system low. Their reasoning was that the system was powerful enough for those features to be realized through programming.
Not surprised Solaris made the list. It's a masterclass of 2600 programming, and by one guy! Part of the reason it stands out is that Neubauer continued developing it on his own for years after the US video game market crash. Atari later picked it up for their 2600 relaunch lineup. Solaris could technically qualify as a "homebrew" game, as most of the development wasn't under a commercial contract. The level of refinement is more of what you'd see in such a passion project. Publisher games churned out back in the day didn't get that level of development work. It's also one of the few Atari published games that gave developer credits.
Solaris blew my mind as a kid. There are so many levels to that game and it's incredibly difficult to win. I think when I finally did beat it I used a VCR to record the event lol
For jungle hunt I think the green front foliage is just the background. Hence the low resolution. The other foliage is 2 sprites multiplied x3 = 6 The wines is the two missiles and ball repositioned every scanline. That is why you see one wine having the same colors as the player as those two objects share the same color
The first game that blew my mind on the 2600 was Mountain King. It has some of the best music on the 2600 I've ever heard, and one of the first games with a "secret" area/world that you can access with a jump glitch.
Hab meine Konsole auch noch. Mit Yars Revenge, Phoenix, Moon Patrol, Labyrinth, Wüstenschlacht, Frogger, Phantom Panzer... Und ich war damit als Kind glücklich.
My favorite games were Robot Tank, Star Raiders, and Star Masters. My favorite cheat was turning the game on and off really fast on Space Invaders until the screwed up screen came on. Then you shot 2 at a time.
Late stage 2600 games like Xenophobia, Double Dragon & Ikari Warriors are incredible frats of programming! It's also surprising anyone was bothering to put that kind of effort into a 2600 game at the time! The 7800 Master System & NES were out by the time of the 2600 Jr it's strange that there was enough of an audience for 2600 games at the time to justify such titles. So even if some are not that good I'm glad they exist to show what the 2600 could do!
Moon patrol was probably the first that blew my mind and of them all sword quest blew me away the most with the bright colors and variety of challenges. Honestly surprised you did not mention sword quest
I had a c64 but went round a neighbors house who was playing pitfall 2. Up into that point I pitied those Atari owners. But I was amazed by pitfall and was suddenly envious. It was awe inspiring the amount of depth and secrets that seemed to stream out of that game. It wasn’t until Mario on the NES that I had that feeling again.
Nice subject! I think you've covered most of the bases, too. I'd suggest Midnight Magic as another game that defies expectations on the 2600. The Atari 2600 Jr. ads used to show it in direct comparison to Video Pinball, and the gap in visual quality is immense.
Montezuma's Revenge - I had this and mapped out the first level, so that I knew where to go and what to do. Because it took so long to get through the first level, and then you had to start over when you lost all your lives, I never had the stamina to map out the second level. My grandmother used to play this game too, although I don't remember if she ever used my map and made it to the treasure room. I don't think she did. What I remember most is that whenever she was crossing one of the pits with the disappearing bridges, she would physically move the joystick up and to the side, like it was a motion controller as she ran across. Pitfall II - I eventually completed the C64 version of this. By the time I got to the end, I was sick to death of that music. It just keeps going, and going, and going. Tunnel Runner - My only complaint about this game is that they used the same image for both the front and back of the enemies. Not only does this make it impossible to immediately tell if an enemy is coming toward you, or going away from you, but it kind of spoils the otherwise great illusion of a first person perspective. Maybe it was done to save memory, although I would think that making an alternate, solid image for the back wouldn't have used up more than a few bytes.
Solaris is definitely the most amazing game released during the 2600's lifespan. Obviously once you start considering homebrew, the story changes, but even then, Solaris would almost certainly remain the most amazing original IP. All of the truly mind blowing homebrew games are ports of arcade games. And as far as that goes, while there's a good half dozen solid contenders, my vote will forever go to Mappy. When you see that game in action, and simultaneously understand that the VCS has 5 sprites and was designed to last for 3 years on games like Tank and Pong, it's just astounding.
4:12 this is some backrooms type of stuff, omg! And that other maze game later. 5:28 Admiral, we have found the nuclear wessel...and Admiral, it is the Enterprise. 😁 Moon Patrol was really good, I was amazed that an Atari game could have actual background music, and you could switch it on or off! Demon Attack, Phoenix, Star Raiders, Star Master, and of course Solaris especially blew my mind as far as how impressive they looked when I first played them. The layered background of Jungle Hunt impressed me as well. Vanguard was great too, Battlezone, Enduro, and Fatal Run. Also, a little known educational game called Word Zapper looks and sounds really good for a 2600 game. TagScan was pretty nifty as well, for a paddle controller game. I always tried to find the obscure and technically high quality games whenever shopping for Atari games at thrift stores back in the 1990s.
I still think that ET was a terrific game it have a presentation and ending, enemies, a puzzle, life bar, power ups, three different game plays, etc. It was difficult to learn to play but for the time was a complete adventure like the movie.
Pitfall 2 was the mind blowing game... later to discover it had a special chip added to it to be as awesome as it it makes total sense as its above and beyond all other atari 2600 games for complexity of programming and all thats going on with it.
A huge part of the fascination for the 2600 comes in fact from these games: I still remember the day I played for the first time games like Solaris, Xenophobe or BMX Airmaster: I was kinda shocked! To the list, I would add Motorodeo (not so graphically impressive, but surprisingly fun), Road Runner (a kind of unique game), Stargate/Defender II (an almost-arcade perfect port), Realsports Boxing, Realsports Tennis, Realsports Volleyball, Tile Match Pro Wrestling, Klax. This last one could seem too simplistic, but it was the game to be last officially released by Atari for the 2600 and it perfectly captures the essence of the original arcade game. The 2600 was and is still is a lot of fun! The last commercial said "THE FUN IS BACK" but it was wrong, because "THE FUN IS ETERNAL" would have been more appropriated! 😎
Pitch perfect 2600 top game tech video. Best demo re how vastly far ahead the 2600 video chip hardware was when released in 1977. The only thing holding back the 2600 was Rom, ram limits, as demonstrated by the Supercharger, later 8K+ carts and much later homebrews. Given more rom, ram and perhaps other (sound, etc) chips as costs came down over the 80s, 90s, the 2600s games could have easily met or bested nes games, though post 92 the genesis and snes were tops in the us
I would add California Games & Secret Quest to the list. CG has impressive graphics, multiple game play styles & opening screen music. SQ is a space game that is clearly trying to be a Zelda clone. Imagine the dungeon levels from Zelda 1, on the 2600 in space & that's about it. Rather complex game mechanics on the 2600.
@@GregsGameRoom I couldn't get into SQ really either. It's technically impressive & a cool idea but the PS3 was out by the time I knew it existed. If I had it pre or slightly into the NES lifetime maybe I would have been drawn in. But for me today it's very ambitious it's too graphically simple to hold my attention.
Comparing these games to the ones that came out in 77,78,79 you would think its a different game console. I didnt own most of these games. I did have Space Invaders which was definitely one that i played alot along with Demon Attack, Atlantis and Pitfall... but the last game i ever got for the system was Pitfall 2 in 1984. My mind was blown by the size of it and the music. That was my favorite game by far. Made me wonder why so many of my other games had to look so bad, but i did have many hours of enjoyment on Atari. In 1985 i got a C-64 and from that point on i got the majority of my games as pirated copies, which was nice. One of my favorite games for C64 was Montezuma's Revenge and many years later i was shocked to find out there was a 2600 version which actually looked pretty close to the C64 graphics. Very impressive. I still own my original 4 switch woody and in the last ten years i started collecting for it.... picking up alot of games i never owned and many i never knew about. I have an appreciation for the Atari as an important piece of video game console history and its also interesting to see how some developers chose to push the limits of graphics and gameplay while others made no effort at all and just wanted to make a quick buck. Lol. I try to collect the gems.
Phaser Patrol was the Supercharger's pack-in game, and the Supercharger had 6K RAM. Escape From The Mindmaster was bigger than 6K but that's through multi-loads, loading levels in one at a time from tape.
superb games .I like your review it's close to the truth .I think maybe all the atari 2600 games are fun because of the simplicity which makes the player able to focus on the game play while enjoying colorful solid objects in the background it's neat and enjoyable .
I played some of these games on the 800 XL, if the respective updated versions were available there, but later in my life, thanks to emulators, I gave the 2600 a try - and I admit, I was not disappointed. At all. Some of those games really pushed the limits of what was possible back then. BTW if I recall correctly, Pitfall 2 had an extra POKEY chip in the cartridge.
Talking about Double Dragon "... and it's a tough game! I'm sure somebody out there has beaten it." (puts my hand up). First game I ever finished. My sister and I co-op'd through it, somehow, when we were like 9 and 7. It was hard.
I'm only now becoming interested in Atari 2600 games, and I must say Beamrider and Yar's Revenge shocked me. A few months ago. In 2024 and 2023 respectively. For me, the Atari 2600 was a pong machine first, an Arcade demakes player second, and a historical relic third. Up until this year, I thought Pitfall 1, Fishing Derby and Boxing were the most exciting *original* games the platform had to offer (I know Beamrider is Intellivision, but still, same generation). The world of pre-1985 non-arcade video games is quite unknown even among retro-gamers nowadays, and I love "discovering" all the gems burrowed under the tons of games from post-NES consoles and post multi-purpose IBM PC-compatible computers. Maybe H.E.R.O. has no way of competing with Shinobi III or Nine Sols, nor Megamania has any chance in front of DoDonPachi II or Sol Cresta, but they offer simple, challenging and still somewhat unique experiences for quick play sessions, and it's a bit sad "younger" retro-gamers like myself overlook these catalogues.
As an old gamer i recog. Some of these games, i had no idea the awesome game i missed. I go hunting for your game list and a 2600 console...however, id settle for a goog emulator. Thankx for sharing bro, really. I need these lil happy things in my lif tahnk you so much❤
Great list, I can see why you chose them. here are some games I would add to the list or at least get honorable mentions. Defender II (Stargate) by Atari. in my opinion this is the best arcade port for the console, above all. leaps & bounds over the original Defender. Moonsweeper by Imagic, almost identical gameplay as Solaris. Jaw Breaker by Tigervision. a really nice looking & fun to play Pac-Man style game. Ms. Pac-Man by Atari. another well done arcade port. this one redeems the disastrous original Pac-Man. Laser Blast, this one flips the script on Space Invaders as you are now the attacking aliens, solid early Activision title. Ice Hockey - Activision. early sports titles on the 2600 were beyond terrible, but, this one broke the mold, good looking & fun to play. There are probably more games that could be added, but, these are the ones I owned & had fun playing back in the day.
Great video and lineup of mind blowing games for the 2600. Solaris reminds me a bit of Mad Planets arcade. When you look at the first Pacman version that was dog crap (I know the programmer was rushed to make it), but these games show how much better it could have been.
When I asked the man himself how much of the DPC chip was his design, he asked me what DPC stood for. When I guessed "Data Processing Chip", he corrected me: "David Patrick Crane".
I used to own 56 (or 58) Atari Games and my friend owned almost as many with about half of his games not matching up with mine. My other friends' games combined added up to maybe a hundred, again with half as much not matching mine. I also spent Saturdays at the mall "trying out" a variety of Atari games. In all I must have played at least a couple of hundred Atari games. Only one or two were from this list and many from this list I never even heard of.
Solaris blew my mind away the first time I saw it! I wonder how long it would take to beat it because you have to do it in one sitting. The game is huge!
In my humble opinion, HERO is the cleanest game of all time on Atari. What I mean by that: Really fun to play Diverse levels/missions Not trying to be something Atari can't do (like that scrolling 3D game) Not trying to be some other game like Pac-Man, that Atari doesn't really have the resources for Visually nice appearance (by any standard) Unique mechanics of game play that worked very well with the controllers I'm not a completist so I can't speak for every game, but this is the one that hits all those marks the best.
It's called Combat* not tank
What was the original arcade game called?
@@GregsGameRoom it might have been
Tank was the name of the original Atari arcade cabinet. When the game was being converted to the home version, the programmer added the air battle games & it was renamed to Combat, which was the pack-in game for the 2600. Quite a lot of people still referred to it as Tank because they were familiar with the arcade version.
I remember that game as Armored Ambush.
"Tank" is listed as one of the games on the Combat cartridge.
Yes! I'll never forget the first time playing adventure. No clock. No score. Open world. Inventory. Items. A quest. A storyline. Wish they would've made 10 different RPG games like Adventure. And yes- I found the "secret room" in fifth grade! Someone on the playground told me how to do it; and I couldn't believe it when his advice worked.
same here! i was in 7th grade and someone told me you push the cursor, or character gainst a wall and it says "Created By Warren Robinette". Great times!! I love Adventure! I will play it tonight!
The Imagic games really knocked my socks off as a kid. Cosmic Ark, Atlantis, and Riddle of the Sphinx all sparked my imagination and impressed me technically.
Demon Attack was great too, and the treasures in Dragonfire looked so cool I wished I could actually reach into the screen and grab them irl.
Demon Attack was better than space invaders. I also really enjoyed River Raid 1 & 2, along with Chopper Command.
I had a game where you would have to shoot a path through a ufo looking space ship that had a rotating disc with an empty slot that your bullets would have to pass through to blow it up. Does anyone know what this game was called?
Megamania, too!
Imagic also made its games for Intellivision, which is the system I had. For the time, Imagic games' graphics were great. I had Atlantis and Micro-Surgeon. Micro-Surgeon must have been inspired by the 1966 movie, Fantastic Voyage, as one pilots a surgical probe through a patient's body and zaps illnesses (including tapeworms!).
Imagic was awesome! Their greatest accomplishments were their Texas Instruments Home Computer ports. They pushed the limits with the superior hardware. Check out Super Demon Attack which was arcade level quality at the time. The unreleased Dragonfire is visually stunning. Fathom very impressive. Microsurgeon was the most technically superior game for the system with the multiple screens and zoom in view the other versions did not include.
Makes me wonder what could have been. I believe Activision had the rights to some of their titles. Unfortunately many of them are no longer available. I would really like to see a collection released of all the Imagic games for the multiple systems they developed for.
Excellent list. A large part of the 2600's appeal, even to this day, is seeing how far the technically limited capabilities of the original hardware can be pushed.
Some great games!
Yep,except he sounds too humoristic to me so i hardly could take hime serious whatever he says.
Well, Not too many home brews these days of that in reality. Silly stuff like galagon, dk arcade, robotron, and countless put an end to that!
It’s crazy how much memory had to do with limitations. It would have been unaffordable to make an advanced cartridge with a megabyte of memory. Otherwise these games would have looked far better than you ever thought possible. Donkey Kong VCS is a great example of homebrew games you would have never seen back in the day.
@@AngryCalvin Something to mention: Limitations can lead to creativity. As an example, the book "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Suess came out due to a bet with the author. The challenge was to write a compelling story using 50 words or less. In the same way, the limitations of the 2600 lead to Programmers having to become more creative in a way that wouldn't have happened if there had been high capabilities.
Adventure also had the pleasure of being the first game with an Easter egg.
TIMESTAMPS
0:01 INTRO
0:20 Adventure
1:16 Battlezone
2:06 BMX Air Master
2:57 Commando
3:44 Double Dragon
4:09 Escape from the Mind Master
5:25 F-14 Tomcat
6:14 Frogger
7:09 Ghostbusters
7:51 Hero
8:45 Ikari Warriors
9:38 Jungle Hunt
10:24 Kung Fu Master
11:19 Millipede
12:12 Montezuma's Revenge
13:10 Pete Rose Baseball
13:56 Phoenix
14:57 Pitfall II
16:27 Quadrun
16:56 River Raid II
17:43 Solaris
19:26 Space Invaders
20:19 Space Shuttle
21:22 Tapper
22:21 Tunnel Runner
22:56 Xenophobe
23:40 OUTRO
23:59 END
Awesome video; many thanks for posting. Atari 2600 Pac-Man was the first video game I'd ever played on a home console back in the very early 80s, but Space Invaders (...the second game I'd ever played) is the game that made me a gamer... I still play it to this day on occasion (there's a cool rapid-fire trick, too! For anyone curious/interested... ruclips.net/video/piotWam68AY/видео.html). Cheers!
\m/, (*o*) ,\m/
Thanks for providing the timestamps!
I quite liked the 2600 port of KLAX. The idea of porting a Arcade game from 1990 to a console from 1977 is insane. Still plays well and the rotation effect on the blocks is well done.
Love me some KLAX!
It is the twenties and there is time for KLAX!
First played it on the Lynx, but recently tracked down a cartridge to play on my 2600+.
@@GregsGameRoomyou forgot Patrol by imagic has scrolling
Star Wars arcade for the 2600 was a mind blowing game , I never knew it existed and I found a copy of it at a yard sale , it is awesome.
That was part of the thrill back then. These days, and even 25-30 years ago, you could do a search for "complete list of atari 2600 games" and that was that. Before the Internet era, you'd come across games you'd literally never knew existed before.
I didn't like the 2600 port. It controlled awful.
That having been said, a trackball version, with the up and down reversed was available for a while, and was a much better experience
One game for the 2600 to mention is Ms. Pacman. Unlike the Pacman released for the 2600 (which was panned, although I think it would have fared better had it not been called Pacman), Ms. Pacman is virtually identical to the arcade version. The only difference is that it is a one-player game. Considering the limitations of the 2600, it is a reasonable change considering how much the 2600 version got right.
Oh, how I loved Adventure! I played it for days...not sure why now lol! Such good memories, ty! 👍👍
The game I showed was odd, the dragons were out in force!
Original zelda
Combat blew my mind. Blasting a tank so hard across the battlefield boundaries and have it appear on the opposite side of the TV screen was the most powerful thing I've seen on Atari 2600.
Yeah the Combat glitches were hilarious!
I have a weird joystick controller that causes the tank to go into turbo mode for some reason, doubling it's speed, and making the engine sound higher pitch....I have no idea why it does that, it's like as if the controller is literally hacking the rom somehow. 🤷🏼 It's the weirdest glitch on the Atari 2600 I have ever witnessed.
Now that is one of a kind. A keeper for sure!@@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785
Just a point of correction. Escape From the Mind Master was not the pack-in game for the Starpath Supercharger. In fact, when the Supercharger was released, it was listed as a "Coming Soon" title for future release.
PHASER PATROL came packaged with all Superchargers.
Adventure is a game i play all the time on an emulator. Something I didn't realizer until I was an adult was that the red dragon will actually chase the bat if the bat is holding the white key. I'm sure the other dragons would do this if they could keep up. He will only divert to kill you when he ends up in your screen. I find this quite hilarious.
The video misses the really mind blowing part about Battle Zone - it's doing a pretty good job of modeling 3D - like you can hear a tank fire off screen, throw it in reverse, and watch the shell pass in front of you! Compare that to Robot Tank's idea of "stop looking at the bullet and it won't hit you", and you realize how smart it is.
Very cool and surprising list! Thank you! ❤
Awesome video, thanks for sharing your passion and enthusiasm Greg !
Omega Race was a very good port worthy of mention here. It required a peripheral that slid over the joystick and daisy chained to the controller jack. It added a second button to fire your weapon. The joystick button was used for thrust to move the space ship.
Never know, I might cover it for "Mind Blowing 2600 Games Part 2."
I didn't know about that controller peripheral, interesting! I found a workaround by using a weird little rectangular controller that has a small joystick on one side, a paddle/dial on the other side, and a single button. It's a bit awkward to maneuver around, but it works.
Great list. And they are games from the 80s, made with the tools from that time. 2600 is so unique because the hardware is super limited by at same time the lack of video memory let the software do all sort of tricks.
Yeah wanted to make it about the original games using the original tools.
Phoenix was one of my favorite games in the arcade. just loved it
Loved Phoenix. Felt like Demon Attack (by Imagix) got all the glory on the 2600, but Phoenix was the better game.
@@semperconstance I think that demon attack did an amazing job on Atari, and the Intellivision version was much more like Phoenix.
Thanks greg! 1st time seeing alot of these games! Didnt know the 2600 can really pump out some graphical games under the right devs!
The later games were pretty amazing!
@@GregsGameRoom yeah i notice that for alot of consoles later in its lifespan games got graphically better! Devs really figured out the ins and outs of the consoles full potential!
What has always impressed me about the VCS is the use of color. Absolutely incredible. Thanks for the video. ❤❤❤❤
I still frequently play, and am STILL impressed by Tunnel Runner. It was a favorite of mine in the 80's. A favorite of mine today.
The Adventure Bat... The first Video game TROLL? haha
Great selections! Love the pace too.
Thank you!
Space Invaders was a system seller. Most people didn't give half a shit about the 2600 prior to its release.
100% - Space Invaders put the 2600 on the map.
I bought a SuperCharger back in the day and it came with Phaser Patrol...which I loved.
I tried playing the games off of a CD when I got mine.
@@GregsGameRoom Mine is hooked up to an old mp3 player. The only other game I had back then besides Phaser Patrol was Fireball...which was a super breakout clone.
Always underrated: Vanguard
This is a good video. I grew up with the 2600 since the beginning. Many of these I’ve never seen. The Super Charger is completely new also. Very informative. Well done.
Keep up the good work greg! U deserve more subs! Love your content!
I appreciate that!
Good selecetion. I'd include Pac Man Jr. in a favourites list. It's a nice conversion of the arcade and has big vertically scrolling mazes.
Oh, Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 was a real dud.
What amazes me with Tapper is that the “clients” have all different colors (3) I don’t know how it’s done?
dude, what a great video. thanks.
My brothers and I loved Pitfall II, Space Invaders, and Armored Ambush. It's surprising that Keystone Cops didn't make this list I loved that one, but my all-time favorite is Lock'N'Chase.
I had no idea the 2600 was capable of this. Impressive.
I remember buying Solaris new and been blown away by the gameplay. Definitely my favourite Atari 2600 game
Great video, Greg!
Thanks!
11:43 You're talking about "racing the beam". The 2600 had no VRAM, so you had to draw all of the graphics as the cathode ray beam scanned across a single line. By moving the two sprites, the two "bullets", and the one "ball" around the screen during each scan line, you can fake the appearance of more sprites than the console actually supported. The ball was a square and the bullets were two rectangles half that height. Graphics like the mushrooms were drawn with either the ball or the bullets which is why they're so simple.
Close. The two missiles, the ball, and the sprites don't really have a 'height'. The missiles and ball are just a single 'dot', that can be stretch horizontally to some degree (NUSIZ/CTRLPF). Any 'height' they have is caused by showing the object at the same position across multiple scanlines. Sprites are just 8-bits wide, so you had to swap the graphics out on subsequent lines to draw anything interesting. This would be awful, except that the limits here are per scanline, unlike systems like the intellivision, where MOBs could only appear once per frame. There are also some neat tricks that let you reuse the same sprites on the same scanline, allowing for things like the famous 6-digit score routine.
For me , Solaris.😊
I love videos like this! Nice work, Greg! It’s cool to see developers pushing the hardware to its limits.
Thanks man! What a herculean effort by the developers to make these games!
The thing I love about late era games for most of these systems (even the NES) is that you can see what 6, 7 years of working with the console and figuring out the back to front tricks of it can achieve. The 2600 was designed as you say to play very simple games with simple abstract graphics. The NES's early titles are often just as rough looking, relatively speaking. But get to those late era games, and the programmers were performing miracles with this technology, because they'd gotten the handle on the ins and outs and how to do neat graphical tricks within the meager memory allowed.
Correction to the Supercharger segment; Phaser Patrol was the game included with the Supercharger not Escape from the Mind Master which was a stand alone release, number 5 in the series.
Noted!
2600 was my first console in the early 80s, and Breakout was my favorite. Played that and Pac-Man aaaall the time.
Montezuma's Revenge on C-64 was so awesome, and I still love it to this day. I'll check out the Atari 2600 port too.
The ColecoVision version of Montezuma's Revenge was the first game that really made me understand that the 2600 could be surpassed. I was blown away by it.
Two games that always impressed me and are still fun are Starmaster and Mountain King. Starmaster was so unique in the way that you used the radar screen and had to manage so many systems, and yet it was still fun, intense, and accessible. Mountain King was a great platformer that blew my mind, once I figured out how to properly jump and what I was actually supposed to do.
I picked up a Starpath Supercharger on clearance back in the '84 crash along with Suicide Mission and Escape from the Mind Master. They both melted my brain that the humble 2600 was capable of games like this. A few years ago I played the home-brew version of Donkey Kong Arcade and practically soiled myself with shock. Other than not having slanted girders on the first level, the game was as close as it could ever be on the 2600. And the home-brew port of Star Castle, a game that was thought to be impossible on the 2600 (their approximation of the game style back in the day turned into Yar's Revenge) but some crazy programmer took on the challenge.
Supercharger was a brilliant idea. Kinda like a 32x but with cassette tapes.
Honestly the fact that people are able to push the 2600 to it’s limits even in the home brew market is great
Even so out of all of the Atari consoles, the 2600 is my personal favorite
Some amazing homebrews too!
These are all (or mostly) original releases. Home-Brews are lame and usually copy older games
@@pinebarrenpatriot8289there are some great home brews… but then you have the frauds like… donkey Kong, galagon, Robotron and so many others.
Nice video! I love that you included my most favorite version of Frogger!
I played so much Space Shuttle. It was incredibly immersive.
The slower pace of the game made it feel more realistic.
One more thing of tunnel runner . The sound as you move through. Louder when closer adds to the environment. Great game
The amazing thing is that Jay Miner described in a documentary how they were forced to leave out many of the planned hardware assited features in order to keep the price of the system low. Their reasoning was that the system was powerful enough for those features to be realized through programming.
Nailed it dude.
Thanks!
Not surprised Solaris made the list. It's a masterclass of 2600 programming, and by one guy! Part of the reason it stands out is that Neubauer continued developing it on his own for years after the US video game market crash. Atari later picked it up for their 2600 relaunch lineup.
Solaris could technically qualify as a "homebrew" game, as most of the development wasn't under a commercial contract. The level of refinement is more of what you'd see in such a passion project. Publisher games churned out back in the day didn't get that level of development work. It's also one of the few Atari published games that gave developer credits.
Solaris blew my mind as a kid. There are so many levels to that game and it's incredibly difficult to win. I think when I finally did beat it I used a VCR to record the event lol
@@WinterInTheForest Same here. Never won though... I could never get through the final waves of Cobra fighters. They're relentless and brutal.
For jungle hunt I think the green front foliage is just the background. Hence the low resolution. The other foliage is 2 sprites multiplied x3 = 6
The wines is the two missiles and ball repositioned every scanline. That is why you see one wine having the same colors as the player as those two objects share the same color
The first game that blew my mind on the 2600 was Mountain King. It has some of the best music on the 2600 I've ever heard, and one of the first games with a "secret" area/world that you can access with a jump glitch.
I'm not sure why you are impressed with the scrolling in Ikari Warriors. River Raid had endless scrolling seven years earlier.
Since the 2600 isn’t tile based like the NES Ikari is pretty cool for having non-procedurally generated objects like houses, walls, trees, etc.
Hab meine Konsole auch noch. Mit Yars Revenge, Phoenix, Moon Patrol, Labyrinth, Wüstenschlacht, Frogger, Phantom Panzer... Und ich war damit als Kind glücklich.
My favorite games were Robot Tank, Star Raiders, and Star Masters. My favorite cheat was turning the game on and off really fast on Space Invaders until the screwed up screen came on. Then you shot 2 at a time.
Late stage 2600 games like Xenophobia, Double Dragon & Ikari Warriors are incredible frats of programming! It's also surprising anyone was bothering to put that kind of effort into a 2600 game at the time! The 7800 Master System & NES were out by the time of the 2600 Jr it's strange that there was enough of an audience for 2600 games at the time to justify such titles. So even if some are not that good I'm glad they exist to show what the 2600 could do!
Had to make the games somewhat interesting since Nintendo was already out.
@@GregsGameRoom truth! But still surprising they had enough of a buyer base left to justify the effort
What a good compilation. Instant subscribed to this channel!
Moon patrol was probably the first that blew my mind and of them all sword quest blew me away the most with the bright colors and variety of challenges. Honestly surprised you did not mention sword quest
I had a c64 but went round a neighbors house who was playing pitfall 2. Up into that point I pitied those Atari owners. But I was amazed by pitfall and was suddenly envious. It was awe inspiring the amount of depth and secrets that seemed to stream out of that game. It wasn’t until Mario on the NES that I had that feeling again.
Nice subject! I think you've covered most of the bases, too. I'd suggest Midnight Magic as another game that defies expectations on the 2600. The Atari 2600 Jr. ads used to show it in direct comparison to Video Pinball, and the gap in visual quality is immense.
Comparing the early games to the newer ones sounds like an interesting premise for a video.
Even the fact that Pitfall 2 had music was wild back then. Not many Atari games had any music.
Montezuma's Revenge - I had this and mapped out the first level, so that I knew where to go and what to do. Because it took so long to get through the first level, and then you had to start over when you lost all your lives, I never had the stamina to map out the second level. My grandmother used to play this game too, although I don't remember if she ever used my map and made it to the treasure room. I don't think she did. What I remember most is that whenever she was crossing one of the pits with the disappearing bridges, she would physically move the joystick up and to the side, like it was a motion controller as she ran across.
Pitfall II - I eventually completed the C64 version of this. By the time I got to the end, I was sick to death of that music. It just keeps going, and going, and going.
Tunnel Runner - My only complaint about this game is that they used the same image for both the front and back of the enemies. Not only does this make it impossible to immediately tell if an enemy is coming toward you, or going away from you, but it kind of spoils the otherwise great illusion of a first person perspective. Maybe it was done to save memory, although I would think that making an alternate, solid image for the back wouldn't have used up more than a few bytes.
Ikari Warriors, Ikari means Fury in Japanese. Great list!
Solaris is definitely the most amazing game released during the 2600's lifespan. Obviously once you start considering homebrew, the story changes, but even then, Solaris would almost certainly remain the most amazing original IP. All of the truly mind blowing homebrew games are ports of arcade games. And as far as that goes, while there's a good half dozen solid contenders, my vote will forever go to Mappy. When you see that game in action, and simultaneously understand that the VCS has 5 sprites and was designed to last for 3 years on games like Tank and Pong, it's just astounding.
There’s really nothing that comes close to Solaris. It’s freaking amazing.
4:12 this is some backrooms type of stuff, omg! And that other maze game later.
5:28 Admiral, we have found the nuclear wessel...and Admiral, it is the Enterprise. 😁
Moon Patrol was really good, I was amazed that an Atari game could have actual background music, and you could switch it on or off!
Demon Attack, Phoenix, Star Raiders, Star Master, and of course Solaris especially blew my mind as far as how impressive they looked when I first played them. The layered background of Jungle Hunt impressed me as well. Vanguard was great too, Battlezone, Enduro, and Fatal Run. Also, a little known educational game called Word Zapper looks and sounds really good for a 2600 game. TagScan was pretty nifty as well, for a paddle controller game. I always tried to find the obscure and technically high quality games whenever shopping for Atari games at thrift stores back in the 1990s.
I still think that ET was a terrific game it have a presentation and ending, enemies, a puzzle, life bar, power ups, three different game plays, etc. It was difficult to learn to play but for the time was a complete adventure like the movie.
Pitfall 2 was the mind blowing game... later to discover it had a special chip added to it to be as awesome as it it makes total sense as its above and beyond all other atari 2600 games for complexity of programming and all thats going on with it.
A huge part of the fascination for the 2600 comes in fact from these games: I still remember the day I played for the first time games like Solaris, Xenophobe or BMX Airmaster: I was kinda shocked! To the list, I would add Motorodeo (not so graphically impressive, but surprisingly fun), Road Runner (a kind of unique game), Stargate/Defender II (an almost-arcade perfect port), Realsports Boxing, Realsports Tennis, Realsports Volleyball, Tile Match Pro Wrestling, Klax. This last one could seem too simplistic, but it was the game to be last officially released by Atari for the 2600 and it perfectly captures the essence of the original arcade game. The 2600 was and is still is a lot of fun! The last commercial said "THE FUN IS BACK" but it was wrong, because "THE FUN IS ETERNAL" would have been more appropriated! 😎
Back then, all of them. My little mind had just played pong consoles back then so just the ability to plug and unplug other games was enough at first.
I loved Jungle Hunt and the Pitfalls!
70's gear ... tends to be hard to program. I'll stick with 80's hardware. Really cool and mind-blowing video!
Pitch perfect 2600 top game tech video.
Best demo re how vastly far ahead the 2600 video chip hardware was when released in 1977.
The only thing holding back the 2600 was Rom, ram limits, as demonstrated by the Supercharger, later 8K+ carts and much later homebrews.
Given more rom, ram and perhaps other (sound, etc) chips as costs came down over the 80s, 90s, the 2600s games could have easily met or bested nes games, though post 92 the genesis and snes were tops in the us
I would add California Games & Secret Quest to the list. CG has impressive graphics, multiple game play styles & opening screen music.
SQ is a space game that is clearly trying to be a Zelda clone. Imagine the dungeon levels from Zelda 1, on the 2600 in space & that's about it. Rather complex game mechanics on the 2600.
Was never a fan of SQ. But California Games is awesome!
@@GregsGameRoom I couldn't get into SQ really either. It's technically impressive & a cool idea but the PS3 was out by the time I knew it existed. If I had it pre or slightly into the NES lifetime maybe I would have been drawn in. But for me today it's very ambitious it's too graphically simple to hold my attention.
Comparing these games to the ones that came out in 77,78,79 you would think its a different game console. I didnt own most of these games. I did have Space Invaders which was definitely one that i played alot along with Demon Attack, Atlantis and Pitfall... but the last game i ever got for the system was Pitfall 2 in 1984. My mind was blown by the size of it and the music. That was my favorite game by far. Made me wonder why so many of my other games had to look so bad, but i did have many hours of enjoyment on Atari. In 1985 i got a C-64 and from that point on i got the majority of my games as pirated copies, which was nice. One of my favorite games for C64 was Montezuma's Revenge and many years later i was shocked to find out there was a 2600 version which actually looked pretty close to the C64 graphics. Very impressive. I still own my original 4 switch woody and in the last ten years i started collecting for it.... picking up alot of games i never owned and many i never knew about. I have an appreciation for the Atari as an important piece of video game console history and its also interesting to see how some developers chose to push the limits of graphics and gameplay while others made no effort at all and just wanted to make a quick buck. Lol. I try to collect the gems.
Phaser Patrol was the Supercharger's pack-in game, and the Supercharger had 6K RAM. Escape From The Mindmaster was bigger than 6K but that's through multi-loads, loading levels in one at a time from tape.
Adventure: "The chalice with the palace holds the brew that is true."
Adventure even has a extra quest based on one invisible pixel, which lets you see a violation of Atari policy at the time.
LOL
Armor ambush is definitely a top 2600 game. Ice hockey is also great fun
I can't believe how smooth these graphics are.
superb games .I like your review it's close to the truth .I think maybe all the atari 2600 games are fun because of the simplicity which makes the player able to focus on the game play while enjoying colorful solid objects in the background it's neat and enjoyable .
I remember playing some of these games when I was a kid!
Battle Tank's death scene is still in my top 10 of all time coolest deaths!
I played some of these games on the 800 XL, if the respective updated versions were available there, but later in my life, thanks to emulators, I gave the 2600 a try - and I admit, I was not disappointed. At all. Some of those games really pushed the limits of what was possible back then. BTW if I recall correctly, Pitfall 2 had an extra POKEY chip in the cartridge.
Hero is my favorite 2600 game, i just love it
Excellent video had fun watching it and it brought me back to the days. I grabbed my Atari and started playing thanks
Talking about Double Dragon "... and it's a tough game! I'm sure somebody out there has beaten it." (puts my hand up). First game I ever finished. My sister and I co-op'd through it, somehow, when we were like 9 and 7. It was hard.
I'm only now becoming interested in Atari 2600 games, and I must say Beamrider and Yar's Revenge shocked me. A few months ago. In 2024 and 2023 respectively.
For me, the Atari 2600 was a pong machine first, an Arcade demakes player second, and a historical relic third. Up until this year, I thought Pitfall 1, Fishing Derby and Boxing were the most exciting *original* games the platform had to offer (I know Beamrider is Intellivision, but still, same generation). The world of pre-1985 non-arcade video games is quite unknown even among retro-gamers nowadays, and I love "discovering" all the gems burrowed under the tons of games from post-NES consoles and post multi-purpose IBM PC-compatible computers. Maybe H.E.R.O. has no way of competing with Shinobi III or Nine Sols, nor Megamania has any chance in front of DoDonPachi II or Sol Cresta, but they offer simple, challenging and still somewhat unique experiences for quick play sessions, and it's a bit sad "younger" retro-gamers like myself overlook these catalogues.
As an old gamer i recog. Some of these games, i had no idea the awesome game i missed. I go hunting for your game list and a 2600 console...however, id settle for a goog emulator. Thankx for sharing bro, really. I need these lil happy things in my lif tahnk you so much❤
I had a 2600 as small child and nothing about any 2600 game blew my mind maybe the sound effects
Great list, I can see why you chose them. here are some games I would add to the list or at least get honorable mentions. Defender II (Stargate) by Atari. in my opinion this is the best arcade port for the console, above all. leaps & bounds over the original Defender. Moonsweeper by Imagic, almost identical gameplay as Solaris. Jaw Breaker by Tigervision. a really nice looking & fun to play Pac-Man style game. Ms. Pac-Man by Atari. another well done arcade port. this one redeems the disastrous original Pac-Man. Laser Blast, this one flips the script on Space Invaders as you are now the attacking aliens, solid early Activision title. Ice Hockey - Activision. early sports titles on the 2600 were beyond terrible, but, this one broke the mold, good looking & fun to play. There are probably more games that could be added, but, these are the ones I owned & had fun playing back in the day.
Oh I’ll get to those in a future video!
Yeah Ice Hockey was really fun!
Solaris definitely is a masterpiece. One of my picks is Stargate.
Absolutely! Nothing can touch Solaris!
Great video and lineup of mind blowing games for the 2600. Solaris reminds me a bit of Mad Planets arcade. When you look at the first Pacman version that was dog crap (I know the programmer was rushed to make it), but these games show how much better it could have been.
I had Tunnel Runner as a kid. I remember, before the internet, trying to convince my friends it existed and they said I was making it up.
David Crane put an extra chip on the PCB for Pitfall II. It was called the Display Processor Chip, but it also provided 3-channel sound.
When I asked the man himself how much of the DPC chip was his design, he asked me what DPC stood for. When I guessed "Data Processing Chip", he corrected me: "David Patrick Crane".
Millipede is amazing
I used to own 56 (or 58) Atari Games and my friend owned almost as many with about half of his games not matching up with mine. My other friends' games combined added up to maybe a hundred, again with half as much not matching mine. I also spent Saturdays at the mall "trying out" a variety of Atari games. In all I must have played at least a couple of hundred Atari games. Only one or two were from this list and many from this list I never even heard of.
Solaris blew my mind away the first time I saw it! I wonder how long it would take to beat it because you have to do it in one sitting. The game is huge!
In my humble opinion, HERO is the cleanest game of all time on Atari.
What I mean by that:
Really fun to play
Diverse levels/missions
Not trying to be something Atari can't do (like that scrolling 3D game)
Not trying to be some other game like Pac-Man, that Atari doesn't really have the resources for
Visually nice appearance (by any standard)
Unique mechanics of game play that worked very well with the controllers
I'm not a completist so I can't speak for every game, but this is the one that hits all those marks the best.
Mountain King would have been on my list. The animation is good for the era, and the game map was huge.