H.E.R.O. deserves it! Happy to see you pop in and check out one of my vids, MJR. Hope you had some fun - I owe you some fun for all the stuff of yours I've enjoyed over the years. 😎
Yep, and “10 year old Johnny” gave Bridge a “B”. Because like Bridge was a young persons game, a hip game, and who doesn’t like cars games on a console? I mean in the arcade I couldn’t stand Donkey Kong back in the day, I was like man wouldn’t it be so cool if I could play checkers or my god Bridge, that would be so cool!
Seeing those activision games,i can hardly believe that they had to raise the beam to create graphics by timing every pixel on screen per frame,per background and per sprite,and what if 2 or more sprites are moving in opposite directions,then you had to time that as well etc,,, I can’t even imagine were they would ever start,considering the 2600 graphics were extremely limited,UNLESS they had already better toolkits to work with in the early 80’s.
These were the great days of Activision! The days when Activision wanted to show you how good they were (mostly!), and not just how well they could keep cycling the same old games albeit with graphical upgrades here and there, and also trying to empty your bank accounts!! 😆 I have fond memories of many of these Activision games on the VCS from back in 1979/80 (it wasn't known as the '2600' yet), and they had the best graphics of anyone so far on the system, and the most compelling gameplay; things like "Kaboom" (and another couple of games that'll come in a later video I presume), just kept the interest of me and my work colleagues in the shop where I worked, so lunch breaks were always fraught Atari battles between us!! 🙂
I still have my collection of about 15 or so patches you could earn by reaching certain milestones and sending in a picture of the screen. Boxing, Freeway, River Raid, Kaboom, Pitfall, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Grand Prix, all popular with me and my sisters. 2-player is where games like Freeway, Boxing, Fishing Derby, and even Dragster shine.
I generally agree with the rankings, although I might have put Enduro in the S tier. It's orders of magnitude better than any other racing game on the VCS. The other S tier games you listed are still amazingly playable yet today, and it took some real programming skill to make a game like H.E.R.O. on the 2600. It seemed like you were avoiding the green fish while playing Frostbite, but the green fish give you points - they're not enemies. I also always liked how most of the enemies in Frostbite weren't deadly to the touch - they just pushed you off the ice floes into the freezing water.
I think there were a number of games he didn’t actually know how to play, sadly. It’s good to play these in high score challenges so you are incentivised to actually learn how to play them right instead of playing them for five minutes and making an uninformed judgment.
Enduro was incredible. I snuck it out from under the tree days before Christmas and played it for hours. I let my niece play it and she ratted me out. I was just playing it on my 2600 *yesterday* in fact.
Enduro I'd give a S tier as it is probably my overall favorite 2600 game. It was one of the first racing games that I remember that had environment changes such as snow and fog as you raced along. Beamrider is an A tier (possibly S) as all versions are incredibly fun. The only knock I can possibly think of is having to push forward to fire the missiles (vs the other console versions) due to the limitation of the controller. It gets quite frantic later on as you need to start avoid obstacles and not shooting (as well as trying to grab) your extra ship becomes much more difficult. Outside those 2 games, I'd say your tiers are pretty accurate. H.E.R.O. is most definitely S tier as I would play that for hours on end on the C64. It was quite the hidden gem until Metal Jesus made it well known. 😅
I had fun playing _Enduro,_ but after winning in 5 days, is there a reason to play it again? Once I won _Pitfall!_ I didn't play it or try to win it again for over 20 years.
@@sandal_thong8631I always treated the game more as a score attack style game as it loops through the levels. Most 2600 games at the time were like that.
Boxing gets D? Come on man, the game was very competitive 2 players we broke several joysticks playing it, and the AI made the single player game perfect as a quick 3 minutes exercise
my tierlist: Barnstorming - C Beamrider - B Boxing - C Bridge - ? Checkers - ? Chopper Command - C (very difficult) Commando - D Cosmic Commuter - D (sorry) Crackpots - B Decathlon - ? Dolphin - B Double Dragon - F Dragster - D Enduro - A Fishing Derby - B Freeway - D Frosbite - C (very difficult for me) Ghostbusters - D Grand Prix - C Hero - B Ice Hockey - B Kaboom - ? ( I don't have paddle controller)
Boxing is a lot of fun when you have a friend to play it with instead of just the AI, I think I would give it a B. I feel like Enduro deserved an S, though that may be mostly nostalgia. I spent so many hours playing that game; the way time passed in the game seemed amazing at the time. Seeing the sunset, then darkness and the tail lights of the other cars. Driving through fog where you could only see a short distance, and slippery snow, it was pretty advanced for a 2600 game.
I have no nostalgia for Enduro, simply because I started playing it last December 😁 So I can confirm it's an impressive and really fun game. I also love the sound effects of the cars and the sound you hear when you're near sunrise and still have cars to overtake. Sometimes, at the end of the night, I have 60 or even 80 cars left, and at that point there's a strong sense of urgency, and it's so satisfying when you make it anyway
Enduro is the best racing game on the VCS (or arguably Indy 500), it should be S tier. Boxing and Dolphin are also way under ranked (B at least). A real human opponent improved the game immensely, and it does take a while to learn the 1-2 combos and putting your opponent to the ropes. Without figuring that out, the game might seem boring. The problem with many Activision games is the lack of randomness. Once you figure out the pattern, the game isnt nearly as interesting (see Laser Blast)
Freeway was the 1st Activision game I ever played. It was simplistic but back then it was still amazing enough for me to play it for hours back then. I would have rated the game one grade higher.
I haven't played all Activision games on the 2600, but for those that I have, I mostly agree with your ranking. However, Beamrider should be A or even S, it's a clever and addictive game that does everything right
I loved Beamrider! It gets more and more interesting and varied the farther you progress. The Yellow Chirper Ships are my favourite just for how bizarre of an idea that was…
For me Activision earned their reputation, deservedly so, by being the best at taking advantage of what the hardware on the VCS could actually do. David Crane especially devised many ways of doing things that had not been done (or even thought possible) on the VCS. Their games are glitch-less* for the most part and are generally playable right away without reading a manual. Right up there with Activision I would place Imagic as well, at least with their original team member titles. * Carol Shaw deserves recognition for making one of the smoothest scrolling vertical shooters ever with River Raid (especially on the VCS).
I remember every Activision game seemed like they were putting their own custom graphics chips in the cartridges. When Kaboom came out we had to break it open to see for sure.
Wow, did you know about custom graphics chips back in the 80s? That’s really cool. Do you know which Activision games did you use custom chipsets? I’m genuinely curious
I had no idea there were 44 Activision games for the 2600 😳 I always thought it was about 30! I'm surprised at the number of them that I never came across in the wild, too. I thoight Bridge would get a lower rating (mostly because I know nothing about how to play bridge) but the game actually seems pretty damn decent...from a non-bridge player 😋 In this tier list, I would probably give Chopper Command, Enduro and H.E.R.O all "S" rankings...and Crackpot would be a bit lower? Beamrider looks pretty great too! Freeway always just seemed kind of bland to me and would only be worth playing with 2 players...Frogger it ain't! Checkers as an "F?" Absolutely! They should have just scrapped the computer "A.I." and just shipped it as a 2-player only game once they realized how many thousands of CPU cycles would need to be burned for each move. That LOOOOONG blank screen is utterly embarrassing...
i love this kind of videos. Please, do the same for imagic games, atari and other companies. It's fun!. Edit: Dolphin only a D 😢 Fishing Derby i think is a ok game but it has a lot of charm!
I think it's an interesting game if you know how to control the water arrows. When you become the predator by touching the seagull and score points I love the sound effect! It's addictive to earn points in this game. But well, everyone has his own opinion. I really liked the video
Pitfall! greatest Activision game on Atari 2600! H.E.R.O.,Megamania,Keystone Capers,SeaQuest,Robot Tank,Enduro,Frostbite,Star master,and SpiderFighter. My top ten.
Great vid! HERO is a top tier game for the VCS. I was floored when I first tried it. And hey, maybe do an Imagic vid? They had some great games, no doubt. Looking forward to Part 2
Awesome trip down memory lane. Like your ranking. Time to bust out the emulator. Could you do a similar one on Imagic titles? Since Demon Attack was one of most favourite games on my VCS.
Beamrider is an exceptional game that undoubtedly deserves to be ranked among the Great or Superb titles, in my honest opinion. It excels in numerous aspects of gameplay, showcasing innovation, responsive controls, challenging levels, and captivating visuals and audio. The game offers an exceptional gaming experience that is further enhanced by its high replayability and enduring appeal. With these qualities, Beamrider undoubtedly secures its position as a classic within the Atari 2600 (and Intellivision) library, cementing its status as one of the finest space shooter games for this classic console.
So much love for Beamrider in the comments. It just didn't resonate with me like it has so many more, but I will be giving it some more attention because there must be more to it than I have seen before.
I have a feeling Atari is going to become a big name again.....they don't have to compete with Sony or Microsoft....those 2 companies are quickly becoming disasters..... They are doing just fine with smaller, solid games.....keep the snowball rolling Atari!!! Id like for them to openly mock those 2 companies with the Atari Playbox. 😆
NICE! When you take a hard look at the Activision 2600 Library, you can see just how innovative and incredible they were...and this is inly 1/2 of their games!
H.E.R.O- Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation. I still remember the acronym. The last game I bought for my 2600. Fantastic game, definitely agree with S tier. Great video.
I love the boxing for some reason. B- Really nice video to see all of them. Well half for now. I remember always playing Skiing and the fast downhill slalom.
Freeway deserves a second chance to move up. With single player I agree with you. Where it absolutely shines is playing against your older brother in two player. It's so easy to jump in and start playing (not unlike mobile games today). We'd get tickled pink yelling at each other and getting knocked back down in a chain of hits. This would always happen just before you'd win, and you'd laugh-scream all the way to your L. Two player is so clean and fun! Hilarious and devastating. The perfect game for two brothers in the 80s. Solid B for me (nearing an A).
It sounds to me like you and your brother made your own fun out of battling one another in such a rudimentary game. I'm not promoting Freeway, but I give the priceless memories you have with your brother a great big S! Thank you for watching. 😀
That's how we played it too! I think there are a LOT of brother combos out there who laughed, yelled and had a lot of fun playing Freeway back in the day.
Break it out during a party with friends, open some drinks (alcoholic) and let the feathers fly. I can't tell you how many times from the day we got Freeway to today that I've seen people laughing so hard that they hurt playing Freeway in that setting.
I only remember one game Kaboom. When you got to the top level you were no longer conciously in control of the paddle. By that time you taught yourself to do it by reflex. There was no way you could keep up otherwise.
H.E.R.O. is probably my favorite game all time on the 2600. I also love Pitfall II. There are so many Activision games to love on the 2600 it's hard to name all the best ones. I'm interested to see where you're going to put Robot Tank. I think that game is under-rated. It's basically Battlezone but so much more at the same time. Fun fact, the guy who made H.E.R.O. also made Cosmic Commuter.
Dragster was one of the best party games ever. You went head to head all night charted your time. Once the competitive juices started flowing look out.
Enduro was a great game. At the time the only better racing game was Pole Position, and you had to go to the arcade and pay for that. The game with the spiders reminded me a lot of Tapper but even better that they switched lanes! I never saw that one before, definitely a winner!
I liked _Turbo_ at the arcade, and _Enduro_ was a fun driving game like that. But I don't consider them (or _Pole Position, Night Driver,_ or _Grand Prix)_ to be "racing games" but rather "passing-traffic" games. (Someone else had another name for them.) _Indy 500, F-Zero_ and _Mario Kart_ are racing games.
I wonder, once you've finished the second part, what it would look like if you then ranked each tier amongst theselves. Best to worsr in tier S. Then best to worst in tier A. Would it be possible that you're best of tier C actually exceeds the worst in tier B for some reason? One might think no but maybe it does!
as someone who grew up with 2 2600's I KNOW activision put out a whole bunch of garbage. I had a blast with dragster, kaboom, Grand Prix, ... Laser Blast sucks tho. lol
Emduro deserve SSSSSSSSS! Great video cheers from France ( Enduro was awarded best racing game in France , i think the previous year was pole position on Atari XL which was the best racing game on home system at the time)
I still have the Atari 2600 games on my PlayStation 2 in a compilation called ACTIVISION ANTHOLOGY 😺👍🕹️. I think, i should play it again sometimes 😹👍🕹️. I also have ATARI ANTHOLOGY for the same console 😺👍🕹️.
I strongly believe that Activision helped take the VCS to a new level, and gave it extra legs well into to the 80s. P.S...Space Shuttle rocked. I'm RC, and I approved this message!
Good List so far. Can't agree with all of it, but pretty close to what i would of ranked these games so far. Frostbite is one of my favourite games. On my channel, you can find a few videos of me playing it. Even one where my score is 326850. Can you beat that Jon?
I'm surprised by how few of these I know. I only ever played Barn-storming and Grand Prix. My favourite 2600 games were Solaris, Joust and Yar's Revenge.
Most of my favorite games from that time on Atari were from Activision like Pitfall,Chopper Command,River Raid,Grand Prix,Sea Quest,Stampede,Keystone Kapers and Megamania
I thought Frostbite was based in Q-Bert, I never saw a Frogger connection. As for Freeway, who ever played Game 1? Throw some traffic in there, have them go different speeds, some semis, see who makes it. I also liked the idea that you could either do instant death/regeneration or have yourself be forced down with every hit. I rate it much higher than Frogger, horizontal movement is overrated.
H.E.R.O. is one of the greatest games of all time in it's generation. It may be prettier on the Commodore 64, but it don't play any better. It's impossible to improve on it. Why it hasn't been ripped off for a mobile game yet I'll never understand.
my mom played the heck out of bridge on the Atari. I mean, she adored it. If nothing else I will always love Activision for giving my mom a chance to play bridge without needing 3 other people.
I recently got the Retron 77. It made me think about the earliest first games Atari and Activision first made for the Atari VCS. So I have basically all the original roms for the Atari VCS. So I started googgling the info on the first games made by each company. I now have folders separating the first 9 original Atari games. I then made a folder foe 1978,79 and 1980. I then did the same for Acticision games from 1980 to 1983 for now. I just wanted to try these original games out. Of the original 9 games Atari released I only ever had Combat because that was the packed in game. I'm on a quest to hopefully find the original 9 with the number on the end label before the name of the game. Such as 01 Combat. Even my original Combat lacks the number :(
I remember being six years old and mastering Kaboom to the point that I couldn't lose. What I'd give to still have those reflexes and hand/eye coordination four decades later. It was so funny how the criminal's expression changed as he got faster until he was making an O face in disbelief.
That's great! My "ranking" in no way speaks to how much fun we may or may not have had playing a game, but really just its subjective quality across the line. I saw another commenter who had a blast with Double Dragon - more power to ya! 😀
Fantastic! I’m really looking forward to part 2 of your review. There was something very special about Activision games on VCS. I knew from a young age to seek them out. The graphics were generally far superior to anything else on the system.
I think _Barnstorming_ was the first Activision game I played. I was amazed at how good it looked when playing it at another kid's home, but that didn't inspire me to buy it, (probably for the reason your mentioned or its limited variations). I didn't buy any Activision (or 3rd-party) game before _Pitfall!_ I found the others were fun to play for 1/2 to 1 hour at another kid's home, but how much fun would it be playing by myself? I looked at my collection of Activision carts I picked up later, and _Stampede_ was one of the few I played during the Pandemic. I finally got _Grand Prix_ then (along with _Ice Hockey)_ and it's as much a memorization game as _Skiing_ and _Barnstorming._
this is awesome!, the people that left Atari and formed Activision seemed to know the systems capabilities better than Atari themselves and it shows that they were hand tied there, they always knew how to utilize the colors and sounds better. I think they were a big reason the system became the powerhouse that it was thus lasting so long.
It's ironic. Licensing _Space Invaders_ and making a good cartridge sold millions of Atari VCS consoles, but the rot was already in with the contempt they they treated its programmer and others. If Intellivision had done it, that likely would have been the system to buy in 1980. Maybe the programmers would have gone to Mattel or formed a company making games for their system? It's possible Activision (and others) kept people interested in the Atari console in 1981, when they had three games that sold 1 million+: _Freeway, Kaboom,_ and _Laser Blast._ Also ironic, all those good 3rd-party games that sold 1 million+ in 1982 were beloved by those who enjoyed them, but the money going to their companies and not going to Atari meant their profits grew by 15% and not 50% which scared investors and was one part of the Video Game Crash of 1983-4.
HERO all the way. Although I've never played it on the 2600, I feel like that Ghostbusters deserves a bit more credit for what it accomplishes. I love that game on the C64. Not 2600 games but here are some Activision games that are severely underrated: Rock n Bolt, Park Patrol, Master of the Lamps.
Hi Jon, we love the videos you do but today you upset the wife you made her say some naughty words at the TV 😂😂😂 She's a massive 2600 fan and you only did half a job by splitting the video we cannot wait for the rest 😅 cheers
Oh, boy. You had me worried! I was braced to read about the egregious thing I screwed up, but was ultimately flattered and relieved that the "thing" I did was withholding half the list. 😁 Grateful to have earned the viewership of your wife, and to a lesser extent I guess, you too. 😉
@@GenXGrownUp 🤣🤣🤣 your OK 👍 I love all retro tech and between us we have quite a collection. I also love a lot of the new Atari 2600 games, just amazing what they can do 😁
Yeah, thanks. Which one do you have? Probably hard to see up there out of focus, but the Six Million Dollar Man game is sitting on top of Bionic Crisis.
@@GenXGrownUp im sure it was. And after you make the full run it does start getting repetitive. im looking forward to part two. You should do an imagic one too . They had some decent games as well. :)
Nice, but I would (so far) personally make a few changes: Beamrider to A Decathlon to C Ghostbusters to F! The first video game that my whole family equally hated, and was returned the same day to K.B. Toys (we exchanged it for Beamrider) after playing it for 30 Minutes. The looping music was annoying as Hell.
Hahaha! I see lots of Beamrider love in the comments. F on Ghostbusters? That seems pretty harsh. I'd never put it in the same category as Checkers & Double Dragon! 😀
Of the 22 in the first half, I owned Kaboom!, Boxing, and Ice Hockey. Kaboom! was fantastic and was better than many of the Atari 2600 games by Atari. I would give Boxing a higher rating than you did. Even though it was a bird's eye view and the play was simplistic (compared to later boxing games,) it was still fun as heck, especially playing against another person who was as "good" as you were. Ice Hockey was okay, but there were better Ice Hockey games out there for other home consoles. I also played a few others of those Activision games that neighbors/friends owned. I remember playing Enduro and Fishing Derby which were both fun.
I got that title during the Pandemic (along with others) but couldn't really get into it. It's funny, but for two-player sports games they almost never allowed you to partner with another human player against the computer.
This went off the rails when you gave Freeway a "D". Great game that has adaptability with the 'hard mode" of getting sent all the way back to the curb if you are hit, and the different levels with varying speed vehicles, semis, etc. And you veered from your original rating rule of "How would 10 year old Johnny feel about this game" multiple times. You're going to tell me you liked Bridge as a kid? Yeah, right.
You're got a point with Bridge - though I learned to play Canasta with my family from an early age, so I do think I'd have enjoyed Bridge if I'd had it. 😉 I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to share your opinions!
I was 10 in 1981 so I got to play many of these when released. I had forgotten many of the titles until I saw the gameplay. What a trip down memory lane!! There hasn't been a single ranking you've made that I disagree with. Great video.
You gave H.E.R.O. an S rating, so you get a thumbs up from me.👍 Cool video dude. Great job!
H.E.R.O. deserves it! Happy to see you pop in and check out one of my vids, MJR. Hope you had some fun - I owe you some fun for all the stuff of yours I've enjoyed over the years. 😎
*A wild MJR appears?* 😳
😎
Great play of H.E.R.O on your channel; it still makes me sad that I've never been able to play it yet on my console! 😞
Me love H.E.R.O. too, but i mostly played this game on my C-64 ;)
Agreed- When I borrowed it from a friend, somehow young me thought I managed to trick a 5200 game to play on my 2600-compatible 😂
Yep, and “10 year old Johnny” gave Bridge a “B”. Because like Bridge was a young persons game, a hip game, and who doesn’t like cars games on a console? I mean in the arcade I couldn’t stand Donkey Kong back in the day, I was like man wouldn’t it be so cool if I could play checkers or my god Bridge, that would be so cool!
Holy crap, didn't realize they made some of those titles, never seen them. Pitfall/ chopper command/ kaboom were all my families favorites!!
We played Enduro for hours! River River Raid too. But Pitfall was the king.
Seeing those activision games,i can hardly believe that they had to raise the beam to create graphics by timing every pixel on screen per frame,per background and per sprite,and what if 2 or more sprites are moving in opposite directions,then you had to time that as well etc,,,
I can’t even imagine were they would ever start,considering the 2600 graphics were extremely limited,UNLESS they had already better toolkits to work with in the early 80’s.
These were the great days of Activision! The days when Activision wanted to show you how good they were (mostly!), and not just how well they could keep cycling the same old games albeit with graphical upgrades here and there, and also trying to empty your bank accounts!! 😆
I have fond memories of many of these Activision games on the VCS from back in 1979/80 (it wasn't known as the '2600' yet), and they had the best graphics of anyone so far on the system, and the most compelling gameplay; things like "Kaboom" (and another couple of games that'll come in a later video I presume), just kept the interest of me and my work colleagues in the shop where I worked, so lunch breaks were always fraught Atari battles between us!! 🙂
My favorite Activision game, by some margin, was Spider Fighter. Probably largely because I was quite good at it-unlike most other games!
I still have my collection of about 15 or so patches you could earn by reaching certain milestones and sending in a picture of the screen. Boxing, Freeway, River Raid, Kaboom, Pitfall, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Grand Prix, all popular with me and my sisters. 2-player is where games like Freeway, Boxing, Fishing Derby, and even Dragster shine.
Love the list. Thank you. Now please do Imagic :) Cosmic Ark is a game I still play to this day and they had the best looking carts.
On it!
Just the box was enough to get the heart racing
I generally agree with the rankings, although I might have put Enduro in the S tier. It's orders of magnitude better than any other racing game on the VCS.
The other S tier games you listed are still amazingly playable yet today, and it took some real programming skill to make a game like H.E.R.O. on the 2600.
It seemed like you were avoiding the green fish while playing Frostbite, but the green fish give you points - they're not enemies. I also always liked how most of the enemies in Frostbite weren't deadly to the touch - they just pushed you off the ice floes into the freezing water.
Absolutely, I don't know how many hours I spent playing Enduro as a kid, but it was a lot.
I think there were a number of games he didn’t actually know how to play, sadly. It’s good to play these in high score challenges so you are incentivised to actually learn how to play them right instead of playing them for five minutes and making an uninformed judgment.
Enduro was incredible. I snuck it out from under the tree days before Christmas and played it for hours. I let my niece play it and she ratted me out.
I was just playing it on my 2600 *yesterday* in fact.
Enduro I'd give a S tier as it is probably my overall favorite 2600 game. It was one of the first racing games that I remember that had environment changes such as snow and fog as you raced along.
Beamrider is an A tier (possibly S) as all versions are incredibly fun. The only knock I can possibly think of is having to push forward to fire the missiles (vs the other console versions) due to the limitation of the controller. It gets quite frantic later on as you need to start avoid obstacles and not shooting (as well as trying to grab) your extra ship becomes much more difficult.
Outside those 2 games, I'd say your tiers are pretty accurate.
H.E.R.O. is most definitely S tier as I would play that for hours on end on the C64. It was quite the hidden gem until Metal Jesus made it well known. 😅
I had fun playing _Enduro,_ but after winning in 5 days, is there a reason to play it again? Once I won _Pitfall!_ I didn't play it or try to win it again for over 20 years.
@@sandal_thong8631I always treated the game more as a score attack style game as it loops through the levels. Most 2600 games at the time were like that.
Boxing gets D? Come on man, the game was very competitive 2 players we broke several joysticks playing it, and the AI made the single player game perfect as a quick 3 minutes exercise
Sorry, Hosam. Regardless of their rating here, that takes nothing away from the fun we all had playing them! Thanks for watching! 😄
Kaboom is one of my favorite games from back in the day
At the higher levels Kaboom is almost a zen like experience.
my tierlist:
Barnstorming - C
Beamrider - B
Boxing - C
Bridge - ?
Checkers - ?
Chopper Command - C (very difficult)
Commando - D
Cosmic Commuter - D (sorry)
Crackpots - B
Decathlon - ?
Dolphin - B
Double Dragon - F
Dragster - D
Enduro - A
Fishing Derby - B
Freeway - D
Frosbite - C (very difficult for me)
Ghostbusters - D
Grand Prix - C
Hero - B
Ice Hockey - B
Kaboom - ? ( I don't have paddle controller)
I must really be missing the boat with Dolphin. I need to give it more of a chance, maybe.
Thanks for the list!
Boxing is a lot of fun when you have a friend to play it with instead of just the AI, I think I would give it a B. I feel like Enduro deserved an S, though that may be mostly nostalgia. I spent so many hours playing that game; the way time passed in the game seemed amazing at the time. Seeing the sunset, then darkness and the tail lights of the other cars. Driving through fog where you could only see a short distance, and slippery snow, it was pretty advanced for a 2600 game.
I have no nostalgia for Enduro, simply because I started playing it last December 😁 So I can confirm it's an impressive and really fun game. I also love the sound effects of the cars and the sound you hear when you're near sunrise and still have cars to overtake. Sometimes, at the end of the night, I have 60 or even 80 cars left, and at that point there's a strong sense of urgency, and it's so satisfying when you make it anyway
Enduro is the best racing game on the VCS (or arguably Indy 500), it should be S tier. Boxing and Dolphin are also way under ranked (B at least). A real human opponent improved the game immensely, and it does take a while to learn the 1-2 combos and putting your opponent to the ropes. Without figuring that out, the game might seem boring.
The problem with many Activision games is the lack of randomness. Once you figure out the pattern, the game isnt nearly as interesting (see Laser Blast)
Boxing is rated way too low on this list.
I saw a video on the history of Activision _Boxing,_ which said it was based on the unreleased _Boxer (1977)_ by Atari. It had the same overhead view.
See I feel the same about dragster. I think it's a ball in 2 player mode.
Freeway is one of my all-time favorite Atari games and it's fun.
Yeah? I have plenty of fond memories of playing it with friends, but it's objectively simplistic. Still, I wouldn't be without it! 😉
Freeway was the 1st Activision game I ever played. It was simplistic but back then it was still amazing enough for me to play it for hours back then. I would have rated the game one grade higher.
I haven't played all Activision games on the 2600, but for those that I have, I mostly agree with your ranking. However, Beamrider should be A or even S, it's a clever and addictive game that does everything right
Absolutely agree 100%.
I loved Beamrider! It gets more and more interesting and varied the farther you progress. The Yellow Chirper Ships are my favourite just for how bizarre of an idea that was…
Beamrider reminds me of Nintendo’s radar scope😁
For me Activision earned their reputation, deservedly so, by being the best at taking advantage of what the hardware on the VCS could actually do. David Crane especially devised many ways of doing things that had not been done (or even thought possible) on the VCS. Their games are glitch-less* for the most part and are generally playable right away without reading a manual. Right up there with Activision I would place Imagic as well, at least with their original team member titles.
* Carol Shaw deserves recognition for making one of the smoothest scrolling vertical shooters ever with River Raid (especially on the VCS).
Allot of work had to go into this one. Great video! Although I would've ranked Beamrider and Chopper Command an S
2600 ranking hype!
I have to disagree with Enduro not being an S rating. I loved that game at the time, and I still love and can play it nowadays for quite time.
Completely understandable. There's certainly no shame in an A! I can still remember the first time I saw the Enduro box in a little local book store.
Great segment Jon. My top 5:
1. Pitfall
2. Chopper Command
3. Hockey
4. Boxing
5. Kaboom
With you on the boxing. Definitely not a D for me. I have it about a B-.
I remember every Activision game seemed like they were putting their own custom graphics chips in the cartridges. When Kaboom came out we had to break it open to see for sure.
Wow, did you know about custom graphics chips back in the 80s? That’s really cool. Do you know which Activision games did you use custom chipsets? I’m genuinely curious
Plaque Attack #1, Pitfall #2
I had no idea there were 44 Activision games for the 2600 😳 I always thought it was about 30!
I'm surprised at the number of them that I never came across in the wild, too.
I thoight Bridge would get a lower rating (mostly because I know nothing about how to play bridge) but the game actually seems pretty damn decent...from a non-bridge player 😋
In this tier list, I would probably give Chopper Command, Enduro and H.E.R.O all "S" rankings...and Crackpot would be a bit lower? Beamrider looks pretty great too!
Freeway always just seemed kind of bland to me and would only be worth playing with 2 players...Frogger it ain't!
Checkers as an "F?" Absolutely! They should have just scrapped the computer "A.I." and just shipped it as a 2-player only game once they realized how many thousands of CPU cycles would need to be burned for each move. That LOOOOONG blank screen is utterly embarrassing...
The early games from 1980 to 1982 have a certain charm to them. That's what I love about the first few years of the VCS from 1977
i love this kind of videos. Please, do the same for imagic games, atari and other companies. It's fun!. Edit: Dolphin only a D 😢 Fishing Derby i think is a ok game but it has a lot of charm!
I'm glad you are enjoying this one. If these do well, I will consider doing more tier lists.
What am I missing with Dolphin?
I think it's an interesting game if you know how to control the water arrows. When you become the predator by touching the seagull and score points I love the sound effect! It's addictive to earn points in this game. But well, everyone has his own opinion. I really liked the video
Pitfall! greatest Activision game on Atari 2600! H.E.R.O.,Megamania,Keystone Capers,SeaQuest,Robot Tank,Enduro,Frostbite,Star master,and SpiderFighter. My top ten.
Great vid! HERO is a top tier game for the VCS. I was floored when I first tried it. And hey, maybe do an Imagic vid? They had some great games, no doubt. Looking forward to Part 2
Awesome trip down memory lane. Like your ranking. Time to bust out the emulator. Could you do a similar one on Imagic titles? Since Demon Attack was one of most favourite games on my VCS.
I'll put Imagic on my to-do list.
Beamrider is an exceptional game that undoubtedly deserves to be ranked among the Great or Superb titles, in my honest opinion. It excels in numerous aspects of gameplay, showcasing innovation, responsive controls, challenging levels, and captivating visuals and audio. The game offers an exceptional gaming experience that is further enhanced by its high replayability and enduring appeal. With these qualities, Beamrider undoubtedly secures its position as a classic within the Atari 2600 (and Intellivision) library, cementing its status as one of the finest space shooter games for this classic console.
So much love for Beamrider in the comments. It just didn't resonate with me like it has so many more, but I will be giving it some more attention because there must be more to it than I have seen before.
I've watched videos of it twice now, and even on 1.5x speed it looks slow. Maybe they were both showing the first or easy level?
I have a feeling Atari is going to become a big name again.....they don't have to compete with Sony or Microsoft....those 2 companies are quickly becoming disasters.....
They are doing just fine with smaller, solid games.....keep the snowball rolling Atari!!!
Id like for them to openly mock those 2 companies with the Atari Playbox. 😆
NICE! When you take a hard look at the Activision 2600 Library, you can see just how innovative and incredible they were...and this is inly 1/2 of their games!
Right?
Framerater already did this hehe
I beat H.E.R.O. when I’m only six years old.
Is by far my biggest accomplishment in life!
H.E.R.O- Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation. I still remember the acronym. The last game I bought for my 2600.
Fantastic game, definitely agree with S tier.
Great video.
I love the boxing for some reason. B- Really nice video to see all of them. Well half for now. I remember always playing Skiing and the fast downhill slalom.
I know you gave me a ❤, lol. I just kept editing.
HERO was incredible as was Kaboom.
Dragster was and still is awesome...needs to be played 2 player....but it is exciting....way off on a D
Freeway deserves a second chance to move up. With single player I agree with you. Where it absolutely shines is playing against your older brother in two player. It's so easy to jump in and start playing (not unlike mobile games today). We'd get tickled pink yelling at each other and getting knocked back down in a chain of hits. This would always happen just before you'd win, and you'd laugh-scream all the way to your L. Two player is so clean and fun! Hilarious and devastating. The perfect game for two brothers in the 80s. Solid B for me (nearing an A).
It sounds to me like you and your brother made your own fun out of battling one another in such a rudimentary game. I'm not promoting Freeway, but I give the priceless memories you have with your brother a great big S! Thank you for watching. 😀
That's how we played it too! I think there are a LOT of brother combos out there who laughed, yelled and had a lot of fun playing Freeway back in the day.
Break it out during a party with friends, open some drinks (alcoholic) and let the feathers fly. I can't tell you how many times from the day we got Freeway to today that I've seen people laughing so hard that they hurt playing Freeway in that setting.
Beamrider is my number one Activision game and ranks as S on my list. Sad to see that it only merited a B here. Chopper Command is an A for me.
I had Chopper Command when I had my Atari 2600. I scored pretty well on that game too.
I only remember one game Kaboom. When you got to the top level you were no longer conciously in control of the paddle. By that time you taught yourself to do it by reflex. There was no way you could keep up otherwise.
I tried taking apart my paddles and cleaning them to get rid of the flutter, but couldn't get back in the groove to improve my high score at _Kaboom._
H.E.R.O. is probably my favorite game all time on the 2600. I also love Pitfall II. There are so many Activision games to love on the 2600 it's hard to name all the best ones. I'm interested to see where you're going to put Robot Tank. I think that game is under-rated. It's basically Battlezone but so much more at the same time. Fun fact, the guy who made H.E.R.O. also made Cosmic Commuter.
Dragster was one of the best party games ever. You went head to head all night charted your time. Once the competitive juices started flowing look out.
I loved Dragster as a kid. Grand Prix as well.
The only one I played is Freeway. I thought it was ok, so I give it a higher rating.
I would put beamrider in S tier, I still play it. :) Been to wave 15 a few times!
Yes, Beamrider is one of my favorites as well. It's a brilliant game
I'm seeing a lot of Beamrider love in the comments. Nice. 😀
Enduro was a great game. At the time the only better racing game was Pole Position, and you had to go to the arcade and pay for that.
The game with the spiders reminded me a lot of Tapper but even better that they switched lanes! I never saw that one before, definitely a winner!
Couldn't agree more.
I liked _Turbo_ at the arcade, and _Enduro_ was a fun driving game like that. But I don't consider them (or _Pole Position, Night Driver,_ or _Grand Prix)_ to be "racing games" but rather "passing-traffic" games. (Someone else had another name for them.) _Indy 500, F-Zero_ and _Mario Kart_ are racing games.
I wonder, once you've finished the second part, what it would look like if you then ranked each tier amongst theselves. Best to worsr in tier S. Then best to worst in tier A. Would it be possible that you're best of tier C actually exceeds the worst in tier B for some reason? One might think no but maybe it does!
So cool to hear the sound effects again after 40 years and to see video screens I haven't seen in many decades
Don't deny yourself the joy of replaying these - so many ways to do it today!
as someone who grew up with 2 2600's I KNOW activision put out a whole bunch of garbage. I had a blast with dragster, kaboom, Grand Prix, ... Laser Blast sucks tho. lol
What a blast from the past! Thank you, Jon!!! Can't wait for part two!!!
Emduro deserve SSSSSSSSS! Great video cheers from France ( Enduro was awarded best racing game in France , i think the previous year was pole position on Atari XL which was the best racing game on home system at the time)
Enduro is awesome, Philippe! No disrespect with an A! Enduro was right on the bubble between A/S. 🏎️
I still have the Atari 2600 games on my
PlayStation 2 in a compilation called
ACTIVISION ANTHOLOGY 😺👍🕹️.
I think, i should play it again sometimes 😹👍🕹️.
I also have ATARI ANTHOLOGY for the same console 😺👍🕹️.
Me too!
I strongly believe that Activision helped take the VCS to a new level, and gave it extra legs well into to the 80s.
P.S...Space Shuttle rocked. I'm RC, and I approved this message!
*SPACE SHUTTLE ROCKED*
(with 6 switches 😋)
Good List so far. Can't agree with all of it, but pretty close to what i would of ranked these games so far. Frostbite is one of my favourite games. On my channel, you can find a few videos of me playing it. Even one where my score is 326850. Can you beat that Jon?
My high score currently is 366.700, but I play on a PAL console, so I might not be entitled to claim victory over you 😉
@@danielespeziari5545 That's a great score! PAL or not, that's some great game playing. I tip my hat to you.
2 player Boxing was actually pretty good
I'm surprised by how few of these I know. I only ever played Barn-storming and Grand Prix.
My favourite 2600 games were Solaris, Joust and Yar's Revenge.
Good faves!
Who's going to be on team *Spider Fighter* with me on part 2? 😋
Most of my favorite games from that time on Atari were from Activision like Pitfall,Chopper Command,River Raid,Grand Prix,Sea Quest,Stampede,Keystone Kapers and Megamania
3:40 in and i already disagree - I loved Boxing!!!
I thought Frostbite was based in Q-Bert, I never saw a Frogger connection.
As for Freeway, who ever played Game 1? Throw some traffic in there, have them go different speeds, some semis, see who makes it. I also liked the idea that you could either do instant death/regeneration or have yourself be forced down with every hit. I rate it much higher than Frogger, horizontal movement is overrated.
Kaboom and pitfall were my favorite.
H.E.R.O. is one of the greatest games of all time in it's generation. It may be prettier on the Commodore 64, but it don't play any better. It's impossible to improve on it. Why it hasn't been ripped off for a mobile game yet I'll never understand.
I never played H.E.R.O., but watching the gameplay I realized that the bat graphic is the same as Pitfall II.
my mom played the heck out of bridge on the Atari. I mean, she adored it. If nothing else I will always love Activision for giving my mom a chance to play bridge without needing 3 other people.
TL;DR. River Raid, Pitfall, and H.E.R.O are the top of the pops.
We are in alignment, even almost for RR. 😀
I recently got the Retron 77. It made me think about the earliest first games Atari and Activision first made for the Atari VCS. So I have basically all the original roms for the Atari VCS. So I started googgling the info on the first games made by each company. I now have folders separating the first 9 original Atari games. I then made a folder foe 1978,79 and 1980. I then did the same for Acticision games from 1980 to 1983 for now. I just wanted to try these original games out. Of the original 9 games Atari released I only ever had Combat because that was the packed in game. I'm on a quest to hopefully find the original 9 with the number on the end label before the name of the game. Such as 01 Combat. Even my original Combat lacks the number :(
I remember being six years old and mastering Kaboom to the point that I couldn't lose. What I'd give to still have those reflexes and hand/eye coordination four decades later. It was so funny how the criminal's expression changed as he got faster until he was making an O face in disbelief.
4 days until my birthday.
On my birthday, Im gonna get a replica of the Atari 2600, and I have 2 actual Atari games, I got combat, and KABOOM!
Awww! I liked checkers by Activision for the Atari 2600.
That's great! My "ranking" in no way speaks to how much fun we may or may not have had playing a game, but really just its subjective quality across the line. I saw another commenter who had a blast with Double Dragon - more power to ya! 😀
Fantastic! I’m really looking forward to part 2 of your review. There was something very special about Activision games on VCS. I knew from a young age to seek them out. The graphics were generally far superior to anything else on the system.
Aw man, I loved Barnstorming back in the day. And yeah Frostbite was very addictive fun. Thanks for the list.
You bet!
I think _Barnstorming_ was the first Activision game I played. I was amazed at how good it looked when playing it at another kid's home, but that didn't inspire me to buy it, (probably for the reason your mentioned or its limited variations).
I didn't buy any Activision (or 3rd-party) game before _Pitfall!_ I found the others were fun to play for 1/2 to 1 hour at another kid's home, but how much fun would it be playing by myself? I looked at my collection of Activision carts I picked up later, and _Stampede_ was one of the few I played during the Pandemic. I finally got _Grand Prix_ then (along with _Ice Hockey)_ and it's as much a memorization game as _Skiing_ and _Barnstorming._
this is awesome!, the people that left Atari and formed Activision seemed to know the systems capabilities better than Atari themselves and it shows that they were hand tied there, they always knew how to utilize the colors and sounds better. I think they were a big reason the system became the powerhouse that it was thus lasting so long.
It's ironic. Licensing _Space Invaders_ and making a good cartridge sold millions of Atari VCS consoles, but the rot was already in with the contempt they they treated its programmer and others. If Intellivision had done it, that likely would have been the system to buy in 1980. Maybe the programmers would have gone to Mattel or formed a company making games for their system? It's possible Activision (and others) kept people interested in the Atari console in 1981, when they had three games that sold 1 million+: _Freeway, Kaboom,_ and _Laser Blast._
Also ironic, all those good 3rd-party games that sold 1 million+ in 1982 were beloved by those who enjoyed them, but the money going to their companies and not going to Atari meant their profits grew by 15% and not 50% which scared investors and was one part of the Video Game Crash of 1983-4.
I need them all mint and in box b4 i die lol!
Hero is a fantastic game, there are plenty of magnificent Activison titles to pick from for the 2600.
kaboom was my all time favorite game
HERO all the way. Although I've never played it on the 2600, I feel like that Ghostbusters deserves a bit more credit for what it accomplishes. I love that game on the C64.
Not 2600 games but here are some Activision games that are severely underrated: Rock n Bolt, Park Patrol, Master of the Lamps.
I recall playaing Master of the Lamps on my Atari 800. It's been a while, though - something sort of Ali Baba-ish about it, right? Riding a carpet?
@@GenXGrownUp Yea like a tunnel runner.
Thank you for making this video. I enjoyed it a lot. It will be a good resource for collecting games.
I really don’t care about those rankings and i wouldn’t take this that much serious but i do like to watch it so that’s that🤣
Hi Jon, we love the videos you do but today you upset the wife you made her say some naughty words at the TV 😂😂😂 She's a massive 2600 fan and you only did half a job by splitting the video we cannot wait for the rest 😅 cheers
Oh, boy. You had me worried! I was braced to read about the egregious thing I screwed up, but was ultimately flattered and relieved that the "thing" I did was withholding half the list. 😁 Grateful to have earned the viewership of your wife, and to a lesser extent I guess, you too. 😉
@@GenXGrownUp 🤣🤣🤣 your OK 👍 I love all retro tech and between us we have quite a collection. I also love a lot of the new Atari 2600 games, just amazing what they can do 😁
great stuff. can't wait for part 2
Thanks for watching, Chris!
River raid. OMG the hours and soothing hours I could play this.
I actually enjoyed Freeway immensely and I still play it today!
Awesome!
Freeway is definitely a D as a solo game, but it's actually a ton of fun as a two player!
I can see pitfall getting an s
Love that collection of vintage board games on your shelf. I have that Six Million Dollar Man as well.
Yeah, thanks. Which one do you have? Probably hard to see up there out of focus, but the Six Million Dollar Man game is sitting on top of Bionic Crisis.
@@GenXGrownUp Was hard to zoom in on the video but I’d be curious to see your collection. I tweeted at you.
I had 2600 Double Dragon and my step-brother had NES Double Dragon. The 2600 version got played a lot more. A lot more.
Really?! What a travesty that thing is! Happy you got fun out of it, though. 😀
@GenXGrownUp Two player simultaneous play beats the single player experience.
I like this video. I think I might have place endure on S. I think it was an amazing racing game for its time.
Thanks, Richard. I hope you'll check out part two once it's ready.
Enduro was on the bubble: A+/S- - a great one for sure.
@@GenXGrownUp im sure it was. And after you make the full run it does start getting repetitive. im looking forward to part two. You should do an imagic one too . They had some decent games as well. :)
I spent 100s of hours playing RiverRaid
River Raid was the best, then Pitfall, the Kaboom.
Chopper command ❤❤❤
Nice, but I would (so far) personally make a few changes:
Beamrider to A
Decathlon to C
Ghostbusters to F! The first video game that my whole family equally hated, and was returned the same day to K.B. Toys (we exchanged it for Beamrider) after playing it for 30 Minutes. The looping music was annoying as Hell.
Hahaha! I see lots of Beamrider love in the comments. F on Ghostbusters? That seems pretty harsh. I'd never put it in the same category as Checkers & Double Dragon! 😀
Of the 22 in the first half, I owned Kaboom!, Boxing, and Ice Hockey. Kaboom! was fantastic and was better than many of the Atari 2600 games by Atari. I would give Boxing a higher rating than you did. Even though it was a bird's eye view and the play was simplistic (compared to later boxing games,) it was still fun as heck, especially playing against another person who was as "good" as you were. Ice Hockey was okay, but there were better Ice Hockey games out there for other home consoles. I also played a few others of those Activision games that neighbors/friends owned. I remember playing Enduro and Fishing Derby which were both fun.
A few commenters have mentioned that Boxing gets much better with a good human to play with.
Pretty spot on Gen-x brother. The early Activision titles were trial/error and we were young.
LOL Fun list, but Little Johnny would rank Bridge as a B and Barnstorming a C?? That ten year old would have some WEIRD TASTE!!
I never said Little Jonny was normal, just that he was cute. 😜
I had no idea Commando was on Atari before its NES entry
Ice hockey was excellent! Loved it!
I got that title during the Pandemic (along with others) but couldn't really get into it. It's funny, but for two-player sports games they almost never allowed you to partner with another human player against the computer.
This went off the rails when you gave Freeway a "D". Great game that has adaptability with the 'hard mode" of getting sent all the way back to the curb if you are hit, and the different levels with varying speed vehicles, semis, etc. And you veered from your original rating rule of "How would 10 year old Johnny feel about this game" multiple times. You're going to tell me you liked Bridge as a kid? Yeah, right.
You're got a point with Bridge - though I learned to play Canasta with my family from an early age, so I do think I'd have enjoyed Bridge if I'd had it. 😉 I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to share your opinions!
I was 10 in 1981 so I got to play many of these when released. I had forgotten many of the titles until I saw the gameplay. What a trip down memory lane!! There hasn't been a single ranking you've made that I disagree with. Great video.
Hey, thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. 😁