This took me back to my barracks in West Germany when I was stationed there. I bought my Atari 2600 to play on my new Sony Trinitron 15" tv. All night video game binges with Pole Position, Galaxian, Gunfighter & Jungle Hunt. Kept us out of trouble. Thanks for the flashback @JohnRiggs. Good times
I'm always so impressed by the graphics in late-era 2600 games. Like the pseduo-3D in Battlezone or the 'parallax' scrolling in Jungle Hunt. You really wouldn't think a **1mhz** system could pull off things like that.
And only 128 BYTES of RAM. The RAM was a bigger limitation than the clock speed I think. Programmers had to get really creative to work around the limitations.
I know that it came out in 1982, but in 1983, I was very much still playing Spider Fighter as often as possible. I was completely addicted to that game, and wore my thumb absolutely raw because of it!
@@matthewlane518 Yeah, I would definitely say that it was my favorite as well. There was just something to that game that was so much fun. It definitely was my most-played 2600 game, and it wasn’t even close.
@@jeremiahthomas8140 Hmm, interesting. I have found other sources that say 1982. I probably still have my original game cartridge around here, somewhere…
I still play "Pigs in Space"! Lol. Atari 2600 is where it all started for me and is one of my all time favorite consoles. I highly recommend the Hyperkin Retron 77. It gave a whole new life to my Atari 2600 collection.
Atari was a little before my time but I do own one. I think all gamers should definitely pay homage to the console. My earliest memories as a kid with the Atari 2600 were Smurfs and Mash. Currently I love playing Donkey Kong on my 2600 there's just something about Donkey Kong and using that Atari joystick... 📺🕹
Krull was one of my favorites, actually. If you remember from the movie, the villain’s castle moved every day. So you go to the spider lady so she can tell you where the castle is. When you get to the door at the top one of the webs at the side of the screen will get an indicator to let you know it is the exit. You have to get the guy back to that web strand before the time runs out. If you do it right you will be taken to the final battle, where you can save the Princess. Victory is yours. Also I wouldn’t recommend the movie, it hasn’t aged well. Nostalgia value only. Glaive rocks though!
Hi John. I loved Krull as a kid. 49 now and still a top 10 on my favorite for the 2600. Once you understand it...very satisfying to complete...not Raiders satisfying but still.
Jungle Hunt was my favorite, runner ups: River Raid, Tutankhamen, QBert, Dig Dug & Frogger. My honorable mentions: HERO, Pitfall II, Frostbite, Freeway, Keystone Kapers, Plaque Attack, Crackpots....LOL list goes on and on.
With swordquest, from my little time trying it and reading the manuals, you're supposed to find a secret code and using certain items will allow you to do certain things and unlock information about the message
Got a 2600 in 3rd grade , had E.T. , Combat, Pac-Man, Barnstormer, and Stampede. Played it til the wheels fell off( of the pad). Except for E.T. Just had no idea how to play it back then
I had Joust and Kangaroo. Both great games. ^^ Never heard of Gravitar, it looks like it renders Asteroids pretty much obsolete. I have to play it, as well as Jungle Hunt. So many cool classics on this console.
I don't know if they were released in '83 but I had Name This Game, Mountain King, Congo Bongo, the Xonox double enders and Jr.Pac-Pam. I had a ton of fun with the 2,600 but I don't collect for it. Mine failed and my mom never bought me another one. Cool video John!👍
Of the ones on your list, Mario Bros., Jungle Hunt, and Joust are my favorites. Of ones not on your list, Q*bert, Tac-Scan, Solar Fox, Moon Patrol, Star Trek: SOS, and Omega Race are some of my favorites. I also played a lot of Swordquest: Fireworld as a kid.
I remember being a little kid and playing Atari 2600 at my neighbors house while they and my parents were snorting coke in the back room. Ah, the 1980s.
Love this series!!! Please continue 🙏 all the way up to the Millennium (2000). Your takes on the time periods are great, and the games you pull to show are fantastic. It walks the line between being very personal, yet general enough that it makes me think of those times and my favourite games of that year. Awesome, awesome vid/series! I can't wait to watch them on chronological order! Superb Video sir!
Joust, Kangaroo and Galaxian... I remember getting all three brand new at either K-Mart or Zellers back in the day. And I absolutely played the crap out of them. Even now nearly 4 decades later, I still like to fire 'em up and play through them a few times here and there, as all three are just fantastic...
I have a feeling that 1983 could have been averted in a few ways, such as more video game rentals, more game publications to review games, and Atari embracing 3rd party developers more instead of trying to block them. Plus I think consumers were ready for a new generation and Atari didn’t exactly do a great job of giving them that.
Yes, those are lessons learned from an Industry that at the time had less than 10 years. The review culture is still applied to few geographical areas...
Yeah, the Atari 5200 was terrible, especially the controller. And when they came out with the Atari 7800, they removed the sound chip so the sound was back to 2600 quality. Atari just didn't push things forward enough to pull the audience back in. It took Nintendo and Sega to do that a couple of years later.
The 2600 was my passion! Adventure was my jam! My parents played Colossal Caves. They called it Adventure. I couldn't get too far at it when I was ten. So Adventure to me was that, but with graphics. Electronics were a new thing as I was growing up. That was great for me. I wasn't a big action figure kid. Erector sets, Radio Shack electrical/electronic kits, batteries, and blank tapes kept me quiet for hours. Today, I still play video games. I play a lot of retro. I love Mario Golf. But Beat Saber and Rocket League take up most of my gaming time.
Pole Position and Mario Bros are my favorites besides Vine swinging game. NES 1985 is superb in every way in comparison to Atari 2600. If you like the simplicity and vague characters and unique art for environments as well as the characters in Atari 2600 then go for it. Some games I like for the Atari 2600 10 at most or maybe more. I was born in the early 90's so SNES and N64 PS1 GB series and I like NES and Sega Master System Sega Genesis Sega Game Gear Sega DreamCast and 80's arcade games and 70's arcade games are great too. Atari Jaguar Lynks are great.
Nice list! A few games that I loved which came out and I played to death in '83 and beyond, we're Ms. Pac-Man, a huge upgrade from Pac-Man, Space Shuttle that used console overlays to control the shuttle, and Decathlon, and if you only knew how many times I broke and reglued/duct-taped my controller playing this game.
We got our 2600 on Christmas Day back in 1983. We got Space Invaders and Combat with it. A couple of weeks later, my older brother picked out Pole Position for us, while Mom and my older sister picked Megamania, and I picked out Pac Man. We got Jungle Hunt a few years later. We had and played our 2600 until my older brother got the NES in the Spring of 1990. I had to wait to get my own NES until Christmas of that year.
ironically , Atari was the only survivor of the Crash ( no more ColecoVision nor IntelliVision ) even though NO new ATARI 2600 games where released in 1985 !
Brings me back to 84/85 summer yard sales and the availability 2600's and it's game's. The year after the JR. Came out was pretty good to but the Toaster was out and I think that made the one's still holding on to let go of of there 2600's finally.
Kangaroo is my all time favorite arcade style game. It along with Tanks but No Tanks were my go-to games when the rest of the family was hogging the NES, and I can still play it mindlessly for hours.
I loved Pole Position! I used to have that on my old 1996 Pentium 133 in some arcade hits collection that I got for Christmas of '97. Unlike the Atari 2600 version, the version that I played actually looked and played EXACTLY like the original arcade version. Played that and Dig-Dug in that collection A LOT.
The 2600 games in 1982-1983 made a quantum leap in graphics. The programmers finally figured out how to put a lot of objects on the screen with minimal flicker. They made a lot of games that the machine was never designed to handle.
Loved Battlezone both in arcade and 2600. Those Vector graphics games including Red Baron were just awsome at the Chuck e Cheese I worked at in the mid 80s
I had a hard me down Atari 2600 with the plastic woodgrain vinyl panel lining with ribbed black plastic everywhere else with 4 metal switches. I had 100 games with it and all of the accessories with it and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Battlezome was used the the US military as a training tool for tank combat. They created their own version for training knows as the "Bradley Trainer".
i was around then but idk if i was playing atari, maybe apple II barely. Still do have a 2600 (gave away then later reacquired a few) Up in the attic in a plastic tote at the moment.
Galaxian was my fave of that group, but to be fair, I hadn't played many of those besides Krull. Always loved the 2600 back in the day, and I really wish I'd played more of these games. That Battlezone looked pretty good.
I remember getting jungle hunt brand new, and the look on my dads face when he had to fork out £35. The kind of look i have when i spend £35 on a switch game🤬
In 1983 I was 17, working, and chasing girls. I don't remember playing any of these games. I played the earlier games, and still do on my light sixer that I've had since about 1979.
In the 80s I played haunted house, soccer, some star wars game where you flew left or right shooting things and not touch the ground. I was 5 so memory is a lil hazy lol
Here's a look at some of the best Arcade games of 1983 ruclips.net/video/xhB4T4teYY4/видео.html
This took me back to my barracks in West Germany when I was stationed there. I bought my Atari 2600 to play on my new Sony Trinitron 15" tv. All night video game binges with Pole Position, Galaxian, Gunfighter & Jungle Hunt. Kept us out of trouble. Thanks for the flashback @JohnRiggs. Good times
I love seeing Atari 2600 videos in my RUclips Subscription. I remember many of these from my childhood as well 🤘
Haha! Then you would love my Atari insanity, Jason! Atari is the KING.
Snoopy vs The Red Baron is just awesome, it's so fun even today! Great game!
I'm always so impressed by the graphics in late-era 2600 games. Like the pseduo-3D in Battlezone or the 'parallax' scrolling in Jungle Hunt. You really wouldn't think a **1mhz** system could pull off things like that.
And only 128 BYTES of RAM. The RAM was a bigger limitation than the clock speed I think. Programmers had to get really creative to work around the limitations.
Solaris is another quite impressive game
@@zackschilling4376no no it really isn't
I got mines in 1984, and I can say how I miss playing Ms pacman and Indiana Jones. Its crazy how small the controllers are when your older.
My absolute favorite Atari 2600 game was Keystone Kapers, which came out in 1983.
In our youth everything was new and exciting.
Now, decades later, we love the old days.
This is how we change. Great channel!
Joust was a very well done port.
Man now I feel old, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, Pole Position and Mario Bros were among of my most loved games on the system
Both Kangaroo and Pole Position had cartoons.
@@Invidente7 According to the U.S. Geological Survey there are currently 34 populated places named Springfield in 25 U.S. states.
All good. Growing old is a huge practical joke and we're all in on it.
My high score on Pole Position is 1632.
I know that it came out in 1982, but in 1983, I was very much still playing Spider Fighter as often as possible. I was completely addicted to that game, and wore my thumb absolutely raw because of it!
I did play me some Spider Fighter. Activision made some great Atari games.
Spider fighter is my favorite 2600 game of all time!
According to Random Terrain's release date website, Spider Fighter is a January of 1983 release.
@@matthewlane518 Yeah, I would definitely say that it was my favorite as well. There was just something to that game that was so much fun. It definitely was my most-played 2600 game, and it wasn’t even close.
@@jeremiahthomas8140 Hmm, interesting. I have found other sources that say 1982. I probably still have my original game cartridge around here, somewhere…
I still play "Pigs in Space"! Lol. Atari 2600 is where it all started for me and is one of my all time favorite consoles. I highly recommend the Hyperkin Retron 77. It gave a whole new life to my Atari 2600 collection.
I remember having to choose between Pole Position or a Bike. I chose Pole Position and never looked back.
I wasn't born until 1985 but my earliest gaming memory was Circus on the 2600.
So many good ones. I really loved Taz and Battlezone.
I think the things Miss Piggy has to dodge are tumbleweeds.
Atari was a little before my time but I do own one. I think all gamers should definitely pay homage to the console. My earliest memories as a kid with the Atari 2600 were Smurfs and Mash. Currently I love playing Donkey Kong on my 2600 there's just something about Donkey Kong and using that Atari joystick... 📺🕹
Krull was one of my favorites, actually. If you remember from the movie, the villain’s castle moved every day. So you go to the spider lady so she can tell you where the castle is. When you get to the door at the top one of the webs at the side of the screen will get an indicator to let you know it is the exit. You have to get the guy back to that web strand before the time runs out. If you do it right you will be taken to the final battle, where you can save the Princess. Victory is yours. Also I wouldn’t recommend the movie, it hasn’t aged well. Nostalgia value only. Glaive rocks though!
Love that movie -- it could be remade if done right.
The movie still holds a special place in my heart. I tried to show it to my kids and they were bored stiff LOL
Wild how they had some rudimentary parallax scrolling on Jungle Hunt. Didn’t even know there was any Atari games that had that.
I just remember being super jealous of anyone having one. I was stuck with colecovision yet till the NES. Thanks for the memories Riggs 👍
My favorite Atari 2600 game that I still enjoy playing today is Megamania.
The commercial rocked harder than a truck full of bricks.
These videos alway bring me back to the golden days of the 2600, jeez all the hours playing pole position
Great review! "Jungle Hunt," "Joust," "Taz" and "Mario Bros" are some of my most favorite games on the system!
Hi John. I loved Krull as a kid. 49 now and still a top 10 on my favorite for the 2600. Once you understand it...very satisfying to complete...not Raiders satisfying but still.
No one was playing Gravitar in 83 unless they mailed away for it. Hopefully you held on to that Waterworld.
Jungle Hunt was my favorite, runner ups: River Raid, Tutankhamen, QBert, Dig Dug & Frogger. My honorable mentions: HERO, Pitfall II, Frostbite, Freeway, Keystone Kapers, Plaque Attack, Crackpots....LOL list goes on and on.
I like this series of videos you are doing! Great content! Thank you!
Seaquest and Enduro were apparently 1983 too.
With swordquest, from my little time trying it and reading the manuals, you're supposed to find a secret code and using certain items will allow you to do certain things and unlock information about the message
My favourite game on the 2600 is Pole Position
Got a 2600 in 3rd grade , had E.T. , Combat, Pac-Man, Barnstormer, and Stampede. Played it til the wheels fell off( of the pad). Except for E.T.
Just had no idea how to play it back then
I had jungle hunt and pole position. I had played jungle hunt all the time but was blown away when the Nintendo came out!
I had Joust and Kangaroo. Both great games. ^^ Never heard of Gravitar, it looks like it renders Asteroids pretty much obsolete. I have to play it, as well as Jungle Hunt. So many cool classics on this console.
There's Chuck Norris' Atari!
Love your videos. Favorite person.
The Battlezone port was a pretty impressive. They were smart to go with a different graphics style than try to do fake wireframe vectors.
I own Battlezone, we bought it at a Lowes hardware during the crash at 1/5 of the price.
They actually had a National gaming event for Swordquest Earthworld.
I don't know if they were released in '83 but I had Name This Game, Mountain King, Congo Bongo, the Xonox double enders and Jr.Pac-Pam. I had a ton of fun with the 2,600 but I don't collect for it. Mine failed and my mom never bought me another one. Cool video John!👍
So the Dizzy boss fight in Buster busts loose was kinda based on the Taz game on Atari. Nice
Jungle Hunt and Pole Position from this list. I should have kept my Atari 2600. Such magical times.
Of the ones on your list, Mario Bros., Jungle Hunt, and Joust are my favorites. Of ones not on your list, Q*bert, Tac-Scan, Solar Fox, Moon Patrol, Star Trek: SOS, and Omega Race are some of my favorites. I also played a lot of Swordquest: Fireworld as a kid.
Also, keep the 2600 Video Computer System content coming. How about doing those publisher ranking videos on 2600 publishers?
Some of these games look impressive for the 2600, and they look fun too!
Growing up , I had no idea there was a video game "crash". Ah childhood. LOL
To many awesome games to pick one my top 4 would be joust, pole position, jungle hunt, and galaxian.
Pole Position will always be my favorite Atari game
I have 2 words of pure addiction. BARN STORMING!
For the Sword Quest you need the instructions and the mini comic that came with the game.🤔
Pitfall, bong, Tanks
Jungle Hunt. Krull looked interesting....
never had a chance to play it.
Jungle Hunt has always been a favorite. Love the Arcade game.
I remember being a little kid and playing Atari 2600 at my neighbors house while they and my parents were snorting coke in the back room. Ah, the 1980s.
sounds like the 80's to me!
Pigs in space was great! I loved that as a kid
I loved Battlezone. Played it in the arcade and at home.
Completely forgot about that Taz game. I use to love that game. Thank you for another great video.
Love this series!!! Please continue 🙏 all the way up to the Millennium (2000). Your takes on the time periods are great, and the games you pull to show are fantastic. It walks the line between being very personal, yet general enough that it makes me think of those times and my favourite games of that year. Awesome, awesome vid/series! I can't wait to watch them on chronological order! Superb Video sir!
Joust, Kangaroo and Galaxian... I remember getting all three brand new at either K-Mart or Zellers back in the day. And I absolutely played the crap out of them. Even now nearly 4 decades later, I still like to fire 'em up and play through them a few times here and there, as all three are just fantastic...
As an adult look back with sadness no one would play Joust with me. Such a good pvp next to Combat.
Joust. Days and days of Joust was played on our 2600. That and Kangaroo.
I have a feeling that 1983 could have been averted in a few ways, such as more video game rentals, more game publications to review games, and Atari embracing 3rd party developers more instead of trying to block them. Plus I think consumers were ready for a new generation and Atari didn’t exactly do a great job of giving them that.
Yes, those are lessons learned from an Industry that at the time had less than 10 years.
The review culture is still applied to few geographical areas...
Yeah, the Atari 5200 was terrible, especially the controller. And when they came out with the Atari 7800, they removed the sound chip so the sound was back to 2600 quality. Atari just didn't push things forward enough to pull the audience back in. It took Nintendo and Sega to do that a couple of years later.
But I couldn't play any Atari games in 1983 because I was only 3 years old
My cousin had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid. I use to go over there on Saturday mornings and it.
for me Joust and Taz were the best. I think you forgot Ms Pac Man... Great Video.
Battle Tank is AMAZING on the Atari 2600. It's my personal favorite on the system.
The Mario game actually looked good for a Atari game ❤
The 2600 was my passion! Adventure was my jam! My parents played Colossal Caves. They called it Adventure. I couldn't get too far at it when I was ten. So Adventure to me was that, but with graphics.
Electronics were a new thing as I was growing up. That was great for me. I wasn't a big action figure kid. Erector sets, Radio Shack electrical/electronic kits, batteries, and blank tapes kept me quiet for hours.
Today, I still play video games. I play a lot of retro. I love Mario Golf. But Beat Saber and Rocket League take up most of my gaming time.
I think all of the 1983 games, Galaxian was the one I played most. Jungle Hunt was fun, but Galaxian was it. Great video, John! Love me some Atari.
Pole Position and Mario Bros are my favorites besides Vine swinging game. NES 1985 is superb in every way in comparison to Atari 2600. If you like the simplicity and vague characters and unique art for environments as well as the characters in Atari 2600 then go for it. Some games I like for the Atari 2600 10 at most or maybe more. I was born in the early 90's so SNES and N64 PS1 GB series and I like NES and Sega Master System Sega Genesis Sega Game Gear Sega DreamCast and 80's arcade games and 70's arcade games are great too. Atari Jaguar Lynks are great.
1983 was the greatest year of my life. I love you Scott.
Nice list! A few games that I loved which came out and I played to death in '83 and beyond, we're Ms. Pac-Man, a huge upgrade from Pac-Man, Space Shuttle that used console overlays to control the shuttle, and Decathlon, and if you only knew how many times I broke and reglued/duct-taped my controller playing this game.
I didnt have the 2600, but I but had the 5200. I loved Joust and Kangaroo. Galaxian and Mario was ok.
Played pole position and frogger so much in 85, that sound takes me back in time!
We got our 2600 on Christmas Day back in 1983. We got Space Invaders and Combat with it. A couple of weeks later, my older brother picked out Pole Position for us, while Mom and my older sister picked Megamania, and I picked out Pac Man. We got Jungle Hunt a few years later. We had and played our 2600 until my older brother got the NES in the Spring of 1990. I had to wait to get my own NES until Christmas of that year.
ironically , Atari was the only survivor of the Crash ( no more ColecoVision nor IntelliVision )
even though NO new ATARI 2600 games where released in 1985 !
Brings me back to 84/85 summer yard sales and the availability 2600's and it's game's. The year after the JR. Came out was pretty good to but the Toaster was out and I think that made the one's still holding on to let go of of there 2600's finally.
Kangaroo is my all time favorite arcade style game. It along with Tanks but No Tanks were my go-to games when the rest of the family was hogging the NES, and I can still play it mindlessly for hours.
I loved Pole Position! I used to have that on my old 1996 Pentium 133 in some arcade hits collection that I got for Christmas of '97. Unlike the Atari 2600 version, the version that I played actually looked and played EXACTLY like the original arcade version. Played that and Dig-Dug in that collection A LOT.
The 2600 games in 1982-1983 made a quantum leap in graphics. The programmers finally figured out how to put a lot of objects on the screen with minimal flicker. They made a lot of games that the machine was never designed to handle.
Loved Jungle Hunt and Pitfall!!!
Loved Battlezone both in arcade and 2600. Those Vector graphics games including Red Baron were just awsome at the Chuck e Cheese I worked at in the mid 80s
I was going to say my fav was joust now I want to play piiiiiiiiigs in spaaaaaaace!
I had a hard me down Atari 2600 with the plastic woodgrain vinyl panel lining with ribbed black plastic everywhere else with 4 metal switches. I had 100 games with it and all of the accessories with it and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Battlezome was used the the US military as a training tool for tank combat. They created their own version for training knows as the "Bradley Trainer".
i was around then but idk if i was playing atari, maybe apple II barely. Still do have a 2600 (gave away then later reacquired a few) Up in the attic in a plastic tote at the moment.
Galaxian was my fave of that group, but to be fair, I hadn't played many of those besides Krull. Always loved the 2600 back in the day, and I really wish I'd played more of these games. That Battlezone looked pretty good.
I remember getting jungle hunt brand new, and the look on my dads face when he had to fork out £35. The kind of look i have when i spend £35 on a switch game🤬
Awesome videp John! I really enjoyed Galaxian on the 2600.
I actually owned Krull back in the day. The Easy mode makes the Crystal Spider's webs static and much easier to jump over :).
I even had Mario bros as well
I missed out on a lot of these since we had upgraded to Colecovision back then. Perhaps a Colecovision 1983 episode is on order…
I loved my 2600, I still have it with all my games. I remember playing space invaders with my mom.
Jungle Hunt is so under rated, great video
I love Battle Zone, however Galaxian and Jungle Hunt are also two 2600 games I enjoy a whole lot.
Kangaroo and jungle hunt were my jam back in the day! Have a nice day!
I had jungle hunt
In 1983 I was 17, working, and chasing girls. I don't remember playing any of these games. I played the earlier games, and still do on my light sixer that I've had since about 1979.
I had Coleco Gemini back then. Had and loved Joust, Kangaroo and Mario Bros. Also remember liking Return of the Jedi Death Star game that year.
Atari 2600
👍
i knew a family that had an oldschool joust arcade cabinet. it was pretty sick
I also have enjoyed Jungle Hunt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the 80s I played haunted house, soccer, some star wars game where you flew left or right shooting things and not touch the ground. I was 5 so memory is a lil hazy lol
Mario Bros was my game!
John Riggs videos are the best to watch while mega BBQ Apollo 420 blasted. Thanks for the content.
Jungle Hunt was my favorite late-era Itari game