As a lover of video games, I have always been enamoured by the earliest days of gaming. I grew up with an aging Nintendo Entertainment System in my household – the old grey-and-black box one would use to play the classics of the late 1980’s like Super Mario Bros. or the original Legend of Zelda – and have ever-since had a passion for retro games and gaming. However, until very recently, I had never seen or played a still-working Atari 2600 (originally called the Atari VCS, or Atari Video Computer System). The Atari 2600 is the golden grail of retro-gaming, initially released in 1977 as the very first home video game system which utilized interchangeable game cartridges and thus revolutionized the home video game system market. The Atari 2600 was to Gen X what the smartphone has been to Millennials. It was a technology that nobody had ever seen before but one that everyone wanted – usually as a birthday gift or a gift under the Christmas tree.
The Atari 2600 achieved what many at the time thought impossible (or at least financially implausible): to bring the games people had been dropping quarters into at the arcades throughout the mid-to-late 1970’s into one’s living room. These games included classics such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Frogger, and of course Pac-Man. Fortunately for me, I was recently able to acquire virtually all of the greatest classics for the Atari 2600 alongside a working classic wood-panel Atari. I feel that the best way to get a feel for a gaming system is through its games (obviously), and so what follows below are my thoughts on some of the top four classic games for the over 40-year-old Atari 2600.
Space Invaders (Arcade Release: 1978, Atari Release: 1980)
Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 is – without a shadow of a doubt – my favourite game on the system. Forty years later, and the game still plays extraordinarily well. The basic premise is that there are rows of alien “space invaders” slowly shifting their way towards the bottom of the screen (assumed to be Earth), and you, a floating cannon which can only move horizontally along the bottom of the screen, are all that stands between them and their ultimate goal. Not only does the gameplay stand the test of time, but so too do the graphics and sound. Sure, they are as rudimentary as one would expect on hardware released in the late-1970’s, but they are a solid representation of the arcade classic, and more than get the job done. I am genuinely jealous of kids who awoke on Christmas morning 1980 to find Space Invaders and an Atari system under the Christmas tree – it would have been an unforgettable experience.
Pac-Man (Arcade Release: 1980, Atari Release: 1981)
While the Atari 2600 port of the legendary arcade classic Pac-Man did not enjoy the same success with critics as did Space Invaders, it sold marvellously well (over 7 million copies), making it the best-selling Atari 2600 game of all time.
I happen to think that the critics at the time were just outright mistaken about the quality gameplay experience Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 brings to the table. While it is certainly a far rougher port of an arcade classic than Space Invaders, it still translates the basic gameplay experience of gobbling up pellets and dodging colourful ghosts incredibly well. I can only imagine how cool having Pac-Man playable in your living room would have been in 1981.
Asteroids (Arcade Release: 1979, Atari Release: 1981)
Asteroids is a very simple game. You control a spaceship (which is free to travel in any direction you like, in contrast to Space Invaders) and you must shoot asteroids on the screen (and occasionally pesky UFOs) to gain points while avoiding any collisions with said asteroids or UFOs. The game quickly becomes quite challenging as the asteroids you are tasked to destroy in order to gain points can break apart; sending smaller and quicker asteroids in all directions which can be hard to dodge. The game is notorious for being one of the more difficult arcade classics; and this translates well to the Atari 2600.
Asteroids is probably the only arcade-to-Atari port I have played that actually seems to have gained a graphics and sound improvement on the Atari system. The arcade classic is largely black-and-white while the Atari 2600 version is realized in full colour. I had a lot of fun with this game and its gameplay certainly stands the test of time.
Frogger (Arcade Release: 1981, Atari Release: 1982)
Frogger on the Atari 2600 is almost identical to the original arcade classic; albeit with the slightest of graphical downgrades (mostly just a less diverse colour palette). The game plays exactly as one would expect – you are tasked with moving a group of frogs, one after another, across both a busy highway and a hazardous river to their home on the banks of the far side of the river. The game is deceptively simple and begins easily enough but quickly ramps up to an intensity that will leave your palms sweating and your eyes dry from forgetting to blink. The Atari 2600 port (much like both Space Invaders and Asteroids) is impressive, and both the gameplay as well as the graphics and sound largely stand the test of time.