Atari 2600

Other so-so units came before it, though this was the gaming system that started it all. In the '70s, this was such an original concept, it became a whole fad. Parents and kids would actually play video games together, if you can believe that. Even more startling, was how much was given "free" with the original system; no less than four controllers! The system my family bought came with two joysticks with the classic single red fire button, and a pair of PC mouse-sized "wheels" for racing games. Let the gaming revolution begin!

Blow the dust off the old Atari system and show it to the kids, and be ready to accept understandable laughs. As the vanguard of game systems, graphics were pretty awful. The first shooting game of all time, Outlaws (shown here), had two cowboys who simply shot at each other from opposite sides of the screen! In the original graphic adventure (video game) of all time, simply called Adventure, your character was a SQUARE dot (!), whose sword was a mere arrow. However, as the first games, they were a cute start.

In time, third-party game companies popped up, pushing 2600's envelope. The best of them was Activision; what they were able to do with so little to work with is what made them a major gaming force to this very day. Pitfall (shown here) is irrefutably one of the top ten classic video games of all time. Other Activision games may not have been as classic, though were certainly unique. MegaMania was a hilarious target game; one of my favorites. An intriguing anecdote; I won 2nd place at a local rental store's Megamania contest, and used the money to buy a Colecovision and a few games. I don't know if buying a rival system was the premise of the contest, though ;-)...

There was another top-notch, third-party worth mentioning, called Imagic, whose games were quite inspired (so inspired, that the now-defunct company has warranted a separate web page, to talk about it). Dragonfire had you first dodge fireballs to reach the dragon's castle, then plunder treasure while dodging the dragon itself! Cosmic Ark put you in charge of a space age Noah's Ark; you'd take a mini UFO and capture aliens via a tractor beam, all while protecting the mother ship from asteroids. Demon Attack was their best work, though, and much like Pitfall, is among the best classic video games of all time.

This isn't to say that these two companies were the only third-parties making video games for the Atari 2600. There were probably dozens of them, at the system's peak. Some such games were more than worth a look, and were often even astounding sneak peeks of gaming genres to come. Tunnel Runner (shown here) put you in a colorful 3D maze which was mapped-out at random when the game was turned on. The objective? Dodge monsters that resembled Pac-Man with rabies! Other third-party games included underdog classics like Montezuma's Revenge, movie tie-ins like Empire Strikes Back, and numerous first attempts at arcade game translations.

Third parties also provided amusing add-ons. One of them was The Supercharger by Arcadia, whose audio cord connected to any tape recorder, with games sold on audio tapes. This allowed each level of the game loaded one at a time; any game level could be as large as one whole reusable game cartridge, with other levels loaded later. Some unique games were released for the unit, including the RPG Dragonstomper, the underdog classic, Communist Mutants From Space, and the impressive maze game, Escape from the Mindmaster.

Atari's own games were not always shabby, either. Ask any Atari fan to list their favorite 2600 games and Yar's Revenge is sure to be near the top. While not graphics-intense, their "Haunted House" was still rather inspired; in it, you were only a pair of eyeballs, in the dark, dodging various bats and ghouls in a darkened maze of rooms.

There were intriguing sales gimmicks as well. An alliance with DC comics spawned a mini-comic book series, "Atari Force," with each issue included in separate Atari game releases (issues 2-4 were included in Berserk, Star Raiders, and Phoenix, respectively). Similar comic book introductions to games were included in Yar's Revenge and EarthQuest.

All was not a cyber bed of roses; among so many titles were a few really, truly bad games. E.T. was one of the first movie-turned-game licenses, and is rarely left out of any list of worst classic video games. Then there was Swordquest, a game/contest consisting of perplexing, obscure video game puzzles that were supposed to be solved for actual golden chalices and crowns. As pretty as the prizes were, they were out of place in a video game player's world. They also cost Atari a lot of money, with very little to show for it. The intended four-part Swordquest game contest wasn't even finished, showing how much of a bust the plan truly was. If they had only spent as much effort creating decent games...

Even the goliathan sales of this premiere multi-game console could not save it from the video game world's economic crash in 1984. On the other hand, nostalgia often kept it attached to a house's oldest tv set for a few more years. Meanwhile, Atari constantly attempted to re-sell the system until as late as 1989, with a "The Fun Is Back" sales pitch and a $50 price tag. However, the people who felt nostalgic about the system felt so because of the systems they already owned. The "brand new" system choice, as of 1989, was arguably the NES.

Atari released a few other systems during later 2600 days, including the 5200 ("twice the power of the 2600!") and 7800 ("three times...!"). However, the popularity of these systems was minor, possibly due to their release so close to the '84 crash. Through it all, though, the 2600 will always leave a fond memory in the minds of any 30-something game fan; the multi-game system whose infamous reputation started it all...

"...Even the goliathan sales of this premiere multi-game console could not save it from the video game world's economic crash in 1984. On the other hand, nostalgia often kept it attached to a house's oldest TV set for a few more years."