Atari 2600

[James]

First-hand account speaking here. The 2600 games were less than their arcade counterparts. Sorry, I was there and gaming at the time.

I'll grant that games like Adventure were tempting, but there weren't really enough of them. Plus I was something like 10 at the time.

James

[Agent X]

First-hand account speaking here. The 2600 games were less than their arcade counterparts. Sorry, I was there and gaming at the time.

I didn't doubt you were there, and I too was also gaming at the time.

My comment on a few 2600 games being "arcade quality" were in regard to the early titles of 1977-1978, which usually matched or bettered their arcade counterparts in the way PS2 and X-Box games do today.

After a couple years, when arcade technology improved to the point where there was a sizeable gap between the arcade machines and the 2600's abilities, the focus shifted on improving the gameplay. Even though the 2600 games didn't look exactly like the arcade games, they often played very well, and (due to the inclusion of multiple modes or gameplay options which were not available in the arcade games) sometimes turned out better than the arcade versions (or versions on other consoles) despite the lower-quality graphics. Yes, that's an opinion, but you'd really have to play some of these 2600 games to understand where I'm coming from. With that in mind, I have to disagree with your blanket statement that 2600 games were "less" than their arcade counterparts.

I'll grant that games like Adventure were tempting, but there weren't really enough of them. Plus I was something like 10 at the time.

Well, you can get caught up on great 2600 games now!

I recommend you look at the 2600 games offered by Activision or Imagic if you want some of the better original titles. Those companies were upstarts that didn't have the benefit of a back catalog of arcade titles, or lots of money to spend on licensing games from other companies, so they created their own hits from scratch. Since they were founded by and employed a lot of experienced ex-Atari programmers, they had a great handle on the hardware compared to most other third-party game companies, so many of their games were colorful and appealing to look at.

[Cheebs]

I have fond memories of Haunted House, Stampede, River Raid, Kaboom, and many others....


But Combat and Yar's Revenge rule all, even to this day.

[Joust Williams]

Kaboom is still awesome, River Raid is kind of cool...that shooter in the first post looks fun actually. XBLA port pls

[Vasteel]

Demon Attack.

TOUGH!

[CRV]

Some of the "2600 Jr." era games were interesting.

Solaris Which has been mentioned

Radar Lock Solaris in the earth's atmosphere

Dark Chambers A less-hectic Gauntlet. Had aunts that liked it.

Sprintmaster The 2600 version of Super Sprint

BMX AirMaster

California Games Neat title screen, anyway

Fatal Run Roadblasters-esque (well, kinda) PAL-only release with some nice music

Crossbow
Skateboardin'
Road Runner

[AaronChance]

Spider Fighter and Yars were two games I was completely addicted to as a kid. I put some crazy hours into both of them, so even though it's been a long time since I still remember the screens like they're burned into my retinas or something.

...hmm, probably not a good thing.

[Blaster]

I own a few 2600 consoles, with over 200 games, and I still play the thing. Not as often as I once did, it certainly loses its luster, but damn the 2600 is still Hot.

4-player Warlords could very well still be the best multiplayer game ever.

I also still like:
Dragonfire
Popeye
Commando Raid
Indy 500
Barnstorming
Circus Atari

...and believe it or not the 2600 can play a mean game of Othello.

[Bacon McShig]

So what's the story with Pac-man 2600 using dashes instead of dots?

[epmode]

Probably has to do with sprite limitations on whatever graphic mode they were using. Or something.