Atari 2600

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

We went from an Atari Super Pong to the Intellivision, so I missed out on the Atari whne it was current.
My cousin had one that we'd play a little. Back in "93 I picked one up from a garage sale with 20 games for $10.
My friend and I got hooked on hockey, river raid, and frogs and flies. Played some Demon Attack, but being that i grew my teeth playing the Intelli version, i thought the 2600 version blew.

[K3V]

The crazy thing is that the pictures of the games above take up more space than the games themselves.

That's pretty funny, I never thought about it like that.

[Wildkat]

We went from an Atari Super Pong to the Intellivision, so I missed out on the Atari whne it was current.
My cousin had one that we'd play a little. Back in "93 I picked one up from a garage sale with 20 games for $10.
My friend and I got hooked on hockey, river raid, and frogs and flies. Played some Demon Attack, but being that i grew my teeth playing the Intelli version, i thought the 2600 version blew.

I forgot about frogs and flies....2 player awesomeness.

I remember after the crash buying loads and loads of carts from Zayre department store (now defunct) for $.99 each. Some real gems in there too, Pressure Cooker, Star Radiers, astroblast....

[Vasteel]

I still maintain that Spider Fighter is the best shooter on the system.

I concur. Spider Fighter is the shit.

For some reason I also remember the Masters of the Universe game being one of my favorites- was it really dope, or was it just my fanboism as a wee lad?

[NeoZeedeater]

For some reason I also remember the Masters of the Universe game being one of my favorites- was it really dope, or was it just my fanboism as a wee lad?

It's not one of my favourites but I like it. I prefer the Intellivision version though.

[RoleTroll]

The Atari 2600 2 "console" is pretty nice. I always loved Adventure, and Adventure 2 is a blast.

[GameGandalf]

agreed, dragonfire, berzerk, dig dug, qbert and frogs and flies were major addictions for me.

well yeah that was the point, you played atari at home for a fix, but the arcades were where you got the heavy "drugs". thats why us old farts miss arcades so much, they were where you went for the good stuff.

NO DOUBT. Man, I LOVED Frogs n Flies. FreeWay, EggoMania, Air Sea Battle. I dont even remember most of the games we had. Anyone play Journey? Yes, it was a game about the (quite good, especially for the time) 80s band Journey. TeleStar was my 1st system. Didnt even have controllers - two paddle knobs on the unit itself. No Carts either, just a selector switch to play 4 different kinds of Pong - Hockey, Tennis, Jai-Lai, and Wall Ball. Wall Ball being the only mandatory solo game. O yeah, and a selector switch for the difficulty, which really meant the speed went up and the computer never missed.
The greatest thing in the world when I was a kid was going to the boardwalk to go to the arcades. I didnt give a shit about anything else at the boardwalk.

[PKBMax]

Some of the games already mentioned prove the worth of the 2600:

Raiders of the Lost Ark really is a groundbreaking adventure game. Cosmic Ark is just endless shooting/collecting fun. Haunted House and Mountain King hilight early use of simulated lighting effects. Yars Revenge is one of my favorite shooters ever, and Warlords is unquestionably one of the best multi-player games ever made.

The 2600 also had some really unique titles. Can you name another system that has hide-and-go-seek simulator? In Hide 'n Seek, one player hides -- under the bed, in the closet etc. -- and the other player tries to find him, within a time limit.

Some 2600 games I really like but haven't seen mentioned --

Moonsweeper -- A kick-ass shooter where you fly amongst planets, in the midst of a meteor storm, and land to rescue humans. Each planet's difficulty can be judged from space by it's color. After rescuing the required amount of humans, you have to flying through the series of gates to gain enough speed to leave the planet's atmosphere.

Alien -- A fun Pac-Man clone in which you use a flamethrower to briefly defend yourself. Cool bonus stages.

Solar Fox -- Addicting as hell, frantic, item collection game.

M.A.S.H. -- A collection of fun mini-games, including a brilliant little surgery simulator.

Star Wars: The Arcade Game -- Just a kick-ass port of an all-time classic.

Armor Ambush -- Combat on steroids, featuing terrain that alters driving speed and strategic multi-tank gameplay.

Reactor -- Destroy enemies without getting sucked into the core of a nuclear reactor. Addicting.

Phoenix -- Just a great port.

Blueprint -- Fun memory-based game that has you searching a town to put together a contraption.

Montezuma's Revenge -- Just a shell of the C-64 version, but still good fun.

Seaquest -- A brilliant sub-shooter. Rescue divers, return to the surface to get air...

Stargate -- Awesome port, but required use of two controllers simultaneously.

Adventures of Tron -- Fun multi-level platform/action game.

[GameGandalf]

MOON PATROL!!! That game was the shit.

[RoleTroll]

Can you name another system that has hide-and-go-seek simulator? In Hide 'n Seek, one player hides -- under the bed, in the closet etc. -- and the other player tries to find him, within a time limit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney's_Hide_and_Seek

http://digg.com/gaming/NEW_Nintendo_...Hide,_you_Seek.