Tag Archives: Atari 2600

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Street Racer

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A lot of people think of the concept of “street racing” as a relatively recent thing, though that’s only really looking at the modern type.

In fact, it’s pretty much been a thing for as long as cars have been around, as the ancient old bangers on the front cover of 1977’s Street Racer for Atari 2600 will attest. So here we have a video game for up to four players about the concept — though this being 1977, the format of “the racing game” hadn’t quite been nailed just yet…

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Stellar Track

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One of the oldest video games out there is the old “Star Trek” game that people used to play on mainframe computers. Like many other mainframe games, this was ported to home systems in various forms over the years.

One of the most surprising ports of this game came in the form of Stellar Track for the Atari 2600, a surprisingly impressive and full-featured version for a platform not best known for its text-based games. And if you enjoy boring people with retro game trivia at parties as much as I do, you can also tell them that this was one of just three 2600 games that was exclusively sold at Sears through their Tele-Games label.

(Just kidding. I don’t go to parties.)

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Star Strike

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Mattel’s M Network label was set up so that Mattel, makers of the Intellivision, could have a piece of the Atari pie while also working on their own console.

Star Strike, released through the programme, is a port of one of the Intellivision’s most successful games; the original version sold around 800,000 copies in a single year, which is a huge amount for the time. Sadly, the 2600 version is… well, let’s just say it’s not quite as good as the source material.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Star Ship

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Before Star Raiders, there was Star Ship. And it’s… umm… not quite as good.

That said, when you consider this came out in 1977 — a time when no-one really knew what a “video game” was, let alone what a “first-person perspective space combat simulator” might look like — then they didn’t do all that bad of a job considering the limitations of the hardware.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Star Raiders

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Star Raiders is one of my favourite games of all time, and with good reason — it is one of the greatest games of all time. At least it is in its Atari 8-bit incarnation, where it was quickly regarded as the platform’s “killer app”, despite its early release.

Star Raiders for the Atari 2600, meanwhile… hmm. Well, they tried — though, judging by the masterpiece that is Solaris, developed by the creator of the original Star Raiders on home computers, they could have perhaps tried a bit harder. Stick to that original and best version, I’d say!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Sprint Master

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The term “racing game” these days is usually applied to games that unfold from a three-dimensional (or at least quasi-3D) perspective. But back in the ’80s, there were a bunch of fun top-down racers.

Sprint Master for Atari 2600 was a solid adaptation of the format that may or may not have been a conversion of Atari Games’ Super Sprint. The reason why this isn’t quite clear is because Atari Corporation (who released 2600 games) and Atari Games (who released Super Sprint) were, at this point, two separate entities with loose connections rather than simply two divisions of the same company!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Space War

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Continuing a proud tradition of Atari 2600 games with the word “Space” in the title, here’s Space War from Atari Flashback Classics.

This is actually kind of noteworthy for an important reason: it’s a conversion of one of the first ever video games, albeit many years after said video game made its first appearance in the ’60s. There’s fun to be had for two players; you may want to give the single-player offering a miss, though!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Space Attack

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We’ve got another of Mattel’s “M Network” releases today, in which the company ported some of its successful Intellivision games to Atari 2600, usually in slightly simplified form.

Space Attack is a port of a game simply called Space Battle on the Intellivision, and it’s an interesting little game that incorporates very lightweight real-time strategy elements with arcade-style blasting action. It’s woefully limited in terms of longevity and replay value, sadly, but it’s worth a blast or two at least if you’ve never tried it!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Slot Racers

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Slot Racers is a game for Atari 2600 that has nothing to do with either slot cars or racing.

Instead, it’s a top-down, maze-based, vehicle-centric deathmatch game with some interesting mechanics and the bendiest cars you ever did see. It’s a fun time, though some might argue it drags on a little longer than it is welcome to.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Slot Machine

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Game developer David Crane is best-known today for his highly influential work Pitfall!, which helped define the concept of the platform game.

That’s not all he worked on back in the early days of video games, however; he also brought us Slot Machine, one of the most pointless wastes of time that the Atari 2600 had to offer — although it does at least have some nice smooth scrolling!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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