Sky Diver for Atari 2600 is a conversion of the arcade game of the same name, originally developed by Owen Rubin and brought home by Jim Huether.
In typical Atari 2600 arcade conversion tradition, the home version offers a variety of different ways to play — including challenging modes with moving platforms, as well as a “Chicken” mode where only the first player to land gets the points!
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It’s always interesting to explore games that have had a lousy critical reception over the years, because you can look on it as a challenge to “find the good” in what the game is offering.
Such was the case with Sentinel, a light-gun shooter for Atari 2600 that has had a somewhat frosty reception over the years. After a bit of getting used to the twitchy analogue controls in Atari Flashback Classics, however, I actually found this to be a surprisingly enjoyable game.
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
The fact that the Atari 2600 was still alive and kicking at the end of the 1980s is nothing short of astonishing… and the ambition of some developers at the time was admirable.
Secret Quest, a very late release for the platform, was an attempt to provide an action-adventure experience similar to Nintendo’s classic The Legend of Zelda on the 2600. Far from being a straight clone, however, it actually ends up being an interesting and enjoyable game in its own right.
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
Back in the early ’90s, people were just getting to grips with falling block puzzlers such as Tetris and its numerous imitators.
Which makes it quite a shame that Save Mary, an interesting and original twist on the formula, never made it to release back in the day — because it’s a really fun puzzler. Still, at least we can enjoy it today as part of Atari Flashback Classics!
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
Howard Scott Warshaw is a legendary name in video games — not always for the reasons he might have hoped, thanks to his involvement in the notorious E.T. for Atari 2600.
One of his games that never got released was Saboteur, an interesting multi-phase game that acted as something of a spin-off to Yars’ Revenge. The reason it never got released? Atari wanted to turn it into a game based on The A-Team, then got cold feet at the last minute, so it languished in obscurity until it was recovered for collections like Atari Flashback Classics.
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
One of the cool things about the classic gaming scene is that there are always people out there keen to try and built on old favourites.
Return to Haunted House, for example, not only acts as a follow-up to the classic Haunted House, but also builds on the delightful Adventure to provide a rather different experience for those looking for some spooky fun!
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
This is it at last — the final RealSports game in Atari Flashback Classics! After this, we can move on to something else. (There are still a few more sports games ahead of us, mind you!)
In the grand scheme of things, RealSports Volleyball for Atari 2600 isn’t a bad game. It’s pretty simple and arguably a bit too ambitious for what the 2600 was really capable of, but once you get your head around how its mechanics work, there’s potential for some solid two-player fun here — or an occasional test of your skills against the computer.
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
Classic Atari 2600 game Yars’ Revenge never got an official conversion to Atari 8-bit, sadly.
That doesn’t mean people haven’t done their best to make their own, however! Today we have one such example, where a brave AtariAge denizen decided to take on the challenge of programming their own original take on Yars’ Revenge, entirely from scratch and, in true 2600 tradition, squeezed into just 4K.
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
We’re closing in on the home straight of the RealSports collection in Atari Flashback Classics! Only two more to go after this one!
RealSports Tennis for Atari 2600 is a fun game for one or two players that… doesn’t really offer much of a realistic game of tennis, but does provide a rather prettier take on the Pong format, with a couple of interesting twists. It’s simple and straightforward, but it’s also speedy and fun — particularly with a friend.
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!
One of the nice things about modern, curated compilations of games from old platforms is that they provide an opportunity for “lost” classics to finally get an audience.
In many cases, “lost” classics were completed and reached a full prototype phase, but just never ended up getting duplicated and distributed to the public. Sometimes this is understandable; at other times, it’s a bit of a mystery.
Aquaventure for Atari 2600, which you can play not only in Atari Flashback Classics but also as part of the Atari Collection 1 cartridge on Evercade, definitely falls into the latter category. This game is good, so why didn’t it get released?
Continue reading Aquaventure: The Game That Deserved a Release
