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!
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.
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!
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!
Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.
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.
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.
Our exploration of Atari Flashback Classics continues with Sea Battle, a game originally intended for release on the Atari 2600 in the early ’80s, but which never saw the light of day until 2000.
Sea Battle, like many of the other M Network releases for the 2600, is a port of an Intellivision game, but by the time it was due for release the marketing people decided that a strategic game for two players only based around naval combat wasn’t the most marketable thing in the world, so they shelved it.
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!
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.
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!
