DamonicFury

Fire Fighter: After programming Breakout and Asteroids for Atari, Brad Stewart created Fire Fighter for Imagic. The game places you in the role of a fireman attempting to save someone from a burning building. The goal is simply to achive the rescue in the minimum amount of time (7 seconds is the world record.) Games tend to be very short, although variation 9 allows the player to rescue 8 victims in a row from increasingly taller buildings. Like most Imagic games, Fighter has good graphics, but the gameplay is unlikely to engage most players for very long. Trick Shot: Trick Shot was released alongside of Demon Attack and Star Voyager as Imagic's first three games. The game is the only pool simulation available in the 2600's library, but it does it's job quite well. It is limited by the 2600's limitations to having only three balls and a cue ball on screen at once. There are three modes available: Trickshot, Pool, and English Billiards. Trick Shot was programmed by Dennis Koble, who went on to write Atlantis, Solar Storm, and Shooting Gallery.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back This is the first Star Wars video game created on any platform. It is set during the battle on Hoth, which the player taking the role of Luke Skywalker as he fights the Imperial Walkers in his snowspeeder. The Walkers can be destroyed by either hitting them with your blasters 50 times, or by hitting a "bomb hatch" which appears on the Walker's body from time to time. The game is fun, fast-paced, and has a larger number of variations for customizing the difficulty to the player's taste. It was released alongside of Frogger as Parker Brother's first two releases for the 2600. The game was programmed by Rex Bradford, who went on to program Star Wars: Jedi Arena and the unreleased Kabobber for Activision. Star Wars: Jedi Arena This second Star Wars game by Rex Bradford and Parker Brothers is somewhat weaker than their first release, The Empire Strikes Back. Loosely based on the scene in the first movie where Luke Skywalker is practicing his lightsaber using a laser-firing remote, this game imagines an arena in which two lightsaber-wielding opponents face off with the remote floating in between them. Both players are surrouneded by a sheild that must be penetrated piece by piece using shots from the remote. The paddles are used for controlling your lightsaber as well as the angle of shots fired by the remote at your opponent. As both the concept and the graphics are somewhat abstract, and the gameplay isn't all that exciting, Jedi Arena is one of the weaker Parker Brothers 2600 titles. Frogger Frogger was one of the best-selling games of the 2600's library. It was based on the Sega arcade game and was one of the first two titles released by Parker Brothers, along with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Programmer Ed English (who later whent on to port Mr. Do and Roc N Rope for Coleco) did an excellent job of re-creating the gameplay of the original arcade game on the 2600, although the graphics were necessarily less accurate. Starpath later created a second, more arcade-like 2600 version of this game for use with their Supercharger add-on product, which was legal as they sold their games on cassettes instead of cartridges.

Cosmic Commuter Programmed by John Van Ryzin before H.E.R.O, but released a year afterwards. It's a fun, fast-paced shoot-em-up in which you dodge or shoot obstacles, pick up passengers, and try to avoid running out of fuel. It was released in 1985, a year after the Great Videogame Crash, and is one of the rarer Activision games for that reason. The cartridge features a simple blue and white label that is quite different from that of any other Activision game. Seaquest This is an excellent shoot-em-up from Steve Cartwright, who programmed numerous Activision classics such as Frostbite and Megamania. In it, you control a yellow submarine who must find us numerous waves of sharks and enemy subs, all while trying to rescue friendly divers. It has excellent graphics for a 2600 game, and it's also noteworthy for it's very satisfying sound effects. Like many of the best 2600 games, it starts slowly and ramps up to become quite frantic in it's later waves. H.E.R.O. Considered by many to be one of the finest games for the 2600, H.E.R.O. was released in 1984, the year of the Great Videogame Crash. For that reason, it wasn't able to reach the same large audience as that of Activision's earlier masterpieces. The gameplay involves guiding R. Hero through caverns filled with flying critters, tentacles, moving walls, and other dangers. He's equipped with a jetpack, laser beam, and a limited supply of dyanmite, all of which will be needed to negotiate a path to his ultimate goal, the trapped miners. Control is perfect, the concept is quite unique, and the gameplay is highly addictive. The game was programmed by John Van Ryzin, who also programmed Cosmic Commuter for Activision.

Fathom Another great game from Rub Fulop, programmer of Night Driver, Missile Command, Demon Attack, and Cosmic Ark. Unlike his previous hits, this one is a slower-paced adventure game, in which the player alternates between playing as a dolphin and a seagull. The goal is to swim and fly through multiple screens, searching for starfish that will give you a piece of Neptune's trident. Once the trident is assembled, you can release Neptune's mermaid daughter from her prison at the bottom of the sea. The game is colorful and fun, but can become frustrating in it's later levels. Shootin' Gallery This rare Imagic game is quite similar to the arcade game, Carnival. Both games represent an old fashioned shooting gallery in which conserving bullets and careful selection of targets is key to getting a high score. It was programmed by one of Imagic's veterans, Dennis Koble, who also wrote Atlantis, Trick Shot, and Solar Storm. This game should not be confused with the Atari Corp. prototype Shooting Gallery (which uses the XE Light Gun.)

Here's my personal list: 77: Combat 78: Breakout 79: Superman 80: Adventure 81: Kaboom! 82: River Raid 83: Keystone Kapers 84: H.E.R.O.

Here's a list of the 77-81 games, which may not be perfect, but should be pretty close. 1977: Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Blackjack, Combat, Indy 500, Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround, Video Olympics 1978: Basketball, Brain Games, Breakout, Codebreaker, Flag Capture, Hangman, Home Run, Hunt & Score, Outlaw, Slot Racers, Space War 1979: Backgammon, Basic Programming, Bowling, Canyon Bomber, Casino, Football, Home Run, Human Cannonball, Sky Diver, Slot Machine, Superman, Video Chess 1980: 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe, Adventure, Boxing (Activision), Championship Soccer, Checkers (Activision), Circus Atari, Dragster (Activision), Dodge 'Em, Fishing Derby (Activision), Golf, Maze Craze, Night Driver, Othello, Space Invaders, Video Checkers 1981: Asteroids, Bridge (Activision), Freeway (Activision), Laser Blast (Activision), Lochjaw (Apollo), Lost Luggage (Apollo), Kaboom (Activision), Missile Command, Racquetball (Apollo), Skeet Shoot (Apollo), SpaceChase (Aplollo), Space Cavern (Apollo), Skiing (Activision), Tennis (Activision), Video Pinball, Warlords

To answer my own question, after playing with it some more, it seems the options make the game a bit harder (game 1=easier game 4=hardest) by doing things like reducing the number of balls and shortening the paddle. Interestingly, before cleaning it up, the onscreen paddle wasn't jittery like it would be on a 2600 with a dirty paddle, but instead was 'fuzzy'... the paddle looked like it was disintegrating on-screen when you tried to move it.

I just picked up a Video Pinball Atari until at a yard sale this weekend. It's a cool bit of pre-2600 gaming goodness. :-) There seems to be the ability to select one of four options for each of the games on the console. Does anyone have the list of what these options do?

How about a Kangaroo Black? That blue background really makes the game uglier than it needs to be.

With my heavy-sixer, it takes a LOT of force to get Atari red-label (such as Solaris and Gravitar) carts in. I've found a nice solution however... the select-a-cart add-ons like the Video Game Brain Admittedly, it's easier to use a different style of Atari 2600 (or 7800), but if you REALLY want to play red label carts on your heavy sixer, this is probably the best way to do it.

Anyone know anything about this "Gamekey Compatible" version that's coming soon? Amazon link to Wireless Gamekey Compatible Ms. Pacman

I've always loved their Falcon label for Star Voyager (as you can see from my long-standing avatar)... didn't know they'd done something similar for Subterranea! I also didn't know they had a picture-label version of Subterranea... glad I'm not a label-variant collector!!

Yep, it's been done... Alien Pac Hack

Wow... that box!!! That wonderfully retro box! :-) And those joysticks! Lunar Lander!! Sure looks like Infogrammes is out to make things right this time. :-)

An emulator wouldn't help all that much as the ROM's for these games haven't been been released. I, too, am interested in these games, but will have to wait until I can save a bit more $. Just from reading these boards, I've heard good things about Alia Quest, mixed reviews on the rest.

With many, many thanks to Dennis Debro for his Kaboom! disassembly, Kirk Israel for his 2600 programming tutorial, and Edwin Blink for his Bit Hacker tool, I present a small hack of Kaboom! Just two small differences: 1. You never lose buckets when you miss a bomb, although the levels increment and decrement normally. 2. The Activision logo has been replaced with the word "Cheater!" This was something I'd wanted for years, as I love Kaboom, but get frustrated when I screw up at it and have to restart. Now I can practice as long as I like! Hope someone else finds this useful! Note: If you want to use this game in Z26, don't forget to enable the paddles. (z26 -m0) Thanks again to Dennis for pointing this out to me! kaboomhk.zip

I recently found a game called "Super Pitfall" for the NES at a thrift store. I had no idea such a thing even existed at the time. Turns out the thing is kind of a mutant cross between Pitfall II and Super Mario Brothers. (Pitfall Harry looks A LOT like Luigi! And they gave him a gun for some unexplainable reason.) After searching around the Internet, I've found the game is regarded as a true abomination by most Pitfall fans, but I've found it to be somewhat enjoyable, if not anywhere near as good as the original games.

Oh, it definetly got a US release. I picked one up in a KB Toy store in the early 90's, as I REALLY wanted to see how Xenophone translated to the 2600. It's fairly rare though (a 7 out of 10) on AtariAge's scale).

For me personally, and with no disrespect intended to 5200 fans, the Atari 8-bit is a better choice. It has a much larger library of software, and standard 2600-style controllers. And it's a pretty simple matter to hook it up to your PC (with a SIO2PC cable) and be able to instantly sample any 8-bit/5200 game of your choice. As a collector, I can understand why some might prefer the 5200 (the labels, the more limited library of software, nostalgica), but as a gamer, the Atari 8-bit computer is my clear choice.

My vote for best-looking 2600 games is Keystone Kapers. Not only is it hard to believe it's a 2600 game, it's even harder to beleive it was written by the same guy who did the hard-to-look-at Coleco Donkey Kong port!

On my 800XL, this game just requires a press of the START key or the joystick button.

I gave this some thought, but decided a simple signature was enough for me. I'm very much looking forward to reading the detailed history of the invention of the first home video game console. :-)

Just curious... was the final version of the Saboteur ROM ever released? (Other than in the short-lived, ill-fated AtariAge reproduction.)

Of the classic era systems, here's the 3 that just aren't worth it for me: (Apologies to fans of the below systems - this is just my personal opinion) Colecovision: I had this for years and eventually sold it (at a nice profit) on Ebay. The controllers are pretty awful and getting carts to work on it was nearly as bad as an NES. It does have some nice games that are exclusive to the system, but overall I just couldn't justify keeping it. Atari 5200: Ever since I first saw this sytem in action is 1982, I could never understand why someone would prefer this to an Atari computer. Atari computers are so much more expandable, play almost all the same games, and don't require the use of an awful, non-centering, easily broken controller. Had Atari simply marketed the Atari 400 as the state-of-the-art game machine that it was, I imagine it would have ruled the market for a long, long time. Intellivision: Once again, it's all about the terrible controllers! Intellivision seemed to be competitive against the 2600 in it's early days when it's sports games were clearly superior to the early Atari sports games. But as progammers learned to squeeze more and more out of the 2600, it seemed that the Inty hardware just couldn't deliver the same fast-paced gameplay that the Atari system could, despite the best efforts of it's programmers. Like with the Coleco, there are some nice games for it, but many of it's best were ported sucessfully to the 2600, and their are very common, inexpensive emulations available these days for most of the rest of it's library.

Star Voyager is a long time personal favorite (as you might be able to tell from my avatar - love that Star Wars-inspired box art!) No, it doesn't have the depth of Starmaster or Phaser Patrol, but it does offer a very nice arcade style shoot-em-up. Like it's modern homebrew "cousin" Star Fire, it allows you to enjoy some outer space action without all that fussing around with starbases and power management. For me, I enjoy using the lasers for the first few rounds, but to succeed at the higher levels, it was always necessary for me to switch to missiles.