Atari 2600 games from the 70s

[Ransom]

And now, my pithy comments on each of the 70s-era Atari VCS games:

 

1977

Air-Sea Battle - A fun game, with lots of variations. Most are two-player, but any can be played one player and there are variations where the computer plays along...just firing steadily, but it's competition.

Basic Math - Not really fun, but an admirable first effort at creating an educational title on the little VCS.

Blackjack - Buy Casino instead.

Combat - Lots of fun, but for two players.

Indy 500 - Very fun, and even more fun with two players. It can be a crack-up to play some variations.

Star Ship - Yawn. Get Star Raiders or one of its clones instead.

Street Racer - This one is minimally fun. The streets are really narrow and you can't see far ahead, so it can be quite a challenge.

Surround - Yawn. Get an Intellivision and Snafu! instead.

Video Olympics - Pongmania! If you like pong, then this is your game. Fun for two players. Computer opponent is easy to beat.

 

1978 (Early)

Basketball - Tons of fun!

Breakout - Fun.

Codebreaker - Um. If you like guessing numbers, this can be fun.

Football - Not really my thing. It's not really football, and it's not really fun to me.

Hangman - I like this one. Surprisingly challenging with a time limit and the high school vocabulary.

Home Run - Not fun. Get a different baseball game.

Hunt & Score (AKA Concentration) - Fun to play for a few minutes now and then.

Outlaw - Fun for a few minutes now and then.

Space War - Few for a few minutes now and then.

 

1978 (Late)

Brain Games - A repeat-the-sound-pattern game like Simon or Touch Me. Fun once in a while.

Flag Capture - Fun once in a while.

Slot Racers - Fun once in a while.

 

1979

Backgammon - If you have no alternative for playing this game, it's OK.

Basic Programming - Yawn.

Bowling - Fun!

Canyon Bomber - Fun once in a while. More fun with an opponent.

Casino - Decent implementations of blackjack and poker. Fun.

Human Cannonball - I like this one. Some of the variations are interesting.

Miniature Golf - Fun for a few minutes every once in a while.

Sky Diver - This one's fun. As mentioned previously, game 5 is a lot of fun with two players.

Slot Machine - Yawn.

Superman - I never got into it. YMMV.

Video Chess - It's known to cheat, so probably not the best one to play. Plus, on the higher difficulty settings, it can take all night to make one move.

[Ransom]

I'm on a roll (someone stop me!):

 

1980 (Early)

3D Tic-Tac-Toe - A fun game, actually!

Adventure - One of my favorite games.

Circus Atari - Tons of fun.

Golf - Yawn.

Night Driver - Tons of fun.

Space Invaders - What's not to love?

 

1980 (Late)

Championship Soccer - Bleh.

Dodge 'Em - Very fun and very challenging.

Maze Craze - Some variations are fun. More fun with two players.

Video Checkers - If you have no other alternative for playing checkers, this one's OK. But the Activision one's interface and graphics are better.

 

1981 (1)

Asteroids - Second only to 7800 Asteroids in my mind. Be careful about selecting the game number and difficulty though. Many variations are pretty easy.

Othello - I love this game.

Video Pinball - I love this one, too! Good sounds, and fun controls.

Warlords - Tons of fun, especially with one, two, or three opponents!

 

1981 (2)

Missile Command - Pretty good. Worth playing once in a while even if you have one of the later ones, such as the excellent one for the 5200 (with trak-ball of course).

 

1981 (3)

(No new games)

 

1981 (4)

Defender - An abomination.

Haunted House - Fun, but disappointing for those of us who were hoping for something more Adventure-like.

Pac-Man - It's fun enough, but it's pretty flawed.

Super Breakout - Nice variations on an old fave.

Yars' Revenge - A great game.

 

1982

Berzerk - This is still my favorite port of this game.

Demons to Diamonds - OK once in a while, and best in 2-player mode.

Math Gran Prix - A better attempt at an educational game. But it's an educational game, so not so much fun.

Star Raiders - An interesting port, but if you have the A8 or 5200 versions, why bother?