The 2600 Unique NTSC Games List

[Great Hierophant]

After one false start, I have finally compiled a list of all unique NTSC games released during the Atari's official lifetime, 1977-1990. Every game and application released by a company operating during that time should be on that list. The release may be an extremely small or local one, but the release was more than a prototype. No prototypes are on this list, no PAL exclusive games, no games only later reproduced. I have grudingly included pirate companies, like Zellers and maybe Panda and Froggo on the list for now.

atari.zip

[sku_u]

That's a pretty comprehesive list.

 

Some titles that were released in NTSC format not on there that I noticed:

 

Puzzy

 

Phantom Tank

Sea Monster

Space Tunnel

 

Quelle

 

Lily Adventure

 

I can confirm Sea Monster and Lily Adventure because I have both.

[Mindfield]

Puzzy I believe released in both Europe and Canada, so I think their games all have NTSC counterparts. (Canadian Puzzy releases seem to have bilingual French/English labels)

[dykesr]

awsome thanks for the list

 

RD

[ATARIPITBULL]

Nice work!

 

[Great Hierophant]

The bad thing about Atari is that they rarely documented their releases well. They had no control over third parties, hindering accurate record keeping. Nintendo, by contrast, not only puts an accurate PDF list on their website but also includes the month and year of release for all games for their old systems. At that point the only real work is discovering who was responsible for what software, i.e. developer is different from publisher.

 

Another issue is that I have included many games that may have been released to some segement of the public, but they were produced in such limited quantities, for so short a time, were geographically restricted or had to be sent away for. Just because the game in a cartridge and runs on North American TVs does not mean it made any impact during its time.

 

I thought that Quelle and Puzzy were unremarkable pirate companies, but if those games are unreleased by another company then they deserve a berth on the list. I should pare down the list, removing releases and pirate releases of games.

[Marco]

Great list!

 

On a sidenote, I don't think that 'Quelle' made any NTSC games, as it's a German store. I see two options: (1) some S-American pirate company just copied the Quelle look or (2) Quelle by 'accident' included an NTSC game in their collection.

 

Cheers,

Marco

[Spirantho]

On a sidenote, I don't think that 'Quelle' made any NTSC games, as it's a German store. I see two options: (1) some S-American pirate company just copied the Quelle look or (2) Quelle by 'accident' included an NTSC game in their collection.

 

I agree, but I think it's even simpler than that.

 

I see a few main types of pirate carts:

"Zellers" type - the scarcest of the common types, they often contain horrendous spelling mistakes like "Peetfal".

"Quelle" type - these I think are the second scarcest, stuff like Mr. T only seems to exist in this type.

Sanserif type (as I call it) - these are just a label with the name in a Sanserif font on the front and end, and a picture. This is the normal kind of label for things like Winterjagd and other German releases.

 

There are other types but they are the most common.

 

I think simply what happened is that each of these label types were made by a particular pirate company, and where we refer to them as a "Zellers" type, we're merely referring to one example of a store that sells them. I've got a number of PAL "Zellers" types which have never seen the Atlantic let alone crossed it to Canada, I reckon, so they must have nothing to do with Zellers. Equally, there are "Quelle" type carts in the US where there are no Quelle carts.

 

In other words, Quelle and Zellers never made the carts, they just happened to be one of a number of outlets around the world, albeit probably one of the biggest.

[shining slade]

I see that you listed Lochjaw as the later release. Wasn't that the first release? I think Shark Attack was the later release because of licensing problems with Lochjaw.

[Marco]

In other words, Quelle and Zellers never made the carts, they just happened to be one of a number of outlets around the world, albeit probably one of the biggest.

 

It's a fact they didn't produce the games themselves, but we tend to list Sears as a producer also. Sears, Quelle, Zellers, Marpes, all big retail chains that sold Atari games under their own label. Whereas Sears obviously was a legit distributor, the status of the others is unknown and at least questionable.

 

We talked about Quelle on many occasions on this board. It really is a complex brand: the Quelle stores not only sold 'Quelle' games (as noted on the box, the label/case makes no mention of the Quelle source (sic)), but also other kinds of pirates (like the Double Game Packages) and also official brands, like Atari and Parker Brothers. So, what to call Quelle and what not?

 

I choose to only label the 65 or so Quelle games that can be distinguished as coming from Quelle by the box. The rest goes into the broad bin of 'Taiwanese pirates'.

 

Cheers,

Marco

[Great Hierophant]

I see that you listed Lochjaw as the later release. Wasn't that the first release?  I think Shark Attack was the later release because of licensing problems with Lochjaw.

 

You are right, I misread the description on its page. I will change the list.

 

The new list adds information and removes information. I removed all "Later Releases" unless the title of the later release is different. Later releases are virtually the same game (copyright changes). The game is listed under the company who released it first. If that is not known, then the company whose cartridge is more common. I added numbers of games release by each company and came up with 407 games. I removed things like Diagnostic Cartridges and copy carts because they are not games.

atari_v1.1.zip

[Keir]

I compared your list to mine and I think you're missing these:

 

Activision:

Cosmic Commuter

Crackpots

Frostbite

 

Atari:

Asterix

Dark Chambers

Fatal Run

Human Cannonball

Midnight Magic

Sprintmaster

Star Raiders

 

Data Age:

Encounter at L-5

 

Parker Brothers:

Popeye

Strawberry Shortcake

 

Starpath:

Fireball

 

Xonox:

Spike's Peak

 

Also, you've listed Amiga's Off Your Rocker but I think that was only a prototype.

[Great Hierophant]

Wow, I certainly missed a few games my first time around. I put in almost all the games you mentioned in my list, with a few exceptions.

 

Asterix is a PAL only title, but is an offical hack of the NTSC Taz.

Fatal Run is also a PAL only title, although it reminds me of another game.

Off Your Rocker is interesting because while it says prototype, its page mentions some type of a release. Perhaps it should be a rarity 9 or 10?

 

Changes are reflected in v1.2

atari_v1.2.zip

[sku_u]

Wow, I certainly missed a few games my first time around.  I put in almost all the games you mentioned in my list, with a few exceptions.

 

Asterix is a PAL only title, but is an offical hack of the NTSC Taz.

Fatal Run is also a PAL only title, although it reminds me of another game.  

Off Your Rocker is interesting because while it says prototype, its page mentions some type of a release.  Perhaps it should be a rarity 9 or 10?  

 

Changes are reflected in v1.2

 

Asterix was available as an NTSC cart. The game's designer has several copies of the NTSC version as do a number of collectors from these boards.

 

If you're including Off Your Rocker, there were several other titles not officially released that supposedly saw limited distribution in stores.

[Keir]

Fatal Run is also a PAL only title

Oops! My mistake.

[Great Hierophant]

Well, I should insert Asterix as a later release for Taz. As for Off Your Rocker, which doubtless had a limited release but a release none the less, I have included it and many other games with similar small releases. However, if I have left out some games, pray tell me about them.

 

I am considering condensing Mythicon's contributions somewhat. Fire Fly clearly seems to be an official hack of Sorcerer (or vice versa?) and Star Fox does not seem to be too much farther from either. If I change it, then I will restore Zeller's Inca Gold as an unofficial hack of K-Tel's Spider Maze.