Which games best demonstrate the 2600's capabilities?

[somePUNK]

I don't know i never played atrai or heard of it untill last year and now i'm a nut the frist system i owned was nes but the systems befor nes blow my mind in so many ways one how all the crappy games got out there and two how all the great games got made i mean it's a great system and i love it

[+Cafeman]

Nearly all of the Activision games demonstrate the 2600 capabilities very well.

 

I believe this is due to their design philosophy -- the did NOT want flicker, hence they let the systems strengths and limitations influence game design. What a brilliant concept! Conversely, trying to shoe-horn a more powerful 68000 system coin-op onto a 4K atara 2600 cart means an underwhelming game.

 

Look at games like Defender vs Chopper Command -- the CC has no flicker! How? Well, they designed it that way of course. River Raid -- super smooth scrolling, good explosions, speed. It goes on & on with these Activision games.

 

Of course there are impressive Atari, Imagic and other games too, I'm not saying that.

 

You know one thing about Atari games that I've noticed recently -- they get FAST. Faster than most 16-bit or 32-bit games. Look at Kaboom!, for example -- the buckets, bombs and bomber are faily large, nice sized images. And they eventually all move at the speed of light! I think it's easy to forget just how fast some of these old games could move.

 

That's my 2 cents.

[DuckandCover]

quote:

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Originally posted by Cafeman:

Nearly all of the Activision games demonstrate the 2600 capabilities very well.

---

 

I agree. I've always thought that the Activision titles were some of the best games produced for the 2600. I'm not real fond of the arcade ports they did, but the original games that they produced are some of the best produced for ANY system. The Activision programmers really knew how to work within the limitations of the 2600 to produce exceptional and addictive games.

 

I also agree with most of the "show off" titles that have been mentioned in this thread. I would add two Absolute games: Tomcat and Pete Rose Baseball. I thought both of those carts really showed off what could be accomplished on the 2600. I'm also really fond of Parker Brothers' Star Wars: The Arcade Game. Of course, someone who doesn't appreciate the 2600 in the first place might not be able to recognize what an amazing programming feat that port was.

[somePUNK]

WARLOADS i love it my friends love itr's for young and old, but i still can't get my girlkfirend on the atari trane no matter what shes a nes girl to the core

[kyle]

Man screw that guy he is 22 and has never owned a atari of any kind? Man im 21 and when i was 8 my first system was a 2600 and that was in 88 during the NES reign but my folks were to poor to get me one. So i got a new atari 2600 jr and a bunch of games. I was disappointed at the time but man did i get over it fast i loved it! It's sad that alot of people my age never got to enjoy atari.

[KAZ]

I pulled out a simple old game to play with my friend. Outlaw. I remembered this game from a LONG time ago, it is a simple shoot the other guy. We had fun switching to all the different modes it had.

 

My friend just got a Playstation 2 for his birthday, but we had a hell of a time playing "Surround" about a week ago on the Atari 2600. He's not very into the 2600, he's probably a little like that guy who won't give Atari a chance. But he actually DID like real sports football on the 5200.

 

Course I just got done playing Race Racer with another friend of mine. I jump around to different systems alot.

 

I'm a classic gaming anthropologist type, that's why I collect it. Pretty fun to play, fun to own, fun to collect for. My parents generation could care less about video games, so I don't think any of them appreciate Atari either.

[Room 34]

IT FINALLY HAPPENED!

 

My 22-year-old coworker, the guy I wanted to impress with Atari 2600 (the whole reason I started this thread) has finally gotten sucked into an Atari game!

 

I was going about it all wrong. I tried to impress him with games that maxed-out the technical capabilities of the system. All wrong! It just came down to finding a game that would get him totally hooked, where he couldn't put down the joystick. And it has finally happened!

 

The game? Asteroids.

[El Destructo]

I was going about it all wrong.  I tried to impress him with games that maxed-out the technical capabilities of the system.  All wrong!  It just came down to finding a game that would get him totally hooked, where he couldn't put down the joystick.

 

Exactly! I was about to make that point, but your co-worker demonstrated it far better than any argument could.

 

The technical merits of a game will never win over someone raised on a superior system. The strength of the best Atari games is that they illustrate how most people today are rating games with the wrong measuring stick.

 

The resolution / frame rate / trillions of polygons-per-second pissing match everyone is currently suckered into is irrelevant. It's all about the gameplay.

 

The most important game development of the last ten years? Tetris, a game with such meager technical demands that you can play it on a *cell phone* for chrissakes.

 

*Raises a glass to real game designers everywhere*

[KAZ]

Solaris doesn't work on modern style televisions without vertical adjustment tho. It doesn't work on mine at least, and it isn't PAL either.

 

I went into the menus on my TV and could find nothing to adjust the vertical on it. It pisses me off that they'd make TVs that can no longer adjust vertical like they used to.

 

Course manufacturers don't have Atari 2600 in mind when they make their new modern super great TVs.

[Room 34]

Solaris doesn't work on modern style televisions without vertical adjustment tho.  It doesn't work on mine at least, and it isn't PAL either.

I just tried my NTSC Solaris cart with my late-model 7800 on a Panasonic TV purchased new in 2001 and it works fine.