Console of the Month (July 2022) - Atari 2600

[alienjesus]

We're going proper oldschool with this month's Console of the Month choice, with Atari's iconic Video Computer System, nowadays more known by it's rebranded name of Atari 2600.

Released in 1977 in America and continuing to sell through the early 80s, the 2600 was the first real home-console success in gaming. It sold 30 million units making it Atari's most successful console, handily outselling it's successors.

Nowadays a lot of the storytelling around Atari 2600 can be quite negative, focused on poor ports of Pacman, copies of ET buried in the desert and the video game crash of 1983 (which didn't happen here in Europe, nor in Japan, but you'd be hard pressed to believe it based on how infamous the event is in retelling gaming history!). However, the console had a ton of high points too and a large library of games which were amazingly compelling considering their meagre file size and limited audiovisual capabilities.

Lets go back to the dawn of the 80s and see what gaming was all about then this month!

Edit by racket: Featured Atari 2600 Content Posts
Games That Defined the Atari 2600: https://www.racketboy.com/retro/best-ga ... atari-2600
Rarest & Most Valuable 2600 Games: https://www.racketboy.com/retro/rarest- ... 2600-games

[Ziggy]

I missed the 2600's heyday, and so I have no nostalgia for it. I did have a 2600 as a kid, but I could never get it to work and I was too busy playing Nintendo to really care. I still have that 2600, a Darth Vader model. And I eventually picked up a wood grain 4 switch at some point. I have a dozen or so games, including some of the must-haves. I bust it out every once in a while, but to me that Atari is really only fun in short bursts.

I wanted to use this month as an excuse to finally do an AV mod. I know some people love to use RF for consoles like the Atari, because that's how it was back in the day. But I'd really like to use at least composite for convenience.

I also used this month as an excuse to pick up a Harmony flash cart!

Released in 1977 in America and continuing to sell through the early 80s

Strangely, the Atari was still selling into the early 90s. Perhaps it was just NOS, I don't know when manufacturing actually ended. But I found a catalog from Fall of 1991 that had the Jr model in it.



(More scans from that catalog here: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 29&t=33746 )

[alienjesus]

Nice. It doesn't suprise me that old hardware would still be selling in the 90s, especially after Atari tried to get back into the business proper with the late launching 7800.#

Over here in Europe it was pretty common for retro gaming hardware to still be sold in catalogues and shops long after their successors came out well into the mid 90s, with that trend only really starting to die down in the PS2 era I think. I've seen sales reports from 1992 that put the Commodore 64 as the best selling system, ahead of the Amiga, followed by ZX Spectrum and Sega Master System - this is during the Mega Drive and SNES' prime mind, both were outsold by the decade old microcomputers and the Master System. I think game price was a big driving factor of this - Master Systems were only like £50 at the time compared to double that for a Mega Drive, and the games were about £20 whereas Super Nintendo titles could easily cost £60. Home compouter games were released on tape and cost as little as a fiver or less.

Anyway, back on topic, I'm too young to have enjoyed the Atari in it's prime too - I mean, at 33 I'm also a bit too young to have really enjoyed the NES in it's prime years either, as the SNES came out in Europe when I was 3. Id did experience a lot of these games though, through a plug and play console I got for a Christmas present when I was a kid. It was called a 'TV Boy' and it had 128 Atari 2600 games built in. Honestly, the emulation of the games was probably shocking but it's only in recent years I've started to realise all the games were in fact legit 2600 titles! Because of this there's a ton of 2600 games I recognise and have played but don't know the name of - the selection screen on the TV Boy just had you input a number to choose a game!

I just found a video about the TV Boy on Youtube :

Wikipedia also has an article on it, with the full games list to boot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Boy

[marurun]

I do remember the 2600 from its prime, because I'm in my 40s and was around when it was still relevant. And some of the simplest games are still the most fun. But boy is there so much crap on the system, too. Some people have tried to speak up for E.T., but I hated it. Obversely, I enjoyed 2600 Pac Man despite recognizing it wasn't a good port at all. But it was adequate and enjoyable nonetheless.

[opa]

2600 rocks.
Anyone want to have some high score competitions?

[bmoc]

Despite being old enough for my household to have had a 2600, it was sometime in the 90's before I actually played some 2600 games with this bad boy. I mostly stuck to Pitfall, River Raid, and HERO. I've tried other 2600 games since then but none really hold my attention for very long.

[prfsnl_gmr]

The 2600 does, indeed, rock. Being in my 40s, I also remember when Atari was in its prime, but I didn’t actually own an Atari console until the ‘10s. I love collecting for it because there are so many inexpensive games and so, so many cool label variants with gorgeous late ‘70s and early ‘80s artwork.

The Atari also had such great analog controllers, and you really can’t experience some of the system’s best games without them. (Playing Kaboom! with anything but a paddle is torture.) Accordingly, there’s still a really compelling argument for playing many of the system’s games on original hardware, despite the fact it is so easily emulated by modern computers.

EDIT: For the record, E.T. is a good game!

[opa]

I've never really liked emulating the system because of all the difficulty switches. It seems each game has a matrix with seven thousand difficulty combinations. Kind of a pain to deal with on a keyboard.

[Limewater]

Adventure is easily my favorite 2600 game. I think it still holds up today. I'll still give it the periodic play-through or three.

Halloween is often criticized, and I wouldn't want to pay much money for it, but I think it's actually a pretty solid adaptation. And the Halloween music translates great to the 2600.

[alienjesus]

Randomly found some Atari 2600 stuff in the local pawn shop near my house today. They had an Atari 2600 jr console for a fairly reasonable price, but the highlight was some minty cartridges in their original box. Prices are way too high for my tastes though, but it was great to see such old games in such great condition.

I took a photo but it was super sunny and I couldnt get the brightness right, so it's a little hard to see, sorry. Most of the games were £15-30 if I recall correctly, but one was an eye-watering £100!:




On the topic of emulation, there are some sites that have Atari 2600 games playable in your browser. Might be a nice way for those of use who don't own the system to join in on some high score contests:

https://www.free80sarcade.com/all2600games.php

Any suggestions for what games we should compete on?