Racket Asks: What Games Defined the Atari 2600?
It has been quite a while since I had played with an actual Atari 2600 or even played 2600 versions of many of the games in it’s library. It was never much of a conscience decision, it has just never really happened in the last 20 years or so.
This past month, I figured it was about time that I revisited the first video game console I ever interacted with and I ordered a nice 2600 and a pile of games. I plan to explore the essentials of the library (and maybe some more obscure gems – give recommendations here), get to know the original hardware well, and share my experiences with the community as I go along.
This is the first time that I can think of where I’ve planned to really spend a good chunk of time with one retro console in particular, and I can’t think of a better place to start. After a bit of time, I plan on piecing together a number of Atari 2600 installments of our series of guides and adding to the existing ones. My first stop is The Games That Defined the Atari 2600. Which leads us to this poll. Â I’ve already tallied up the nominations from this forum thread and now it’s time to vote on the most defining of the bunch. Â Let me know what you think! Â (You can choose up to 10)
[poll id=”23″]
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At least one homebrew game needs to be on there as there is an extremely large homebrew scene for the 2600, the homebrew defines part of the 2600 today. As such, Halo 2600 is a great choice to sum up homebrew.
And ET, even though it sucked, needs to be on there because it truly defined part of the system and represents the vast library of sucky games for it.
E.T. i loved this game…
is so hard, but has a end! this was so rare in the 2600!
Funny, Journey’s Escape. Terrible game.
Ms Pac-Man, SuperCobra, Decathlon, and Miner 2049er should probably be on here as well. I would have picked Decathlon and Ms. Pac-Man over Yars’ Revenge and Missile Command (which I did pick).
ET and Pac-Man go in there because they left a big stain on 2600.
Great list.