Atari 2600 Multiplayer- Best Games

Yeah , I remember the Arcade game and cabinet, now. I Was more of an Atari Sprint Arcade fan at the time though, I dont think I played the Dragster Arcade, possibly once,twice? But i remember the Cab.
 
Yeah , I remember the Arcade game and cabinet, now. I Was more of an Atari Sprint Arcade fan at the time though, I dont think I played the Dragster Arcade, possibly once,twice? But i remember the Cab.
There was a local bowling alley in MarVista ca that we went too all the time in high school that had one. We were car guys and loved the drags, so we played this game every chance we got. Between the 4 of us we probably put enough quarters in that we could have bought one. :ROFLMAO:
 
There was a local bowling alley in MarVista ca that we went too all the time in high school that had one. We were car guys and loved the drags, so we played this game every chance we got. Between the 4 of us we probably put enough quarters in that we could have bought one. :ROFLMAO:
Sounds Like Good Times
Some of those 1970's Video Arcade games were a Blast, I also loved the EM Pinball Machines around that time.
 
This guy has some pretty good lists for the 2600
pretty complete lists, Maybe 10 more games unmentioned besides these lists.Not much disagreement
Youtuber: Gaming The System
 
It Seems to me alot of Sports Titles are never talked about? Most of them were multiplayer. That's the one area that is not talked about much .
It looks like alot of the best Sports titles came out past 1986 which is kind of strange. The NES was already released and the writing was on the wall. Who was buying Atari Game Cartidges retail new in 1986? Funny thing is they were still selling new titles until 1990! Can you imagine someone walking into Toy's R Us and asking for an Atari game Cartridge in 1990? I would of been on the floor rolling around laughing🤣. Actually there are still making homebrew games, but ostly for nostagia sakes nowadays.
So lets just say that anything after 1986 was not really part of the original library option for the 2600. Although if you do include them the Date of their release should be noted next to the title.
I don't think I bought a game past 1982, "Pitfall" September of 1982, was probably my last Retail purchase of an Atari Cartridge.
So Lets get to it SPORTS
My personal early favorite was Bowling, had Home Run and Football, Home Run would get old really fast, football had a little more staying power but could get old pretty quick. Basketball had a shelf life of about 20 plays🤣 and is laughable when looked back upon. Boxing by Activision was a pretty good game. It had a unique top down perspective, but what could you do with a controller with 1 button? 🤣
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This has got me thinking. Has anybody thought of trying to make a new controller for the 2600? Basically its an eightway controller with a fire Button. If you made a NES type controller and eliminated maybe down left assigned that as another button, you might be able to assign that pin as another button? Might make it more interesting for the Home Brew crowd.
Anyways back to the sports games.
 
This has got me thinking. Has anybody thought of trying to make a new controller for the 2600? Basically its an eightway controller with a fire Button. If you made a NES type controller and eliminated maybe down left assigned that as another button, you might be able to assign that pin as another button? Might make it more interesting for the Home Brew crowd.
Anyways back to the sports games.

There have been quite a few modded versions on the old controller with additional buttons over the decades; this recent one for the mini Atari 400 is a reasonable example:

 
There have been quite a few modded versions on the old controller with additional buttons over the decades; this recent one for the mini Atari 400 is a reasonable example:

What he said. Lots of controller options for 2600. Old stock 3rd party, modern hacks of vintage controllers, even controllers from other systems like Sega Genesis. I made a prototype touch based controller (no moving parts!) with 2 d-pads and L1 and R1 at some point just for the hell of it. So…10 buttons total. More is fairly easy to do. The ergonomic design is the real limitation.

How about a PS2 keyboard? I made that work on a 2600 once upon a time. That had to be the late 90's. I was hoping to port some Infocom games. But I ran out of steam on the project.

I'll try to dig up my old demo program and post a screenshot.
 
What he said. Lots of controller options for 2600. Old stock 3rd party, modern hacks of vintage controllers, even controllers from other systems like Sega Genesis. I made a prototype touch based controller (no moving parts!) with 2 d-pads and L1 and R1 at some point just for the hell of it. So…10 buttons total. More is fairly easy to do. The ergonomic design is the real limitation.

How about a PS2 keyboard? I made that work on a 2600 once upon a time. That had to be the late 90's. I was hoping to port some Infocom games. But I ran out of steam on the project.

I'll try to dig up my old demo program and post a screenshot.
Yeah I was just wondering if anybody tried it. Atari probably shoould of released a better controller back in 1982. They might of lasted a few more years. Really not sure if the 2600 is even worth messing with. 4 bits and 1 button. Probably a waste of Time. If I was going to come out with a homebrew I would probably do an NES maybe a Sega Sixteen (Megadrive) (Genesis).
Oh well, guess I will Finish up Best Of The Best Atari 2600 List. 😁

Decathlon Looked pretty good, got alot of positive reviews
By "83" I was pretty much over the 2600. Decathlon released August 15 1983
looks pretty good
Hey Activision got Bruce Jenner to promote it, must of been a decent game?
😀
I never saw that commercial
😁
David Crane was a dang good programmer
You know what I just Realized Apple Released the Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh in January 1984. That was probably partly responsible for the video game crash of 1983. People were so jazzed up about Apple and the Lisa/Macintosh that's all anybody would talk about. What's A Mouse?🤣
 
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Decathlon was awesome! Great multiplayer or single player game. The 1500 was brutal though. It created a blister in you palm and it destroyed your shoulder *and* your joystick.


Here's a screenshot of my 2600 keyboard demo. I don't have the interface board anymore (at least I don't think I do) so this just draws a Model M keyboard, in 2 sections. If I could connect the Model M to the Atari, it would highlight the keys that are pressed.

1747880631852.png

And here's a photo of my 2600 2-button touch controller prototype that I keep at work.
The nicer one (without the pieces of Dr. Pepper bottle and without the toilet paper stuffing inside) is at home.

IMG_3633.JPG
 
Decathlon was awesome! Great multiplayer or single player game. The 1500 was brutal though. It created a blister in you palm and it destroyed your shoulder *and* your joystick.


Here's a screenshot of my 2600 keyboard demo. I don't have the interface board anymore (at least I don't think I do) so this just draws a Model M keyboard, in 2 sections. If I could connect the Model M to the Atari, it would highlight the keys that are pressed.

View attachment 820920

And here's a photo of my 2600 2-button touch controller prototype that I keep at work.
The nicer one (without the pieces of Dr. Pepper bottle and without the toilet paper stuffing inside) is at home.

View attachment 820921
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Those track and field type games could be brutal after a few games
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Was doing a little more thinking about the so called "Video game crash of 1983" and how they pin it all on E.T., actually I think a lot of people are blaming Pacman too now. I think Donkey Kong's July 1982 release had a hand in the equation. Three strikes and your out. Most people knew by the end of 1981 that Atari was starting to release some subpar games to the 2600.
I think the start was Pacman March 1982 Huge Game Arcade hit, big letdown as a port. You have a system with 1 button and a joystick, you cant mess that game up, oh well sh*t happens, Donkey Kong is released in July 1982, another subpar port? Not only that, Coleco visions version is better. What's up wih that? I think I bought Pitfall after being lured back to the platform by a commercial, but even looking back at it, it just wasn't that fun of a game, it got old relatively quick, Then the Fiasco of E.T in December of 1982 hit, I knew that game was going to be a bad game, so I passed on that. But alot of kids got sucked in. Never was a huge fan of the "platformers" on the Atari 2600. To me they all sucked. People say Adventure was good? I always thought that was the dumbest crap around. Your a Square dot running around. I remember looking at that and thinking WTF is that?
Anyways Donkey Kong was the Atari Ender for me.
🤣

Bye Atari🤣
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They really started running those Atari commercials bigtime in 1982, they must of known they were in trouble.
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FU Jack Black made me waste my money on Pitfall🤣

That along with Apple's release of the Lisa/Macintosh pretty much made the 2600 irrelevant, Probably got to throw in the Proliferation of Cable Tv, Before cable maybe 6-7 Broadcast Stations, ABC NBC, CBS,PBS, maybe a few idependents Stations. Times were achangin.
 
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Interesting I did'nt know Costner did an add for Apple. Interesting
Another Apple/Lisa commercial. The Lisa/Macintosh release was pretty big. As soon as you tried one pretty much made Home Video game Consoles a joke.
 
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The ice racing in Indy 500 was a riot trying to stay on the track while bumping into your opponent.

Demons to Diamonds was an enjoyable two-player game.

Fishing Derby was also lots of fun.
 
Indy 500 was amazing!
Especially after the first person figured out how to cheat by cutting across the infield.
Then it became all about keeping each other off the grass by crashing into them! :D
 
Indy 500 was amazing!
Especially after the first person figured out how to cheat by cutting across the infield.
Then it became all about keeping each other off the grass by crashing into them! :D

It really was amazing. I'm now fondly remembering the "crash-n-score" mode and the "tag" mode of Indy 500 games which were also fantastic.

Oh those laughs of victory and howls of defeat.
 
It really was amazing. I'm now fondly remembering the "crash-n-score" mode and the "tag" mode of Indy 500 games which were also fantastic.

Oh those laughs of victory and howls of defeat.
Yeah, forgot about that game, basically modeled after Atari Sprint, Indy 500 was a good one. Some of the simpleist games were the best for the 2600
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