Atari 2600

SuperSprint

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I played some of the 2600 classics last night. I had forgotten just how AWFUL they were. Looking back, we paid a ton of money for those carts and they weren't anything like the arcade classics. What were we thinking?
 
I played some of the 2600 classics last night. I had forgotten just how AWFUL they were. Looking back, we paid a ton of money for those carts and they weren't anything like the arcade classics. What were we thinking?

Which games did you play?

For me, the 2600 was all about finding the right (good) games to own. My friends all had one, so we'd give each other advice on which ones to buy.
 
Comparing the games to their arcade counterparts, it sort of does suck. I still enjoy playing Berzerk, Missile Command, and Galaxain though. It's best not to compare them, and they stand on their own merits a little better.
 
DK, PacMan, etc. And I played PitFall and some Activision games which I remember as being the BOMB of VCS games. Granted the Activision graphics were far better than the typical atari fare, but I still don't get what captivated up for HOURS. And I'm not a really high tech, high action kind of guy. I'm just fine with DK, Frogger, Galaga, etc.

In the end, my memory of how awesome it was didn't match up with reality...
 
doesn't make sense to compare what was available in 1977 to now and be disappointed. When they were new there was nothing better or closer to the arcade so whats the basis to compare against?
 
I don't know - I really like a lot of the 2600 games. There are some really good ones. Yeah, some of the arcade ports aren't anything compared to the real thing (Pac-Man, I'm looking at you!), but there were a lot of great games on that system. Pitfall, River Raid, Yar's Revenge, Kaboom!, Demon Attack and Atlantis just to name a few. And, some of the arcade ports were pretty good - Berzerk, Phoenix, Space Invaders, etc. Actually, I think I like the 2600 version of Phoenix better than the arcade version.

You just have to enjoy the machine for what it is - you can't compare the arcade ports directly to the original arcade games. The Atari 2600 did what it did with 128 bytes of RAM, no frame buffer, and a stripped-down 6502 with a limited address space, and therefore usually only 4 kilobytes of program ROM.

-Ian
 
DK, PacMan, etc.

Two of the worst games ever made for the system - by far.

And I played PitFall and some Activision games which I remember as being the BOMB of VCS games. Granted the Activision graphics were far better than the typical atari fare, but I still don't get what captivated up for HOURS.

Weird, isn't it? Remember that, before Atari, people were captivated for hours with Pong consoles!
 
Demon Attack and Chopper Command were my favs, though I did play A LOT of Asteroids and Centipede on the old Vader. I really liked the odd games like 'Name this Game', 'Entombed', Riddle of the Sphinx" and "Journey Escape".
 
Yars Revenge could've been a coin-op, if only for the sound. It would've added significant atmosphere to any arcade. :cool:
 
I need to defend the venerable 2600 here.
It's not fair to ask 1977 technology designed with Pong in mind to be able to recreate arcade titles from 1981 (using your Donkey Kong example) and beyond.
It's a bit like complaining that the original series of Star Trek didn't have special effects as good as Star Trek the Next Generation.

Remember, there once was a time when the home experience was simply not as good as the retail experience. We all accepted that back in those days.
 
doesn't make sense to compare what was available in 1977 to now and be disappointed.

I'm not comparing then to now. I'm comparing my recent experience with the 2600 to my memories of playing it back then. I had the "official" Atari catalog/book where we logged our scores. Think I may actually still have that.

Speaking of Yar's Revenge. I logged many hours on that.. And I remember more than one all nighter on Pitfall.
 
For me, I think the games with the most replay value were Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kaboom, Starmaster, Chopper Command, Missile Command, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Yar's Revenge, Adventure, etc.

My first console was actually a Sears Telegames, which was the Sears version of the Atari 2600. It came with Target Fun, which is Sears version of Atari Air/Sea Battle. My friends and I were captivated for hours by that game...
 
Yar's Revenge was awesome. You can go to Atari.com, to their classics you can play online and play it. It's emulated, I suppose, and looks just like the old days.

Kinda surprised with some of the odd projects that have happened in this hobby.. that no one has converted a Centipede or something to a Yar's Revenge arcade version, or what it would look like. If there was a PC version of Yar's Revenge with comparable era graphics, it would make a neat project.
 
I also loved Cosmic Ark. Man I was an Imagic fanboy.

Every sound of that game just flashed inside my skull. I remember it perfectly.

I'd always play Atlantis until I died, then immediately plug in Cosmic Ark to continue the story...
 
I'm not comparing then to now. I'm comparing my recent experience with the 2600 to my memories of playing it back then. I had the "official" Atari catalog/book where we logged our scores. Think I may actually still have that.

Speaking of Yar's Revenge. I logged many hours on that.. And I remember more than one all nighter on Pitfall.

You kind of are comparing them against today.. otherwise, what would the point be of saying they are 'disappointing' and 'so bad'? Back in the day you liked them enough to keep a logbook with your high scores so they must have been pretty awesome at the time huh? So suddenly they suck when in 1980 they were pretty good kinda does say you're comparing then vs now. Ask anyone in 1980 if Pitfall sucked or was a game they couldn't wait to buy like they would for Bioshock today.

Not trying to argue, just trying to figure out your logic of this thread.
 
Pac Man as realized on the 2600 was the single greatest disappointment of my entire gaming life.

My faves were Kaboom, Pitfall, Wizards of Wor, Barnstorming, & I put tons of time into asteroids & Space Invaders of course.
 
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