Collection | Atari 2600 - SSJGohan3972's Collection

Collecting for the Atari 2600 is relatively cheap and fun for those who enjoy Retro games.

My first experiences with an Atari 2600 came when my father would occasionally bring his down from the attic during the sleepy summers of my early childhood. While I would associate more with the SNES they purchased me a little later (I believe I was 7-8) I still have fond memories of Missile Command and Donkey Kong on that ancient (even then) machine. Unfortunately even though my father did eventually give me that Atari before I moved out, I lost it and the games in college in an apartment flood (it was a very sad day, I also lost the aforementioned SNES and a PS1).

Relatively recently (within the last few years) I have put some time, effort and of course money into trying to rebuild my old video game collection(s) and one of the ones I've had the most success in is the Atari 2600. The second-hand market for the Atari 2600 is quite healthy, there are hacks and homebrews still being made for the system (and its successors) and you can still find most of even the best games for the system for relatively cheap.

My current Atari 2600 Collection, hoping to make a new cover for River Raid soon.

My current Atari 2600 collection:
Adventure
Air-Sea Battle
Asteroids
Breakout
Combat
Defender
Dig Dug
Dodge 'Em
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Golf
Haunted House
Home Run
Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom
Joust
Missile Command
Night Driver
Pac-Man
Pitfall!
River Raid
Space Invaders
Swordquest: Earthworld
Yar's Revenge

Dragonfire (not pictured)
Pole Position (not pictured)
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (not pictured)

The last three I need to make covers for as I haven't found any on thecoverproject.net or other sources.

My Atari 2600 dream wishlist:

Original Releases:
Donkey Kong
Mario Bros.
Frogger
Centipede
Galaxian
Swordquest: Fireworld
Swordquest: Waterworld
Superman
Custer's Revenge
Spider-Man
Pitfall 2: The Lost Caverns
Venture
Atlantis
Demon Attack
Cosmic Ark
Star Voyager
Phoenix

Homebrews:
Halo 2600
Princess Rescue (Super Mario Bros. 2600)
Space Rocks
Blinky Goes Up
Dungeon
FlaPing
Medieval Mayhem
Pac-Man 4K
Rainbow Invaders
Thrust+ Platinum
Warring Worms: The Worm (Re)Turns
Colony 7

Hacks:
Adventure Plus
Combat Redux
Defender Arcade
Galaxian Arcade
Pac-Man Arcade
Space Invaders Arcade
Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Mission
Venture II: The Abysmal Abyss

Future Atari 2600 Collection Plans:
I need to get an actual Atari 2600 to play these (I am currently just emulating the games I have but I want to play the actual games with the actual controllers). I also have an Atari Flashback 3 so I have a lot of the games on there as well.
I plan to slowly pickup games from my wishlist but not put a lot of money into it, just if good deals come by.

You can purchase Atari games on Amazon, Ebay and the like. Also game trading sites like GameTZ.com are quite useful. If you're interested in homebrew and hack games, reproductions and the like, AtariAge.com is an incredible resource.

Timeline | 1982: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial for Atari 2600

E.T. was a major hit in the movie theaters but a stinker on the Atari 2600

E.T. was taking the world by storm in 1982 and the rights to make a video game out of the IP were secured by Atari late in that year, despite the time Atari wanted a game out by Christmas and so in record time (something like 5 1/2 weeks which was an amazingly short period) Howard Scott Warshaw (a game designer at Atari) cranked out E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Atari was hopeful that the game would sell well due to the popularity of the movie and it did sell over a million copies, unfortunately the anticipation was that it would sell much more and was actually one of the biggest financial failures in video gaming ever.

A screenshot of E.T. on the Atari 2600

E.T. was an action-adventure game (in the vein of 'Adventure' and later games like 'The Legend of Zelda') in which the player took control of E.T. and tried to recreate the interstellar phone to 'phone home'. Unfortunately the graphics were barely legible, the gameplay was clunky and very little fun and the sound was terrible. The market was saturated after the 1982 holiday season and even though several good games came out in 1983 by the '83 holiday season the market had basically collapsed. E.T. has become a symbol of this 'Video Game Crash of 1983' and it was recently confirmed that Atari did in fact bury a large number of unsold cartridges of E.T. and other games in a landfill in New Mexico (reportedly 728,000 cartridges although there were many titles only some of which were E.T.).

Further Reading

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)

Timeline | 1982: Pac-Man for Atari 2600

Pac-Man was the biggest hit on the Atari 2600, just not big enough for Atari.

Pac-Man was released to Arcades in 1980 and was so popular that Atari immediately began production of a port for the Atari 2600 which was gaining popularity itself at the time. There was so much anticipation for the release of Pac-Man in 1982 that Atari ordered the production of 12 million copies of the game (more than the number of 2600s that had been sold to consumers by the time of the order). They changed the pack-in game for the Atari 2600 from 'Combat' to Pac-Man and heavily marketed the game.

A screenshot of Pac-Man the Arcade game

Pac-Man is a maze game in which the player has to navigate the entire maze to collect the glowing dots, and avoid the ghosts in the maze that are trying to kill you. If for some reason you have never played Pac-Man where the hell have you been! Get out there and play it, its great fun. The game was incredibly popular and spawned several sequels (Mrs. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Jr. etc.)

A screenshot of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600

Namco licensed Atari to do the american release of Pac-Man to the Atari 2600 home console (as they did with a lot of their Arcade games of the period, however Bally/Midway was licensed to make the us Arcade game). Unfortunately as Atari sometimes did, they pushed for a quick release and put less than adequate resourced into the production. The Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man is unpolished at best (and horrible at worst) even taking into account the limitations of the system the graphics are horrid and the gameplay is clunky and fails to really translate the joy of the arcade game.

Due mostly to Atari packing the game in with the system for the second half of its existance and their heavy marketing, Pac-Man would go on to become the best selling game for the Atari 2600 at around 7 million copies. Unfortunately this was significantly less than Atari had first anticipated (it is unknown whether they were able to reuse the other copies or if they along with the extra E.T. games ended up in the same landfill(s)).

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_(Atari_2600)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man

Timeline | 1983: Galaxian for Atari 2600

Galaxian came late to the Atari 2600

The Space Invaders craze was still in full swing when Namco released Galaxian to the arcades in 1979 (1980 in the US). Galaxian expanded upon the concept of waves of alien crafts, but in this case the player piloted a ship in space with slightly more freedom of movement and the enemies could move a lot more as well - attacking in patterns, breaking off from the group and trying to collide with the player, and all the while shooting at you and moving side-to-side - Galaxian was pretty high paced action for the time.

A screenshot of the Galaxian Arcade game

I'm not sure why Atari didn't get around to porting Galaxian to the Atari 2600 until 1983, perhaps they had passed it up earlier and where now grasping at straws to respark the popularity of the 2600? (that is pure conjecture but it does fit with the times). By late 1983 the Atari 2600 had tanked in popularity, the US video game business had shrunk something like 90% and companies were going out of business.

Galaxian on the Atari 2600

The port of Galaxian for the Atari 2600 is so-so, not nearly as bad as Donkey Kong or Pac-Man but still not very good. Fortunately the gameplay is good enough to make up for the lack of polish in this port and the game itself is still enjoyable - if this was the last game you picked up for your Atari 2600 you could have done a lot worse (and many did... I'm looking at you E.T.)

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxian

Timeline | 1983: Pole Postion for Atari 2600

Pole Position basically established the racing genre and was great fun both in the Arcades and on the Atari 2600.

Pole Position is the forerunner of the modern racing game, if you like Forza or Gran Turismo or even Mario Kart then you should pay homage to their great-great grandaddy.

The gameplay in Pole Position is very simple, you are driving a Formula 1 racing car and you go through a series of time trials, trying to stay on the track, avoid obstacles and get the best times.

A screenshot of the Arcade version of Pole Position

Released by Namco in 1982 (in Japan) and licensed to Atari for US Arcades and home consoles, Pole Position became the highest grossing Arcade game in the US in 1983 and Atari got right to work on a port to the Atari 2600.

Pole Position on the Atari 2600.

Fortunatley for games, unlike many late-era Atari 2600 ports, Pole Position made a triumphant transition to the Atari 2600. The graphics of the game were some of the best ever on the Atari 2600 (especially during its original run, some more modern home brews give it a run for its money though) and the gameplay from the arcade is almost 100% intact. Pole Position was great fun on the Atari 2600 and an awesome game to tide Atari 2600 owners over during the crash of 1983 while they waited for the NES...

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_Position_(video_game)

Timeline | 1983: Mario Bros. for Atari 2600

Mario Bros. was a hit in the arcades and on the Atari 2600 before he ever went Super.

 Following the success of Donkey Kong (and its sequels), Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi (who would later design other Nintendo greats like Metroid and the Gameboy) collaborated on a spin-off that featured the main character - Mario (renamed from Jumpman) and his brother Luigi who would be plumbers fighting sewer pests in New York City - and so Mario Bros. was born (gotta love the crazy premises that spawn awesome games in the early days of video gaming).

The gameplay consisted of the player (Mario) and possibly a second player (Luigi) running and jumping around an arena dodging pests (bugs, turtles, etc.) that come from the sewer pipes. The goal is to jump and hit the platform above you while there is a pest on it which will cause them to flip over, then you can run around and jump up there and kick the pest away to kill it and get points. The premise is simple but the gameplay made for hours of fun.

A screenshot of Mario Bros. on the Atari 2600

Mario Bros. for the Atari 2600 was a much better port than Donkey Kong on the 2600 and is likely the best home console version of the game (except for the later NES version). The graphics were obviously a little lacking due to the limitations of the system as compared to arcade cabinets of the time, but the gameplay was intact and the game was fun as ever on the home TV.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros.

Timeline | 1983: Dig Dug on Atari 2600

Dig Dug was yet another Arcade hit crossover to the Atari 2600

Dig Dug was a popular Arcade game released by Namco in 1982 following the success of Galga for that company. Atari was licensed to bring Dig Dug to Arcades in the US and also to home consoles and so in 1983 they released the Atari 2600 version of Dig Dug.

Unfortunately, Dig Dug on the Atari 2600 suffered from the same problems as a lot of late-era 2600 Arcade ports in that it suffered huge graphical and sometimes even gameplay limitations versus the Arcade title of the time. It also didn't help that many games were being rushed out the door and pushed to a market already saturated with poor games.

A screenshot of the Atari 2600 version of Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a great game and the Atari 2600 port does it justice at least in the gameplay department. Graphically it is a little failing but the fact that you can get the great gameplay of Dig Dug at home was nice for the time. In 1983, it was hard to pick the good games on the Atari 2600 from the bad and unfortunately if you got Dig Dug you didn't quite get the best game, but at least you didn't get a total stinker.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dig_Dug

Timeline | 1982: River Raid for Atari 2600

River Raid was another great Activision game for the Atari 2600

Following the success of Pitfall! Activision released River Raid also for the Atari 2600. River Raid was an early scrolling shooter and while it didn't reach nearly the commercial success of Pitfall! it was quite the accomplishment for the time.

River Raid had a simple but effective gameplay formula in which the player pilots a jet at the bottom of the screen which they can move left and right and from which they can fire bullets. The camera continually moves upward and the player must destroy other planes, boats on the river below, etc. to advance the game.

A screenshot of River Raid on the Atari 2600

River Raid was a relatively engaging experience for video games at the time and stood up well graphically and gameplay-wise against its contemporaries, but what really set River Raid apart was the sheer size of the game. Tiny by today's standards, River Raid had what was an extensive amount of non-random or repeating terrain which should have been impossible to hold in the limited memory capacity of the ROM chips used for Atari 2600 games. Activision was able to achieve the terrains using an algorithm to create them instead of simply storing them, this algorithm had hard-coded values so it created the same terrain each time but it allowed them to store it in a relatively small area. The enemies movements however were based on a random number generator that helped make them less predictable and provided for great gameplay for the time.

Further Reading

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Raid

Timeline | 1982: Pitfall! for Atari 2600

Pitall! was a major hit on the Atari 2600

Activision was a third party video developer formed by several former Atari game programmers that split from the company over disputes involving royalties, creative credit and liberty. Pitfall! was one of their first and most successful games for the Atari 2600.

The gameplay of Pitfall! is simple but the beauty lies in its execution. The game is a platformer where the player moves from left to right and the camera follows (this would become the norm in later platformers but was relatively new here, other platformers like the popular 'Donkey Kong' went up not to the right). The main mechanic of the game was that the player could jump, grab a rope and swing across holes, quicksand, or other pitfalls (hence the name).

A screenshot of Pitfall for the Atari 2600

Pitfall! became very popular on the Atari 2600 for a combination of several reasons. First it launched at almost the exact right time, the Atari was at the height of its popularity in 1982 and Pitfall! was advertised and marketed very well. Second (and unfortunately probably not as importantly) it was, for the time, very well made with relatively good graphics, great gameplay, good music, etc. Pitfall! would go on to sell around 4 million copies, an incredible feat for the time and second only to Pac-Man as far as number of sales for a game on the Atari 2600.


Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall!

Timeline | 1982: Donkey Kong for Atari 2600

Another popular Arcade hit of the time was Nintendo's Donkey Kong, the Atari 2600 wasn't so great...

Nintendo would become a name that to most people would be synonymous with video gaming by the end of the decade, but in 1982 they were relatively little-known. Donkey Kong was one of their first big Arcade hits and the first game produced by Shigeru Miyamoto the man who would go on to make Mario, Zelda and many more classic Nintendo characters - in fact Mario makes his first appearance in Donkey Kong. Originally named Jumpman, Nintendo changed the character's name to Mario (as well as changing the girl's name from 'Lady' to Pauline) in promotional ads and the like.

The gameplay in Donkey Kong was relatively simple, as an early platforming game Mario could move left or right, he could climb ladders and he could jump. Using these controls in combonation the player attempted to avoid falling and rolling barrels thrown at them by Donkey Kong and eventually rescue Pauline from the gorilla's clutches.

Donkey Kong was notable for being one of the earliest examples of a video game having a narrative that played out in the storyline, and also one of the first games to include cut scenes to advance that story.

The Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong had graphical limitations, only 2 levels and was all around not very well executed.

Nintendo licensed Coleco to release their game for home consoles in the US. While Coleco did a relatively good job on the port for their own ColecoVision home console, they did relatively poorly on the Atari 2600 version (they had very little incentive to put much effort into it) and it is included here only because of its importance and legacy - to be clear: the original Donkey Kong is a great game but the Atari 2600 version does it little justice and another version (likely the NES version) would be the best to play if you are looking to experience this classic.

Donkey Kong would spawn two direct sequels: Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3. DK Jr. reversed the roles in the first game with Mario now the villian having captured Donkey Kong and the player acting as DK Jr. has to save his father. In Donkey Kong 3 the gameplay is completely different where you are an exterminator in a shooter game and Donkey Kong is basically King of a bug nest and you have to shoot all the bugs and force Donkey Kong to flee (yeah sounds crazy, it is!).

Donkey Kong would also spawn a spin off called Mario Bros that would later get a sequel called Super Mario Bros. and take the world by storm - but that is for another time...

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(video_game)

Timeline | 1981: Missile Command for Atari 2600

Missile Command was another hit for Atari in both the Arcades and on the Atari 2600

Another game born of the Space Invaders craze that also became quite popular in its own right was 'Missile Command'. In Missile Command the player took the role of the commander of a regional missile defense grid with the goal of defending six cities from destruction as Nuclear ICBMs rained down from the sky. The initial premise made for fairly simple gameplay where the player used their own explosions to destroy the falling missles before they could hit the ground. After several rounds the game would get harder with the missiles falling faster, more often and in greater numbers and eventually doing things like splitting into multiple projectiles and coming from low flying planes, etc..

A screenshot of Missile Command for the Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 version of Missile Command came out in 1981 (just 1 year after the Arcade version) and continued the string of Arcade ports that were making the Atari 2600 very popular at the time. The Atari 2600 game's manual refers to the game taking place between two alien species, the defending Zardon and the attacking Krytol, although this is not in any of the documentation for the arcade version of the game. The Atari 2600 version also has an Easter Egg from its designer tucked away on the 13th level, the second Easter Egg ever (or at least known and admitted by Atari). Besides some graphical limitation the 2600 version of Missile Command is a decent representation of the Arcade classic and is still quite fun to play.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_Command

Timeline | 1981: Asteroids for Atari 2600

Asteroids was a huge hit for Atari both in the Arcades and on the 2600

Following the success of Space Invaders, Atari released Asteroids in the Arcades in 1979. The Atari 2600 version came out in 1981. Asteroids took the adventure into outer space where the player pilots a star ship through an asteroid field, destroying the asteroids into smaller and smaller pieces and fighting the occasional alien spacecraft along the way.

Asteroids was an immediate hit in the arcades in the US, supplanting the behemoth that was Space Invaders after a short time. The Atari 2600 version wasn't quite as successful but did sell quite a bit and help to continue the success of the console.

A screenshot of Asteroids on the Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 version of the game had several key differences from the Arcade version. First and foremost was the raster graphics instead of vector graphics, this made the asteroids and ship movement much more jerky and contributed to lower graphical quality overall (which of course made sense due to the limitations of the machine when compared to Arcade machines of the time). An effort to make up for this was the inclusion of some color to the game in the form of multi-colored asteroids, even though this made little sense for asteroids to be pink and purple...

Like many early video game hits (Pong, Space Invaders, etc.) Asteroids had many 'clones' which were basically rippoff Arcade cabinets or game cartridges that were basically the exact same game. Unfortunately Asteroid clones were prevelant enough and of high enough quality that they actually cut into the real Asteroid's popularity, one Asteroids in Space on the Apple II computer was named the most popular software for that computer in 1980.

All-in-all Asteroids for the 2600 doesn't really hold up well, one would be better suited to play an arcade port on the computer or any number of other remakes/ports from later sources but it was very important for the time and still a great game.

In modern times retro gamers have developed a cult following for all things Atari including Asteroids. A recent remake/remastering of Asteroids by game designer Darrell Spice Jr. at AtariAge.com named 'Space Rocks' adds in many new and improved features in the graphics and the gameplay, and it plays on a real Atari 2600. This would be a great addition to any Atari 2600 collection (and I plan for it to be in mine soon).

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game)

AtariAge:
http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1026

Timeline | 1980: Space Invaders for Atari 2600

Space Invaders stormed onto the Atari 2600 playing a large roll in its success.

Space Invaders was a huge hit in the Arcades for Taito starting in 1978 with estimates of 100,000 machines installed grossing over $600 million in just that year, and just in Japan! Securing the license for the home console version of Space Invaders was an enourmous boon for the Atari 2600 and in 1980 the Arcade classic hit the home console and sales skyrocketted! Sales of the 2600 nearly quadrupled with the release of Space Invaders and the game itself went on to sell over two million copies in its first year on sale for the console. Now described as the first 'killer app' for a home video game console, many people were buying the Atari 2600 just to play Space Invaders.

Space Invaders Rocketed the Atari 2600 to popularity and even allowed it to extend its reach beyond the US to some degree.

To understand the phenomenon that was Space Invaders one has to look at the game in context with the times. No other game before it was as action oriented, it wasn't the first shooting game but it was the first shooting game where the targets shot back. It had waves of enemies that got faster and faster, rudimentary destructible environments (in the form of the blocks the player's cannon could hide behind). The basic concept of the player manning a movable cannon on the ground and shooting down invading aliens and its popularity helped to shift the video game industry from the mostly sports based titles before it (popularized by Pong and the like) to include more sci-fi and fantasy situations. Games like Galaga, Galaxian, Asteroids, Missile Command, Defender and even later first-person shooters like Doom, Quake and Halo feel the influence of Space Invaders.

Space Invaders on the Atari 2600.

Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 boasted '112 game' or rather game-variations (basically a bunch of slightly different game modes) but the main portion of the game had a few differences from the Arcade version. First it was smaller, only 36 aliens to start with instead of 55, only 3 hiding bunkers instead of 4. Also some key strategy changes included the bunkers disappearing altogether if/when an alien touched any of them (instead of grinding away like in the arcade version) and the fact that the player's and alien's shots pass through each other instead of canceling each other out like in the arcade version. Finally the sprites and colors themselves were slightly less impressive than the arcade cabinets could produce. Still Space Invaders on the Atari 2600 was probably one of the greatest games that could be played on any home console at the time - and definitely the most popular.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders

Space Invaders Wiki:
http://spaceinvaders.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Invaders_(Atari_2600)

Timeline | 1979: Adventure for Atari 2600

Adventure was a milestone game for the Atari 2600

As the name so simply describes, 'Adventure' is about well an adventure. In the game you play as a square (a graphical representation of the top of the head of your adventurer) and you explore through the three castles to try to beat the three dragons. Conceived as a graphical version of the earlier text-based adventure game 'Colossal Cave Adventure', 'Adventure' was designed and programmed by Warren Robinett at Atari.

A screenshot from 'Adventure'

The game was rudimentary in many ways, but features like multiple items that could be carried - like the key in the screenshot above made the game quite engaging for the time. 'Adventure' also had a simple 'continue game' feature with which a player could continue their game from the beginning after dieing without loosing their items (any of the three dragons they had killed would return however) until the game was completely shut off.

While fairly shallow but even the standards of other action-adventures games in the next decade, Adventure had multiple mazes, enemies, puzzles, items and just a relative bunch of things for the player to do - for the time it was quite the game!

A screenshot of the first known video game 'Easter Egg'

 Warren Robinett was not officially credited with the game (a practice of Atari's at the time that partially led to the breaking away of many developers to form Activision) but he was able to have his name in the game in the form of the very first known video game 'Easter Egg'. The player had to navigate a fairly intense series of obstacles to unlock a room with a 'wall' that said 'Created by Warren Robinett'. This was not found until the game had been in production and circulation for some time so Atari was unable to stop it from happening.

Adventure went on to sell over 1 million copies allowing it to become the 7th best selling title for the Atari 2600. It was popular enough that Atari planned a sequel, however as Robinett had left the company the sequel would have to be made by another programmer - this eventually evolved into the Swordquest series of action-adventure games for the Atari 2600.

Adventure II as seen on AtariAge.com

Adventure has become very popular in more modern times as a retro classic for the Atari 2600, enough that the website atariage.com developed and released a sequel to Adventure that they call 'Adventure II' for the Atari 5200.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_(1979_video_game)

AtariAge.com:
http://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=334

Timeline | 1978: Breakout for Atari 2600

Breakout was another Atari Arcade game that became an early hit on the Atari 2600.

Originally conceived by Nolan Bushnell as a single player version of the hit Atari game 'Pong', Breakout and its development would become a key event in the early history of not only the Atari 2600 but of all things Apple Computers. Bushnell assigned the project to Al Alcorn who in turn assigned Steve Jobs (who was partially working for Atari at the time) to make the prototype. Steve Jobs said he could have it done in 4 days, but in fact it was Steve Wozniak who did the chip designs and was able to get the design down to 44 chips (an impressive feat considering Atari usually made similar games with 150-170 chips at the time). He claimed to be able to make it in 42 chips but was too exhausted by the 4 day weekend of work to cut it down by the deadline. Steve Jobs took most of the credit for the design and only gave Wozniack a small portion of the payment he received from Atari (instead of the 50% he had promised).

The game itself is in fact basically a single player version of Pong (although ironically it does have a multiplayer mode) in which the paddle is stationed horizontally along the bottom of the screen and goal of the game is to keep the ball in play by bouncing it between the top of the screen and the paddle. While doing this portions of the top of the screen will break away as the player attempts to guide the ball to clear all of the screen or 'Breakout!' once this is done twice you reach the maximum score of the game.

A screenshot from the Atari 2600 port of Breakout

The Atari 2600 port of Breakout was designed by Brad Stewart. Stewart won a competition with fellow programmer Ian Shepard on the Arcade version of Breakout for the right to program the Atari 2600 version. Ironically Stewart not only had no input from the original designers but was unaware who they even were. The 2600 version of the game had a few small differences (different number of lines of breakable bricks, different number of lives, etc.). A notable addition however was the 'Breakthrough' mode in which the ball didn't bounce off of the breakable bricks but continued through until hitting a wall and bouncing back, this changed the game (mostly made it easier, but still it was a different mechanic) and Atari was able to market it as a whole new set of 'games' included on the cartridge.

Breakout would go on to spawn a sequel on the Atari 2600 - Super Breakout - and to influence the careers of important computer pioneers like Steve Wozniak (who worked hard to make the Apple II be able to play a version of breakout entirely done in software instead of the hardware chips previous required, this is an important step towards the games we have today that can be played on multiple platforms).

Breakout is still a simple game that is loads of fun to play but gets old relatively quickly.

Further Reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakout_(video_game)

Timeline | 1977: Combat for Atari 2600

Combat was one of the 2600's first popular games.

Released alongside the Atari 2600 in 1977, and packed in with the console until 1982 (when it was replaced with Pac-Man), Combat was one of the first popular games on the Atari both in terms of sales and replayability. The original cover art boasted that the game contained '27 Video Games' which were in actuality just variations on 3 main game modes - Tank, Biplane and Jet gameplay. This embelishing of the number of 'included games' was very common on Atari 2600, Colecovision, Magnavox Odyssey and many other early video game consoles.

GAMEPLAY

Screenshot of Combat's Biplane gameplay.

Combat was actually a combination of two earlier Atari arcade games: 'Tank' and 'Anti-Aircraft II' from 1974 and 1975 respectively. The Biplane gameplay involved two players shooting different types of projectiles at eachother as they flew around the screen, an alternate gameplay mode had one player be a large 'Bomber' and another be a squadron of smaller 'Fighter' planes.

Screenshot of Combat's Jet gameplay, very similar to the Biplane one.

The Jet combat mode was very similar to Biplane gameplay with many of the same modes (including the multiple planes per player shown here which could be done in both modes) but the Jet planes flew a little differently and had only 'Missile' weaponry as opposed to the Biplane's machine guns. I got the impression this was supposed to be a more difficult/competitive version of the aerial combat.

The mode everyone played, Combat's Tank battles were loads of fun!

The Tank combat mode in 'Combat' were simple yet very fun. The basic concept was very similar to the planes but as tanks your mobility was less and only direct fire weaponry made it harder - plus in later stages like the one shown in the screenshot the field had obstacles that blocked your driving and shooting paths. Navigating to line up shots without being shot yourself could be difficult and made for great fun. There was also a 'Tank Pong' mode where the projectiles you fired would bounce off of the walls one time before disappearing upon their next contact with the walls, this made for another facet of strategy in the game.

LEGACY

Screenshot from Atari's Combat 2

Combat was popular enough that Atari had planned a release of a sequel, tentatively named Combat 2, for 1984. However, the video game crash of 1983 halted those plans. The game would go on to be released on one of the Atari Flashback consoles (a line of retro game consoles that Atari released in the 2000s that had many old Atari games on them).

Screenshot from the tanks game in Wii Play on the Nintendo Wii

Overlooked by many gamers because of the casual focus, Wii Play on the Nintendo Wii contained a game called Tanks that in many ways builds upon things from the Tank game mode on 'Combat'. The game has additional features like different enemies, weapons, traps, etc. but the basic gameplay is very similar and in my opinion an obvious homage to the gaming classic that is 'Combat'.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_(video_game)

Timeline | 1977: Atari 2600

The first hugely successful home video game console, the Atari 2600 laid the groundwork for the NES, PS1, PS2, etc.

Atari established their dominance of the early video game market with the Pong Arcade and later home systems, but they truly rose to prominence with their Video Computer System, the system that would eventually become known as the Atari 2600. The name Atari 2600 actually was not used until later (it referred to the unit's product number in the sears catalog I believe) and the system was originally known as the Atari VCS or Tele-Games VCS when sold through Sears.

The release and progression of the 2600 is a very interesting one and understanding it helps one understand the difference in the video game market and industry of the time and today. Atari was breaking relatively new ground, besides Magnavox (with the Magnavox Odyssey) and Fairchild (with the Channel F) the Atari 2600 was really one of the first cartridge based home video game consoles - that is, a console that could play different games over time utilizing ROM-based game cartridges.

One of the things that made the 2600 so popular (and eventually led to its downfall) was the abundance of games.

The Atari 2600 launched initially with 9 games, the only well-known of which was 'Combat' that came with the system. Later big game releases in the late 70's and early 80's included 'Breakout' and 'Adventure' along with highly successful Arcade ports of 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Other companies wanted in on all the money that Atari was making and the first 'third parties' began to appear. Some of the third parties, such as Activision (a company formed from former Atari workers) had some successful games like 'Pitfall!' and 'River Raid' but others made games like the now infamous 'Custer's Revenge' and the market became quite saturated by 82-83. Atari's late arcade port of 'Pac-Man' and their big name movie tie-in game 'E.T. The Extra Terrestrial' were both much lower quality than expected for the time and have come to symbolize the crash of the video game market in North America in 1983.

After the crash the Atari 2600 never really regained prominence, in a few years the Nintendo Entertainment System came along and shifted gaming focus to Japanese gaming and reinvigorated the market in a different way. Atari would try again with the Atari 7800, the Atari 5200, the Atari Lynx (a handheld meant to compete with the Nintendo Game Boy) but they never were able to really become popular again.

The Atari continues to have a cult following with 'Homebrew' games continuing to be made for the system.

Long after its rise and fall, the Atari 2600 (and other Atari systems) continue to have a cult following and presence on the Internet. One site, AtariAge, sells reproductions and homebrew games for the Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800 (among other systems) including their most well known product, Halo 2600. A game based around the Halo IP for the Atari 2600 (programmed by Ed Fries, former VP of Game Publishing at Microsoft who worked closely with Bungie Studios). Other games they have include 'Adventure 2' a game for the Atari 5200 that is billed as the unofficial successor to the Atari 2600's 'Adventure' which is very popular among Retro Gamers.

A note:
I have chosen several Atari 2600 games of note to include in my timeline, these are obviously not all of the games that came out on the Atari 2600, nor are they all of the important, high quality or otherwise notable games for the system - they are simply the ones I wanted to highlight because they were fun or otherwise important. If you find yourself wanting to learn more about the Atari 2600 please see the links below and start delving in, the Atari Retro scene is actually quite healthy!

Another note:
I included only the Atari 2600 as far as home consoles in the 2nd Generation of gaming in my timeline, there are many others (the Magnavox Odyssey and ColecoVision are notable ones that come to mind, plus there were many Computers/Consoles like the TI/99A and other unique computers that also had a lot of games at the time, plus the Arcade was getting big and that meant all sorts of other games) if you're interested in really retro games there is a whole ocean to explore!

Further Reading:

Wikipedia Articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atari_2600_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983

Atari Age:

http://www.atariage.com/

http://atariage.com/2600/ 

Timeline | 1972: Pong

I decided to start my timeline with Pong. Pong was not the first video game, that distinction being unfortunately lost to history, nor was it the first commercially available video game, that title goes to Computer Space. However, Pong was the first commercially successful video game and can be directly credited with allowing Atari to be successful right up until the crash in 1983.

Originally released in Arcades in 1972, Pong was designed by Atari newcomer Allan Alcorn as a training excersize assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Alcorn made such a good game that Atari decided to try to sell it, they were already in the Arcade Gaming industry having released Computer Space to limited sales a year before in 1971. Pong became wildly successful to the point that Atari created a home version which was released in 1975.

While 'Pong for you home TV' wasn't the first home console it did boost console popularity and allow for the later success of the Atari 2600.

Unfortunately for Atari, the Magnavox Odyssey - an early video game home console, included a game known as table tennis. Nolan Bushnell was known to have played this at the Magnavox Profit Caravan in California in 1972 and while he was said to have been unimpressed by the game it likely influenced him to assign the Pong project to Alcorn. This would come back to bite Atari in the form of legal troubles in 1974 when they were sued by Magnavox and forced to pay royalties and delay the release of some of their other products (so that they did not have to disclose them to Magnavox).

All-in-all Pong was an incredibly important game in that it laid the foundation for what has become an incredibly large industry (estimated at 66 billion dollars in 2013), it also setup Atari for the first total domination of the home video game market with the Atari 2600.

A screenshot from Pong showing the two paddles, the 'net', ball and score.

If for some reason you have never played Pong you are missing out on a great game. Trivial by today's standards yet still fun to play, Pong consists of just a ball that can be bounced between two paddles. While this seems (and really is) quite rudimentary the game is made more interesting due to a few small touches from Alcorn including the fact that the ball returns at different angles depending on where it impacts the paddle, the fact that the ball increases in speed incrementally as the game progresses (until a miss at which time the speed is reset) and the fact that the paddles do not reach quite to the top or bottom edges of the screen. These small things along with the easy to learn two-player game play made Pong immensely popular in the arcades and as a home consoles.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia Articles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games

Reuters Article (where I got the 66 billion dollar estimate)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/06/10/gameshow-e-idINDEE9590DW20130610

Site with a whole lot more info on Pong, Atari, Magnovox, etc.
http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm

Gaming Collection

Another series of posts I plan to do concern collecting video gaming, another facet of my own video gaming hobby that I enjoy almost as much as playing the video games themselves. My intention is to post pictures and descriptions of different parts of my video gaming collection, highlights on additions to my collection, things I would like in my collection, etc.

Currently I use several different websites (backloggery, raptr, ign, etc.) to keep track of my video game collection but I would love to build a single database for myself. If/when I do I will link it to here and post mini-reviews/articles about the games.

This is the main portion of my current (physical) video game collection.