Not 4-Bit, Just $%@& For RAM

November 17, 2022 3:53 PM

The recently-released Atari 50 100+ game collection/90's-CD-ROM-style multimedia thingy from retro championers Digital Eclipse has been out for about a week, receiving not a single review below 8/10, making things look good for possible DLC. But why wait for more? There's already two entire podcasts aiming to cover every single Atari 2600 game made within the console's lifespan: 2600 Game By Game and Atari Bytes (the latter including bespoke game-related short stories).

The creator of Atari Bytes also does a podcast aiming to cover all Peanuts spin-off media, It's a Podcast, Charlie Brown. And, naturally, there's an unrelated podcast aiming to cover the entire run of the strip itself, Unpacking Peanuts (Podbean).

posted by BiggerJ (22 comments total)

Atari Archive is a YouTube channel that is covering every Atari VCS/2600 game. It has great videos with lots of research and I'm disappointed by how few people know about it.
posted by ElKevbo at 4:05 PM on November 17, 2022 [4 favorites]

> That gets at the heart of the other main problem with the compilation: very few of the games are still fun in their own right.

YMMV but this has, unfortunately, been my melancholy experience with most of the video games from that era I have revisited in my middle age. A while back I was excited to find a 2600 emulator for next to nothing at Value Village, but I wound up playing it for maybe an hour before I admitted to myself that these games were best left in my happy childhood memories.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:18 PM on November 17, 2022 [8 favorites]

Swordquest: AirWorld! After I revive myself from fainting I will have to figure out what a Steam is and how to get it to work on my 2600 Woody.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:51 PM on November 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Card Cheat This is where the 90's-CD-ROM multimedia thingy becomes absolutely vital. As you move through the timelines, you are given the option to play most featured games directly from the timeline and go directly back. Thus, they no longer need to be good - just interesting.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:52 PM on November 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

When I really want to feel nostalgic for old Atari stuff I pull up this archive of concept art that surfaced a while back. You can smell the wood paneling from here. I don't really need to play Tank one more time. although I do love Tempest, forever
posted by JoeZydeco at 5:03 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

Is there a Telegames version available? Preferably for pick up at a Sears Surplus.
posted by mollweide at 5:23 PM on November 17, 2022 [7 favorites]

And I have to say, some of my first and fondest memories of playing games was playing Tank with invisible tanks and ricochet bullets.
posted by mollweide at 5:25 PM on November 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

I operate under the nostalgic assumption that I would like to play Vanguard again.
I didn’t have an Atari as a kid.
I played Vanguard once for a few hours at the house of a friend of my parents, and my whole left arm hurt the next day.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:40 PM on November 17, 2022

Atari Adventure was the very first game I ever thought of as "my favorite video game", and I still love it to the point that it was the first thing I played when I downloaded Atari 50. And I still remember the pathways through the invisible maze and where the seed is for the easter egg.

The rest of the games in the set - well, there's some fun arcade games, a few remakes of some classics (although I like the recently released "Yar's Recharged" better than the original or the remaster that's in Atari 50), and a couple of good originals. Playing the version of Star Raiders from the 5200 was kinda fascinating after decades of only knowing the 8-bit computer version.
posted by hanov3r at 5:44 PM on November 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

There are some 2600 games that hold up, that have more than just then-novelty and now-nostalgia to recommend them. I wrote an ebook on them in fact.

The list of games I came up with was: Combat, Adventure, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Warlords, Haunted House, Yars Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark. E.T. (yes!), the Atari Video Cube, Kaboom, Stampede, Astroblast, Riddle of the Sphinx, Private Eye, Pitfall 2: Lost Caverns, Mountain King, Dragon Stomper, Sword of Saros, Jr. Pac-Man and Solaris.
posted by JHarris at 6:14 PM on November 17, 2022 [9 favorites]

The list of games I came up with was:

Of the games I've played from that list I'd say that is pretty solid collection- tho Warlords always led to a lot of IRL fights for some reason. For me the pinacle Atari game has always been Yar's Revenge.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:39 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

There are some 2600 games that hold up

Surely Moon Patrol? Frogger is fine too imo but I wouldn't argue about it. I guess part of this is: do you mean hold up on their own; or do you mean are worth playing today, over some other version, for some reason other than you have a 2600 and the carts are cheap.

For that matter I have been enjoying Demon Attack (it's a rhythm shooter before anyone knew what that was!) and Atlantis (learn unforgiving intercept geometry and timing or gtfo), but I acknowledge those are a bit niche.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:27 PM on November 17, 2022

For that matter I have been enjoying Demon Attack (it's a rhythm shooter before anyone knew what that was!) and Atlantis (learn unforgiving intercept geometry and timing or gtfo), but I acknowledge those are a bit niche.

Atlantis was fine as a kid, but I personally enjoyed its storyline successor, Cosmic Ark.
posted by parliboy at 8:44 PM on November 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

The list I made for the book had the stipulation that the 2600 version had to have something to recommend it over other versions and ports of the same game, and that it couldn't just be good for a VCS game. Moon Patrol and Frogger are great ports, but a current player will probably have at least as much access to an arcade version.
posted by JHarris at 11:43 PM on November 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

Atari Archive is a YouTube channel that is covering every Atari VCS/2600 game. It has great videos with lots of research and I'm disappointed by how few people know about it.

Added it to my subscriptions.

I really enjoy the low-key nature of Jeremy Parish's NES Works series and I'm glad someone's doing the same thing for Atari 2600.

This is all slightly before my time, but I have vague memories of older cousins who had some sort of Atari system in the mid-to-late 1980s.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:35 AM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Megaforce (Yes, that Megaforce) was a solid game for the time.
I think did permanent damage to my wrist with that horrible controller.
posted by Eddie Mars at 12:05 PM on November 18, 2022

Warlords with four players on those paddles… way better than the arcade version IMO.
posted by chinesefood at 2:00 PM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

I think did permanent damage to my wrist with that horrible controller.

To this day, I still remember the blisters I used to get on my thumb.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:34 PM on November 18, 2022

My wife and I constantly and fondly still bring up what we refer to as "the barrel game," which we played on our (IIRC) 2600 before its sad demise. Game consisted of rolling beer barrels into a German (I assume) warehouse, working your way around existing barrels to place them into more and more labyrynthine niches as the game progressed. First boo-boo brought out a very stout German comic-bubble-speaking manager, who by his demeanor seemed perhaps to be gently encouraging you to be a bit more assiduous in your exertions. At the second boo-boo, said Manager appeared sporting a decidedly angry demeanor. His comic-bubble remark, still in German, was laced with stars and hashtags and little asterisks that needed no translation. Great game.
posted by Droll Lord at 8:46 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I will defend Private Eye on the Atari 2600 to the death as an excellent videogame. Kinda plodding arcade playstyle but with city exploration. Think modes 1-4 were seperate cases to be "solved" in a subset of the city, but #5 combined all of them and their parts of the map to be done simultaneously. Great stuff!
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:29 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

That ebook I mentioned has full articles on each game. I gave Private Eye a solid go, but was a bit dismayed by, I think it was the second case, even if you played it absolutely perfectly, you only had like three seconds of leeway on the clock to finish it, and that was with taking the optimal shortcuts. Interesting game, but wow it pushes you to your limits.
posted by JHarris at 11:18 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Shout outs to Barnstormer and Frogs and Flies. And Dodge ‘Em.
posted by tilde at 4:55 AM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]