TheSmartAss.info's suite of Java emulators allows smooth, in-browser playback of literally thousands of old-school video games: 517 Atari titles, 148 for DOS, 636 Game Boy games (and 410 for Game Boy Color), 2,019 (!) NES titles, 238 GameGear games, 802 Sega Genesis titles, and 284 for the Sega Master System. Highlights include Space Invaders, Frogger, Galaga, Pitfall!, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, SimCity, Zero Wing, Duke Nukem, Sonic the Hedgehog, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, Pokemon, and Metal Gear Solid. Use the search function to find your favorites! You can also register an account to save games on emulators that support it. Make sure to check the purple bar below each game for control info and links to alternate emulators in case the default one is buggy or slow.
posted by Rhaomi on Nov 30, 2009 - 54 comments

The newly launched Atari.com includes the Atari Arcade, wherein you may play Adventure, Asteroids, Battlezone, Crystal Castles, Lunar Lander and Yars' Revenge in your browser.
posted by jbickers on Nov 23, 2009 - 37 comments

"So why bring up this sore spot in 2009, roughly 16 years after the Jaguar's ill-fated launch? Because as an artifact of video game history, the Jaguar speaks volumes about where we've been, where we are, and where we're going." Linking the past, present, and future: The Atari Jaguar as console artifact [more inside]
posted by joedan on Oct 10, 2009 - 33 comments

In 1977, Nolan Bushnell allowed Gene Landrum to bring Chuck E. Cheese [yt] to life as a family-friendly access point to Atari games. This, perhaps, explains the pizza. [more inside]
posted by batmonkey on Dec 31, 2008 - 17 comments

The video games of the 1983 Sears Wishbook
posted by empath on Dec 21, 2008 - 74 comments

Homesoft's Disk Images. 354 disks full of 8-bit Atari games. Click on game titles for screenshots. [more inside]
posted by milquetoast on Sep 23, 2008 - 13 comments

It's the 1981 Atari product catalog!
posted by mr_crash_davis on Apr 13, 2008 - 39 comments

Retro Sabotage is a collection of recreations of classic video games. Or is it? [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Feb 23, 2008 - 20 comments

In the ancient year 1982, Atari tried an unusual promotion strategy for their SwordQuest series of games. Using clues found in the included comic books, players competed for a chance to win actual jewel-encrusted treasures [geocities link] worth tens of thousands of dollars apiece. The competitions for the first two titles (Earthworld and Fireworld) were held, and the winners took home their gaudy prizes, but then came the infamous console crash. The third contest (Waterworld) was cancelled, the fourth game (Airworld) was never officially produced, the promotion was called off, and to this day, no one knows for certain the fate of the remaining treasures.
posted by Durhey on Apr 3, 2006 - 19 comments

Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03, 1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris. The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith on Feb 16, 2006 - 44 comments

Asteroids marathon. Twenty-seven hours of game play and it's only good for fifth place. "In the history of recorded video game world records, no other record is as unique as that on the classic Atari game 'Asteroids' according to the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard. And the reason for that is simple. It is the oldest, unbeaten world record in our database, after more than 22 years of compiling and tracking world records on classic arcade, home console, pinball, hand-held and PC-based titles."
posted by cedar on Apr 4, 2004 - 17 comments

Interested in video game emulators? Yearning for the games of yesteryear? There is probably an emulator for any 'classic' game that you could wish to play. General arcade emulators, SNES, NES, Genesis, Atari 2600, et al. For the truly curious, listen to the story of the emulator that almost was, Silhouette, the emulator Nintendo almost released.
posted by patrickje on May 13, 2002 - 32 comments

Get your Atari 2600 fix on the go! With six models, it beats the Game Boy Advance by a mile! Unfortunately, they're handmade and the backlog is fifty units long, so more impatient retro-gamers might want to stick with a Sega Nomad.
posted by tweebiscuit on Jul 9, 2001 - 6 comments

Yar's revenge: Mom plays video game with kids. Back when gaming companies advertised on TV, Atari was king.
posted by bison on May 14, 2001 - 9 comments

All you ever wanted to know about Pong, but were afraid to ask. Okay, I had no idea - none - that Pong has such a long, involved history. I'd always seen it encapsulated as a two- or three- generation buildup to the Atari 2600 home machine. David Winter has exhaustively researched the life & times of Pong (Internationally) for those interested.
posted by kokogiak on Mar 12, 2001 - 14 comments

And you thought the 2600 was dead... no way, baby. It's alive and kicking and oh-so-groovy. (Warning: link leads to big ass movie. Slow connections beware.)
posted by RakDaddy on Sep 26, 2000 - 9 comments

Atari Confidential Design Documents Now you too can read the hardware specification for Gauntlet. Add a C compiler or assembler and a dash of MAME and you can write your own game.
posted by plinth on Aug 15, 2000 - 1 comment