The Greatest Console Games of All Time! (Atari 2600 Edition)

[MGibster]

It's been so long since I've played some of these that I'm glad the order does't matter.

1. Yar's Revenge - I even owned the little storybook with the record read-a-long. This game was awesome.
2. Pitfall - Ba-duh-da-da-ah-ah.
3. Jungle Hunt
4. Q-Bert (^%$#)
5. Dig Dug
6. Breakout
7. Combat
8. Space Invaders
9. River Raid
10. Demon Attack

 

[Scribe]

9. River Raid

Yeah, this was the one I played the most.

 

[Thourne]

was there a 2600 game called tubbin or something like that or was that a later console?
Was drifting down a river on an tire tube dodging things, if I remember correctly?

Edit: I found the info online. Turns out it was an Atari Arcade game but it was NES console.

 

[Maxperson]

Am I the only one who really liked Pong!?

 

[MGibster]

Am I the only one who really liked Pong!?

Pong is just table tennis, and I think most people at least had a few minutes of fun playing against other people.

 

[James Gasik]

I remember really liking Krull, Pitfall 2, and Journey: Escape.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I started on Pong, and the 2600 is the console I played the most for the longest. In no particular order, my major games were:

Yar’s Revenge
Atlantis
Dragonfire
Pitfall
Missile Command
Breakout
Adventure
Berzerk
Combat
Warlords
Defender
Vanguard
Space Invaders
Asteroids
Football
Soccer
Indy 500
Basketball
Baseball
Chess

Mom was addicted to playing Circus, but only to make the clown go splat.

Dad was a Missile Command junkie. If the MC cartridge had been able to save high scores, his initials would have been the entire Top 10 list. And Chess was probably his #2 game after that.

Some of the others we had:

Stampede
Canyon Bomber
Fishing Derby
Laser Blast
Centipede
Galaxians
Phoenix

 

[JEB]

A used Atari 2600 was the first console I owned (unless you count my parents' attempt to buy me off with the Action Max). Buying the Atari 2600 also, by coincidence, introduced me to one of my best childhood friends (since he'd previously owned it).

My top 10 Atari 2600 games, in alphabetical order:

• Alien: A Pac-Man rip-off, except you're being hunted by Xenomorphs and you can pick up a gun. Didn't own as a kid, introduced to it at MAGFest.
• Asteroids: Pretty solid port of the arcade game, and one of my faves as a kid.
• Battlezone: Another arcade port, played as an adult.
• Berzerk: Introduced to this by a friend as an adult, as it was one of his favorites. Now it's close to the top of my personal ranking, too.
• Dark Chambers: The only Atari 2600 game I got off the shelf when it was new (all my other cartridges as a kid were secondhand). This is basically a low-end take on Gauntlet, but still pretty satisfying.
• Dig Dug: Probably my number one Atari 2600 game as a kid, though I prefer the arcade version now.
• Donkey Kong: The graphics were weird to me even as a kid, but I was happy to be able to play it.
• Kaboom!: A fast-paced reflex-based game where you try and catch bombs. Another I was introduced to at MAGFest as an adult, when I watched a veteran player kick butt in it.
• River Raid: First played this as an adult (I believe in an Activision collection), this is a pretty good scrolling shooter (probably one of the first, at least on home consoles).
• Space Invaders: Another solid arcade port, and another childhood fave.

Honorable mention:

• Pac-Man. Infamously bad port, but as a kid, I enjoyed just having it.
• Atlantis: I recall liking this (or something like it) as a kid, but not sure I played it on the Atari 2600.

 

[Mad_Jack]

2. Combat (1977).
3. Adventure (1980).
4. Yars' Revenge (1982)
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982).
6. Pitfall! (1982).
10. Atlantis (1982)

Dragonfire
Missile Command
Berzerk

These were my favorites, to which I'd also add Chopper Command, Sea Quest and Frostbite...

I broke at least four joysticks playing Frostbite, and was so good at it that the damn game couldn't respond as fast as my reflexes, lol.

I once played a single game of Yar's Revenge for EIGHT HOURS, and had maxed out the number of lives I could have and rolled over the score at least eight times. My friend Sal ate my dinner for me after my mom threatened to turn the game off if I didn't eat.
Eventually she came into the room and "accidentally" hit the wall switch that controlled power to the side of the room where the tv was instead of the actual light switch next to it...

Despite not having owned a 2600 since my original one broke so many decades ago, I currently own copies of Pitfall!, Yar's Revenge, Combat, Sea Quest, Pac Man and Raiders of the Lost Ark... Just because.

 

[Sacrosanct]

We had an intellivision as well, and we looked down upon you inferior graphics and controller using Ataris

My favorite intellivision games were triple threat, dark stalker, football, and a naval battle game I’m misremembering.