We’ll wrap up this presentation of the games in Atari Flashback Classics vols. 1 and 2 by looking at the rest of the 2600 games on vol. 2.  Like last time, I’ll only go over each game briefly, because there are so many games here.  And also because I don’t have as many good memories playing 2600 games as a kid because our first gaming systems in our house were an Apple computer and an Atari 5200.

Adventure

A lot of people hold this game in high regard, but I don’t really remember playing it as a kid, so I don’t have that same regard that others do.  It is one of the first games to have an Easter Egg in it, and there’s even an exhibit about it at the National Videogame Museum.

Atari Video Cube

You can tell this came out during the popularity of Rubik’s Cube in the 80’s.  You know that Rubik’s Cube was so popular back then, there was even a Saturday Morning cartoon about it?  Yeah, really, no lie.  Go look it up.  Anyway, I think I would’ve really liked this game as a kid.  You move a little man around a Rubik’s style cube, and you can change the color of any panel on one side.  But when you do, you’ll change to that color and can’t pass any other panels of the same color.  You win when you ‘solve’ the puzzle like a Rubik’s Cube.  The 3D effect on the graphics was pretty good for the 2600, and I kind of liked this game, even if it was a little stupid.

Basic Math

Nothing’s more fun than practicing addition, subtraction, and multiplication on your 2600.  Yeah buddy. (PS I hate math)

Brain Games

Apparently at some point, the Atari 2600 got a number pad like the Intellivision had.  You get a little number pad to view on the screen, and can do various games like Simon and such.

Casino

I swear, card games on the 2600 were so cumbersome and hard to figure out.  There was a card game that my cousins had on their Intellivision that was much better than this.

Championship Soccer

In this soccer game, the players look like fleas.  And it’s really hard.

Codebreaker

Another number pad game.  Nothing’s more fun than mashing random numbers.  I think pressing numbers on my phone and seeing who I dialed sounds more fun.

Concentration

This number pad game has a grid with numbers on the screen, but I couldn’t figure it out.  I guess I wasn’t concentrating enough.

Demons to Diamonds

This shooter game reminds me of something Activision would’ve done on the 2600.

Double Dunk

It’s a basketball game, but you view the field half-court, with the basket in the middle.  So it’s more of a one-on-one hoops kind of thing.

Flag Capture

I think this is supposed to be like Minesweeper.  I never liked that game much either.

Golf

Oh my gosh this game is horrible.  Maybe worse than Miniature Golf.  How are you supposed to know where to hit the ball?

Hangman

I think I would’ve liked this game as a kid, because I liked to play pen and paper hangman with friends when I was little.

Haunted House

I never really got the point of this game.  You’re a pair of eyes and run through a maze and can shine a light and sometimes a ghost comes out.

Maze Craze

Another game I probably would’ve liked as a kid since I loved to do those mazes in activity books as a child.  It kind of reminds me of that snail maze game on the SEGA Master System.

Night Driver

This is a port of the old arcade game and it’s really hard.  Whoever would name themselves after this game online must be really goofy (just joking).

Off the Wall

It’s really just a fancier version of Breakout, with better graphics and more rules to keep up with.

Outlaw

My uncle had this game on his 2600, and I don’t know if it was because of the cowboy motif, but I really liked playing it with him as a kid.

Realsports Baseball

I’ve played three different versions of 2600 Baseball on these collections, and none of them is the one I remember playing at my uncle’s house as a kid!

Realsports Basketball

It’s not that much more realistic than the basketball game on the other collection volume, but you do get to move two people in tandem in this one.

Realsports Tennis

I never really got the point of most video game tennis titles.  It’s just glorified Pong.

Return to Haunted House

They just reskinned Adventure for this one and that’s it.

Secret Quest

You can tell this came out way later on the 2600, and it was definitely in response to the NES Zelda game.  It’s actually pretty decent for what it is, although it’s a bit confusing if you don’t read the rules.

Sentinel

This was actually a light gun game on the 2600!  But since you can’t use a light gun here, you move a cursor around instead, so it’s much harder to play.

Sky Diver

Two players drop people out of planes and open the chutes and try to steer them on a target on the ground for points.

Space War

You know how one of the first arcade games was just two ships from Asteroids shooting each other?  Well this is that game on the 2600.

Star Ship

It’s another one of those cockpit view first-person spaceship shooting games, except here the enemies are easier to see and they ditched the radar.

Stellar Track

Well you enter in numbers on a grid and that’s all I could figure out.

Street Racer

You know those old games where you’re a race car on a vertical stretch of road viewed in top down fashion and must steer left and right to avoid other cars?  Well that’s what this is.

Surround

It’s Snake.  Or Snafu on the Intellivision.  Or TRON light cycles.  I hope you know what I’m talking about now.

Video Checkers

Activision’s version of 2600 checkers was better than this.

Video Chess

It was a video game that taught me how to play chess.  Does anyone remember Battle Chess?  I learned how to play chess so I could see all the animations of the pieces in that game.  You know what else I learned from Battle Chess?  I learned that I don’t like playing chess.

Video Pinball

A neighbor had this game on their 2600, and I remember playing it all the time as a kid.  I loved that game, which I can’t figure out why because it’s just a bad pinball game using Adventure graphics.  But I loved it as a kid anyway!

And those are all the games!  Thanks for reading!  –Cary

Tags: Misc