Kieren Hawken - The A-Z of Atari 2600 Games, Volume 1

The A-Z of

Atari 2600 Games

Volume 1

Kieren Hawken

Published in 2017 by

AG Books

www.agbooks.co.uk

Digital edition converted and distributed by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2017 Kieren Hawken

The right of Kieren Hawken to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

The opinions expressed herein belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AG Books or Andrews UK Limited.

Game screenshots are included in this publication legally under applicable fair use law which allows such material for the explicit purposes of commentary and criticism.

Introduction

The Atari 2600 is one of the greatest consoles of all time. First released in 1977, it took the world by storm and in turn created what we know as the video game industry today. From the iconic woodgrain of the first model to the futuristic silver strip of the last, the VCS, as it was originally known, had the longest life of any video games console ever - an incredible 15 years! There really is no understating the impact of this console and the games that people played on it. From the first game to sell a million, the legendary Space Invaders , to the very first licensed sports game, Pele Soccer , the catalogue is full of timeless classics.

In this book I take you through the life of the 2600 looking a varied cross section of the 600+ games available with a small review and screenshot of each one. This is not a list of the best games, a list of the worst or indeed a complete guide to whats available. The A-Z of Atari 2600 Games Volume 1 is just that, the first volume of my look at a selection of VCS games in alphabetical order. There are three games featured for each letter and these range from the earliest released, to modern homebrews and even unreleased prototypes. Hopefully this book gives you some inspiration to try games youve never played before or bulk up your personal collection. You might even find it generates the same amount of nostalgia for you that I had writing it. Most of all though I hope you enjoy reading it and remember what makes the Atari 2600 so great.

Kieren Hawken

February 2017

A

Acid Drop

Salu - 1992

Back in the early nineties the 2600 was finally on its last legs after the longest life of any video games console ever. Thanks to Ataris revival of the machine for the budget market in the late 80s, with the 2600 Jr., a number of new games were released for the system. In 1992, some 15 years after the original release of the 2600, the German part of Activision, Salu, released Acid Drop , a pretty much direct rip-off of the popular Sega arcade game Columns . For those who have never played Columns its a pretty simple puzzle game that many people tend to compare (somewhat wrongly in my opinion) to the classic Tetris. Where in Tetris you have to drop shapes into the pit to make lines in Columns and Acid Drop you must drop coloured blocks into the pit and match them up with others to make them disappear. You drop the blocks in groups of three in vertical alignment and must match three or more in a vertical or horizontal line to make them vanish. The fire button lets you switch the order of the colours. This is a great puzzle game for the system that is extremely addictive, but I do suggest you turn the volume down as the music is horrible.

9/10

Asteroids

Atari - 1981

Developed by the now legendary Ed Logg, Asteroids is officially the most popular arcade game ever produced by Atari. The original coin-op was one of the first games to feature vector graphics and involved you shooting big space rocks into oblivion. You could thrust your spacecraft around the screen and if it went off one side it came back on the other, this technique became known as wrap-around. You also had a handy hyperspace button to get you out of trouble where your ship would disappear and then re-appear in a random place on the screen. Each time you shot a rock it would split into smaller one which would move much faster, after enough shots they vanish completely. Due to the limitations of the VCS the vector graphics have been swapped for big colourful, if a bit blocky, rasters, but you will still recognise it. This version has an incredible 66 different game variations to choose from including big ships, small ships, vanishing rocks, hyper speed and multi-player modes among others which only adds to the already great gameplay. Atari 2600 Asteroids is also very common, so there really is no excuse not to own it!

8/10

Air-Sea Battle

Atari - 1981

One of the earliest titles from Atari, Air-Sea Battle is also an updated conversion of an even earlier Atari arcade game. There are six basic types of game available here and for each of these there are several different variations, giving a total of 27 individual play modes. In each of the games the first variant is the standard game, the second features guided missiles and the last one pits a single player against a computer opponent. The object of each game is simple, to shoot down as many targets as you can and achieve the highest score possible. Each game last about 2 minutes so after that time the player with the highest score wins the spoils. It is also possible to win the game by reaching 99 points before the time is up. Air Sea Battle has fairly simple graphics but its use of colour makes it a lot more interesting than many of the other early releases. The sound is also quite basic but features all the booms and bangs you would expect in a shooting game. Despite its age this game is still pretty good fun to play and offers both a good one and two player experience. Out of the first generation of 2600 games this is definitely one of the best.

7/10

B

Bobby Is Going Home

Bit Corporation - 1983

Atari 2600 games by companies from Taiwan usually fall into one of two categories: pirates or awful crap. So I was pretty shocked to find that this game is neither! No doubt the title of the game has given the plot away, you must get Bobby home! To do this you simply have to guide him through seven levels of platform action. Bobbys world is like a cartoon - full of bright colours, flowers, animals and little houses. However its not all sugar and sweet as all the other beings that inhabit this world dont seem to like little Bobby very much and would like nothing better than to stop him getting home. One touch from an enemy and you lose one of your five lives, the same if you fall down one of the many holes. Graphically BGH is quite blocky but the clever design and use of colour make it look rather nice. In the sound department we are treated to some pretty good effects and even some in-game music, not something we hear very often on the 2600! It also plays pretty well for the most part, but some people might get a bit frustrated by the need to really perfect your jumps. Its no Super Mario , but overall BGH is a really solid platformer for the 2600.