I just grabbed an atari 2600 and I was wondering if you could all list your top 50 games. I don’t have the paddle controlers, are they worth it? Anyone know where I can get component cables for this thing?
Also, I picked up a Atari Jaguar for a 14 hour canoe trip I’m taking. Any tips for games that are easy to play while paddling?
He’ll be here all week, folks!
I liked that game where you went to the bottom of a mine or something, and there was a giant spider on the very bottom that would chase you around. The music was an Atari 2600licious version of In The Hall of The Mountain King.
Yars’ Revenge is still the bizzomb, yo.
When I was really young I was totally into that Raiders of the Lost Ark game, but I have a feeling it is best left in the past, never to be revisited via emulation.
Xenophobe for the Lynx might be enjoyable. California Games as well.
As far as 2600 games, I would recommend Combat and Haunted House.
If you did get a Jaguar, Alien vs. Predator is the best game.
Jungle Hunt bitches. Recognize!
If you have 4 paddles and 4 people, Warlords is one of the greatest multiplayer experiences in videogame history. If you can get the paddles they are pretty much worth it for that alone.
Otherwise my fave 2600 games include:
Demon Attack
Keystone Kapers
Ms. Pac Man (a great port given the hardware, though obviously inferior to arcade-perfect versions that are easily obtainable nowadays)
Pitfall 2
Cosmic Ark
Dragonfire
Enduro. This game still has a unique “marathon” feeling with its day/night/weather cycle. By the time the sun starts to come up after a long race, you have a certain sense of accomplishment.
Oh yeah Jungle Hunt was pretty cool. Which reminds me of Pitfall 2, that game was far ahead of its time.
Chopper Command and River Raid were my favorites. I was going to say Rygar too, but I guess that was Nintendo.
Yeah Rygar was on the NES and the NES version of Rygar was absolutely nothing like the arcade version. The NES version was way better, IMO.
I played a Lynx version of Rygar which seemed similar to the arcade.
Pitfall.
Yar’s Revenge.
Adventure.
Those are the must-haves.
YES yes yes yes!
We get 6 or 7 people together for a Warlords (& beer) tournament every year or so. Best fucking 2600 game evar!
Warlords, with the paddles of course.
Yeah, Mountain King was the game. There was a way you could jump up out of the gameplay area to a jumble of ladders in the sky generated by the game’s own code.
I played that on the C64. The spider freaked me out, but not as much as the spider in Forbidden Forest.
Sea Quest!
MOuntain King? Is that the one where you had to grab the crown?
The Atari800 version was awesome. I remember that you could burn to death…
You had to find some invisible thing that would let you pass through fire, climb up on the crown’s skull guardian, grab the crown, and get back to the top of the mountain before “Hall of the Mountain King” stopped playing. There were bats that couldn’t touch you before you had the crown (?) but could kill you while you were trying to escape. It was frantic and fun.
The spider only came out if you fell into the bottom level. I think in the Atari 800 version (and presumably the c64 version) there was some kind of ladder down from the spider tunnel, but I don’t know where it led…?
Get ET for sure. It’s considered one of the high points of the era. It ushered in a new age for gaming.