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Atari 2600 Mini-Reviews Part 1 of 3
Ah Stella the old girl. The Atari 2600's code name was Stella. Thanks to to ZYirAH for the link to AtariAge.com
Pitfall for 2600
Ah now this is a classic. This game is a true 8-bit masterpiece. I used to love to play this game with my friends in the early 80s. You play a jungle adventurer who had to run across a jungle obstacle course with several traps in order to find treasure. The thing that really makes this game shine is the sorta of non-linear gameplay, the running, jumping and puzzle solving that would influence hundred of side scrolling platform action games to come. Jumping and swinging across a lake from a vine and having to cross a lake on the heads of hungry alligators brings back happy memories in gamers of old.
Q*Bert for 2600
This is a playable but unimpressive version of the classic arcade game. I used to love this game on the Colecovision and in the arcade. The 2600 version is playable but lacks the graphics and animation that really made the arcade game. But it is Q*Bert none the less.
Star Wars : The Empire Strikes Back for 2600
Ah 1982. that was back before George Lucas started to make StarWars suck. Empire is generally regarded as the best Star Wars film out there and the Atari 2600 game is pretty good for the day. It is the battle of Hoff where you have to fly around the imperial walkers and find their weak spot in their armor to blow them up. The game play is a bit like Defender.
Ms.Pac Man for 2600
I don't think that anyone is going to doubt the insane popularity of Pac Man on the 2600 but it is generally regarded as to have been rushed out of development in order to take advantage of the wave of Pacmania. Ms.Pac Man on the 2600 is how Pac Man could have been if the development staff had had enough time. It is a pretty good version of the game and delivers the most Pac Man gameplay on the 2600.
Jungle Hunt for 2600
Jungle Hunt is an arcade port that is pretty fun despite the questionable racial stereotypes. You play an English explorer who must first swing thorough the trees like Tarzan, then swim across an alligator filled river, then up a mountain with rolling logs to jump and finally you have to get around a "Witch Doctor" to rescue your British girlfriend. The comparison the Pitfall is inevitable and I still think that this can stand on it's own and contained some very early Super Mario Bros. style gameplay.
Joust for 2600
Midway's Joust is one of the true timeless classics of video games but the Atari 2600 port is a bit lacking in the sophistication and refined gameplay physics that made the arcade game such a classic. I mean it is Joust on the 2600 but it is a pretty hard scaled down version of Joust. But it still is quite fun to play just a bit frustrating.
Jake at December 30, 2003 
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Comments
Stella was the name of Joe Decuir's bicycle.
And it's Battle of HOTH (which was redone in Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Leader 2. A nice evolution :p)
Posted by: Matt at December 30, 2003 5:02 PM
Some good choices in atari games, I still have my 2600 and quite a few games for it too, another good game was donkey kong, oh and not to offend anyone but the atari was a 4 bit system, the nintendo was 8 though. Reading about all this makes me want to hook up the old thing :) sometime it's fun just to hook it up and play with some chums of mine, too bad they don't share the same passion for old school.
-Rob
Posted by: Rob at December 31, 2003 12:18 AM
Love those Memphis Design-inspired Activision box covers!
Posted by: Chris Norman at December 31, 2003 6:22 AM
(8-bit usually refers to Atari's line of computers - the 800 and 800XL among others. Also truly classic gaming platforms)
I loved Empire. It was cool when you turned invulnerable and just flew straight at the AT-AT heads mashing that big red button as fast as possible, then jamming the joystick the other way to start another pass.
The only bad part about that game was its seemingly unending gameplay.
You should try to pick up Yar's Revenge, that was another great game.
Posted by: Jeff at December 31, 2003 7:28 AM
I'm still waiting for the day Activision has the foresight to make a next-gen Activision classics remix of all their Atari 2600 games presented in a cel-shaded style to make them look like the old Activison box art. Just look at the covers of Megamania and Starmaster:
http://www.atariage.com/box_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=297
http://www.atariage.com/box_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=507
That would be a psychdelic tripfest.
Posted by: InsaneDavid at January 7, 2004 6:50 AM
Well I still need to get Activision collection on PS2. I was expecting that at Christamas but didn't get it.
Posted by: Jake at January 7, 2004 10:04 AM
