Console Debate #19 Atari 2600

[Nintegageo | 582]

Actually, even though I stand with no interest in playing it - I do think that the new company with the old devs is pretty neat.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Nintegageo

[DefaultGen | 5,407]

7... 8... 9 for historical interest??? Atari games are some of the only console games I've ever gone back to playing for score. NES kind of aged out of score based games pretty quickly and most other old consoles have bad versions of arcade games or just kind of suck.

It is hard to rate because it blows basically anything out of the water for almost a decade on either side of its release, but I don't think the tippy top best games stack up to most newer consoles. I'll go with 7.

Some of my favorite games are Pitfall, Pitfall II, HERO, Kaboom, Warlords, Seaquest, and Megamania. It says a lot that ONE of those isn't an Activision game I guess.

[rdrunner | 422]

5/10 - My first ever console, fun while it lasted, but ultimately discarded and forgotten when I got my NES.  One of the few consoles I've ever owned and decided to get rid of.  Caveat: I have PS2 discs with Atari/Activision games in case I change my mind (which I have yet to actually play).

Edited March 12, 2021 by rdrunner

[JamesRobot | 5,803]

The Atari was the fucking man.  Def in the conversation of greatest consoles of all time and in the running for my personal top 2 pick.  I have more games for it than any other system except the Nintendo.

Plus it has the best game artwork of any system.  That's no opinion either.  Straight facts.

And paddle games rule.  I'm looking at you Kaboom!  The biggest mistake in gaming is not continuing that format.  All systems should come with paddle controls.  

As a matter of fact, I would have bought the new VCS if the paddle controller was an option.  Oh well, ya done fucked up, Atari.

So yeah, a big 9 for the Atari.

[Webhead123 | 678]

Before the NES came along, I was an Atari kid. I have lots of nostalgia for it. But beyond that, I suppose I'm fortunate enough to be able to still enjoy Atari games even today.

Yes, there are as many games for the console that are absolutely NOT worth playing today but there are some genuinely good, classic titles that have an ageless sort of appeal. Activision is responsible for many of the very best offerings on the 2600 but there are many others out there as well.

I no longer have an original console but I have the Flashback 2 currently hooked up to my game room TV (just played a bit of it 2 weeks ago, actually) and I also have an Atari emulator on my PC.

If I let myself be blinded by nostalgia, I'd give it a 10...but I'll be a bit more restrained and call it an 8.

[DefaultGen | 5,407]

15 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

The Atari was the fucking man.  Def in the conversation of greatest consoles of all time and in the running for my personal top 2 pick.  I have more games for it than any other system except the Nintendo.

Plus it has the best game artwork of any system.  That's no opinion either.  Straight facts.

And paddle games rule.  I'm looking at you Kaboom!  The biggest mistake in gaming is not continuing that format.  All systems should come with paddle controls.  

As a matter of fact, I would have bought the new VCS if the paddle controller was an option.  Oh well, ya done fucked up, Atari.

So yeah, a big 9 for the Atari.

Atari is like, you want to play some CHECKERS? It's gonna be with a god damn KING. LOOK AT HIS SMUG FACE, YOU JUST GOTTA BEAT HIM. And you're gonna have a FINE PRINCESS at your side cheering you on!

Are you ready to play some VIDEO CHESS? I don't think you are because you are competing with HALF-MAN, HALF SPACE MACHINE

Nintendo is like are you ready for the BEST ZELDA GAME EVER MADE? Here's the logo on a blank background.

Edited March 12, 2021 by DefaultGen

[fox | 1,667]

Gaming distilled to its purest form.  Atari is great for approachable pick up and play gaming.  A library of iconic titles, especially the Activision stuff and some spiffy home brew titles.  Sure the pixels are as big as cats, so you need to use your imagination a bit, but there is some charm to the blocky aesthetic.

For Christmas with no suggestion from me, my cousin’s kid asked for an Atari. Pretty cool that she would be interested these days in a console clearly before her time.  So I gave her my heavy sixer and nice collection of games I’d built up over the years.  Her mom is the one who got me into gaming, so things came full circle.

[JamesRobot | 5,803]

20 minutes ago, rdrunner said:

I have PS2 discs with Atari/Activision games in case I change my mind (which I have yet to actually play).

Not the same.  And you haven't played them because you don't have a joystick or paddle controllers for the PS2.

[Tulpa | 3,509]

My favorite developer for the system is Imagic. They always had colorful sprites and interesting gameplay. Atlantis, Cosmic Ark, Fathom, Subterranea, Laser Gates.

Activision, Atari themselves, CBS Electronics, and M-Network had some good games, too.

[Strange | 1,700]

It’s a crime that Yar’s Revenge didn’t get an NES version

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

3 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

And paddle games rule.  I'm looking at you Kaboom!  The biggest mistake in gaming is not continuing that format.  All systems should come with paddle controls.  

Yeah, this is why I keep my Atari around; the joystick kinda blows, but the paddle is a thing of beauty, and Kaboom is one of the top 10 greatest games ever made... ever  - I mean really, is there a better twitch game out there?  You literally have to become one with the paddle controller to get anywhere pionts-wise.  I do like HERO and a few other Activision games too, but like many other collectors, I trimmed down from 400+ carts to about twenty a few years ago... just keeping the essentials from here on out...

[elprincipe | 142]

9.

Big fan of the VCS and I have tons of early childhood memories relating to it. I understand why many can't get into the games since they are mostly very simple, but for me this is often a feature not a bug - it's easy to pick up and play a complete game in seconds or a few minutes. Games mostly moved away from this as consoles became more powerful and arcades waned, but the VCS is a wonderland if you like to play games for score, for example. I can still remember "popping the machine" (i.e. having the score roll over to 0) in Space Invaders several times during a game.

Another thing the VCS does very well is there are TONS of games to choose from, and since it was an era of experimentation and few sequels there were some really odd concepts. Sure, many of them failed and are not worth playing, but some became classics or are quirky fun.

As @Tulpa mentioned, Imagic produced some of the very best games for the system and they are also my favorite VCS developer, even ahead of the excellent Activision. Cosmic Ark by Imagic is my favorite game, still incredible to play today. Imagic's Dragonfire, Fathom, and Atlantis are always a ton of fun. There are pick up and play 2-player games that will always please for a few rounds such as Air-Sea Battle, Frogs and Flies, Fishing Derby, and Combat. And single-player games like River Raid, Kaboom, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall, and many, many others are excellent.

One thing I don't like about the VCS is the joystick. Many experiences of cramped hands, even as a child, when playing for long periods of time! That's why I use a Genesis controller for playing VCS games these days for the most part, which you can do with no special adapter - just plug it in!

I do think everyone should give the VCS a try. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing, but if you can get into quick and simple games with simple graphics, you can have a lot of fun with it. I've played with younger relatives and they enjoyed it - you might too!

 

[mbd39 | 2,024]

2 minutes ago, elprincipe said:

As @Tulpa mentioned, Imagic produced some of the very best games for the system and they are also my favorite VCS developer, even ahead of the excellent Activision. Cosmic Ark by Imagic is my favorite game, still incredible to play today. Imagic's Dragonfire, Fathom, and Atlantis are always a ton of fun. There are pick up and play 2-player games that will always please for a few rounds such as Air-Sea Battle, Frogs and Flies, Fishing Derby, and Combat. And single-player games like River Raid, Kaboom, Yars' Revenge, Pitfall, and many, many others are excellent.

 

 

Oh man, Cosmic Ark was one of my favorites as a kid. It had a nice sense of progress with the different alien shapes. I wanted to get to the next level to see what the next ones look like. I think at some point it loops but I never got far enough.

[Tulpa | 3,509]

I love that Atlantis had the little ship fly away in the end that became the scout ship in Cosmic Ark.

 

 

[hyrulevyse | 151]

I gave it a 3.  I'd never deny it it's place in history but I was an intellivision kid and even then I thought Atari sucked.

[Sumer | 221]

14 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

The Atari was the fucking man.  Def in the conversation of greatest consoles of all time and in the running for my personal top 2 pick.  I have more games for it than any other system except the Nintendo.

Plus it has the best game artwork of any system.  That's no opinion either.  Straight facts.

And paddle games rule.  I'm looking at you Kaboom!  The biggest mistake in gaming is not continuing that format.  All systems should come with paddle controls.  

As a matter of fact, I would have bought the new VCS if the paddle controller was an option.  Oh well, ya done fucked up, Atari.

So yeah, a big 9 for the Atari.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Sumer

[JeremiahJT | 75]

As this is my favorite system of all-time I gave it the 10. The 7800 was actually my first system, but thanks the backwards compatibility I bought 2600 games concurrently with 7800 and NES games through the late '80s and even into the early '90s when I added a Lynx and a Genesis.

It has plenty of games I consider top notch. Like others have said the paddle controllers are great, but I am not a Kaboom! fan. My favorite paddle games include Breakout, Video Olympics, Warlords, Super Breakout, Tac-Scan, and Circus Atari. Indy 500 with the driving controller is also great.

Some of my favorite joystick games are Pitfall!, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Montezuma's Revenge, Q*bert, Frogger, Omega Race, Spy Hunter, Wizard of Wor, Atlantis, Star Raiders, Starmaster, Star Voyager, and well this list goes on and on.

An easy perfect 10 for me.

Also has the best Superman game ever made.

[mbd39 | 2,024]

2 hours ago, JeremiahJT said:

As this is my favorite system of all-time I gave it the 10. The 7800 was actually my first system, but thanks the backwards compatibility I bought 2600 games concurrently with 7800 and NES games through the late '80s and even into the early '90s when I added a Lynx and a Genesis.

It has plenty of games I consider top notch. Like others have said the paddle controllers are great, but I am not a Kaboom! fan. My favorite paddle games include Breakout, Video Olympics, Warlords, Super Breakout, Tac-Scan, and Circus Atari. Indy 500 with the driving controller is also great.

Some of my favorite joystick games are Pitfall!, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Montezuma's Revenge, Q*bert, Frogger, Omega Race, Spy Hunter, Wizard of Wor, Atlantis, Star Raiders, Starmaster, Star Voyager, and well this list goes on and on.

An easy perfect 10 for me.

Also has the best Superman game ever made.

I think the original arcade Superman was the best, but that's not saying much.

Omega Race was such a cool game that I had as a kid. Unfortunately the special controller broke so I couldn't play it any more. Controllers for the Atari 2600 seemed flimsy. I also had paddles break and I wasn't especially rough with them.

 

 

[Tulpa | 3,509]

9 hours ago, JeremiahJT said:

Also has the best Superman game ever made.

That actually is a pretty good Superman game. Especially considering when it was released.

[Tanooki | 4,934]

I never had one, had friends with them.  Oldest machine we had was my mom and her friend had one too, the fairchild channel F which is slightly older.  Oddly enough I found that system more fun than the 2600.  The 2600 was pure mediocrity in a sea of few better choices, other than the arcade.  Given the choice, I rather woudl do the arcade because often they looked so blocky and sounded so bad years later it didn't surprise me (internet period of the 90s) to learn about the great video game crash they caused because the thing fairly well more often than not sucked.  I rated it as mediocre, because you can and others including themselves (5200) done far worse.  It has a few unique non-arcade titles that are fairly good stuff working around its lacking capabilities.  There's good reason why when people look back to make retro games, indie this or that, the clothes, sounds, art they look to the NES, because you had a jump to where things made sense of what they were just seeing them, and the 2600 didn't.

[RpgCollector | 900]

This was my first console and started my love of video games. I played pitfall, jungle hunt, raiders of the lost ark, pressure cooker, enduro and keystone kapers for hours.

[peg | 372]

Tough for me to rate it. Most of the games are unplayable trash but then I have to remind myself that things like the n64 and wii also exist and despite decades of advances in technogy are somehow far worse.  

 

5/10.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

1 hour ago, peg said:

Tough for me to rate it. Most of the games are unplayable trash but then I have to remind myself that things like the n64 and wii also exist and despite decades of advances in technogy are somehow far worse.  

 

5/10.

Haha!  There you are; what took you so long?  This thread is like two days old already!!!  On a more serious note, though, when the time comes for these guys to finally do the NES poll, if you prance in with all your "utter trash, worst system ever made, most almighty garbage console on earth" schtick, I will hunt you down........

[Strange | 1,700]

Isn’t the notion that Atari single-handedly caused the video game crash kind of... incorrect? I had always heard it was a number of factors, primarily being a large number of available consoles, a plethora of titles for these various consoles with no regulation on quality, etc. and so consumer confidence in the medium plummeted

[fox | 1,667]

@Strange

Video games = Atari to many people.  Atari was king in the late 70s and early 80s.  It came out in 1977 and had a good run, but by 1983, it was showing its age and time to retire.  Lots of other consoles on the market, but no clear successor to the throne.

Yeah some high profile bad late releases by Atari and dubious 3rd party doesn’t help, but I think interest was already waning in the product line six years in.  The whole idea of generations wasn’t a thing yet and no console is evergreen.  It was easy to write video games as a whole off as a “fad” and time to move onto the next big thing.