20 Atari 2600 Games Released after NES Launched
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- Опубліковано 24 сер 2024
- Atari 2600 were making first-party games for 13 years. Along the way we saw the NES come out and, when that happened, Atari still kept pumping away at these releases on the 2600. Here's a look at 20 of them + 2 bonus games.
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N64 Games after Game Cube launched - ua-cam.com/video/DKUaypQUiLk/v-deo.html
SNES games released after N64 launched ua-cam.com/video/vmn3EzSiJpY/v-deo.html
NES games released after SNES launched ua-cam.com/video/Yf1KXPvxYWY/v-deo.html
Master Systems games released after Genesis launched ua-cam.com/video/SsUNRh3_FVE/v-deo.html
Pppp
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I had both and they were awesome 😎👍
I would have the same commentary about California games😂
It’s really impressive how the programmers learned how to squeeze every drop of performance out of the ancient hardware of the 2600!
Same goes for every console.
When you know the tech limits of the system it really is amazing, the 2600 in particular is like NO other system that came after it. 0 concept of putting things on an "x-y" coordinate. it's all timing your code against the laser of the CRT.
@@Tofu3435nope. Nothing was pushed farther than the 2600. It’s not even close.
@@garb7477yes… for those that know the hardware and tech it’s phenomenal. So primitive and limited and yet open-ended.
I loved my 2600, then was a full supporter of the 5200. But... when I got my NES, I didn't look back for years. Now I absolutely love the retro atari stuff.
As a retro collector I'm intrigued by the 5200. I would say it's on par or even better than it's Colecovision competitor. Some games like Centipede or Kangaroo are near arcade quality. However the faulty controllers discourage me from buying one
@@pinebarrenpatriot8289 The 5200 was such a step above the 2600. If you get the Atari 50th, it has some games from every system. I was very happy to see it. For me, it was more just a time of life that my games really carried me through, and at that time, it was the 5200. Just great memories of it! and I absolutely LOVED the controller! (yes, they broke quite a bit.. but when they worked, they worked so well!).
I'm 59 and never heard of NES lol
I played a few games on relatives' NES, like Super Mario Bros. and Xenophobe, but it didn't impress me enough to buy the system. I became more interested in PC games for a couple years.
That's cool. I was playing PC back then as well. Just lots of good stuff all over.@@sandal_thong8631
Dark Chambers was actually an updated version of a game called Dandy Dungeon by John Palevich (who, at the time was an acquaintance of mine in the silicon valley APX) that came out through the Atari Program Exchange (APX) for the Atari 400-800 series. It then was picked up by Atari and became Dark Chambers on the 2600 and the 7800. And finally it came out in the arcades as Gauntlet. So that would explain the Gauntlet feel of the game.
Awesome piece of history!
Thanks for sharing.
@@ManelyLion My pleasure. The history of a lot of our favorite games can be quite unique and fun to know.
Gauntlet came out in '85 and predates Dark Chambers by a few years.
I remember loving Gauntlet, and when DC was later announced thinking how awesome it was going to be because it was like Gauntlet.
@@GeneSimmonsBoots Dark Chambers was released under the name "Dandy" in 1983.
@@DarksladeDiaries yes, I know the history. But you said "finally it was released in the arcade as Gauntlet." All I said was Gauntlet preceded Dark Chambers, not the other way around.
How did you miss Solaris? It is a red-label game (1986), a cousin to Radar Lock, and also a pseudo-sequel to Star Raiders. It's probably the best game on the 2600.
Hear, hear! Great video otherwise. :)
I had a NES when Solaris came out & it was so good that I actually went back to playing the 2600 for awhile. I would put Solaris above many NES games actually.
I really love the look of late-era 2600 games. Because the console's graphics system is so different from other 80s consoles, it developed its own wholly unique vibe with all the raster colors and H-interrupt effects. BTW, I think you were a bit hard on Fatal Run. It's arguably the best racer on the system, and has a lot going for it once you learn how to play it. (Although many people prefer the 7800 version.)
I totally agree. Another thing that gives 2600 games their unique look is it had a very high color palette compared to NES and it looks like devs were comfortable changing color per scanline in a lot of these. That would’ve been technically possible on NES but wasn’t done to create the 2600-type gradients you see so often probably because of the limited palette
Guess John doesn't count Solaris, though it released a year after the NES - and it's one of the best 2600 games.
Fatal Run is my favorite game on this list. Pole Position always will be my favorite Atari game. May be why I like Fatal Run so much.
Atari fan here. The 2600 Jr was my very first console ever received: it was a gift from my neighbour in 1991/92, a used model. I remember all these games specifically.
My first ever TV game ever played was the 2600 Centipede, if I'm not wrong. At that time I was a fan of Xenophobe, it was "the Alien game" in my mind.
Back in the day, despite being just a little child I knew already that the 2600 wasn't exaclty the top console of its era but my parents were not so rich, so I cared a lot about it.
It was something like a PS5 for me, ahahah! It's still with me.
Love the VCS/2600.
This is one of my favorite series you’ve done. Great idea!
I still love Atari. I have over 200 games for the 2600. I've got three consoles(Sears Heavy 6, Vader, Sears Video Arcade 2). But I also have the 5200, 7800, and 3 different 8 bit Atari computers. Huge Atari fan. Love to see new stuff I don't have and haven't played. Thanks for sharing this.
Dark Chambers is so good. The 7800 version is pretty great also.
Atari, nes, gameboy (original/pocket/color, DS, and 3ds are systems that are really special to me. Each for different reasons but i will NEVER tire of watching content about them
I like both nes and atari. They are both fun systems.
Both both
@@carlsullivan8861 ?.
The NES Power Set was my first console that I got for X-Mas of 89. I did also get an Atari 2600 (the brown 4-Switcher) as a hand-me-down from my older cousins when they moced overseas. The Atari 2600 was fun to play every now and then but only for about an hour. The NES wS head-and-shoulders above the 2600 in game quality...there's really no comparison.
Sure. One of the best consoles versus one of the worst.
@@gizaha Ur mom is the worst console
I'm glad this video mentions Jr. Pacman. It's personally my favorite Atari 2600 game but doesn't seem to get mentioned as much as other good Atari games.
Midnight Magic looks really good for its time.
I also didn't get an NES for a years so I was kinda used to my 2600. When I saw Double Dragon in the thumbnail I was dreading how it would look. It was actually a lot less blocky than I imagined. When it comes to Double Dragon playing the Arcade version years later I actually prefer the NES game. My favourite 2600 game that I owned was Moon Patrol.
You preferred the 2600 Double Dragon to the arcade? You can't mean that, lol. Agreed on Moon Patrol -- it was both fun and challenging.
The nes game I never played the 2600 version. @@speedgriffon2504
I had Midnight Magic growing up. Lots of memories.
Love this topic! Fascinating era of gaming history. Atari games around this time we’re really pushing the old relic console!
just bumping your algorithm, great channel! nice to see some 2600 action
Pretty amazing that Atari was releasing games for the 2600 after the Sega Genesis came out.
Maybe do PS1 games released after PS2 launched. There's like a treasure trove of 'em.
Really impressed by the Epyx "Games" series, especially the graphics in California Games. I guess the only major concession is the simplified BMX round, the 2600 would probably struggle with the larger bike going along the beach front like in other versions, but it still looks like a lot of fun. I will take a look :-)
It had all 6 games, 2 were missing from lynx version v
The Atari was a great system, brought lots of us joy.
I still love it.
@@JohnRiggs Well fine,go ahead n be that way then. Some people's kids...
Great video John. I have been really enjoying this series of videos.
Great video. I love all three, NES, 2600, and 7800. The 7800 deserved so much more love.
The sound and the controllers killed it
@@patsfan4life maybe, but both issues have since been remedied. I personally have no problems with the joystick controller. After using the 5200 one, the 7800 joystick is awesome. I found that holding the joystick controller completely sideways eliminates hand cramping, and makes it actually useful.
Dark Chambers is still a favorite of mine.
For more great games of the era you sould check Doble Dunk and Solaris.
I think doing a front-wheel wheelie on a bike is called an "endo." Love the channel!
i subcribed bc you don't spend 10 seconds telling us about it and you got good content! Cheer brother!
Really like this series. Plenty that I wouldn’t have guessed came out after the nes considering how many people I knew had them.
I did have to check if my playback speed was set to 1.5 though… it wasn’t. 😅
I loved my 2600, all that wood grained goodness
Solaris was a good one from 1986, and BMX Airmaster in 1989.
4:02: The crest.
Solaris, Commando and RealSports Boxing came out in the late 80s. I remember buying those in the store.
Secret quest was supposed to be the 2600 answer to Zelda and was programmed by Nolan Bushnell supposedly (there's some evidence that he did very little on the project). You can learn more in one of the issues of Atarian from the late 80s
That's how my progression went for sure. 2600-NES-Tg16
I really liked California games on the 2600, and played the 2600 version after buying it for the C64. I never owned it, but I borrowed it from a buddy a lot. The game play was unique enough to make it fun, especially the BMX event.
There is a lot more going on with Fatal Run than you might realize - the premise of the game is that it is a post-apocalyptic world - you are racing to deliver a vaccine to different cities. The other cars are attempting to ram you off the road and destroy you. The fire button actually fires a machine gun to shoot at the other cars. The faster you complete the level the more medical supplies you deliver and the more lives you save. You can also earn power ups to upgrade your vehicle. It is the only 32K cartridge released for the 2600 - it actually also has a save feature - as you play through the levels you receive code letters - this allows you to “resume” a previous game by entering the code on the title screen
Interesting about the 32k - and amazing compared to the avg size of 4k for most games
I loved Midnight Magic! Bought it when it came out and played it way more than I should have.
Yeah, it's actually pretty good - very fast for the time! The "Red Label" games that came out later in the lifespan are among the best for the system.
Some games are graphically really impressive on the 2600 system🙏😁
Personal favorite for the ARARI 2600 was "PAC MAN" - extra lives for every level cleared.
I still look at Atari as an old system. Anything older than nes is just ancient!
Got my Atari from Toys R' Us on my 6th birthday in 1984 with two games E.T. and Super Breakout such a happy day for me
Super breakout was the keeper there
You missed Capcom’s Commando. That was another Activision port for the Atari 2600, it was on the Activision Anthology.
Oh Desert Falcon too, just remembered that one. Thanks for the loved comment.
John, the BMX move you're thinking of is called a 'table-top'.
This video was a trip through memory lane. My family was poor so they told me they'd get me all games I didn't have a flea markets and for holidays I'd get new games. Many of these games you listed I got to open new lol.
Road Runner was a masterpiece for the 2600. The level design in it gets wild after that first level.
Love this series. I wasn’t aware of Atari releasing European exclusives to further extend the life of the 2600. You should do a video on some of those games.
Midnight Magic was straight 🔥. It was so smooth
That Sea Hunt joke made me laugh out loud, subtle and epic, nice work!
Summer games was fun but the swimming was hard
12:41 klax is brutally under rated
It's actually quite playable on the 2600. Great game too!
One notable item about secret quest is that it, i think, is the only 2600 game with a password system to restart where you left off.
Love how they manage to “fake” horizontal background scrolling in Kung-fu master by using repeated sprites at the top and bottom to give the illusion that everything is scrolling. Nice.
Interestingly enough, few games got the release treatment besides some games like mouse trap, Donkey Kong, space invaders, yars’ revenge.
12:28 IT IS THE NINETIES AND THERE IS TIME FOR... KLAX
I had Double Dragon back then and preferred it to the NES version. I also had Commando, which would have been a good one to show.
Love the 2600. I actually have a sealed copy of Rampage. It's worth mentioning that Double Dragon on the 2600 had multiplayer, whereas the NES version was single player only. I wish Klax for the 2600 hadn't been a PAL exclusive...
It honestly kind of cool seeing this obsolete system trying to push it’s limits to somewhat compete against the NES
the ikari warrior's tank looks like a octorock! XD
The problem with Atari during this time is how they seemed to put more effort into games for the 2600, which should have been retired by 1987, while the actual console meant to complete with the NES, the 7800, was all but ignored until it was too late of it to matter.
Retired by 1987? Heck, they should have retired it by the end of 1981! Pac-Man Fever was so great that if they only released it on the 5200 and 400/800 then people would have bought those systems in 1982 instead of 2-5 million more 2600s. Licensing Space Invaders for the VCS (i.e. 2600) in 1980 meant that system got another couple years of life and dominated the market. And since the 3rd-party games were lame in 1981, they got a lot of profit from Missile Command and Asteroids and sales of their other titles, with essentially no competition.
Plenty of videos on the bizarre history of the 7800
I believe the last 2600 game was 1992, not 1990. Ghostbusters 2 came out 1992, 15 years after the Console released (and 3 years after the film came out).
2:27
Having a race track that is the same color as the car you're controlling. Dear god, how are your eyes not bleeding from playing this game that way? Bad controls or not, it surprises me that you're able to somehow see your car at all XD.
I can barely imagine playing this with a joystick. They should have had an option in case you had the steering controllers from Indy 500. But yeah, that's some bad colors. Funny that these two are probably the only real "racing" games. I consider all the others as "passing traffic" games.
Got to give credit for Atari trying to keep the 2600 relevant. Even after the NES took off and smash arcade hits were hitting home on the more powerful NES. Some good efforts considering how limited the 2600 was.
Atari computers and consoles were under new ownership (Tramiel/Tramel Technologies) in 1984 which called itself Atari Corporation. Warner sold the arcade portion (Atari Games) to Namco in 1985.
I had no idea that the 2600 continued releasing games up to the 90s 🤯 (genuine depiction of my mind exploding)
12:01 no one knew how to beat that game!!
a "nose wheelie" is called a "nose manual" or a "stoppie"
Or an "endo"
ahh, yes. havent heard that one in many years lol
3:14 - the graphics here are next to unbelievable on the 2600! and btw, most games on this era were very advanced in comparison with the ones that came in the early life of the 2600! but yeah, 2 things that come to mind are:
1- more memory involved 4k vs 8,16,32k and
2- more expertize in development (knowing the ins and outs of the chip and the tricks of the trade learned from the years of experience and tried out stuff even from other programmers)
Where'd Solaris go? I think Jr. Pac is my favorite of this list. I was actually playing it last night!
Didn't Include them all.
I went from the 5200 to the NES. I do miss that time in gaming.
I never knew that in Klax you could throw the blocks back up the screen! Mind blown.
The top of the wave is called the crest
There you go!
The nes actually launched in 1983 in some regions ( and really became availible all over the US in 1987)
As someone who owned a 2600, these games are almost unbelievable when compared to early games. I don't evny those who had to code them without a frame buffer.
I owned and played the Atari 2600 from 1979 until around 1983. I bought Colecovision and never looked back at Atari. Then NES, Then Playstation, then Game Cube, Then Xbox. I actually feel that video gaming has reached its pinnacle as far as graphics and gameplay. Over the next ten years I believe technology will break those walls down and make the games we are playing today look like Atari games from yesteryear!
The 2600 Jr was a great little package, only selling for $50 and taking up so little space. Atari Corp ended up selling 6.5 million units and continued to support the console until the early 90s, including some of its very best titles like Solaris and Jr Pac-Man.
7800 was 84 actually, I grew up in LA when it was test launched here and a friend had one
Secret Quest is essentially Atari 2600 Zelda in space!
You really need to read a copy of the manual to play Secret Quest because it uses console switches and such for sub menus.
You should do an entire video on games that where better on atari then the NES.
back at it with my favorite series
The surfing level in California games looks really impressive for the 2600!
I am a big Klax fan. I’ve purchased it on more systems than I can reliably count. I beat it on the Atari Lynx, and later purchased it on the GBA, TG-16, and… I think the Genesis? I had a TurboExpress and a Sega Nomad, and I think I purchased it for every handheld that I had that out came it on. The Lynx version is best though, as it was designed to be played vertically.
I think it's pretty astounding that they got California Games onto the 2600.
Midnight magic technically is far from simple. I mean they use all the player / middle / ball sprites multiplexed like madness to pull off something with this colors and resolutions. I mean cole on it looks look more like a mix of a spectrum and c64 game. On a system with no tile or frame buffer and a normal playfield resolution of 40px.
6:56 -- Damn Mongolian down there breaking down Great Wall!!
Radar Lock would have been my jam if I knew it existed. Reminds me of Solaris.
BMX mode has the same cow skull as Atari Texas Chainsaw Massacre! also, hacky sack wasn't a thing back then. odd
Kids from the early atari 2600 era definitely did not go from Atari to NES. They went to Commadore 64 or Atari 8bit. Even Apple 2 and TI. Gaming never went away, it was on home computers.
Hakeysacks making comeback called bean ball
Well remember they did re-release the 2600. The fun is back ohyesseree it’s the 2600 from Atari!
"Under 50 bucks!" "50 bucks?!?" "Well, isn't that nice?"
@@lungcancer69 exactly. It was a pretty good idea too. We wanted to hate on the fools that had it (and we did) but we still played.
I still remember getting Atari in early 80s combat came with it and it was 2player game and my sister was younger and wouldn't play it.
Midnight magic is my favourite pinball game, if you use the game switches on the back of the console (I've got the 2600JR) a small barrier appears in the middle of the lower flippers & two springs appear at each side of the board.
Another reason it should have supported a two-button joystick (or more). How many games were lame or not even made because of this lack?
Midnight Magic ROCKS.
Retro gaming hippie approves! Always great production and love the ideas you explore.
Title match wrestling is a very good game that is much better imo, than any Wwf game on nes.
Did you know they repackaged and released the Atari 2600 JR in 1987?
"You defeat the enemies and then move on" sounds like a bad Chinese-to-English translation of the back of a generic video game's box.
Loving these "after the successor released" videos
The 2600 version of the BMX in California Games is hilarious looking, just watching the little guy rocket downhill, you can imagine constant screaming and swearing the whole way down, hehe.
I went from Atari 2600 to Intellivision to Colecovision to Master System to NES. It took me a while. Now I run a Famicom Toploader with VGA or RAD2X. Way better now. I do prefer the VGA with My Mayflash adapter on a tube 4:3 ratio monitor over the Rad2X.
I will always love the original console KING the 2600.
I had an Atari when Nintendo was out. I had Secret Quest. Game seemed cool but I couldn't figure out exactly what to do. The laser sword thing was cool.
Loved midnight magic. My dad and i would always play this