H.E.R.O. deserves it! Happy to see you pop in and check out one of my vids, MJR. Hope you had some fun - I owe you some fun for all the stuff of yours I've enjoyed over the years. 😎
Yep, and “10 year old Johnny” gave Bridge a “B”. Because like Bridge was a young persons game, a hip game, and who doesn’t like cars games on a console? I mean in the arcade I couldn’t stand Donkey Kong back in the day, I was like man wouldn’t it be so cool if I could play checkers or my god Bridge, that would be so cool!
Great vid! HERO is a top tier game for the VCS. I was floored when I first tried it. And hey, maybe do an Imagic vid? They had some great games, no doubt. Looking forward to Part 2
I loved Beamrider! It gets more and more interesting and varied the farther you progress. The Yellow Chirper Ships are my favourite just for how bizarre of an idea that was…
I generally agree with the rankings, although I might have put Enduro in the S tier. It's orders of magnitude better than any other racing game on the VCS. The other S tier games you listed are still amazingly playable yet today, and it took some real programming skill to make a game like H.E.R.O. on the 2600. It seemed like you were avoiding the green fish while playing Frostbite, but the green fish give you points - they're not enemies. I also always liked how most of the enemies in Frostbite weren't deadly to the touch - they just pushed you off the ice floes into the freezing water.
I think there were a number of games he didn’t actually know how to play, sadly. It’s good to play these in high score challenges so you are incentivised to actually learn how to play them right instead of playing them for five minutes and making an uninformed judgment.
Enduro was incredible. I snuck it out from under the tree days before Christmas and played it for hours. I let my niece play it and she ratted me out. I was just playing it on my 2600 *yesterday* in fact.
Boxing is a lot of fun when you have a friend to play it with instead of just the AI, I think I would give it a B. I feel like Enduro deserved an S, though that may be mostly nostalgia. I spent so many hours playing that game; the way time passed in the game seemed amazing at the time. Seeing the sunset, then darkness and the tail lights of the other cars. Driving through fog where you could only see a short distance, and slippery snow, it was pretty advanced for a 2600 game.
I have no nostalgia for Enduro, simply because I started playing it last December 😁 So I can confirm it's an impressive and really fun game. I also love the sound effects of the cars and the sound you hear when you're near sunrise and still have cars to overtake. Sometimes, at the end of the night, I have 60 or even 80 cars left, and at that point there's a strong sense of urgency, and it's so satisfying when you make it anyway
Enduro is the best racing game on the VCS (or arguably Indy 500), it should be S tier. Boxing and Dolphin are also way under ranked (B at least). A real human opponent improved the game immensely, and it does take a while to learn the 1-2 combos and putting your opponent to the ropes. Without figuring that out, the game might seem boring. The problem with many Activision games is the lack of randomness. Once you figure out the pattern, the game isnt nearly as interesting (see Laser Blast)
Enduro I'd give a S tier as it is probably my overall favorite 2600 game. It was one of the first racing games that I remember that had environment changes such as snow and fog as you raced along. Beamrider is an A tier (possibly S) as all versions are incredibly fun. The only knock I can possibly think of is having to push forward to fire the missiles (vs the other console versions) due to the limitation of the controller. It gets quite frantic later on as you need to start avoid obstacles and not shooting (as well as trying to grab) your extra ship becomes much more difficult. Outside those 2 games, I'd say your tiers are pretty accurate. H.E.R.O. is most definitely S tier as I would play that for hours on end on the C64. It was quite the hidden gem until Metal Jesus made it well known. 😅
I had fun playing _Enduro,_ but after winning in 5 days, is there a reason to play it again? Once I won _Pitfall!_ I didn't play it or try to win it again for over 20 years.
@@sandal_thong8631I always treated the game more as a score attack style game as it loops through the levels. Most 2600 games at the time were like that.
NICE! When you take a hard look at the Activision 2600 Library, you can see just how innovative and incredible they were...and this is inly 1/2 of their games!
Yeah, thanks. Which one do you have? Probably hard to see up there out of focus, but the Six Million Dollar Man game is sitting on top of Bionic Crisis.
I love the boxing for some reason. B- Really nice video to see all of them. Well half for now. I remember always playing Skiing and the fast downhill slalom.
I haven't played all Activision games on the 2600, but for those that I have, I mostly agree with your ranking. However, Beamrider should be A or even S, it's a clever and addictive game that does everything right
H.E.R.O- Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation. I still remember the acronym. The last game I bought for my 2600. Fantastic game, definitely agree with S tier. Great video.
Awesome trip down memory lane. Like your ranking. Time to bust out the emulator. Could you do a similar one on Imagic titles? Since Demon Attack was one of most favourite games on my VCS.
I remember being six years old and mastering Kaboom to the point that I couldn't lose. What I'd give to still have those reflexes and hand/eye coordination four decades later. It was so funny how the criminal's expression changed as he got faster until he was making an O face in disbelief.
For me Activision earned their reputation, deservedly so, by being the best at taking advantage of what the hardware on the VCS could actually do. David Crane especially devised many ways of doing things that had not been done (or even thought possible) on the VCS. Their games are glitch-less* for the most part and are generally playable right away without reading a manual. Right up there with Activision I would place Imagic as well, at least with their original team member titles. * Carol Shaw deserves recognition for making one of the smoothest scrolling vertical shooters ever with River Raid (especially on the VCS).
I remember every Activision game seemed like they were putting their own custom graphics chips in the cartridges. When Kaboom came out we had to break it open to see for sure.
Wow, did you know about custom graphics chips back in the 80s? That’s really cool. Do you know which Activision games did you use custom chipsets? I’m genuinely curious
Freeway was the 1st Activision game I ever played. It was simplistic but back then it was still amazing enough for me to play it for hours back then. I would have rated the game one grade higher.
this is awesome!, the people that left Atari and formed Activision seemed to know the systems capabilities better than Atari themselves and it shows that they were hand tied there, they always knew how to utilize the colors and sounds better. I think they were a big reason the system became the powerhouse that it was thus lasting so long.
It's ironic. Licensing _Space Invaders_ and making a good cartridge sold millions of Atari VCS consoles, but the rot was already in with the contempt they they treated its programmer and others. If Intellivision had done it, that likely would have been the system to buy in 1980. Maybe the programmers would have gone to Mattel or formed a company making games for their system? It's possible Activision (and others) kept people interested in the Atari console in 1981, when they had three games that sold 1 million+: _Freeway, Kaboom,_ and _Laser Blast._ Also ironic, all those good 3rd-party games that sold 1 million+ in 1982 were beloved by those who enjoyed them, but the money going to their companies and not going to Atari meant their profits grew by 15% and not 50% which scared investors and was one part of the Video Game Crash of 1983-4.
Jon, your videos fill quite a void in the retro market. With many you tubers like pat conti and others covering nes + consoles. You go over the exact journey I took a a kid with atari first. Thanks for helping me relive my childhood vicariously through your videos.
That very kind of you to say. Any time my channel is mentioned anywhere near the same sentence as once of these much larger channels, I'm flattered. Happy to hear you're enjoying my work. 🥰
@@GenXGrownUp yes I really appreciate and enjoy your contributions. My video game journey was very unique. Started with the Atari 400, 130xe, then added the Atari 1050 floppy drive. I played on my cousins VCS and Apple II E until the NES mainstreamed the journey. It was fun exploring the various pathways while the technology was still emerging..
I was 10 in 1981 so I got to play many of these when released. I had forgotten many of the titles until I saw the gameplay. What a trip down memory lane!! There hasn't been a single ranking you've made that I disagree with. Great video.
Beamrider is an exceptional game that undoubtedly deserves to be ranked among the Great or Superb titles, in my honest opinion. It excels in numerous aspects of gameplay, showcasing innovation, responsive controls, challenging levels, and captivating visuals and audio. The game offers an exceptional gaming experience that is further enhanced by its high replayability and enduring appeal. With these qualities, Beamrider undoubtedly secures its position as a classic within the Atari 2600 (and Intellivision) library, cementing its status as one of the finest space shooter games for this classic console.
So much love for Beamrider in the comments. It just didn't resonate with me like it has so many more, but I will be giving it some more attention because there must be more to it than I have seen before.
I think _Barnstorming_ was the first Activision game I played. I was amazed at how good it looked when playing it at another kid's home, but that didn't inspire me to buy it, (probably for the reason your mentioned or its limited variations). I didn't buy any Activision (or 3rd-party) game before _Pitfall!_ I found the others were fun to play for 1/2 to 1 hour at another kid's home, but how much fun would it be playing by myself? I looked at my collection of Activision carts I picked up later, and _Stampede_ was one of the few I played during the Pandemic. I finally got _Grand Prix_ then (along with _Ice Hockey)_ and it's as much a memorization game as _Skiing_ and _Barnstorming._
I only remember one game Kaboom. When you got to the top level you were no longer conciously in control of the paddle. By that time you taught yourself to do it by reflex. There was no way you could keep up otherwise.
Hey Jon! I’ve been AWOL a while but so very glad to see you guys are still chugging along with fantastic content! Love this and although I haven’t played them all I can concur with your thoughts and grading so far - I’m in absolute lockstep with you 👍🏻
@@GenXGrownUp 🤣😂🤣 you too brother! Got a big backlog of your content to catch up on. I recently got a New Wave Replicade Space Ace mini cab a couple weeks back. You guys checked out any of their gizmos yet? Impressive build quality.
@@TheDanno210 Not the Space Ace, but we have reviewed several of their units. George did the Dragon's Lair and I most recently did a piece on the Missile Command.
@@GenXGrownUp you gents had any luck with getting non-New Wave controllers to work with those? I guess that would apply more to the dragons lair than the missile command. I can’t find any useful info anywhere on which ones seem to work best - or at all hehe. I’m striking out with my attempts so far. Have a great day Jon!
@@TheDanno210 Sure. If you go watch the one I did on New Wave Street Fighter II, I connect that bonus controller up to my PC at one point and see that it's standard XInput. So I'd expect most any wired controller to plug in via USB would do the trick. Granted, I have not tested on a Dragon's Lair.
my mom played the heck out of bridge on the Atari. I mean, she adored it. If nothing else I will always love Activision for giving my mom a chance to play bridge without needing 3 other people.
my tierlist: Barnstorming - C Beamrider - B Boxing - C Bridge - ? Checkers - ? Chopper Command - C (very difficult) Commando - D Cosmic Commuter - D (sorry) Crackpots - B Decathlon - ? Dolphin - B Double Dragon - F Dragster - D Enduro - A Fishing Derby - B Freeway - D Frosbite - C (very difficult for me) Ghostbusters - D Grand Prix - C Hero - B Ice Hockey - B Kaboom - ? ( I don't have paddle controller)
Fantastic! I’m really looking forward to part 2 of your review. There was something very special about Activision games on VCS. I knew from a young age to seek them out. The graphics were generally far superior to anything else on the system.
H.E.R.O. is probably my favorite game all time on the 2600. I also love Pitfall II. There are so many Activision games to love on the 2600 it's hard to name all the best ones. I'm interested to see where you're going to put Robot Tank. I think that game is under-rated. It's basically Battlezone but so much more at the same time. Fun fact, the guy who made H.E.R.O. also made Cosmic Commuter.
Pitfall! greatest Activision game on Atari 2600! H.E.R.O.,Megamania,Keystone Capers,SeaQuest,Robot Tank,Enduro,Frostbite,Star master,and SpiderFighter. My top ten.
I'm surprised by how few of these I know. I only ever played Barn-storming and Grand Prix. My favourite 2600 games were Solaris, Joust and Yar's Revenge.
Emduro deserve SSSSSSSSS! Great video cheers from France ( Enduro was awarded best racing game in France , i think the previous year was pole position on Atari XL which was the best racing game on home system at the time)
Most of my favorite games from that time on Atari were from Activision like Pitfall,Chopper Command,River Raid,Grand Prix,Sea Quest,Stampede,Keystone Kapers and Megamania
I think Decathlon is my favorite so far. I like the game, but the memories were the best part. I can still picture playing with my brothers and uncle in a hot house with no AC during the summer. My uncle had so much sweat dripping off of him that he looked like he actually competed. That and the intense look on his face made us crack up so much that it was impossible to beat him. The only downside was how many controllers we broke during competition. You needed something heavy duty to get your guy through the last 200m of the 1500m race.
I was worried about breaking controllers as it's L-R as fast as you can. I think you may be able to play the ones that just run and don't push the buttons by using the paddle buttons which match L and R.
I strongly believe that Activision helped take the VCS to a new level, and gave it extra legs well into to the 80s. P.S...Space Shuttle rocked. I'm RC, and I approved this message!
My favourite take-a-way of the Activision games for the Atari 2600 games, is that as soon as Atari discovered they could make a pretty sunset with four colour bars, they went at that HARD. If they could sneak it into Ice Hockey they would! A least H.E.R.O. mixed it up with the blue wavy water.
I've thrown the entire Atari library on my RG35xx H that I keep in my sling and I love to play them whenever I'm made to wait a few minutes for anything. Great video, I agree with your reasoning for the most part.
I absolutely adore Frostbite. I think I still have my original cart in the attic. There's just so much going on and the difficulty just ramps up nicely as you progress.
Freeway deserves a second chance to move up. With single player I agree with you. Where it absolutely shines is playing against your older brother in two player. It's so easy to jump in and start playing (not unlike mobile games today). We'd get tickled pink yelling at each other and getting knocked back down in a chain of hits. This would always happen just before you'd win, and you'd laugh-scream all the way to your L. Two player is so clean and fun! Hilarious and devastating. The perfect game for two brothers in the 80s. Solid B for me (nearing an A).
It sounds to me like you and your brother made your own fun out of battling one another in such a rudimentary game. I'm not promoting Freeway, but I give the priceless memories you have with your brother a great big S! Thank you for watching. 😀
That's how we played it too! I think there are a LOT of brother combos out there who laughed, yelled and had a lot of fun playing Freeway back in the day.
Break it out during a party with friends, open some drinks (alcoholic) and let the feathers fly. I can't tell you how many times from the day we got Freeway to today that I've seen people laughing so hard that they hurt playing Freeway in that setting.
Frostbite was the first game I got good at. When you get good at it, you're jumping around like crazy and the on screen elements really fly! It's simpler than Frogger, but I think the jumping and fast pace make it more fun. Glad to see it made the S tier, I've been recommending this one the whole time!
I got that title during the Pandemic (along with others) but couldn't really get into it. It's funny, but for two-player sports games they almost never allowed you to partner with another human player against the computer.
I recently got the Retron 77. It made me think about the earliest first games Atari and Activision first made for the Atari VCS. So I have basically all the original roms for the Atari VCS. So I started googgling the info on the first games made by each company. I now have folders separating the first 9 original Atari games. I then made a folder foe 1978,79 and 1980. I then did the same for Acticision games from 1980 to 1983 for now. I just wanted to try these original games out. Of the original 9 games Atari released I only ever had Combat because that was the packed in game. I'm on a quest to hopefully find the original 9 with the number on the end label before the name of the game. Such as 01 Combat. Even my original Combat lacks the number :(
I thought Frostbite was based in Q-Bert, I never saw a Frogger connection. As for Freeway, who ever played Game 1? Throw some traffic in there, have them go different speeds, some semis, see who makes it. I also liked the idea that you could either do instant death/regeneration or have yourself be forced down with every hit. I rate it much higher than Frogger, horizontal movement is overrated.
I loved some of the paddle and driving controller games but neither the paddles nor the driving controllers lasted long before they started to cause onscreen jittering. Then they just stopped stopped working altogether. Did other people have the same problem with Atari's original paddle and driving controllers? Are there any aftermarket controllers that can replace them? Most importantly, are they any good?
@@KeithPhillips I bought my original six-switcher in December 1981. (I still have it too!) It came with two joysticks and two paddle controllers in the box. I think the paddle controllers lasted about four weeks after I bought Breakout, my first game where paddle controllers were needed. They started to make the onscreen paddles jitter all around the place. Not long afterwards, one of them gave up altogether shortly followed by the other.
I still have my collection of about 15 or so patches you could earn by reaching certain milestones and sending in a picture of the screen. Boxing, Freeway, River Raid, Kaboom, Pitfall, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Grand Prix, all popular with me and my sisters. 2-player is where games like Freeway, Boxing, Fishing Derby, and even Dragster shine.
I wonder, once you've finished the second part, what it would look like if you then ranked each tier amongst theselves. Best to worsr in tier S. Then best to worst in tier A. Would it be possible that you're best of tier C actually exceeds the worst in tier B for some reason? One might think no but maybe it does!
These were the great days of Activision! The days when Activision wanted to show you how good they were (mostly!), and not just how well they could keep cycling the same old games albeit with graphical upgrades here and there, and also trying to empty your bank accounts!! 😆 I have fond memories of many of these Activision games on the VCS from back in 1979/80 (it wasn't known as the '2600' yet), and they had the best graphics of anyone so far on the system, and the most compelling gameplay; things like "Kaboom" (and another couple of games that'll come in a later video I presume), just kept the interest of me and my work colleagues in the shop where I worked, so lunch breaks were always fraught Atari battles between us!! 🙂
HERO all the way. Although I've never played it on the 2600, I feel like that Ghostbusters deserves a bit more credit for what it accomplishes. I love that game on the C64. Not 2600 games but here are some Activision games that are severely underrated: Rock n Bolt, Park Patrol, Master of the Lamps.
Hey could you do a tier list for NEO GEO games. I loved those game back when I was a kid. I always wished to have one but way out of my buget but loved playing at the arcade and loved that the machines had an ear phone jack since some aracade were so loud that you could not hear the game youre olaying. Just recently got the neo geo mini and love it and have a few of them on my switch. I know Neo Geo is alot further down the road time line then what youre doing but I dont see any tier list for Neo Geo on the channels I sub to. Keep up the great work. Always a thumbs up from me.
Enduro was a great game. At the time the only better racing game was Pole Position, and you had to go to the arcade and pay for that. The game with the spiders reminded me a lot of Tapper but even better that they switched lanes! I never saw that one before, definitely a winner!
I liked _Turbo_ at the arcade, and _Enduro_ was a fun driving game like that. But I don't consider them (or _Pole Position, Night Driver,_ or _Grand Prix)_ to be "racing games" but rather "passing-traffic" games. (Someone else had another name for them.) _Indy 500, F-Zero_ and _Mario Kart_ are racing games.
i love this kind of videos. Please, do the same for imagic games, atari and other companies. It's fun!. Edit: Dolphin only a D 😢 Fishing Derby i think is a ok game but it has a lot of charm!
I think it's an interesting game if you know how to control the water arrows. When you become the predator by touching the seagull and score points I love the sound effect! It's addictive to earn points in this game. But well, everyone has his own opinion. I really liked the video
Chopper Command was my jammy jam!!! I used to play that game for HOURS AND HOURS!!! Something about the sleek fun it was to hover and reverse that helicopter in midair as it was moving made me feel like I was Airwolf!
That's great! My "ranking" in no way speaks to how much fun we may or may not have had playing a game, but really just its subjective quality across the line. I saw another commenter who had a blast with Double Dragon - more power to ya! 😀
After reaching the required score, did you take a picture of your television screen and submit that photo to Activision headquarters to earn a merit patch?
This went off the rails when you gave Freeway a "D". Great game that has adaptability with the 'hard mode" of getting sent all the way back to the curb if you are hit, and the different levels with varying speed vehicles, semis, etc. And you veered from your original rating rule of "How would 10 year old Johnny feel about this game" multiple times. You're going to tell me you liked Bridge as a kid? Yeah, right.
You're got a point with Bridge - though I learned to play Canasta with my family from an early age, so I do think I'd have enjoyed Bridge if I'd had it. 😉 I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to share your opinions!
what I love about Activision 2600 era is their cool box art covers. they pop out more then Atari and other companies that put out 2600 games back then. heck not even the PC games at the time could compete with.
As a kid I inherited my mother's Atart 2600. I was born in 1987, so my first memories of gaming are with my mother's Atari 2600. In 1992 for my 5th birthday my father bought me a Super Nintendo. I remember I had 3 games when I first took my SNES home. Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and Super Castlevania. I skipped the NES entirely. I had a cousin who had a NES and I would play games like Super Mario Bros, Techmo Bowl, WrestleMania, Mega Man, Double Dragon. Other than a night at my cousin's house I didn't play the NES. I played Atari 2600, and my Super Nintendo. I remember my brother getting a Sega Genesis, he got me into sports games like NBA Jam, NBA Live 95, NFL Madden 93, also, I remember Rocket Knight adventures, and The Sonic Franchise. In about 1996-97 I got a PS1 and a N64. On The N64 I enjoyed WCW Revenge, WrestleMania 2000, Golden Eye, Pokemon Snap, on The PS1 I enjoyed Tekken, Bloody Roar, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the dragon, NBA Live 99, Resident Evil, WWF Smackdown. I remember getting a Purple Gameboy Color, I had Pokemon Yellow and Red.
I remember Activision had this promotion where, if you get a certain number of points (or above) in a game and send a photo to prove it, you could get an iron-on patch based on that game. I remember the picture being taken of my high score in Pitfall, but mom never got around to sending it in. Of course, NOW, with the advent of computers, printers and iron-on printing paper, I could find an image of any patch I want and make it myself. So, there's a bit of vindication there.
I had no idea there were 44 Activision games for the 2600 😳 I always thought it was about 30! I'm surprised at the number of them that I never came across in the wild, too. I thoight Bridge would get a lower rating (mostly because I know nothing about how to play bridge) but the game actually seems pretty damn decent...from a non-bridge player 😋 In this tier list, I would probably give Chopper Command, Enduro and H.E.R.O all "S" rankings...and Crackpot would be a bit lower? Beamrider looks pretty great too! Freeway always just seemed kind of bland to me and would only be worth playing with 2 players...Frogger it ain't! Checkers as an "F?" Absolutely! They should have just scrapped the computer "A.I." and just shipped it as a 2-player only game once they realized how many thousands of CPU cycles would need to be burned for each move. That LOOOOONG blank screen is utterly embarrassing...
Seeing those activision games,i can hardly believe that they had to raise the beam to create graphics by timing every pixel on screen per frame,per background and per sprite,and what if 2 or more sprites are moving in opposite directions,then you had to time that as well etc,,, I can’t even imagine were they would ever start,considering the 2600 graphics were extremely limited,UNLESS they had already better toolkits to work with in the early 80’s.
That's a great tier list Gen X. The only change I'd make is with Dragster. I'm a car guy, so it is automatically a favorite. Yeah, graphics aren't the best and game play is repetitive. But I can play it for hours just trying to get a hundredth of a second better. It's the trying to get a better time on the next run that gives it replayablility. Still, it's an A or B for me. I'd also bump Enduro up to S tier simply for nostalgic reasons. There was nothing like driving into the sunset or on icy or snowy roads at the time, very innovative.
@@GenXGrownUp Another thing that's cool with Dragster is that one could restart it without having to use the console's reset button. I don't know if any other game could do that at the time.
@@GenXGrownUp im sure it was. And after you make the full run it does start getting repetitive. im looking forward to part two. You should do an imagic one too . They had some decent games as well. :)
Kaboom is the first used game cartridge I've purchased. I just got it in today from eBay, and it works perfectly with my 2600+. I never played it as a kid, but I now wish I had, as it's fantastic! I tried it on my Flashback 12 Gold, but it's a little jittery on that, so I knew I had to get it for the 2600+. The cartridge is in perfect shape, save for the label, but I don't know if I'll buy one for it. Atlantis was one of my favorite games as a kid. I don't have a cartridge for that one, but with the game play not being movement demanding like Kaboom, playing it on the FB12G is good enough.
You gave H.E.R.O. an S rating, so you get a thumbs up from me.👍 Cool video dude. Great job!
H.E.R.O. deserves it! Happy to see you pop in and check out one of my vids, MJR. Hope you had some fun - I owe you some fun for all the stuff of yours I've enjoyed over the years. 😎
*A wild MJR appears?* 😳
😎
Great play of H.E.R.O on your channel; it still makes me sad that I've never been able to play it yet on my console! 😞
Me love H.E.R.O. too, but i mostly played this game on my C-64 ;)
Agreed- When I borrowed it from a friend, somehow young me thought I managed to trick a 5200 game to play on my 2600-compatible 😂
Yep, and “10 year old Johnny” gave Bridge a “B”. Because like Bridge was a young persons game, a hip game, and who doesn’t like cars games on a console? I mean in the arcade I couldn’t stand Donkey Kong back in the day, I was like man wouldn’t it be so cool if I could play checkers or my god Bridge, that would be so cool!
So cool to hear the sound effects again after 40 years and to see video screens I haven't seen in many decades
Don't deny yourself the joy of replaying these - so many ways to do it today!
What a blast from the past! Thank you, Jon!!! Can't wait for part two!!!
Allot of work had to go into this one. Great video! Although I would've ranked Beamrider and Chopper Command an S
Great vid! HERO is a top tier game for the VCS. I was floored when I first tried it. And hey, maybe do an Imagic vid? They had some great games, no doubt. Looking forward to Part 2
I loved Beamrider! It gets more and more interesting and varied the farther you progress. The Yellow Chirper Ships are my favourite just for how bizarre of an idea that was…
Beamrider reminds me of Nintendo’s radar scope😁
I generally agree with the rankings, although I might have put Enduro in the S tier. It's orders of magnitude better than any other racing game on the VCS.
The other S tier games you listed are still amazingly playable yet today, and it took some real programming skill to make a game like H.E.R.O. on the 2600.
It seemed like you were avoiding the green fish while playing Frostbite, but the green fish give you points - they're not enemies. I also always liked how most of the enemies in Frostbite weren't deadly to the touch - they just pushed you off the ice floes into the freezing water.
Absolutely, I don't know how many hours I spent playing Enduro as a kid, but it was a lot.
I think there were a number of games he didn’t actually know how to play, sadly. It’s good to play these in high score challenges so you are incentivised to actually learn how to play them right instead of playing them for five minutes and making an uninformed judgment.
Enduro was incredible. I snuck it out from under the tree days before Christmas and played it for hours. I let my niece play it and she ratted me out.
I was just playing it on my 2600 *yesterday* in fact.
Great segment Jon. My top 5:
1. Pitfall
2. Chopper Command
3. Hockey
4. Boxing
5. Kaboom
With you on the boxing. Definitely not a D for me. I have it about a B-.
Boxing is a lot of fun when you have a friend to play it with instead of just the AI, I think I would give it a B. I feel like Enduro deserved an S, though that may be mostly nostalgia. I spent so many hours playing that game; the way time passed in the game seemed amazing at the time. Seeing the sunset, then darkness and the tail lights of the other cars. Driving through fog where you could only see a short distance, and slippery snow, it was pretty advanced for a 2600 game.
I have no nostalgia for Enduro, simply because I started playing it last December 😁 So I can confirm it's an impressive and really fun game. I also love the sound effects of the cars and the sound you hear when you're near sunrise and still have cars to overtake. Sometimes, at the end of the night, I have 60 or even 80 cars left, and at that point there's a strong sense of urgency, and it's so satisfying when you make it anyway
Enduro is the best racing game on the VCS (or arguably Indy 500), it should be S tier. Boxing and Dolphin are also way under ranked (B at least). A real human opponent improved the game immensely, and it does take a while to learn the 1-2 combos and putting your opponent to the ropes. Without figuring that out, the game might seem boring.
The problem with many Activision games is the lack of randomness. Once you figure out the pattern, the game isnt nearly as interesting (see Laser Blast)
Boxing is rated way too low on this list.
I saw a video on the history of Activision _Boxing,_ which said it was based on the unreleased _Boxer (1977)_ by Atari. It had the same overhead view.
See I feel the same about dragster. I think it's a ball in 2 player mode.
The early games from 1980 to 1982 have a certain charm to them. That's what I love about the first few years of the VCS from 1977
Love the 8 track "robot" in your background. Played with that quite a bit.
2XL!
2600 ranking hype!
Enduro I'd give a S tier as it is probably my overall favorite 2600 game. It was one of the first racing games that I remember that had environment changes such as snow and fog as you raced along.
Beamrider is an A tier (possibly S) as all versions are incredibly fun. The only knock I can possibly think of is having to push forward to fire the missiles (vs the other console versions) due to the limitation of the controller. It gets quite frantic later on as you need to start avoid obstacles and not shooting (as well as trying to grab) your extra ship becomes much more difficult.
Outside those 2 games, I'd say your tiers are pretty accurate.
H.E.R.O. is most definitely S tier as I would play that for hours on end on the C64. It was quite the hidden gem until Metal Jesus made it well known. 😅
I had fun playing _Enduro,_ but after winning in 5 days, is there a reason to play it again? Once I won _Pitfall!_ I didn't play it or try to win it again for over 20 years.
@@sandal_thong8631I always treated the game more as a score attack style game as it loops through the levels. Most 2600 games at the time were like that.
NICE! When you take a hard look at the Activision 2600 Library, you can see just how innovative and incredible they were...and this is inly 1/2 of their games!
Right?
Framerater already did this hehe
Holy crap, didn't realize they made some of those titles, never seen them. Pitfall/ chopper command/ kaboom were all my families favorites!!
Love that collection of vintage board games on your shelf. I have that Six Million Dollar Man as well.
Yeah, thanks. Which one do you have? Probably hard to see up there out of focus, but the Six Million Dollar Man game is sitting on top of Bionic Crisis.
@@GenXGrownUp Was hard to zoom in on the video but I’d be curious to see your collection. I tweeted at you.
I love the boxing for some reason. B- Really nice video to see all of them. Well half for now. I remember always playing Skiing and the fast downhill slalom.
I know you gave me a ❤, lol. I just kept editing.
I haven't played all Activision games on the 2600, but for those that I have, I mostly agree with your ranking. However, Beamrider should be A or even S, it's a clever and addictive game that does everything right
Absolutely agree 100%.
Great video can’t wait for part two!
H.E.R.O- Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation. I still remember the acronym. The last game I bought for my 2600.
Fantastic game, definitely agree with S tier.
Great video.
Awesome trip down memory lane. Like your ranking. Time to bust out the emulator. Could you do a similar one on Imagic titles? Since Demon Attack was one of most favourite games on my VCS.
I'll put Imagic on my to-do list.
I remember being six years old and mastering Kaboom to the point that I couldn't lose. What I'd give to still have those reflexes and hand/eye coordination four decades later. It was so funny how the criminal's expression changed as he got faster until he was making an O face in disbelief.
Thank you for making this video. I enjoyed it a lot. It will be a good resource for collecting games.
For me Activision earned their reputation, deservedly so, by being the best at taking advantage of what the hardware on the VCS could actually do. David Crane especially devised many ways of doing things that had not been done (or even thought possible) on the VCS. Their games are glitch-less* for the most part and are generally playable right away without reading a manual. Right up there with Activision I would place Imagic as well, at least with their original team member titles.
* Carol Shaw deserves recognition for making one of the smoothest scrolling vertical shooters ever with River Raid (especially on the VCS).
I remember every Activision game seemed like they were putting their own custom graphics chips in the cartridges. When Kaboom came out we had to break it open to see for sure.
Wow, did you know about custom graphics chips back in the 80s? That’s really cool. Do you know which Activision games did you use custom chipsets? I’m genuinely curious
great stuff. can't wait for part 2
Thanks for watching, Chris!
Great video Jon!
Freeway is one of my all-time favorite Atari games and it's fun.
Yeah? I have plenty of fond memories of playing it with friends, but it's objectively simplistic. Still, I wouldn't be without it! 😉
Freeway was the 1st Activision game I ever played. It was simplistic but back then it was still amazing enough for me to play it for hours back then. I would have rated the game one grade higher.
Nice trip down memory lane, can't wait for part 2!
Coming soon!
this is awesome!, the people that left Atari and formed Activision seemed to know the systems capabilities better than Atari themselves and it shows that they were hand tied there, they always knew how to utilize the colors and sounds better. I think they were a big reason the system became the powerhouse that it was thus lasting so long.
It's ironic. Licensing _Space Invaders_ and making a good cartridge sold millions of Atari VCS consoles, but the rot was already in with the contempt they they treated its programmer and others. If Intellivision had done it, that likely would have been the system to buy in 1980. Maybe the programmers would have gone to Mattel or formed a company making games for their system? It's possible Activision (and others) kept people interested in the Atari console in 1981, when they had three games that sold 1 million+: _Freeway, Kaboom,_ and _Laser Blast._
Also ironic, all those good 3rd-party games that sold 1 million+ in 1982 were beloved by those who enjoyed them, but the money going to their companies and not going to Atari meant their profits grew by 15% and not 50% which scared investors and was one part of the Video Game Crash of 1983-4.
Kaboom is one of my favorite games from back in the day
At the higher levels Kaboom is almost a zen like experience.
Jon, your videos fill quite a void in the retro market. With many you tubers like pat conti and others covering nes + consoles. You go over the exact journey I took a a kid with atari first. Thanks for helping me relive my childhood vicariously through your videos.
That very kind of you to say. Any time my channel is mentioned anywhere near the same sentence as once of these much larger channels, I'm flattered. Happy to hear you're enjoying my work. 🥰
@@GenXGrownUp yes I really appreciate and enjoy your contributions. My video game journey was very unique. Started with the Atari 400, 130xe, then added the Atari 1050 floppy drive. I played on my cousins VCS and Apple II E until the NES mainstreamed the journey. It was fun exploring the various pathways while the technology was still emerging..
I was 10 in 1981 so I got to play many of these when released. I had forgotten many of the titles until I saw the gameplay. What a trip down memory lane!! There hasn't been a single ranking you've made that I disagree with. Great video.
Hey, thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. 😁
Beamrider is an exceptional game that undoubtedly deserves to be ranked among the Great or Superb titles, in my honest opinion. It excels in numerous aspects of gameplay, showcasing innovation, responsive controls, challenging levels, and captivating visuals and audio. The game offers an exceptional gaming experience that is further enhanced by its high replayability and enduring appeal. With these qualities, Beamrider undoubtedly secures its position as a classic within the Atari 2600 (and Intellivision) library, cementing its status as one of the finest space shooter games for this classic console.
So much love for Beamrider in the comments. It just didn't resonate with me like it has so many more, but I will be giving it some more attention because there must be more to it than I have seen before.
I've watched videos of it twice now, and even on 1.5x speed it looks slow. Maybe they were both showing the first or easy level?
Aw man, I loved Barnstorming back in the day. And yeah Frostbite was very addictive fun. Thanks for the list.
You bet!
I think _Barnstorming_ was the first Activision game I played. I was amazed at how good it looked when playing it at another kid's home, but that didn't inspire me to buy it, (probably for the reason your mentioned or its limited variations).
I didn't buy any Activision (or 3rd-party) game before _Pitfall!_ I found the others were fun to play for 1/2 to 1 hour at another kid's home, but how much fun would it be playing by myself? I looked at my collection of Activision carts I picked up later, and _Stampede_ was one of the few I played during the Pandemic. I finally got _Grand Prix_ then (along with _Ice Hockey)_ and it's as much a memorization game as _Skiing_ and _Barnstorming._
I only remember one game Kaboom. When you got to the top level you were no longer conciously in control of the paddle. By that time you taught yourself to do it by reflex. There was no way you could keep up otherwise.
I tried taking apart my paddles and cleaning them to get rid of the flutter, but couldn't get back in the groove to improve my high score at _Kaboom._
Great video! I'll take a snapshot of the final tier list to play! :)
How'd your tier-based play session go?
Hey Jon! I’ve been AWOL a while but so very glad to see you guys are still chugging along with fantastic content! Love this and although I haven’t played them all I can concur with your thoughts and grading so far - I’m in absolute lockstep with you 👍🏻
Who are you, again? 😜 Good to see you again, Dan.
@@GenXGrownUp 🤣😂🤣 you too brother! Got a big backlog of your content to catch up on. I recently got a New Wave Replicade Space Ace mini cab a couple weeks back. You guys checked out any of their gizmos yet? Impressive build quality.
@@TheDanno210 Not the Space Ace, but we have reviewed several of their units. George did the Dragon's Lair and I most recently did a piece on the Missile Command.
@@GenXGrownUp you gents had any luck with getting non-New Wave controllers to work with those? I guess that would apply more to the dragons lair than the missile command. I can’t find any useful info anywhere on which ones seem to work best - or at all hehe. I’m striking out with my attempts so far. Have a great day Jon!
@@TheDanno210 Sure. If you go watch the one I did on New Wave Street Fighter II, I connect that bonus controller up to my PC at one point and see that it's standard XInput. So I'd expect most any wired controller to plug in via USB would do the trick. Granted, I have not tested on a Dragon's Lair.
my mom played the heck out of bridge on the Atari. I mean, she adored it. If nothing else I will always love Activision for giving my mom a chance to play bridge without needing 3 other people.
my tierlist:
Barnstorming - C
Beamrider - B
Boxing - C
Bridge - ?
Checkers - ?
Chopper Command - C (very difficult)
Commando - D
Cosmic Commuter - D (sorry)
Crackpots - B
Decathlon - ?
Dolphin - B
Double Dragon - F
Dragster - D
Enduro - A
Fishing Derby - B
Freeway - D
Frosbite - C (very difficult for me)
Ghostbusters - D
Grand Prix - C
Hero - B
Ice Hockey - B
Kaboom - ? ( I don't have paddle controller)
I must really be missing the boat with Dolphin. I need to give it more of a chance, maybe.
Thanks for the list!
Fantastic! I’m really looking forward to part 2 of your review. There was something very special about Activision games on VCS. I knew from a young age to seek them out. The graphics were generally far superior to anything else on the system.
H.E.R.O. is probably my favorite game all time on the 2600. I also love Pitfall II. There are so many Activision games to love on the 2600 it's hard to name all the best ones. I'm interested to see where you're going to put Robot Tank. I think that game is under-rated. It's basically Battlezone but so much more at the same time. Fun fact, the guy who made H.E.R.O. also made Cosmic Commuter.
Pitfall! greatest Activision game on Atari 2600! H.E.R.O.,Megamania,Keystone Capers,SeaQuest,Robot Tank,Enduro,Frostbite,Star master,and SpiderFighter. My top ten.
We played Enduro for hours! River River Raid too. But Pitfall was the king.
River raid. OMG the hours and soothing hours I could play this.
I'm surprised by how few of these I know. I only ever played Barn-storming and Grand Prix.
My favourite 2600 games were Solaris, Joust and Yar's Revenge.
Good faves!
I never played H.E.R.O., but watching the gameplay I realized that the bat graphic is the same as Pitfall II.
HERO was incredible as was Kaboom.
I had Chopper Command when I had my Atari 2600. I scored pretty well on that game too.
Awesome video
Thanks for watching. Tell 100 friends! 😉
Love to see the love for H.E.R.O.
It’s the only 2600 game I still like to play regularly, what a masterpiece
Emduro deserve SSSSSSSSS! Great video cheers from France ( Enduro was awarded best racing game in France , i think the previous year was pole position on Atari XL which was the best racing game on home system at the time)
Enduro is awesome, Philippe! No disrespect with an A! Enduro was right on the bubble between A/S. 🏎️
Most of my favorite games from that time on Atari were from Activision like Pitfall,Chopper Command,River Raid,Grand Prix,Sea Quest,Stampede,Keystone Kapers and Megamania
I think Decathlon is my favorite so far. I like the game, but the memories were the best part. I can still picture playing with my brothers and uncle in a hot house with no AC during the summer. My uncle had so much sweat dripping off of him that he looked like he actually competed. That and the intense look on his face made us crack up so much that it was impossible to beat him. The only downside was how many controllers we broke during competition. You needed something heavy duty to get your guy through the last 200m of the 1500m race.
I was worried about breaking controllers as it's L-R as fast as you can. I think you may be able to play the ones that just run and don't push the buttons by using the paddle buttons which match L and R.
Ah, the old Atari! Thanks for the memories.
Any time!
I strongly believe that Activision helped take the VCS to a new level, and gave it extra legs well into to the 80s.
P.S...Space Shuttle rocked. I'm RC, and I approved this message!
*SPACE SHUTTLE ROCKED*
(with 6 switches 😋)
My favorite Activision game, by some margin, was Spider Fighter. Probably largely because I was quite good at it-unlike most other games!
My favourite take-a-way of the Activision games for the Atari 2600 games, is that as soon as Atari discovered they could make a pretty sunset with four colour bars, they went at that HARD. If they could sneak it into Ice Hockey they would! A least H.E.R.O. mixed it up with the blue wavy water.
Yes! That rainbow keeps showing up everywhere, especially as a sunrise/sunset on the horizon!
Wow. That Fishing Derby ranking was a gift.
Okay, some of my nostalgia might have seeped through. 😀
I've thrown the entire Atari library on my RG35xx H that I keep in my sling and I love to play them whenever I'm made to wait a few minutes for anything. Great video, I agree with your reasoning for the most part.
I absolutely adore Frostbite. I think I still have my original cart in the attic. There's just so much going on and the difficulty just ramps up nicely as you progress.
Freeway deserves a second chance to move up. With single player I agree with you. Where it absolutely shines is playing against your older brother in two player. It's so easy to jump in and start playing (not unlike mobile games today). We'd get tickled pink yelling at each other and getting knocked back down in a chain of hits. This would always happen just before you'd win, and you'd laugh-scream all the way to your L. Two player is so clean and fun! Hilarious and devastating. The perfect game for two brothers in the 80s. Solid B for me (nearing an A).
It sounds to me like you and your brother made your own fun out of battling one another in such a rudimentary game. I'm not promoting Freeway, but I give the priceless memories you have with your brother a great big S! Thank you for watching. 😀
That's how we played it too! I think there are a LOT of brother combos out there who laughed, yelled and had a lot of fun playing Freeway back in the day.
Break it out during a party with friends, open some drinks (alcoholic) and let the feathers fly. I can't tell you how many times from the day we got Freeway to today that I've seen people laughing so hard that they hurt playing Freeway in that setting.
Love the list. Thank you. Now please do Imagic :) Cosmic Ark is a game I still play to this day and they had the best looking carts.
On it!
Frostbite was the first game I got good at.
When you get good at it, you're jumping around like crazy and the on screen elements really fly!
It's simpler than Frogger, but I think the jumping and fast pace make it more fun.
Glad to see it made the S tier, I've been recommending this one the whole time!
Ice hockey was excellent! Loved it!
I got that title during the Pandemic (along with others) but couldn't really get into it. It's funny, but for two-player sports games they almost never allowed you to partner with another human player against the computer.
I recently got the Retron 77. It made me think about the earliest first games Atari and Activision first made for the Atari VCS. So I have basically all the original roms for the Atari VCS. So I started googgling the info on the first games made by each company. I now have folders separating the first 9 original Atari games. I then made a folder foe 1978,79 and 1980. I then did the same for Acticision games from 1980 to 1983 for now. I just wanted to try these original games out. Of the original 9 games Atari released I only ever had Combat because that was the packed in game. I'm on a quest to hopefully find the original 9 with the number on the end label before the name of the game. Such as 01 Combat. Even my original Combat lacks the number :(
I beat H.E.R.O. when I’m only six years old.
Is by far my biggest accomplishment in life!
I thought Frostbite was based in Q-Bert, I never saw a Frogger connection.
As for Freeway, who ever played Game 1? Throw some traffic in there, have them go different speeds, some semis, see who makes it. I also liked the idea that you could either do instant death/regeneration or have yourself be forced down with every hit. I rate it much higher than Frogger, horizontal movement is overrated.
I loved some of the paddle and driving controller games but neither the paddles nor the driving controllers lasted long before they started to cause onscreen jittering. Then they just stopped stopped working altogether.
Did other people have the same problem with Atari's original paddle and driving controllers? Are there any aftermarket controllers that can replace them? Most importantly, are they any good?
I have yet to find a single paddle set where both of them work at all! 😞
@@KeithPhillips I bought my original six-switcher in December 1981. (I still have it too!) It came with two joysticks and two paddle controllers in the box. I think the paddle controllers lasted about four weeks after I bought Breakout, my first game where paddle controllers were needed. They started to make the onscreen paddles jitter all around the place. Not long afterwards, one of them gave up altogether shortly followed by the other.
@@andymanaus1077 OMG they crapped out that fast? 😳
Squirting paddles with TV Tuner Cleaner tended to make them work much better.
I still have my collection of about 15 or so patches you could earn by reaching certain milestones and sending in a picture of the screen. Boxing, Freeway, River Raid, Kaboom, Pitfall, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Grand Prix, all popular with me and my sisters. 2-player is where games like Freeway, Boxing, Fishing Derby, and even Dragster shine.
Kaboom and pitfall were my favorite.
I wonder, once you've finished the second part, what it would look like if you then ranked each tier amongst theselves. Best to worsr in tier S. Then best to worst in tier A. Would it be possible that you're best of tier C actually exceeds the worst in tier B for some reason? One might think no but maybe it does!
I actually enjoyed Freeway immensely and I still play it today!
Awesome!
These were the great days of Activision! The days when Activision wanted to show you how good they were (mostly!), and not just how well they could keep cycling the same old games albeit with graphical upgrades here and there, and also trying to empty your bank accounts!! 😆
I have fond memories of many of these Activision games on the VCS from back in 1979/80 (it wasn't known as the '2600' yet), and they had the best graphics of anyone so far on the system, and the most compelling gameplay; things like "Kaboom" (and another couple of games that'll come in a later video I presume), just kept the interest of me and my work colleagues in the shop where I worked, so lunch breaks were always fraught Atari battles between us!! 🙂
I had 2600 Double Dragon and my step-brother had NES Double Dragon. The 2600 version got played a lot more. A lot more.
Really?! What a travesty that thing is! Happy you got fun out of it, though. 😀
@GenXGrownUp Two player simultaneous play beats the single player experience.
HERO all the way. Although I've never played it on the 2600, I feel like that Ghostbusters deserves a bit more credit for what it accomplishes. I love that game on the C64.
Not 2600 games but here are some Activision games that are severely underrated: Rock n Bolt, Park Patrol, Master of the Lamps.
I recall playaing Master of the Lamps on my Atari 800. It's been a while, though - something sort of Ali Baba-ish about it, right? Riding a carpet?
@@GenXGrownUp Yea like a tunnel runner.
Hey could you do a tier list for NEO GEO games. I loved those game back when I was a kid. I always wished to have one but way out of my buget but loved playing at the arcade and loved that the machines had an ear phone jack since some aracade were so loud that you could not hear the game youre olaying. Just recently got the neo geo mini and love it and have a few of them on my switch. I know Neo Geo is alot further down the road time line then what youre doing but I dont see any tier list for Neo Geo on the channels I sub to. Keep up the great work. Always a thumbs up from me.
That's a lot of games! Ha! I'll add it to my idea list and do a bit more reading. Thanks for watching, Paul!
Enduro was a great game. At the time the only better racing game was Pole Position, and you had to go to the arcade and pay for that.
The game with the spiders reminded me a lot of Tapper but even better that they switched lanes! I never saw that one before, definitely a winner!
Couldn't agree more.
I liked _Turbo_ at the arcade, and _Enduro_ was a fun driving game like that. But I don't consider them (or _Pole Position, Night Driver,_ or _Grand Prix)_ to be "racing games" but rather "passing-traffic" games. (Someone else had another name for them.) _Indy 500, F-Zero_ and _Mario Kart_ are racing games.
Great job Joh keeping them coming. Atari forever !!
i love this kind of videos. Please, do the same for imagic games, atari and other companies. It's fun!. Edit: Dolphin only a D 😢 Fishing Derby i think is a ok game but it has a lot of charm!
I'm glad you are enjoying this one. If these do well, I will consider doing more tier lists.
What am I missing with Dolphin?
I think it's an interesting game if you know how to control the water arrows. When you become the predator by touching the seagull and score points I love the sound effect! It's addictive to earn points in this game. But well, everyone has his own opinion. I really liked the video
Chopper Command was my jammy jam!!! I used to play that game for HOURS AND HOURS!!! Something about the sleek fun it was to hover and reverse that helicopter in midair as it was moving made me feel like I was Airwolf!
Yep! 😀
Awww! I liked checkers by Activision for the Atari 2600.
That's great! My "ranking" in no way speaks to how much fun we may or may not have had playing a game, but really just its subjective quality across the line. I saw another commenter who had a blast with Double Dragon - more power to ya! 😀
4 days until my birthday.
On my birthday, Im gonna get a replica of the Atari 2600, and I have 2 actual Atari games, I got combat, and KABOOM!
After reaching the required score, did you take a picture of your television screen and submit that photo to Activision headquarters to earn a merit patch?
Yes and no. I took several pictures, but by them time the got developed, my young self had forgotten about mailing them in!
I have to disagree with Enduro not being an S rating. I loved that game at the time, and I still love and can play it nowadays for quite time.
Completely understandable. There's certainly no shame in an A! I can still remember the first time I saw the Enduro box in a little local book store.
Pretty spot on Gen-x brother. The early Activision titles were trial/error and we were young.
2 player Boxing was actually pretty good
This went off the rails when you gave Freeway a "D". Great game that has adaptability with the 'hard mode" of getting sent all the way back to the curb if you are hit, and the different levels with varying speed vehicles, semis, etc. And you veered from your original rating rule of "How would 10 year old Johnny feel about this game" multiple times. You're going to tell me you liked Bridge as a kid? Yeah, right.
You're got a point with Bridge - though I learned to play Canasta with my family from an early age, so I do think I'd have enjoyed Bridge if I'd had it. 😉 I really appreciate you watching and taking the time to share your opinions!
what I love about Activision 2600 era is their cool box art covers. they pop out more then Atari and other companies that put out 2600 games back then. heck not even the PC games at the time could compete with.
As a kid I inherited my mother's Atart 2600. I was born in 1987, so my first memories of gaming are with my mother's Atari 2600. In 1992 for my 5th birthday my father bought me a Super Nintendo. I remember I had 3 games when I first took my SNES home. Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and Super Castlevania. I skipped the NES entirely. I had a cousin who had a NES and I would play games like Super Mario Bros, Techmo Bowl, WrestleMania, Mega Man, Double Dragon. Other than a night at my cousin's house I didn't play the NES. I played Atari 2600, and my Super Nintendo. I remember my brother getting a Sega Genesis, he got me into sports games like NBA Jam, NBA Live 95, NFL Madden 93, also, I remember Rocket Knight adventures, and The Sonic Franchise. In about 1996-97 I got a PS1 and a N64. On The N64 I enjoyed WCW Revenge, WrestleMania 2000, Golden Eye, Pokemon Snap, on The PS1 I enjoyed Tekken, Bloody Roar, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the dragon, NBA Live 99, Resident Evil, WWF Smackdown. I remember getting a Purple Gameboy Color, I had Pokemon Yellow and Red.
I remember Activision had this promotion where, if you get a certain number of points (or above) in a game and send a photo to prove it, you could get an iron-on patch based on that game.
I remember the picture being taken of my high score in Pitfall, but mom never got around to sending it in.
Of course, NOW, with the advent of computers, printers and iron-on printing paper, I could find an image of any patch I want and make it myself. So, there's a bit of vindication there.
I've not played too many of these. But I gotta agree with you on those that I did. And yes H.E.R.O. is my all time favorite Atari game.
Barnstorming is basically Stampede in the air.
Plaque Attack #1, Pitfall #2
I had no idea there were 44 Activision games for the 2600 😳 I always thought it was about 30!
I'm surprised at the number of them that I never came across in the wild, too.
I thoight Bridge would get a lower rating (mostly because I know nothing about how to play bridge) but the game actually seems pretty damn decent...from a non-bridge player 😋
In this tier list, I would probably give Chopper Command, Enduro and H.E.R.O all "S" rankings...and Crackpot would be a bit lower? Beamrider looks pretty great too!
Freeway always just seemed kind of bland to me and would only be worth playing with 2 players...Frogger it ain't!
Checkers as an "F?" Absolutely! They should have just scrapped the computer "A.I." and just shipped it as a 2-player only game once they realized how many thousands of CPU cycles would need to be burned for each move. That LOOOOONG blank screen is utterly embarrassing...
Seeing those activision games,i can hardly believe that they had to raise the beam to create graphics by timing every pixel on screen per frame,per background and per sprite,and what if 2 or more sprites are moving in opposite directions,then you had to time that as well etc,,,
I can’t even imagine were they would ever start,considering the 2600 graphics were extremely limited,UNLESS they had already better toolkits to work with in the early 80’s.
Beamrider is my number one Activision game and ranks as S on my list. Sad to see that it only merited a B here. Chopper Command is an A for me.
That's a great tier list Gen X. The only change I'd make is with Dragster. I'm a car guy, so it is automatically a favorite. Yeah, graphics aren't the best and game play is repetitive. But I can play it for hours just trying to get a hundredth of a second better. It's the trying to get a better time on the next run that gives it replayablility. Still, it's an A or B for me. I'd also bump Enduro up to S tier simply for nostalgic reasons. There was nothing like driving into the sunset or on icy or snowy roads at the time, very innovative.
Thanks! I can see how Dragster would have greater appeal for a motorhead. 😀
@@GenXGrownUp Another thing that's cool with Dragster is that one could restart it without having to use the console's reset button. I don't know if any other game could do that at the time.
I like this video. I think I might have place endure on S. I think it was an amazing racing game for its time.
Thanks, Richard. I hope you'll check out part two once it's ready.
Enduro was on the bubble: A+/S- - a great one for sure.
@@GenXGrownUp im sure it was. And after you make the full run it does start getting repetitive. im looking forward to part two. You should do an imagic one too . They had some decent games as well. :)
Kaboom is the first used game cartridge I've purchased. I just got it in today from eBay, and it works perfectly with my 2600+. I never played it as a kid, but I now wish I had, as it's fantastic! I tried it on my Flashback 12 Gold, but it's a little jittery on that, so I knew I had to get it for the 2600+. The cartridge is in perfect shape, save for the label, but I don't know if I'll buy one for it. Atlantis was one of my favorite games as a kid. I don't have a cartridge for that one, but with the game play not being movement demanding like Kaboom, playing it on the FB12G is good enough.