Third-party games are Atari 2600 cartridges made by companies other than Atari itself. That seems normal today, but in the late 1970s nobody outside a console maker published games for its machine. The change came from Atari’s own staff. In 1979 a group of its programmers, including David Crane, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, left to found Activision, the first independent console game developer. Atari sued, but the case was settled by 1982, with Activision paying royalties and the idea of third-party publishing left standing. Activision also printed its designers’ names on boxes and manuals, something Atari did not do.
Other companies followed quickly. Imagic, co-founded by former Atari programmer Rob Fulop, brought out games such as Riddle of the Sphinx (1982). Toy and film companies joined in too: Parker Brothers with Tutankham, Coleco with Zaxxon, and Mattel’s M Network with BurgerTime. Starpath went further with its Supercharger add-on, which loaded games such as Communist Mutants from Space from audio cassette and raised the console’s memory from 128 bytes to over 6 KB.
Activision’s own hits remain the best-known third-party games, including David Crane’s Pitfall! (1982) and Frostbite (1983). By 1983 so many publishers had flooded shops with cartridges, of very mixed quality, that the glut is often named as one cause of that year’s video game crash.
Browse the full list below and play games from dozens of publishers right here in your browser.
Sky Jinks is a 1982 air racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by Bob Whitehead for Activision. You fly a low-level P41 racer through a course of pylons, watched over from above as the ground scrolls past, and try to beat the clock. It is a quick, one-player time trial that is easy to learn and hard to fly perfectly. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Sky Patrol is an unfinished Atari 2600 prototype from Imagic, programmed by Brad Stewart in 1982. You fly a hot air balloon over enemy territory, riding the wind at different heights. It was shown at the 1982 CES trade show, with a mock-up box and label, but it was the only Imagic 2600 game that never came out. The surviving prototype is playable but incomplete. You can try it here in your browser.
Sky Skipper is Parker Brothers’ 1983 Atari 2600 version of a Nintendo arcade game from 1981. You fly a small biplane over a walled course, bombing gorillas to knock them out so their cages spring open, then swoop down to rescue the animals inside before the gorillas get back up. It is a quick, easy-to-learn score-chaser with a nice twist: rescuing animals is also how you refuel. You can play it here in your browser.
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle is a side-scrolling jumping game based on the Smurfs cartoon. Coleco released it first for its own ColecoVision console in 1982 and then for the Atari 2600 in 1983. You guide a Smurf from the village through woods, fields, mountains and caverns to Gargamel’s castle, where Smurfette is held prisoner. Its screens are full of colour and detail, and its jump timing is easy to learn but hard to master. You can play it here in your browser.
Seaquest is an underwater shooter designed by Steve Cartwright and released by Activision in 1983. You command a small submarine, pick up divers, fight off sharks and enemy subs, and keep an eye on an oxygen tank that is always running down. The mix of shooting and rescuing, and the constant question of when to surface, keeps it interesting long after the first few minutes. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Shark Attack is an underwater maze game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by Steve Stringfellow and published by Games by Apollo in 1982. It first appeared under the name Lochjaw before Apollo renamed it, so Shark Attack is the version most players owned. As a diver you gather diamonds from a sunken treasure while sharks patrol the water and the Loch Ness Monster sleeps in the caves. You can play it here in your browser.
S.A.C. Alert is an unreleased 1983 air combat game for the Atari 2600, made for Amiga Corporation, the company that later built the Amiga computer. The letters stand for Strategic Air Command. You fly a warplane over land or sea, shooting enemy planes and ground or naval targets while watching your fuel and altitude. It is the most complete of the Amiga prototypes that have been found, and you can play it here in your browser.
Save Our Ship is a fast single-screen action game released for the Atari 2600 in Europe by TechnoVision in 1983. Your crew has deserted, and you alone must defend your clipper ship from pirates climbing up its sides, armed only with a cutlass. This page runs the European PAL cartridge, which is the version documented by collectors. You can play it here in your browser.
Save Our Ship is a single-screen action game for the Atari 2600 released by TechnoVision in 1983. You are the captain of a clipper ship whose crew has run off, and you have to keep a horde of pirates from climbing aboard, armed with nothing but a cutlass. It is simple and gets very fast very quickly. You can play it here in your browser.
Sea Battle is a two-player naval war game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Larry Zwick and Bruce Pedersen for Mattel’s M Network label. It is a cut-down conversion of Mattel’s 1980 Intellivision game of the same name. The 2600 version was finished around 1983 but never released at the time, and its working title was High Seas. Cartridges only appeared in 2000, in a small run from Intellivision Productions. You can play it here in your browser.