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.
Planet Patrol is an Atari 2600 shooter made and published by Spectravision, an American company that later renamed itself Spectravideo. You fly a white patrol ship low over the surface of your planet, shooting enemy craft and blowing up their fuel depots, while your own fuel runs down and the day slowly turns to night. The fading light is what makes it different from other shooters of its time. You can play it here in your browser.
Plaque Attack is a 1983 Activision shooter designed by Steve Cartwright, the creator of Megamania and Seaquest. You play a tube of toothpaste defending a mouth full of teeth from waves of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and sweets. It is a fixed-screen shooter with an unusual twist: the enemies come at you from above and below, so you have to keep turning to face them. You can play it here in your browser.
Pleiades is an unreleased 1983 Atari 2600 prototype: a home version of Tehkan’s 1981 arcade shooter, programmed by the British developer UA Limited. It never reached the shops, but it looks close to finished, and the prototype archive AtariProtos calls it a port that does the arcade game justice. You can play it here in your browser.
Polaris is Tigervision’s Atari 2600 version of Taito’s 1980 arcade game of the same name. You command a nuclear submarine deep in enemy waters, firing missiles up at bomber squadrons while dodging bombs, enemy subs and depth charges. The cartridge was programmed by Robert H. O’Neil, and its manual is dated 1982. Between waves, the 2600 version sends you through a mined channel, which gives the game a second kind of challenge. You can play it here in your browser.
Pooyan is Konami’s Atari 2600 version of its own 1982 arcade game. You play Mama Pig, who defends her piglets from a pack of wolves floating down on balloons, shooting the balloons with a bow and arrow. Konami published the cartridge itself in 1983, one of only three 2600 games it released under its own name. It is a simple, cheerful shooter that suits younger players. You can play it here in your browser.
Popeye for the Atari 2600 is Parker Brothers’ 1983 home version of Nintendo’s 1982 arcade game. You guide the spinach-loving sailor around a set of platforms, catching the hearts, notes and kisses that Olive Oyl throws down before they sink, while Brutus chases you and the Sea Hag throws bottles. It keeps the arcade game’s three screens in a simpler form. You can play it here in your browser.
Porky’s is a 1983 Atari 2600 game based on the 1981 teen comedy film of the same name. It was published by 20th Century Fox’s video game division and made for Dunhill Electronic Media by a small team that included programmer Randy Hyde of Lazer Microsystems. You help the film’s hero, Pee Wee, get even with Porky, the owner of a roadside bar, across several very different screens. You can play it here in your browser.
Pressure Cooker is a 1983 Activision game designed and programmed by Garry Kitchen. You play Short-Order Sam, a cook at a burger restaurant called “The Grille”, who builds hamburgers to order while toppings fly out of a machine and patties roll along a conveyor belt. It arrived late in the 2600’s life, so few players saw it then, but its mix of juggling, memory and speed is unlike almost anything else on the console. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Reissued by Atari in 1988 (CX-26150) Q*bert Atari 2600 Instruction manual Q*BERT OBJECTIVES To score as many points as possible by changing the colour of the cubes on the pyramid from a starting colour to a destination colour. You’ll do this by hopping Q*bert from cube to cube while avoiding the “nasty” characters who will … Read more
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is David Crane’s 1984 sequel to his own Pitfall!, published by Activision. Pitfall Harry leaves the jungle and goes underground into a huge cave system below Machu Picchu in Peru. With no time limit, swimming, balloon rides and a full musical score, it pushed the 2600 further than almost any game before it. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.