Game origin: Atari original

This list collects games made and published by Atari itself, the company behind the 2600. When the console, then called the Atari Video Computer System, went on sale in September 1977, it came with nine cartridges, among them Video Olympics, a collection of Pong-style paddle games, and Street Racer. Many early Atari games were also sold by the department store Sears under its Tele-Games label, sometimes with a different name.
Atari’s early programmers usually worked alone, and their names did not appear on the box. They still built many of the console’s best-known games. Rick Maurer’s Space Invaders (1980) was the first officially licensed arcade conversion for a home console, and 2600 sales rose sharply after it came out. Rob Fulop’s Missile Command (1981) hides his initials as an Easter egg. Tod Frye’s Pac-Man (1982) was heavily criticised but became the console’s best-selling cartridge, and Howard Scott Warshaw’s Yars’ Revenge (1982) was an original design.
After the 1983 crash, Atari was sold, and the new Atari Corporation kept supporting the 2600 for years. It released new games such as Doug Neubauer’s Solaris (1986), a space game often seen as a successor to Star Raiders, and finished older projects such as Bob Polaro’s Road Runner (1989).
Scroll through the list below and play Atari’s own games right here in your browser.