A platformer is a game about running and jumping: over gaps, onto ledges, past enemies and obstacles, usually across a series of screens. On the Atari 2600 the genre had to work with one joystick and one fire button, so the button almost always means “jump”, and the challenge comes from timing that jump just right.
The console’s limits shaped these games heavily. With 128 bytes of RAM and a graphics chip that draws only a couple of moving objects per line, a 2600 platformer cannot fill the screen with enemies. Most show a hero, one or two hazards and a simple background, and many move from one fixed screen to the next instead of scrolling smoothly. Activision’s Pitfall! (1982) is the best-known example of this screen-by-screen style, and other companies borrowed its approach.
A few games from this list to try:
Bobby Is Going Home (Bit Corporation, 1983): a boy walks home past ponds, broken bridges and birds, in a game that plays a lot like Pitfall!
Bobby geht heim: the German release of the same game.
Garfield: Steve Woita’s unfinished 1984 platform game for Atari, which proved the 2600 could handle multi-screen scrolling before it was cancelled.
Elevator Action: an unreleased 1983 Atari version of Taito’s arcade game, riding lifts and escalators down a 30-storey building.
Browse the list below and start jumping right here in your browser.
Walker is a little-known Atari 2600 cartridge released in 1983 by Suntek for PAL televisions. The same game was sold in Germany by the retailer Quelle as Schussel, der Polizistenschreck (roughly “Schussel, terror of the police”), and a third release called Guignol is known to exist, but no copy has turned up for preservation yet. The version on this page is the European Walker / Schussel cartridge. You can play it here in your browser.
Pac Kong is a European PAL cartridge from 1983, released by Goliath and Hot Shot with the catalogue number 83-414. Despite the name, it is neither Pac-Man nor Donkey Kong. The game on the cartridge is the one better known as Inca Gold, a Funvision title that turned up under many different names. You can play it here in your browser with the standard joystick.
A Mysterious Thief is a 1983 Atari 2600 game in which you play a burglar raiding a four-storey building against the clock. The version on this page is an NTSC prototype, and only one copy is known. The game itself did come out in Europe under other names, and it is now thought to be an American game by Zimag or Vidco. You can play the prototype here in your browser.
Lilly Adventure is a 1983 platform game for the Atari 2600, made in Taiwan and sold in Europe by Home Vision as a PAL cartridge. Little Lilly is jumping her way home through a landscape full of animals, and the seasons change around her as she goes. You can play it here in your browser.
Lilly Adventure is a little-known platform game for the Atari 2600 from the early 1980s. This page has the NTSC version of the cartridge, the one that runs at the 60 Hz picture rate used in North America. You can play it here in your browser.
Garfield is an unfinished Atari 2600 platform game starring Jim Davis’s lazy, lasagne-loving comic strip cat. It was programmed at Atari in 1984 by Steve Woita, with graphics by Mimi Nyden, but it was cancelled and never sold. What survives is a prototype dated 21 June 1984. It is a rare look at a licensed game that almost made it to the shops. You can play the prototype here in your browser.
Elevator Action for the Atari 2600 is an unreleased prototype. Dan Hitchens programmed it at Atari as a home version of Taito’s 1983 arcade spy game, but the cartridge was never finished or sold. The surviving version is largely playable, with a few rough edges. It is a rare chance to see a 2600 arcade conversion that almost made it. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype from 1984. Coleco planned it as a conversion of its ColecoVision game based on the popular dolls, and the 2600 version was programmed by Ed Temple at Individeo. It was finished but never sold, and it only became public after prototype chips turned up at a flea market in 2008. You can play it here in your browser.
Bobby Is Going Home is a side-scrolling platform game for the Atari 2600, made by the Taiwanese company Bit Corporation in 1983. You guide a small boy named Bobby on his walk home, jumping over ponds, holes and broken bridges and dodging birds, bats and other animals on the way. It plays a lot like Activision’s Pitfall!, but with a gentler, more cheerful feel and bright, busy backgrounds. You can play it here in your browser.
Bobby geht heim (“Bobby goes home”) is the German release of Bobby Is Going Home, a cheerful side-scrolling platform game made by the Taiwanese company Bit Corporation in 1983. The game is the same: you walk young Bobby home, jumping over ponds, holes and broken bridges and dodging birds, bats and other animals on the way. You can play it here in your browser.