Publisher: Activision

Activision was the first company other than Atari to sell games for the Atari 2600. It was founded in 1979 by programmers who had left Atari, among them David Crane, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, and it started out in Crane’s garage. Its first four cartridges, Boxing, Dragster, Fishing Derby and Checkers, appeared in the summer of 1980. Many more followed from designers such as Carol Shaw, Steve Cartwright, Garry Kitchen and Larry Miller. Activision kept making 2600 cartridges long after the 1983 crash, including late arcade conversions such as Kung-Fu Master, Commando and Double Dragon.
The site has 50 pages from Activision, including several unreleased prototypes. A few to start with:

River Raid (1982): Carol Shaw’s river shooter, the second best-selling 2600 game of 1983.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (1984): David Crane’s underground sequel, with swimming, balloon rides and a full musical score.
Seaquest (1983): rescue divers before your submarine’s oxygen runs out.
Kaboom! (1981): catch the Mad Bomber’s bombs in water buckets, using the paddle controller.
H.E.R.O. (1984): fly a backpack helicopter down mine shafts to reach trapped miners.
Enduro (1983): a long-distance race through day, night, snow and fog.

Browse the full list below and play any of them in your browser.

Checkers

Atari 2600 Checkers Instructions A New Twist on a Classic Game Checkers, a classic game known by many, has been transformed to allow an entire family to challenge the Activision computer across three difficulty levels. Before jumping into…

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Bridge

Bridge is a card game cartridge from Activision, released in December 1980 and programmed by Larry Kaplan. It lets one person bid and play contract bridge, with the computer handling the opponents and your partner's bids. It is…

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Frostbite

Frostbite: Chilling Adventures on the Atari 2600 In 1983, Activision released Frostbite, an action-packed game for the Atari 2600. This exciting game is centered around a daring protagonist who must survive the freezing cold by building an igloo…

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Private Eye

Private Eye is a detective game for the Atari 2600, designed by Activision co-founder Bob Whitehead and released by Activision in early 1984. You play the French detective Pierre Touché, driving a jumping Model A car around a…

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Oink!

Oink! is a 1983 Activision game designed by Mike Lorenzen and based on the fairy tale of the Three Little Pigs. The wolf, here called Bigelow B. Wolf, blows holes in the wall of a pig's house, and…

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Unknown Activision Game #1

Unknown Activision Game #1 is an unreleased Activision puzzle prototype for the Atari 2600. It plays like a cross between a Rubik's Cube and a sliding-tile puzzle: you shift rows and columns of coloured squares until every row…

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Unknown Activision Game #2

Unknown Activision Game #2 is an unreleased Activision prototype from 1983 that has since been identified as Hard Head. You play a small alien who builds a tower out of blocks and climbs it to escape to the…

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Venetian Blinds Demo

Venetian Blinds Demo is not a game. It is a short Activision test program credited to David Crane, from the company's early years, that shows a window with a pair of Venetian blinds. It was never sold as…

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Thwocker

Thwocker is an unreleased Activision prototype for the Atari 2600, programmed by Charlie Heath, the designer of Reactor. It was worked on in 1984 and has been described as "Joust with musical instruments": you guide a bouncing little…

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Tennis

Tennis is a 1981 Atari 2600 sports game written by Alan Miller, one of the founders of Activision, and released by Activision in March 1981. You play a singles match against the computer or a friend on a…

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