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.

Freeway

Freeway is a 1981 Activision game designed and programmed by David Crane. You guide a chicken across ten lanes of speeding traffic, and every safe crossing scores a point. It is simple, but judging gaps in eight traffic…

Play ▸

Fighter Pilot

Fighter Pilot is the PAL release of Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator, a late Atari 2600 flight game designed by Dan Kitchen. In the USA it was published by Absolute Entertainment; outside the USA it was renamed Fighter…

Play ▸

Dragster

Dragster is a 1980 drag racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by David Crane and published by Activision. It was among the new company's very first cartridges. A race lasts only seconds, but a perfect…

Play ▸

Enduro

Enduro is a 1983 racing game by Activision, designed by Larry Miller. You drive in the "National Enduro", a long-distance race where you have to overtake a set number of cars every day to stay in the competition.…

Play ▸

Dolphin

Dolphin is a 1983 Activision game designed by Matthew Hubbard. You guide a dolphin through the open sea while a giant squid chases her, and the most unusual thing about it is that you have to play partly…

Play ▸

Double Dragon

Double Dragon for the Atari 2600 is Activision's 1989 home version of Technos Japan's 1987 arcade beat 'em up. It was programmed by Dan Kitchen and came out late in the console's life, alongside a separate Atari 7800…

Play ▸

Cosmic Commuter

Cosmic Commuter is a 1985 Activision game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by John Van Ryzin. You drive the Astrobus, a space-age bus service of the year 2075: land it on a planet, fly along a…

Play ▸

Commando

Commando is Activision's 1988 Atari 2600 version of Capcom's 1985 arcade game, which Data East distributed in North America. The cartridge was reprogrammed for the 2600 by Mike Reidel of Imagineering. You run up a vertically scrolling battlefield…

Play ▸

Chopper Command

Chopper Command is a horizontally scrolling shooter designed by Bob Whitehead and released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982. You fly a helicopter gunship over the desert, shooting down enemy jets and helicopters before they can…

Play ▸

Boxing

Boxing is a 1980 sports game by Activision, designed and programmed by Bob Whitehead. It was one of the four cartridges Activision launched with that summer, the first games ever sold for the Atari 2600 by a company…

Play ▸