Publisher: Atari

Atari made the Atari 2600, which first went on sale in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System, and it also published many of the console’s games. Nine cartridges were available at launch, among them Street Racer, Surround and Video Olympics. Over the next years Atari’s programmers wrote original games and converted arcade hits, both Atari’s own, such as Missile Command, and licensed ones from companies like Taito, Namco and Williams. Sears sold many of the same games under its Tele-Games label, often with different names. The Atari name here also covers the later Atari Corporation, which kept releasing 2600 cartridges until 1990, among them Solaris, Radar Lock and Xenophobe.
This archive includes Atari’s released games as well as prototypes that never reached the shops. Some places to start:

Video Olympics (1977): 50 Pong-style games and variations for paddle controllers.
Video Chess (1979): a full chess opponent squeezed into a machine with 128 bytes of memory.
Warlords (1981): Carla Meninsky’s castle-smashing game for up to four players.
Missile Command (1981): Rob Fulop’s version of the arcade game about defending six cities.
Star Raiders (1982): first-person space combat with a galaxy map.
Solaris (1986): Doug Neubauer’s space combat and exploration game.

The full list is below, and every game on it runs in your browser.

Pole Position

Pole Position is Atari's 1983 Atari 5200 version of Namco's arcade racer, programmed by Mike Horowitz and Betty Ryan Tylko at General Computer Corporation. You drive a qualifying lap to earn a place on the grid, then race…

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A.E.

A.E. is an unreleased Atari 5200 port of Broderbund's 1982 computer shooter, in which you blow up swooping formations of robot stingrays with a missile that you detonate by hand. Atari had a near-final cartridge in January 1984…

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Defender

Defender is Atari's 1982 Atari 5200 version of the 1981 Williams arcade hit, in which you fly over a scrolling planet and shoot down the aliens trying to carry off its people. With two fire buttons and the…

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Dig Dug

Dig Dug is the Atari 5200 version of Namco's 1982 arcade game, programmed by General Computer Corporation and released by Atari in October 1983. You tunnel through four layers of earth, inflating Pookas and Fygars with your pump…

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Galaxian

Galaxian is Atari's 1982 Atari 5200 version of Namco's 1979 arcade shooter, programmed by Joseph Tung and released in the console's first months. Aliens peel out of formation and dive at your ship while you pick them off…

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Joust

Joust is the Atari 5200 version of Williams' 1982 arcade game, programmed by General Computer Corporation and released by Atari in October 1983. You ride a flying ostrich and unseat buzzard-riding knights by hitting them from above, alone…

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Missile Command

Missile Command is Atari's 1982 Atari 5200 version of its own 1980 arcade game, one of the first cartridges made for the console. You move a cursor around the sky and set off anti-ballistic missiles to shield six…

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Ms. Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man is the maze game with four layouts, bouncing fruit and a ghost called Sue. General Computer Corporation, the team behind the 1982 arcade original, programmed this Atari 5200 version, and Atari released it in 1983 with…

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Space Invaders

Space Invaders was one of the cartridges on sale when the Atari 5200 launched in October 1982. Atari's version of Taito's 1978 arcade game adds twelve game variations, four different sets of invaders that mutate in the final…

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Super Breakout

Super Breakout is the game Atari packed in with every Atari 5200 at its launch in October 1982, a conversion of its 1978 arcade sequel to Breakout. You bat a ball into a wall of coloured bricks in…

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