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.

Fatal Run (USA)

Fatal Run is a post-apocalyptic driving and shooting game made by Sculptured Software, programmed by Steve Aguirre and published by Atari. It was only ever sold in Europe, as a PAL cartridge in 1990, and it was one…

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Berzerk

Berzerk is a multidirectional shooter video game that was initially released for arcades in 1980 and later for the Atari 2600 in 1982. The game was developed by Stern Electronics and designed by Alan McNeil. Berzerk places the…

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Football

Football is Atari's early American football cartridge for the 2600, programmed by Bob Whitehead and sold by Sears as part of its Tele-Games line. It is a two-player game only: one person plays offence, the other defence, and…

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RealSports Tennis

RealSports Tennis is a singles tennis game that Atari released for the 2600 in 1983, as part of its RealSports line of sports cartridges. It was developed for Atari by General Computer Corporation (GCC), with Alan Hodgkinson as…

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Basketball

Basketball is one of the first basketball video games for a home console: a one-on-one match on a full court seen from the sideline, programmed by Alan Miller and released by Atari for the 2600 in 1978. It…

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Basic Math

Basic Math is an educational cartridge programmed by Gary Palmer and one of the games Atari sold when the 2600 first went on sale in September 1977. It is less a game than a set of arithmetic drills…

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Xenophobe

Xenophobe is the Atari 2600 version of Bally Midway's 1987 arcade game, published by Atari Corporation in 1990, near the end of the console's life. Aliens have overrun a chain of space stations, and you beam aboard each…

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Xevious

Xevious for the Atari 2600 is an unreleased prototype of Namco's 1983 arcade shooter. Tod Frye programmed it at Atari in 1983 and early 1984, and the last known version is close to finished, but the cartridge never…

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Yars’ Revenge

Yars’ Revenge is a video game developed and published by Atari for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It was designed by Howard Scott Warshaw, who also created the infamous E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial game for the same platform. Yars’…

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Warlords

Warlords is a castle-smashing paddle game for up to four players, programmed by Carla Meninsky and released by Atari in 1981, with a Sears edition as well. Each player guards a castle in one corner of the screen…

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