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.
Save Mary!
Save Mary! is an unreleased Atari 2600 puzzle game. Tod Frye programmed it at Nolan Bushnell's company Axlon, and Atari planned to publish it as CX-26178. It was finished in 1989, but Atari closed down its 2600 business…
Play ▸Secret Quest
Secret Quest is a science-fiction action adventure released by Atari in 1989, near the end of the Atari 2600's life. It was developed by Axlon, a company set up by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and programmed by Steve…
Play ▸RealSports Football
RealSports Football is Atari's 1982 American football game for the 2600, designed and programmed by Rob Zdybel. It belongs to Atari's RealSports series and was Atari's attempt to improve on its earlier, much simpler Football cartridge. You call…
Play ▸RealSports Soccer
RealSports Soccer is a 1983 Atari soccer game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Michael Sierchio with graphics by Jerome Domurat. It is part of Atari's RealSports series, which tried to bring more realistic sports games to the…
Play ▸RealSports Volleyball
RealSports Volleyball is a two-on-two beach volleyball game that Atari released for the 2600 in 1982, as part of its RealSports line of sports cartridges. Bob Polaro did the programming and Alan J. Murphy the graphics. It has…
Play ▸Road Runner
Road Runner is a side-scrolling chase game based on the Warner Bros. cartoons, released for the Atari 2600 by Atari Corporation in 1989, one of the last games Atari put out for the console. Programmed by Bob Polaro,…
Play ▸Rubik’s Cube 3D
Rubik's Cube 3D (also known as 3-D Rubik's Cube) is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype programmed by Peter C. Niday at Atari in 1982. It is a completely different game from the Rubik's Cube cartridge that Atari did…
Play ▸Rubik’s Cube
Rubik's Cube is the officially licensed re-release of Atari Video Cube, the cube puzzle game that General Computer Corporation made for Atari. The game is the same, but it carries the Rubik's Cube name under licence, and the…
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