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.
Pepsi Invaders
Pepsi Invaders is a promotional version of Atari's Space Invaders made in 1983 for the Coca-Cola Company. It was never sold in shops: Coca-Cola gave it to its own salespeople at a sales convention that year. Instead of…
Play ▸Pigs in Space
Pigs in Space is a 1983 Atari 2600 cartridge based on the "Pigs in Space" sketches from The Muppet Show. Instead of one game it holds three short space games, each starring a different member of the starship…
Play ▸Oscar’s Trash Race
Oscar's Trash Race is a 1983 Sesame Street game for young children, made by Atari with the Children's Computer Workshop. Oscar the Grouch and his little grouches race to pick up trash dropped at the dump, and the…
Play ▸Outlaw – Gunslinger
Outlaw is a 1978 Atari 2600 western shootout designed by David Crane at Atari. Sears sold the same game under its Tele-Games label as Gunslinger. Two cowboys face each other across the screen with a cactus, a wall…
Play ▸Off the Wall
Off the Wall is a Breakout-style game for the Atari 2600, developed by Axlon and published by Atari Corporation in 1989, near the very end of the console's life. You play Kung Fu Lu, who deflects the balls…
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