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.

Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is an unreleased Atari 2600 game from 1983, designed and programmed by Bob Polaro with graphics by Alan Murphy. Atari tested it and then shelved it, so it never reached the shops, but prototype copies have…

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Bowling

Bowling is one of the early Atari VCS (later Atari 2600) cartridges, released by Atari in January 1979 and also sold by Sears under the same name. It was designed and programmed by Larry Kaplan. It is a…

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BASIC Programming

BASIC Programming is not a game but a small programming language on a cartridge. Warren Robinett wrote it for Atari at the same time as he was finishing Adventure, and Atari released it for the 2600 in 1980.…

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Battlezone

Battlezone is the Atari 2600 version of Atari's 1980 arcade tank game, released by Atari in August 1983. You roll across a battlefield hunting enemy tanks, supertanks, fighters and flying saucers, using a radar screen to find targets…

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Big Bird’s Egg Catch

Big Bird's Egg Catch is a 1983 Sesame Street game for young children, made by Atari with the Children's Computer Workshop and programmed by Christopher Omarzu. Big Bird wants to win the egg contest at the county fair,…

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Bionic Breakthrough

Bionic Breakthrough is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype programmed by Paul Donaldson at Atari in 1984. It is a reworked version of Super Breakout, made to show off the MindLink, a headband controller that Atari never brought to…

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Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the first Atari 2600 cartridges. Bob Whitehead designed it for Atari, and it was one of the games on sale when the console launched in September 1977. You play against a computer dealer, using…

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Aquaventure

Aquaventure is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype from 1983, programmed by Gary Shannon, with Tod Frye writing the display kernel. It never appeared in any Atari catalogue or press material, and nobody knew it existed until a copy…

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Asteroids

Asteroids is Atari's 1981 home version of its own 1979 arcade hit. You steer a small ship through a field of drifting space rocks and blast them into smaller and smaller pieces before they hit you. The Atari…

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Backgammon

Backgammon is Atari's 1979 version of the old board game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Craig Nelson. You can play against the computer or a friend, with a working doubling cube and a second game, Acey Deucey,…

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