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.

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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Wizard

Wizard is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype from 1980, programmed at Atari by Chris Crawford. It is a small maze duel between a wizard and an invisible creature, and it has one unusual idea: in two-player mode, the…

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Vanguard

Vanguard is Atari's 1982 Atari 2600 conversion of the 1981 arcade shooter from SNK, which Centuri released in North American arcades. Programmed by Dave Payne, it sends your ship through a long enemy tunnel, armed with lasers that…

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Video Checkers

Video Checkers is Atari's 1980 checkers game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Carol Shaw, who later made River Raid at Activision. You can play against the computer at nine skill levels, play a friend, or try "giveaway"…

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Video Chess

Video Chess is Atari's chess cartridge for the 2600, released in November 1979. It was programmed by Larry Wagner and Bob Whitehead, with help from chess expert Julio Kaplan. You play against the computer on a full board,…

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Video Olympics

Video Olympics is Atari's collection of Pong-style ball games for the Atari 2600, programmed by Joe Decuir. It was one of the nine cartridges available when the console launched in September 1977, and Sears sold it under the…

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Video Pinball

Video Pinball is a pinball game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Bob Smith and published by Atari in 1981. Sears sold it under the name Arcade Pinball. The table has flippers, a plunger, bumpers, spinners, drop targets…

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