Publisher: Sega

Sega, the arcade game maker, published its own Atari 2600 cartridges in 1983 and 1984. Most of them are home versions of its arcade games, scaled down to fit the console. Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Tac-Scan, Sub-Scan (based on Deep Scan), Congo Bongo and Up’n Down all started out in Sega arcades. Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator squeezes a vector arcade game with a panel of buttons onto a one-button joystick. Sega also converted two Bally Midway hits, Tapper and Spy Hunter. Thunderground is a tunnelling game that borrows its idea from the arcade game Borderline. Outside studios did some of the work: Beck-Tech converted Congo Bongo and Tapper.
The site has all ten Sega titles listed here, including the unreleased Ixion prototype. Some places to start:

Spy Hunter (1984): a spy car that turns into a speedboat, played with two joysticks.
Tapper (1984): a bartender keeping four bars supplied, with soda instead of beer.
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (1983): command the Enterprise against Klingons and NOMAD.
Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1983): a behind-the-ship shooter skimming low over a planet.
Thunderground (1983): dig tunnels towards enemy bases while tanks hunt you.
Ixion: a prototype of a game that was never released.

Pick a game below and play it in your browser.

Congo Bongo

Congo Bongo is the Atari 2600 version of Sega’s 1983 arcade game, in which a safari hunter chases a mischievous gorilla up a mountain and across a jungle river. Sega published the cartridge in 1983, and it was programmed by Phat Ho and Steve Beck of Beck-Tech. The arcade game used a slanted, Zaxxon-style 3D view, which the 2600 could only roughly imitate, and this version keeps two of the four arcade stages. It is a curiosity more than a faithful port, but the river crossing is a decent challenge. You can play it here in your browser.

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom is Sega’s 1983 Atari 2600 version of its own 1982 arcade shooter. The camera sits behind your fighter as it skims low over the surface of Planet Zoom, threading through electron posts, before you climb into space to face alien saucers and the Mother Ship. AtariProtos credits the 2600 programming to Eric Popejoy. It squeezes a real sense of rushing into the screen out of very simple hardware. You can play it here in your browser.

Up’n Down

Up’n Down is the Atari 2600 version of Sega’s 1983 arcade game, published by Sega for the console in 1984. You drive a little dune buggy, the “Baja Bugger” in the manual, along a winding road packed with traffic, and your one trick is a jump that lets you hop over other cars or crush them from above. It is a driving game where you need timing more than speed. You can play it here in your browser.

Thunderground

Thunderground is a 1983 Atari 2600 cartridge from Sega, programmed by Jeff Lorenz. You drive a digging vehicle called a core capsule through the earth, tunnelling towards six enemy bases while two tanks hunt you through the passages you create. It borrows the tunnelling idea from Sega’s 1981 arcade game Borderline and adds a hidden bonus item to find in every round, which turns a simple shoot-out into a small treasure hunt. You can play it here in your browser.

Tac-Scan

Tac-Scan is Sega’s 1983 Atari 2600 version of its own vector-graphics arcade shooter from 1982. Instead of one ship, you steer a whole squadron flying in formation, and every ship you lose makes the formation smaller. The home cartridge is played with a paddle controller and is a much simpler game than the arcade machine, but the squadron idea gives it a flavour of its own. You can play it here in your browser.

Tapper

Tapper puts you behind the counter as a bartender trying to keep four busy bars supplied with drinks. It is the Atari 2600 version of Bally Midway’s 1984 arcade game, converted by Beck-Tech and published by Sega later the same year. The home version serves soda instead of beer, but the frantic job of filling mugs, sliding them down the bar and catching the empties is all there. You can play it here in your browser.

Sub-Scan

Sub-Scan is Sega’s 1983 Atari 2600 version of its own 1979 arcade game Deep Scan. You command a destroyer on the surface and drop depth charges on enemy submarines cruising at different depths below you. It is simple to pick up, but the bonus submarine adds a real risk-and-reward decision. You can play it here in your browser.

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is Sega’s 1983 Atari 2600 conversion of its own Star Trek arcade game, programmed by Jeff Lorenz. You command the USS Enterprise, fight Klingon cruisers, dock with starbases to repair and rearm, and finally take on the mine-laying probe NOMAD. The arcade original used colour vector graphics and a panel of buttons and a spinner, so squeezing it onto a one-button joystick was a real feat. You can play it here in your browser.

Spy Hunter

Spy Hunter is Sega’s 1984 Atari 2600 version of Bally Midway’s 1983 arcade hit. You drive a heavily armed spy car up a scrolling highway, taking out enemy agents before they take you out, and at the waterways the car turns into a speedboat. The 2600 cartridge was unusual because it needed two joysticks to play. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.

Ixion

Ixion is an Atari 2600 game that Sega developed but never released. It was meant to be the home version of Sega’s Ixion arcade game from 1983, which was itself never put on sale. You drive a small tank-like ship around a grid of tiles, collecting five white squares that spell out the word IXION, while knocking a bouncing sphere around to rebuild the floor beneath you. Only a prototype survives, and you can play it here in your browser.