1983 is by far the largest year in our archive, with around 270 games. Toy makers, film studios, food companies and small firms that vanished within months all put cartridges on the shelves. It was also the year of the video game crash. Atari lost $536 million, and in September it buried unsold stock in a New Mexico landfill. In October it brought the console to Japan as the Atari 2800, where it made little impact.
Plenty of good games still came out. Activision released Dan Kitchen’s first 2600 game, Crackpots, and Parker Brothers brought Konami’s Tutankham and the lightsaber duel Star Wars: Jedi Arena. Atari continued its Swordquest series with Swordquest: Fireworld, and Starpath’s Sword of Saros showed how far the Supercharger could go. At the other end of the scale is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, better known for its controversy than for its gameplay.
Some titles on this page reached shops in early 1984, such as Private Eye and Track & Field, and Xevious is a prototype that was never released.
There is a lot to explore below, and every game plays right in your browser.
Raumpatrouille ("Space Patrol") is a space shoot-'em-up that the German mail-order company Quelle sold for the Atari 2600 around 1983. Like many cartridges in Quelle's range, it was not a new game but one from another company with…
Play ▸RealSports Basketball is a two-on-two basketball game that Atari planned for the Atari 2600 in 1983 as part of its RealSports line, but never released. The programming was done under contract by Roklan, with Joe Gaucher as programmer,…
Play ▸Planet of the Apes is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype from 1983, programmed by John Marvin for 20th Century Fox's video game division. You play Colonel George Taylor, the astronaut from the 1968 film, fleeing an army of…
Play ▸Planet Patrol is an Atari 2600 shooter made and published by Spectravision, an American company that later renamed itself Spectravideo. You fly a white patrol ship low over the surface of your planet, shooting enemy craft and blowing…
Play ▸Plaque Attack is a 1983 Activision shooter designed by Steve Cartwright, the creator of Megamania and Seaquest. You play a tube of toothpaste defending a mouth full of teeth from waves of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and sweets.…
Play ▸Pole Position is the Atari 2600 version of Namco's 1982 Formula One arcade racer, which became the highest-grossing arcade game in North America in 1983. Atari released the cartridge under licence from Namco in August 1983, with programming…
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