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.
Keystone Kapers is a 1983 chase game by Activision, designed by Garry Kitchen. You play Officer Keystone Kelly, a slapstick silent-film policeman, racing through Southwick's department store to catch the thief Harry Hooligan before he escapes over the…
Play ▸Kool-Aid Man is a 1983 Atari 2600 game starring the big red pitcher from the Kool-Aid drink commercials. It was made by Mattel Electronics, designed and programmed by Steve Tatsumi, and sold under Mattel's M Network label. You…
Play ▸Laser Volley is an unlicensed copy of Imagic's 1983 shooter Laser Gates, sold in Canada by the Zellers department store chain. The game itself is Dan Oliver's work: you fly the Dante Dart through the tunnels of a…
Play ▸Lilly Adventure is a 1983 platform game for the Atari 2600, made in Taiwan and sold in Europe by Home Vision as a PAL cartridge. Little Lilly is jumping her way home through a landscape full of animals,…
Play ▸Immies & Aggies is a 1983 shooting game that the small American company Zimag planned to sell for the Atari 2600 but never released. The name comes from marbles: "aggies" are agate marbles, and "immies" are glass marbles…
Play ▸James Bond 007 is a side-scrolling action game published by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600. It was developed by On-Time Software, with Joe Gaucher as designer and programmer. You drive Bond's multi-purpose vehicle, which works as a…
Play ▸Jungle Hunt is Atari's 1983 home version of Taito's 1982 arcade game. It was programmed for the Atari 2600 by Mike Feinstein and John Allred at General Computer Corporation (GCC). As the explorer Sir Dudley Dashly, you race…
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