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.
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…
Play ▸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…
Play ▸Astrowar is a horizontal space shooter for the Atari 2600, and this page has the European PAL cartridge sold by Goliath in Germany in 1983 as cartridge number 2. You steer a small space shuttle while falling stars,…
Play ▸Astrowar is a space shooter for the Atari 2600: you steer a small shuttle and blast falling stars, spinning bombs, unknown spaceships and space monsters before they get past you. This page has the NTSC version. The European…
Play ▸Bachelorette Party and Burning Desire were adult-themed games released on a double-ended cartridge for the Atari 2600. These games were part of a series of adult-oriented titles produced by Mystique, a company known for its controversial X-rated games.…
Play ▸Bank Heist is a 1983 maze game for the Atari 2600, designed by Bill Aspromonte and published by Fox Video Games, the video game label of 20th Century Fox. You drive a getaway car through a city of…
Play ▸Alien's Return is a 1983 maze game for the Atari 2600, developed by Gem International Corporation and sold by ITT Family Games. The same game was also sold as Go Go Home Monster, Col 'N, E.T. Go Home…
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