1984 was the year the Atari 2600 boom ran out. Strong games still appeared: Activision’s H.E.R.O. and David Crane’s Pitfall II: Lost Caverns came out in March, and arcade conversions such as Crystal Castles, Millipede, Parker Brothers’ Star Wars: The Arcade Game and Sega’s Spy Hunter kept arriving. On 21 May Atari announced the 7800, a new console that could also play 2600 cartridges.
Then, on 2 July, Warner sold Atari’s consumer business to Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore, and he halted 2600 game development soon after. By the middle of the year only Atari and Activision were still making 2600 games. Several projects from this year were never finished or never sold, and this page holds a number of them, including Garfield, Dune, Tempest, Sinistar and Peek-A-Boo, a game for young children made with the psychologist Lee Salk. Rare small-label cartridges such as River Patrol and Color Bar Generator are here too.
Cosmic Commuter is filed under 1984, but its release is usually dated to 1985.
Play the 1984 games and prototypes below in your browser.
Rescue on Fractalus is an unfinished 1984 Atari 7800 version of Lucasfilm Games' flight game, programmed at General Computer Corporation and never released. This prototype lets you fly low over fractal mountains on an alien planet, with smooth…
Play ▸River Patrol is Tigervision's 1984 Atari 2600 version of a 1981 arcade game by the Japanese company Orca. You steer a leaky patrol boat up a dangerous river, pulling drowning people out of the water while dodging logs,…
Play ▸Extra Terrestrials is a very rare 1984 Atari 2600 game by Herman Quast, published by Skill Screen Games, a small family business in Canada. It is not related to Atari's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: it is a separate, home-made…
Play ▸Q*bert's Qubes is the sequel to Q*bert, based on the 1983 arcade game from Mylstar (the company formerly known as Gottlieb). Parker Brothers published the Atari 2600 version, programmed by Todd Marshall. Instead of changing the colour of…
Play ▸Mr. Do!'s Castle is Parker Brothers' Atari 2600 version of Universal's 1983 arcade game, released on the console in 1984. The clown from Mr. Do! swaps his orchard for a castle full of ladders and stone floors, and…
Play ▸Front Line is the 1984 Atari 2600 version of Taito's 1982 arcade game, published by Coleco and developed by Individeo, with programming credited to Ed Temple. You lead a lone soldier up a battlefield seen from above, fighting…
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