Recently over the holiday break, I became interested in the 2600’s hardware architecture and started reading everything that I could find about it. I knew that it was some kind of 6502-based system, and I’d heard mentions of “racing the beam”, but that’s as far as my knowledge went. I was shocked to discover how primitive the 2600 hardware was, even compared to contemporary 6502 systems like the Apple II, Commodore PET, and even Atari’s own 8-bit computers.
The 2600 was a bit before my time – I’m from 1984 – and I’ve never even seen one in person. While I understand how important and influential the 2600 really was, I find the games and technology just a bit too primitive to enjoy today, whereas games for the NES I can still happily play today.
I’m sure if you grew up with the 2600, you’d disagree.
> I’m sure if you grew up with the 2600, you’d disagree.
In your support… I did grow up with the 2600, but I don’t miss the games, and don’t really enjoy playing them today… NES stuff is still fun though…
Having said that, I do have nostalgia for those simpler times, the old TVs, and the odd smells from the old grandma’s house 🙂
Agreed, I was born in ’77, so I did grow up with the Atari (and some weird clone the name of which escapes me), it was a lot of fun as a kid but as an adult, playing those games in an emulator just loses something. I don’t feel the same about the 16- and 32-bit eras, I greatly enjoy late 80s through early 2000s games on my Anbernic handheld emulator, but something is lost when going more primitive than that.
I will say that, about 20 or so years ago when the 30-in-1 Atari clones appeared that had all the games and a cut-down console inside the joystick, they were a lot closer to the feel of playing the original system. Of course this was also when CRT televisions were still around, and that’s what I played it on. Maybe the display is what I was really nostalgic for?
I totally understand the thought that many people that grew up with the Atari 2600 find them enjoyable today for nostalgia reasons.
But even though I grew up with the Atari 2600, I also was such a huge fan of the early 8-bit computers, that I just don’t revisit the 2600. To me it is too primitive, and while it may have been the precursor to more advanced video game systems, video games didn’t change the world, computers did.
So, my retro hobby is Atari 8-bit computing, since I did happen to own an Atari 400, so many years ago. Now, I don’t really think Atari contributed that much to computing history, but the ’79 release of the 400/800 line was by far their strongest contribution, imho. For 79 it was downright impressive.
Anyway – the reason for my retro hobby is really I enjoy that old feeling when computers were about to change the entire world, and what we believed they could do – they still cannot do even now, quite yet. Like they would create their own music, or become a personal therapist. Soon.
Having grown up with the 2600, no, we all knew the games were crap because most of them were arcade ports and they were primitive compared to the ones in the arcade.
I’m not sure about the `most of them were arcade ports` bit but yes, we all knew the games were crap. But, they were games! Just having a game system was exponentially more important than having quality games. There were a few I truly liked (like Pitfall), but the list is sparse.
I kind of wonder what I was thinking back then, because the family had a computer and had the 2600, and the computer was clearly more capable for games, and yet I always regarded playing a game on the computer as a bit of mischief. Sure, I did play some games on it, I had like two games for the Atari 400 and probably, oh wow, 30 for the Atari 2600. Yep, we knew they looked bad, lol…pacman was hideous. Sure, pitfall looked good for the 2600
I don’t have much nostalgia for the games, but the game industry was a lot different then too. I started writing games in the early C64 days, and that was very near the end of the era when games were essentially produced and developed by one or two people at most. A single developer was often responsible for all aspects of the game (except packaging, etc.), and often they were on the payroll of the company that made the hardware. The Atari VCS/2600 was also the platform that sparked the start of independent software companies that made compatible games for a system, something Atari really didn’t like. Some names that come to mind include Imagic and Activision, but I also remember some other bigger names that produced Atari cartridges. It was this glut of poor quality software the also caused the video game crash, which if you don’t know about is worth looking up on Wikipedia or elsewhere. Many consider the Nintendo the first post-crash console, and Nintendo went to lengths to avoid the mistakes Atari suffered from.
The problem with Nintendo’s approach was that they required exclusivity deals with developers to their Licensed by Nintendo sticker, which was terrible for the industry.
When Atari started… there were no 3rd party developers for game consoles… granted there were barely consoles.
As far as crap games? The original games co.ing from Atari were phenomenal. The ones coming from Activision and Imagic were also great. Adventure is still a blast. The ones that started spewing out later were just… they belonged in the bargain bin.
There were several clones. One we had was the ‘Gemeni’ (I think Coleco made it), there was also the module for the ColecoVision to play 2600 games.
Trivia: The Atari 2600 was so limited and idiosyncratic because it was originally meant to only play pong and space shooter games. This explains idiosyncrasies like the right half of a scanline being a copy (or mirrored copy) of the left half of the same scanline, or the limited number of sprites, or the existence of “ball” and “missile” sprites.
Btw if you want to see some crazy Atari 2600 limit pushing in real games and the techniques used explained, watch the following videos:
https://youtu.be/zM0IsWdIc_g
https://youtu.be/ADy1F8v59YU
The good stuff is at the end of each video, but I recommend watching both videos in full to understand the techniques used.
Emulation – Computerphile : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6l3Elk7-Hg
Thom, I’m from 1985 and as a teenager I found a VCS 2600 in the garbage. You wouldn’t believe how fun Pong is with the 2600 driving controllers! This has nothing to deal with other ways to play pong, incredible, you have to try this!
You should get an Atari Flashback and then you’d see a lot of 2600 games? Were actually quite good. Jungle Hunt, Pitfall, Haunted House, Yar’s Revenge, there is a ton of 2600 games that are still a blast, especially with a second person to play against.
My wife and I have one and while I can stomp her at Space Invaders she whups me hard with Bowling and Ms Pacman. Its a great way to spend an evening with your friends and family.
It was a good machine.
Because back in the day we just could not buy generic hardware that supported third party software (games or otherwise).
Back in the dark ages of 1990s and 1980s, having a PC or a Mac at home was luxury. Even Amiga 500 was expensive for a kids’ machines. (Yes, I knew people who had that, and generously lent it to us). More than $1,500 in today’s prices.
So Atari was all we could get.
(And some of its games are still fun today. Someone mentioned the “flashback” above. I could recommend getting that one if interested).
The issue with Atari 2600 games, is that they were played in a VERY DIFFERENT way. It was more of a social event, when people get into someone’s house and each play at a time to get a higher score, while others watched and talked about the game and such. Even when playing with only 2 people, it wasn’t much fun as with 4 or more.
During NES times, the way we play games has changed to a more solitary experience, but think the 2600 as some offline MMO, and you will get what I mean. Get an 2600, even if via emulator, and throw it into a party, people WILL have fun, believe me. But playing alone, yes, those games were not made to be played this way.
The game Combat… we used to play that for hours blasting each other. The first Deathmatch only game!
That is true.
And the games were accessible. I remember our parents also taking part in Atari sessions, but they were never interested in Sega (yes we were not a Nintendo household).
Atari had a very simple controller. Just a joystick, with a single button.
Graphics, and mechanics were easy to understand: avoid bad stuff, shoot when possible.
And most of the games had a great difficulty curve, it wasn’t like the NES where the game tried to kick you in the nuts with its insane difficulty right out the gate. Even my grandma could clear a couple of stages of Space Invaders or Donkey Kong and that is what got you hooked, each time you would do a bit better and get a bit farther and with a bunch of people playing it was very addicting.
It is why I ended up skipping the NES for the Genesis because most NES games felt like they were designed to just punish the player as quickly as possible and while I never bothered getting an NES classic I can say my Atari Flashback has gotten a ton of use and even my grandkids that grew up with smartphones and computers has a blast trying to beat each other’s score in Asteroids and Space Invaders. Ya don’t need fancy graphics to be fun!
Good memories. I understand why if you hadn’t put in hundreds of hours into playing the 2600 it will seem incredibly crude. Some of the games were really good casual, easy to pick up games. My grandfather fell hard for them. I wish I had kept his collection, I think My uncle got the console and games. But I think he had a nearly complete collection of games. He was retired at this point in his life and had a number of hobbies. Atari was one of them, and an ex sears employee, he had a lifetime 20% off card and they sold them at the store. He’d go by weekly looking for new games. So I’m sure he had a complete collection of games that were sold by Sears. Its a shame he never got into the MIPS or early personal computers, I think he left that to his son ( my uncle) . But a crazy cap to an insane life, from being chewed on by rats as a child, being one of the first to be cured by antibiotics, life as a spy, getting a bunch of patents while working as an appliance salesman, to the first video game retirement.