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 30 years ago this month the first of the Atari VCS systems started rolling off the factory lines in time for the holiday shopping season. The Atari VCS turned out to be the first "popular" cartridge based game system that families could play in the comfort of their own homes. With a lifespan of 14 years and a library of nearly a thousand titles, surely there is something for everyone.
Reviving a dead feature, this is List 'em. I list my favorites and you list yours. Here's my top Atari 2600 games:- Asteroids - An arcade favorite that also hit it it big at home. The gameplay is simple; fly your spaceship in any direction trying to clear out the Asteroid field. Fly too fast and you crash, and shooting larger asteroids makes them break into multiple smaller ones. I think most people will find this one to be fun with an easy difficulty level.
- Space Invaders - Fortunately in the 1980s there were two "baddies" in gaming, film, and comic books that were impossible to be politically incorrect as the arbiters of leading world faiths hadn't covered them... Aliens and Zombies. Well, here's another mindless alien blaster that needs little introduction. Move your ship along the base of the screen shooting vertically, and taking cover as needed behind destructible shields. The invading ships are arranged in a grid with the higher ones being worth more points for scoring. Occasionally, a bonus ship will chirp and fly across the top of the screen for big points and maybe extra life. The sprites are not the same as the arcade, but the spirit is there and it feels much alive.
"INCREASE SPEED, DROP DOWN, AND REVERSE DIRECTION!" -Lrr (Futurama)
- Pitfall! - Play as a jungle explorer, Pitfall Harry, in search of untold fortune. Obstacles along the way include scorpions, crocodiles, and quicksand, so you better be ready to jump into action or else you'll fall short. Activision (the first "third-party" developer) really nailed it with this one. Unfortunately the difficulty level eventually plateaus, and the only world records to be had are timed "perfect play" runs.
- Adventure - Wander the world from a top-down viewpoint through mazes and castles. Find keys to unlock newer areas to explore and slay dragons that stand in the way of progress. This game was truly revolutionary in terms of mechanics and general scope and size. A similar but far more refined game titled The Legend of Zelda came out on the NES a few years later and blew the world away. To this date I still enjoy playing both games.
- Missile Command - Move the cursor to trigger a mid-air explosion. Use this to destroy all incoming missiles heading towards your bases. This game gets to be tough after a while, with a fair, but gradually increasing difficulty with each wave.
Wow, five is too short for listing all the great games for such a classic system. There's always other goodies like Q*Bert, Pole Position, Breakout, , Yars' Revenge, Frogger, Combat, and multiplayer sports games like Basketball. Expect simple gameplay and don't forget the RF switch. Stay tuned on channel 3.
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