Tim Jenkins Web

Games

With about 440 Games made for the Atari 26000 just what do we have of interest?

There are plenty of sites with extensive reviews, so I'm going a different direction. Hopefully I'll find out some new information, or maybe a game or two that slipped under the radar for me.

What is still worth playing?

It's an old system that had lots of limitations. Is there anything that is still enjoyable in 2025?

All you need is a Joystick and some time.

Adventure
Asteroids
Battlezone
Berzerk
Chopper Command
Frogger
Galaxian
HERO
Ice Hockey
Missile Command
Phoenix
Pitfall
Space Invaders
Stargate
Venture

The Games

Both those that are worth playing, or have some interesting story.

Screen Shot	Notes
	Adventure 5/5 Still a Classic. And I finally was able to get to the Easter Egg! Somehow I had never got around to actually finding this one myself. I figured I would finally fix that. Still my favorite Atari game and the one that stands the test of time best. Also when playing this as an adult I realized that your true antagonist in the game are not the dragons but the Bat.
	Air and Sea Battle 2 Player Only 3.5/5 This is about as basic of a game as you get. Don't expect more.
	Asteroids 4/5 Fun, but one of the "flicker" games. Hard to remember but a lot of games on the Atari 2600 flashed. More information ttolen from the internet "Well, back in 'the day', due to the VERY small memory these games had to work with, the programmers couldn't put a whole bunch of objects on the screen at once. That made for some pretty boring games. So they came up with a trick which allowed them to put several objects on the screen at the same time. They programmed the objects to flicker. When there were multiple moving objects on a screen, they programmed the game to make each object turn visually on and off for a split second. This freed up the screen to have other objects. The vanished object would be replaced with a different one, which would also flicker on and off, and the game would cycle through each object, turning each one on, then off, then on again in a rapid cycle."
	Air and Sea Battle 2 Player Only 3.5/5 This is about as basic of a game as you get. Don't expect more.
	Battle Zone 4.5/5 Really impressive visuals and extremely tight and responsive controls. I'm just massively impressed at the quality of this one.
	Berzerk 4/5 Still fun if a bit simple. Run around and shoot people. It's what the 2600 does well. I'm also impressed while they had lots of moving sprites, they didn't have the flicker. From the manual "The Astro Date is 3200 and you are the last survivor of a small group of earth people who came to explore the planet Mazeon."
	Bobby is Going Home 4/5 A Pitfall clone. After the player passes seven scenes, he then can get Bobby into the house, and there the next level will show. The game has 32 levels but doesn't seem to have anything unique at the end. The song that plays in the background will start to drive you bonkers as there is something not quite in key about it.
	Chopper Command 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	Combat 4/5 *2 Player Only 30 minutes of Fun if you have a Friend. Shipped with every Atari Console, everyone has played this one with their family and both loved and hated it. It's so incredibly easy to just spam the other player giving them no chance once you have hit them the first time. Still fun for a few minutes and a beer.
	Crypts of Chaos 3.5/5 A first person dungeon crawler. I had no idea that the Atari 2600 had some first person mazes games. This is one of a few and it's an RPG to boot. It also has a horrible control scheme making this game incredibly hard to play while not to screwing yourself over by mistake. The manual is a must if you want any idea of what you are supposed to do. But it is a First person 3D dungeon crawler on the 2600 which is really impressive.
	Dark Chambers 3.5/5 Similar to Gauntlet. It's a fine game but really slow. From the site Atari Protos "At first glance it's easy to pass Dark Chambers off as a mere Gauntlet clone. However did you know that it's Gauntlet that's the clone? For you see, Dark Chambers is actually based off an 1983 APX (Atari Program Exchange) game by John Palevich called Dandy. Two years later Ed Logg created his arcade mega hit Gauntlet, using Dandy as inspiration. John was none too happy about this and planned to file a lawsuit, but later settled out of court (rumor has it he received a free Gauntlet machine). A few years later in 1988, Atari re-published Dandy for the 2600, 7800, and XE under the name Dark Chambers. This time however Atari gave John proper credit and no lawsuits were filed."
	Dragon Stomper 3/5 Be a pixel. Play a very long RPG. A Supercharger game. I didn't even know there was an add on cartridge you could purchase to add more memory to the Atari. From Wikipedia "It adds 6 KB to the Atari 2600's 128 bytes of RAM increasing it 49-fold". While it is an excellent technical achievement, I personally found it to be to slow and to random. From the reviews it also takes over an hour to complete and there are no saves. Be a pixel and play a very long RPG.
	ET 3.5/5 Considered one of the worst games of all time, this one is pretty bad, just not for the reasons people expect. Most importantly you have to read the manual to figure out what you are supposed to be doing (collecting phone parts and calling your ship) and what the strange symbols along the top are. Secondly, getting out of the pit is counter intuitive in that you get out of the pit by pressing up, but the second you get out you have to go almost any direction except up. I also found this very difficult with a joystick. Third, the game has 3 difficultly levels but they are on the cartridge backwards with 1=Hard, 2=Still Hard, and 3=Reasonable.
	Escape from Mind Master 3.5/5 First Person 3d Maze game. Find parts to the puzzle and place them on the right spots on the walls. Another Supercharger game. Pretty fun for a quick play. Another impressive achievement.
	Flag Capture 4/5 *2 Player Only. Run around the maze finding clues as to where your flag is. Try and beat your opponent to be the first.
	Football 3.5/5 *2 Player Only. 15 minutes of Fun if you have a Friend. Unfortunately another "flicker" game.
	Frogger 3.5/5 Just barely getting into the fun category. The game play is good, but the graphics. Just get Mame and play the orginal.
	Galaxian 4/5 "Namco's answer to Space Invaders." A good port fluid and responsive with no flicker. I also didn't realize this was to later become Galaga.
	Gravitar 4/5 Good, but omg this game is difficult.
	Hero 5/5 Just plain Excellent. Simple to understand, fun to play. Another classic from Activision.
	Ice Hockey 4/5 As a general rule, Activision games always seemed a setup in quality. This is no different from the more lifelike graphics to having actual AI you can play against.
	Maze 3.5/5 *2 Player Only. 15 minutes of Fun if you have a Friend. Find your way out of the maze before your friend. While they have options to add people to avoid, or to black out part of the maze, given the system limitations there is only one maze layout so it's limited.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.
	zzzzzzzzz 5/5 Fun and so much better than Defender. Again more fun with a joystick, but this one stands the test of time well.