Atari 2600 Games That Pushed the Limit | Friday Night Arcade

Which Atari 2600 games had the best graphics? Which games pushed the console to its limit? Find out this week on Friday Night Arcade.
Part 2 - • Atari 2600 Games that ...
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[0:37] - Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
[3:37] - Solaris
[5:05] - Tunnel Runner
[7:05] - Battlezone
[8:56] - Pole Position
[10:00] - Xenophobe
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#atari2600 #retrogaming #FridayNightArcade

[@FridayNightArcade]

If you didn't see your favorite Atari 2600 game mentioned here, there's a chance I covered it in one of the many other Atari episodes I've done -- thank you for watching --> kzbin.info/aero/PLdGtTWqCEvuJCOriBVUUtmrYY8mht1Ll5

[@eelliott74]

Friday Night Arcade definitely need Star Raiders

[@3ambreakbeats977]

Friday Night Arcade great video

[@ertuncdelikaya8237]

If I were you, I would put Fatal Run instead of Pole Position. They're roughly similar, but Fatal Run is more of a hardware limit pusher.

[@bryede]

Pitfall II has a music generation chip in the cartridge to produce harmony beyond what the 2600 is normally capable of. The game code constantly reads from this chip and puts the values in one of the sound channels resulting in a digital stream.

[@classicmikecade]

That is absolutely fascinating. Thanks do much for the info!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Indeed. I wanna do a separate video specifically about that chip and games that utilized it which is why I didn't really get into it here. Thanks for sharing!

[@bryede]

@@FridayNightArcade I don't think anything else used it. It's described by patent 4,644,495. I've subbed and I look forward to whatever you dig up.

[@litjellyfish]

bryede i think Activision more or less moved away from Atari 2600 after Pitfall II. Even though it was a huge success for that platform.

[@flatfingertuning727]

The DPC (David Patrick Crane) chip is also responsible for some of the sprite fetching logic, reducing the CPU load to the point that it can afford the 7 cycles/line necessary to fetch music data. My BTP2 (Better Than Pitfall II) software-based music engine takes 46 cycles/scan line to produce four-voice music, but without a DPC2 it can't co-exist with much in the way of independently-moving objects.

[@SeekerLancer]

Solaris is nuts, I couldn't believe I was playing an Atari 2600 game. It feels like something from the Colecovision at least.

[@SouthwesternEagle]

Keep in mind, these games were made for a console MADE IN 1977! Yes! The Atari 2600 was released in 1977!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Exactly!

[@AI_Surfer]

Technically Atari released the ‘VCS (Video Computer System)’ in 1977. Atari didn’t change the name to ‘2600’ until October/November of 1982. I bought my Atari ‘VCS’ in 1978.

[@FridayNightArcade]

And FWIW... we just called it "the Atari"

[@e11aguru]

It was designed for simple games like Pong and Combat. It's probably the most pushed console of all time.

[@freeculture]

I have mixed opinions about this. What you say is correct, in fact like most consoles of the day, they were meant to be quickly replaced by future improved generations. Atari actually kept the plan going, but this little toy thing kept selling so well, and i guess they couldn't stop making something that still made profits i guess? By the 1984 crash the market was flooded of the things, which were obsolete before the 80ies began. The subsequent Atari 5200 (1982) and later 7800 (1986 but meant for 84) were supposed to lay this one to rest. You gotta love the efforts done to "port" things to this primitive thing. In those days, it was all the rage to have games "like the real arcade thing". But soon came consoles which were identical or superior in capabilities to the Arcade (but then Arcades also upgraded, and that race would go on thru the 90ies. So to be in context, lets pick up the Arcade game Popeye. You see the Atari 2600 port and looks like garbage. You wouldn't think Nintendo wouldn't come out with a console able to completely recreate their title in a home console, but yes, in 1983 (you read that right) they did. Popeye is the original cartridge that came bundled with the Famicom, to show case that it was in fact, the same experience as the arcade, if not better. I know and am aware of the fantastic job done by the likes of Activision, who discovered that undocumented rainbow color thing on the Stella chip, and is also part of gaming history for being one of the first independent game company developer for consoles (made by ex Atari employees). Back to Japan, the Famicom as it name implies was in fact an 8 bit computer, i mean, they all are, but it did had its keyboard, cassette and later floppy, all which were scrapped for the american version. One thing that happened after "the crash" was parents heading straight to "computers", they would have survived that crash brilliantly, but they went to America as a console, not wanting to battle the likes of Commodore and Apple but take over the now deserted console market. BTW Mario Bros (not super, also with a crappy Atari 2600 port) was also 1983, another "Arcade or better than", experience).

[@slamjackson2137]

Still impressed by River Raid. Activision really had their shit together back then. Enduro rules!

[@FridayNightArcade]

River Raid was a fantastic game.

[@GisherJohn24]

great games, Keystone Kapers blew me away too.

[@scottb2794]

Moonsweeper really pushed things too.

[@ufological]

Activision held many titles of which became the saving grace for many an Atari early consoles.

[@roadiethegamecat4124]

Activision pretty much saved the 2600..

[@nDndAd]

Damn, Solaris was like the Starfox of its day.

[@vwestlife]

There was also a game called Radar Lock for the 2600, which was based on the same game engine as Solaris. It was released in 1989, making it one of the last games made for the 2600. (Aside from modern homebrew games, the last game for the 2600 was Klax in 1990.)

[@ressljs]

I remember Solaris helped alleviate the envy I felt for my neighbor's NES. That game was amazing with all those sectors to explore and working your way around the map. I really wish they would have remade Solaris for the 7800. That system has a shocking lack of (pseudo) 3D shooters. I didn't know Radar Lock was built on the same code as Solaris, but stripped down to just the action element of the game, I really didn't think much of Radar Lock.

[@andybrinks3784]

I loved Solaris. It was amazing back in the day! I always thought it was in a league of its own.

[@kristoffere9996]

Solaris looks like a cross between Star Raiders and Buck Rogers.

[@d.vaughn8990]

Problem is, Solaris came along, long after the heyday of the 2600 - so many, like me, discovered it many years later - which is both sad and kind of cool at the same time!

[@Bruno-hd9qo]

Limitation stimulates creativity

[@birdup6663]

H.E.R.O. is a strong one

[@robertfisher8871]

I remember sending away for a hero patch in the mail after reaching a certain score

[@classicmikecade]

OMG! H.E.R.O. was my jam back in the day! I almost forgot about this one!

[@patsfan4life]

Conceptually HERO is genius, much like Pitfall and Enduro. Brilliant use of a limited canvas.....

[@matthewlane518]

That game was great

[@brucewrigleysgumchewz4667]

I had H.E.R.O on ColecoVision. Awesome game. That game had so much replay to it... Never seemed to get old no matter how many times I played through the levels. I remember there was a port of HERO on the Sega SG-1000. Didn't like that one. They added music to it and while it kinda seemed cool at first, it got old fast. In that port the guy uses a jetpack instead of a mini backpack helicopter. And the collision detection was awful. Trying to go down holes, you had to be DEAD CENTER. Bleh

[@dulcinea061992]

Actually, it is possible to avoid the enemy fire in Battlezone. You have to remember that moving left and right in the game only rotates you in place, so the enemy missile will still strike you in the side or rear. To avoid the shot, simply turn to one side and throttle forward or reverse. The shot will streak by as your tank moves out of its way! You have to react quickly though. :)

[@sandal_thong8631]

It was painful to see him get shot. But still, I couldn't get far in the game, maybe due to the difficulty of the UFOs that come right at you and have to be shot?

[@talk2bill]

There was a glitch in Pitfall II that I used to skip to the end... put the cart part way in and you could fall down to the goal!

[@e11aguru]

That's a good speed run technique.

[@FrancisBournival]

Berserk might be the game I enjoy the most on the console! I also really enjoy Yar's Revenge, Jungle Hunt, Phoenix, both Pitfall games and a couple more titles. Playing Atari 2600 could be really fun in short burst, it is a good choice when you only have a couples of minutes to spend gaming!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Truth. Sometimes I "warm up" before playing a modern game by firing up Chopper Command or Space Invaders for 5 minutes... just to get the thumbs warm.

[@scidriver]

Too bad they never did Berserk's sequel, Frenzy.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I liked Jungle Hunt at the arcade but it was hard to move the guy on the 2600. On the one hand, by licensing arcade games they got attention and excitement for their title, but it didn't deliver for the price. There's a difference in games to get you to put in another quarter and when you can play at home as long as you want to. I once saw a distributor's room that had really bad arcade games (probably that no one wanted) that I was allowed to play for free for an hour.

[@dulcinea061992]

Also, thanks for including Tunnel Runner! It's actually my favorite 2600 game of all time, and flew very much under the radar back in the day! Dick Balaska, the designer, created something brilliant here, and deserves more recognition than this game ever received. :)

[@joethomas1775]

Agree!

[@Dhalin]

I know people hate the game, but ET from a mechanical standpoint was *very* complex. It had its problems, sure, but the game was far more complex than many AT2600 games. Some person on the internet fixed the game to get rid of many of the issues and had to really wrangle the game byte-by-byte to fit the code on a valid ROM. Also, SPACE SHUTTLE. You had to use every single switch on the AT2600 deck to even play the game because there *so many controls* of things you needed to do to actually fly a mission successfully.

[@JMFSpike]

People hugely exaggerate when it comes to how bad E.T. actually is. I've played it. It's actually a very decent game if you ask me. I had no issues with it. There are so many games out there that are *far* worse.

[@RichFreeman]

@@JMFSpike yeah, it certainly kept me occupied as a kid... Space shuttle as well. Solaris had pretty complex game play for the day. By the time Solaris came out 2600 games were often a few dollars in the store so those of us with limited allowances got some extra longevity out of the console.

[@REPVILE]

E.T was hardly the shitbox everyone made it out to be. It was just incredibly short. There were much much worse games on the Atari.

[@lmcgregoruk]

@@REPVILE The thing about ET, is if a pixel of ET touched a hole, you'ld fall in it, so if the top of his head touched a hole, you'ld fall in a hole, even though his feet were miles away from the hole. Which I guess confused a lot of people.

[@REPVILE]

@@lmcgregoruk Those people were just bad at the game. You can exit the homes easily if you know where to exit it from. Id say 99% of the people that criticize ET never played and were not even born yet when it was released. Most shovelware Switch games are worse

[@georgemcredmond35]

Third video of this channel I watched tonight! Earned a sub. Love your narration, editing style etc. Looking forward to digging through the whole back catalog and of course future videos!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Hey thank you for the kind words!

[@enfieldjohn101]

Really good coverage of Pitfall II. You told me stuff about the game that I've not seen in reviews that focus on the game, like that you can float with a balloon. Thanks!

[@jaketheman091]

Found your channel by a KZbin ad, and I have to say - I'm impressed. These games take me back for sure. I went to the extra step of clicking the bell too with my subscription. Definitely looking forward to more!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Hey thanks for checking out the show, Jake!

[@RasperHelpdesk]

One that I remember sinking a lot of time into as a kid was DragonStomper, which required a cassette to play. That was really intense for a pre-NES era.

[@Coyotek4]

I'm partial to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and all the puzzles you had to figure out to get to the end.

[@Xlayerful]

My fav atari game as well.

[@dfortaeGameReviews]

Nice review sir. As a kid, I remember seeing Pitfall II at a friend's house and was completely blown away. I didn't have an Atari at the time, so needless to say, I was very jealous.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I missed it, and might not have gotten it anyway in 1984. I got Pitfall! in 1982 or '83 but only won it a couple times including once a few years ago. I had moved on to a home computer that wasn't very good, but I learned to program somewhat.

[@fisheyeguy]

Your research of these games is impeccable. Very well done. Thanks for bringing the games and the interesting information to all of us.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's very kind of you to say - as always, thank you for continuing to support the show all this time.

[@spyder000069]

Fond memories of my Starpath Supercharger that plugged in and you hooked it to your cassette recorder to load the games off cassette tapes. Dragonstomper being one of my favorites.

[@MonolithTMA]

Glad somebody else remembers the Supercharger. I broke a really nice joystick playing Dragonstomper because of the repetitive menu choices.

[@samfrito]

Commie Mutants from Space and Escape from the Mind Master were two of my favorites. Crazy how dam great it was. What was the Spaceship game for it?

[@crom19701]

@@samfrito Phaser Patrol was the Star Raider ripoff, it was the packin with the supercharger, great game

[@sandal_thong8631]

I think I saw something like that in an electronics store but it was too expensive. I also had moved on to the Commodore VIC-20, which used its own cassette recorder.

[@jamesdixon6332]

Enjoyed the video dude. Love the golden age of gaming. Had to subscribe to see what else you come up with.

[@BolofromAvlis]

One of the most innovative 26000 games I remember ( though not really all that much fun) was The Space Shuttle game from Activision. It felt like they were really going all out to provide the best simulation to the 2600 game that they could. I remember playing from launch to landing and the feeling of triumph when I actually completed the thing. It came with a paper overlay that fit on the console itself to give you more controls. I also quite enjoyed the 2600 version of Star Raiders. Not as great as the 8 bit computer version, but still pretty good. And it came with a numbered touch pad that you plugged into joy port 2.

[@FridayNightArcade]

I wanted to include Space Shuttle in this video because it's a fantastic simulation given the hardware limitations of the time, but after I messed with it some more, I decided it's worthy of its own video. With the overlays and complex controls and everything, there's just a lot to it. So expect a Space Shuttle standalone video at some point in the future! Star Raiders was cool too. I talked about Star Master awhile back which was basically a Star Raiders clone (but a really good one).

[@n136h]

I couldn't get the space shuttle even moving without it blowing up. I would have made a shit astronaut

[@matthewbarry4464]

I can't tell you how many times I quit the game because of its complexity. I finally decided to read the manual and actually completed the mission including landing. I never picked it up again.

[@MattMcIrvin]

Solaris was really Neubauer's spiritual sequel to Star Raiders (only more tailored to the 2600's strengths and weaknesses).

[@greenaum]

@@n136h To be fair, the real shuttle is probably simpler to control than the 2600 version.

[@aledrinker666]

The Starpath Supercharger system (1982) for Atari VCS predated Pitfall II (1984) and showed what was possible with cartridge based hardware expansion besides just ROM software and bank switching on normal cartridges. In the Supercharger's case it was by increasing RAM from 128 bytes to 6KB which allows for higher resolution graphics with little or no flicker, as well as loading software onto the cartridge from cassette tape. Commie Mutants from Space is probably my favourite title for the Supercharger; it's a simple enough Galaga type clone but it just looks and plays so slick.

[@sandal_thong8631]

RAM chips were still expensive during the heyday of Atari, and just getting 3K for my Vic-20 was too expensive, let alone 16K. I guess they really came down in price by the end of the 1980s. Of course if Atari had gone with a better, more expensive chip in 1977, games would have been better. But I guess they thought they'd come out with a new system in 1980-1, but due to Space Invaders' success, they stretched it through 1983.

[@VERMISIMILITUDE]

Incredible retrospective squire! The fact you made a case for these games really pushing the 2600 is just wonderful! Pitfall 2 is visually gorgeous in my humble opinion!

[@DubiousEngineering]

This is great info... I’m in the middle of repairing a woody and only have one game for it... can’t wait to buy some good ones!

[@n136h]

Do you think you might need medical attention?

[@marijanlovric3109]

Awesome video. Thank you very much for doing this.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks for checking out the show!

[@dumpnchase]

Great video. Keep up the good work.

[@wil2197]

Glad to be recommended one of your videos. Subscribed.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thank you for checking out the show. Cheers.

[@lwispe]

It's frankly amazing what they were able to get out of a system designed to play Pong.

[@reh3884]

The Atari 2600 wasn't designed to play Pong. There were already a lot of dedicated Pong home systems.

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@reh3884 I had one of those that could play 3 pong games. Video Olympics was the Atari version.

[@WalterWhiteFolk]

Look at those views my man! Have been watching your videos for the last couple of years. Love your work.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks for sticking around for long! Yeah, this one kinda blew up didn't it?!

[@youreperfectstudio4789]

Wow there were a couple on here I had never heard of!!! Great list!

[@_zoinks2554]

I fired up the old Darth Vader a few months ago and beat Pitfall II in around 20 minutes. I sunk many hours into this way back then and yeah it's still fun!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Excellent.....

[@neuromancer9k]

Now I need to hunt down some of these....and find something that will run them. 😁 Great job putting this together. Thanks!!! 🍻

[@colinmcdonald2499]

Awesome video! Old Schoolers needed this

[@5001YELLABOY]

Just subscribed awesome content dude

[@DragonClawX123]

Wow awesome vid. Saw your ad on a Cinemassacre vid and had to check you out!

[@nz9636]

nice video , great reviews

[@atarikid282]

Nice video! I feel these games also pushed the system: Secret Quest, Dark Chambers, Kung Fu Master, Commando, and Hero.

[@JPFR65]

I like Space Raiders that came with its own keypad controller. There was an overlay you put over the keypad to know which buttons can be used. Too bad no other game took advantage of the keypad.

[@MattMcIrvin]

Atari kept sporadically reviving that idea of a keypad controller for the 2600. There was a really early one that was used with the Basic Programming cartridge and a few brainteaser-type games, and a "kid's controller" that was just a big keypad used with some Sesame Street games. I recently learned that they were all functionally identical--you could play all these cartridges with the Star Raiders keypad, though the overlays wouldn't have fit.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Star Voyager from Imagic was better and didn't require a keypad.

[@galiffrey1]

I remember a lot of Friday nights playing this game late back in 84, 85. Great memories hearing that music. Thanks for posting.

[@lovishb_bawa]

Awesome 😎 bro keep bringing good video like this !!

[@jaysonl]

I feel compelled to point out that Pitfall II had additional coprocessing hardware embedded in the cartridge as well.

[@QunMang]

Mr. Crane himself described the process on Atariage forums (comment #11 on "Pitfall 2: How does the sound travel from the cart?" topic) for anyone interested.

[@jaysonl]

Nice! I hadn't seen that particular bit of explanation before.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Indeed. I wanna do a separate video specifically on that chip which is why I didn't get into it here. Thank you for sharing!

[@jaysonl]

Oh, awesome. After falling down the rabbit hole a bit concerning what the 2600 could and couldn't do, Pitfall II just boggles the mind. That water! That music! Contextually dynamic years and years before LucasArts' eMUSE engine, and in harmony!

[@reagandow850]

It’s that time of the week again. I’M SO HAPPY!!

[@classicmikecade]

Oh man, this brought a tear to this old mans eyes. Thanks for the hard work on the video Aaron. Pitfall 2 is my all time favorite Atari game. I had it and played the hell out of it. I didn't have a 2600 but it was the first console I ever played. My first console was the 7800 which played the 2600 as well. I've never heard of the other games and now I'll have to check them out! Also, too many games to mention as far as great games are concerned. Atari was epic, it was a part of my generation and, IMO, it's what's truly considered retro. Have a great week Aaron.

[@jayblack7495]

Your first console will forever be my favorite console of all time. Xenophobe, Tower Toppler, Ninja Golf, Hat Trick, Robotron 2084, Double Dragon . . . Yep. Nostalgia is both bitter & sweet . . .

[@sandal_thong8631]

So many other consoles were better, especially for sports games. But they didn't have as extensive a library as Atari. Activision did make some games for Intellivision, but that was an aside. Colecovision looked the best and had an add-on to play Atari cartridges. Of course home computers were becoming the thing. The kid in _Stranger Things_ should have asked for a Commodore 64; Atari was pretty much done the year the show takes place.

[@TonyHStanley]

My favourite Atari games are Vanguard, Subterranea, Missile Command, Yars Revenge, Mario Bros., Ms. Pac Man, Space Invaders, & I like the Atari 7800 version of Galaga

[@BigEpinstriping]

Vanguard was a fun one. I bought it because I loved the arcade version so much at the time.

[@7thangelad586]

I didn’t own the Atari as a kid, but I recognize some of the titles from the C64 or IBM PC from the mid to late 80’s. Love the videos!

[@mohammedal-tamimi4125]

Great review, I am glad that I found your channel...

[@FridayNightArcade]

Welcome to the party!

[@Alsayid]

I can't begin to say how many hours I spent on Pitfall II. That music is seared into my brain.

[@iankempster7007]

Great video as always.

[@kritmil00]

I love to see stuff like this! God, we were so easy to please back then :) Some of my Favs were: Keystone Kapers, Yars Revenge, Miner 2049'er, Missile Command, Warlords, just to name a few. Great Video!

[@swifty1969]

to me Miner 2049 on the Coleco was pure joy. I remember playing it with my friend for countless hours. I still love the game to this day.

[@RonnieBarzel]

That dynamic change in the "Pitfall II" music when Harry picks up a treasure still pushes my nostalgia buttons 35 years later. Didn't Activision include an additional chip in the cartridge to handle it?

[@litjellyfish]

Channing King yes That is what I missed them mentioned. I think this chip facilitated not just better music but some of the features of the game that a vanilla cart could not achieve.

[@yesticles]

@@litjellyfish He said in a comment that he's going to do an in-depth video on the expansion chips, which is why he didn't go into more detail about them here

[@litjellyfish]

Yesticles yeah i saw it later. Personally if time I prefer some short nudges to info and also that they can be found in the comments. Make less risk of duplicate questions and conversations (like ours now) but it’s no biggie, just something I reacted on when he talked about the extension for maze runner :)

[@kewrock]

Bits and pieces of Solaris were used in Imagic's Moonsweeper. Buck Rogers too.

[@bazdaniels7420]

Great video!! you can get out of the way of bullets in Battlezone by backing up and turning.

[@alostlonewolf]

if you're lucky anyway. damn that game is hard

[@FridayNightArcade]

Yeah, I never could get the hang of dodging them. Probably why I liked Robot Tank better.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I did that a couple times. I think it was the some kind of missiles you have to shoot that kept me from getting a higher score.

[@Jikangire957]

I love your use of the Stage 1 music from the original Nintendo game Blaster Master for the beginning and ending of this video! Although Blaster Master is an old NES game, the music soundtrack is great!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Heh.... I use it a lot.... :D

[@OzymandiasWasRight]

It's amazing how great it feels to search KZbin and instantly find what you were looking for. I was stoned and thought "wonder if there's a video about this". One search. This video. I love living in the future.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Glad I could help with that 😎

[@willmistretta]

Sending away for the Pitfall II "Cliffhanger's Club" patch was the first gaming accomplishment I was really proud of as a kid. Getting to tell David Crane in person what an amazing moment is was was the highlight of PRGE 2018 for me.

[@FridayNightArcade]

I'm prohibited from liking this comment multiple times.

[@metalheadmalta]

Not including H.E.R.O. is a huge oversight by any standard of gaming. Star Trek was another stunner. Anyway, to this day, I consider the 2600 to be one of the premier gaming machines. Thanks.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Wanted to leave enough on the table to justify a Part 2.

[@metalheadmalta]

@@FridayNightArcade , it's cool man. :-) I play loads of retro games, and I HAVE to admit that for some reason, I never played Solaris. It is so so deep!

[@Daneoid81]

There was an F-14 'Simulator' called Tomcat where you had to use the difficulty switches on the back to toggle the landing gear and arrester hooks. It had a first person view, with crosshairs in the middle that you had to be super accurate with. Your mission would start at dusk and end up at night and you would land on a carrier at the end (I never got that far). It was super advanced for its time.

[@battmann7089]

Nice video and some great choices, I would have also included Kung Fu Master as that is a pretty amazing version of a great arcade game but it's all a matter of personal preference! When you consider that this machine was from 1977 and was only intended to play Pong variants it's amazing to see what people squeezed out of it, there were some true artists involved with this classic system! The VCS may not have been the first games console ever but it was the biggest and most popular of its time and essentially popularised and set the agenda for the video games we take for granted today.

[@MrClawt]

Battlezone, Pole Positions and Yars Revenge. Lots of memories play them with my brothers and dad.

[@NLB90805]

Damn, the Music on Pitfall II takes me way back. Thank you - but 'Yar's Revenge' is my all time favorite for the 2600!

[@JohnHenrySheridan]

Awesome, thanks FNA!

[@razorfett147]

A few of my fav 2600 games gettin some love here. Pitfall 2, Solaris, Robot Tank, and (not mentioned) Space Shuttle all got a ridiculous amount of playtime on my OG VCS.

[@norman7566]

Great video. I love all the hacks one could do with the Atari like switching the power off and on again quickly to get a crazy version of a game where the sprites were all jumbled. The greatest one I know of is for Space Invaders...hold the reset button down while turning the power on. As a result, you can only play the first choice but you have double shots for the whole game. I destroyed many a alien that way...

[@sandal_thong8631]

Kids wanted home computers around the time of the Crash to play and program games. Atari should have seen that and figured out a way to allow kids to reprogram Atari cartridges, so they could do stuff like the double-shot.

[@Novasky2007]

Moon patrol Super man Centipede Defender 2 Combat (First real multiplayer deathmatch)

[@PSYK0MANT1S]

4:54 When I was a kid, Solaris was a seriously awesome title! I'll never forget saying the words "CHOW! CHOW" when I fired the main weapon. So fun!

[@randmiller88]

Pitfall II was indeed a fantastic game, and I have fond memories of Solaris too. Great video -- you earned a new subscriber!

[@stuartbagley2586]

I remember playing Pitfall II on my Atari 800. Great game on both systems.

[@Hologhoul]

Nice list! How did they do Pitfall II's music, with an extra chip in the cartridge? I thought you couldn't get notes on-pitch with the VCS, though Dig Dug's tunes are good as well. Robot Tank is a fine game (Battlezone was a great port too).

[@destronia123]

LOL @ the Cylon base ships in "Solaris".

[@rovertedoog]

Cgq Chris brought me here. Nice video. Got a new subscribee.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks for checking out the show!

[@richardivey6945]

Mountain King was another Ram Plus Title.. Some really good music there.

[@NewLifestyleMentor]

2 other awesome Activision game were Keystone Kapers & Chopper Command.

[@wilddhaemers]

I loved those as well as Mega Mania.

[@jeremiahkenworthy4003]

Don't forget Spider Fighter, Pressure Cooker, Star Master, and Moon Sweeper (IMAGIC). =) But yeah, Keystone Kapers and Moon Sweeper are tied for my fave 2600 games ever.

[@scidriver]

Starmaster was cool as well.

[@thejoint25]

Keystone Kapers is awesome. Spent hours upon hours playing that.

[@NicholasChorba]

KABOOM!

[@sonicmario64]

"Solarius" was definitely one of my favorite games to play when I first played the Atari 2600 as a kid! :D

[@DrWho2008t101]

Great Video!

[@badassgamer]

Finally some Pitfall 2 love! One of the most amazing games of my early childhood.

[@keeranimal8]

I remember back in the 80s thinking Solaris seemed like Beamrider on steroids...

[@Valientlink]

Surprised nobody seems to have commented on Tunnel Racer using Riders on the Storm as the music. Super rad

[@BeardTech]

Even though these games were a tiny bit before my time (I grew up on the Master System) I can appreciate the absolutely mind boggling details in these titles! I love these games that immerse people into cool worlds and do creative things with tiny and limited hardware

[@copykat829]

Your intro music track is freaking amazing. Its from ninja gaiden for gameboy.

[@Fifury161]

Megamania (1982, Activision), I remember sending off a photo taken of the screen to get my "Megamaniac" certificate (I clocked the game!).; The only thing wrong with it (and all Atari games) was the fact that there was no pause button!

[@sierrakobold6896]

the balloon theme in pitfall II is my favorite that I heard here, I admit I didn't really play the Atari nor do I collect or have much interested since I was born in '88 and NES was already in my house when I was born and by 5 had Snes and Genesis, so just never became familiar at all with the 2600. Where as I do have a little experience with the 7800

[@merisonola]

Holy crap!! The pitfall 2 music gave me severe flashbacks!!

[@Lauren_Tyler]

I agree, Pole Position was an exceptionally done game!

[@mustang10141980]

I played that game all the time as a preteen

[@Lauren_Tyler]

@Beatrice Karau Given the limitations of the Atari 2600, I can see why you'd think that.

[@JOESMITH-qs8ue]

Pole Position> enduro . Did enduro get it's own TV show? :)

[@sandal_thong8631]

Looks nice, but not much replayability. Would have preferred to put quarters in PP1 and 2 at the arcade to make to the end.

[@b-radvideoshow4737]

Cool video! Pitfall 2 is great! Some of those other games look pretty awesome! I wanna try Solaris.

[@enno3456]

Enduro looked great too and it still is fun to play today. different weather conditions, day and night time and it runs fast. great racing game

[@3ambreakbeats977]

Great video

[@Cursingbow]

I subscribed because of your ad on the AVGN video

[@Sugarkraft]

Great video! Good content!👍👍

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks for checking out the show, Billy!

[@davy_K]

Pressure Cooker and Space Shuttle were very impressive releases.

[@ClassicContagious]

Agreed Pressure Cooker was my pick for best and most impressive.

[@CelestinaakaClonaClox9999]

Man that first one sounded more like an NES game than an A26 game. I want all of these!

[@timcheek84]

My grandmother owned an Atari 7800 and a 2600, and I remember very fondly playing Pitfall II and Pole Position. I had no idea Solaris and Battlezone existed, they look like they would have been right up my alley though! Some of the 7800 games rivaled those found on the NES (Pole Position II) and there was a short time back in the early 90's when I could go to a local dollar store and get Atari games for $1-$5 each!

[@FridayNightArcade]

The poster for Tunnel Runner is genuinely creepy -- twitter.com/FNArcade/status/1103452976591581184

[@pittsburghboyertown3821]

I bought Tunnel Runner after the crash for peanuts. Discovered most of the CBS games at that point and was surprised that I had never heard of them before. Some really good games came out under that company: Solar Fox, Omega Race and especially Mountain King!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Not to mention it's TV Commercial! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nH6pdpyAe9eUnNU

[@FridayNightArcade]

Chris I had no idea that existed... that is both terrifying and wonderful lol.

[@yesticles]

Yeah, that is pretty damn creepy.

[@sovietonion72]

Friday Night Arcade Chunky graphics and hard sound, love it!😎

[@atarileaf]

You should see what they are able to do with some of the latest homebrews like Draconian and Mappy

[@FridayNightArcade]

Yeah, homebrew is really getting into some neat stuff in recent years. I haven't decided how much homebrew I wanna get into in this forum, but if there is enough interest I might do some homebrew specific videos. Any other suggestions?

[@atarileaf]

@@FridayNightArcade Space Rocks is a personal favorite of mine. If you love asteroids check that one out. I did a review of it a few years back myself :)

[@flatfingertuning727]

@@FridayNightArcade I programmed Strat-O-Gems Deluxe, Toyshop Trouble, and the menu system for Stella's Stocking. I started Strat-O-Gems in 1994, but shelved it for a decade because I didn't understand enough about how to use the RIOT timer to avoid having to count every single scan line while trying to process game logic. Toyshop Trouble features way too many objects with per-line color to possibly be an Atari 2600 game, but it's simply an 8K cart. The Stella's Stocking menu features my BTP2 ("Better Than Pitfall II") music driver that plays four-voice music over a full 61-note five-octave range as well as a really large high-res "ATARIAGE" logo that looks more like it belongs on the 7800 than the 2600.

[@AngryCalvin]

Mappy was so advanced in it's day it didn't get ported much. Famicom had a port in the early days. By far one of my favorite arcade games of all time.

[@adihlmanwa7898]

We had Pole Position when I was little, still love these old school games.

[@OldCityBob]

Battlezone had you fighting two tanks at once whereas Robot Tank only had one at a time.

[@orenmauritzen8674]

Weather effects in a 2600 game though :3

[@coppermutant]

Crypts of Chaos was another "3D" game where you could technically shoot the enemies coming at you while also having RPG elements.

[@mrtesticlease4638]

fatal run is one game i never see talked about. it had a kick-ass theme song and the gameplay was pretty good in my opinion.

[@gilavalos2400]

Watching this video on sunday. I'm such a rebel