The Ultimate Activision/Atari 2600 Tier List - ALL 44 GAMES RANKED - Part One

Join us on a captivating journey back to the golden era of gaming as we rank all 44 Activision games released for the Atari 2600, organizing them into tiers based on their quality and impact. In this exciting video, we delve into the archives of gaming history, exploring the groundbreaking titles that defined a generation.
Relive the nostalgia of the Atari 2600 as we meticulously analyze and evaluate each Activision game, placing them into tiers based on gameplay, graphics, sound, and overall significance. From the legendary classics like "Pitfall!" and "River Raid" to the hidden gems such as "Megamania" and "H.E.R.O.", we leave no stone unturned as we examine each game's unique features, gameplay mechanics, and its place in the wider gaming landscape.
Witness the evolution of game design as we compare early Activision releases to the later ones, discussing the advancements and innovations that occurred within the Atari 2600 library. Experience the joy and challenges faced by gamers of that era, and gain a newfound appreciation for the ingenuity and limitations of the time.
Whether you're a devoted Atari enthusiast or a curious gamer interested in the history of video games, this video provides an engaging and informative experience. Join us as we embark on this epic journey to rank all 44 Activision games for the Atari 2600, carefully placing them into tiers that reflect their quality and significance.
Don't miss out on this incredible exploration of gaming history! Hit that subscribe button and prepare to take a trip down memory lane with us as we celebrate the iconic Activision games that left an indelible mark on the Atari 2600 era. Get ready to discover which games earn the highest honors and which ones find their place in the lower tiers.
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00:00 About Activision
02:02 Rankings Begin
08:09 Midway Point
15:33 Summary

[@MetalJesusRocks]

You gave H.E.R.O. an S rating, so you get a thumbs up from me.👍 Cool video dude. Great job!

[@GenXGrownUp]

H.E.R.O. deserves it! Happy to see you pop in and check out one of my vids, MJR. Hope you had some fun - I owe you some fun for all the stuff of yours I've enjoyed over the years. 😎

[@KeithPhillips]

*A wild MJR appears?* 😳 😎 Great play of H.E.R.O on your channel; it still makes me sad that I've never been able to play it yet on my console! 😞

[@craftuar2439]

Me love H.E.R.O. too, but i mostly played this game on my C-64 ;)

[@gx21a]

Agreed- When I borrowed it from a friend, somehow young me thought I managed to trick a 5200 game to play on my 2600-compatible 😂

[@MrJamesbrowneguitar]

Yep, and “10 year old Johnny” gave Bridge a “B”. Because like Bridge was a young persons game, a hip game, and who doesn’t like cars games on a console? I mean in the arcade I couldn’t stand Donkey Kong back in the day, I was like man wouldn’t it be so cool if I could play checkers or my god Bridge, that would be so cool!

[@johnenoch6222]

Great segment Jon. My top 5: 1. Pitfall 2. Chopper Command 3. Hockey 4. Boxing 5. Kaboom

[@edwardmclaughlin719]

With you on the boxing. Definitely not a D for me. I have it about a B-.

[@_Thrackerzod]

Boxing is a lot of fun when you have a friend to play it with instead of just the AI, I think I would give it a B. I feel like Enduro deserved an S, though that may be mostly nostalgia. I spent so many hours playing that game; the way time passed in the game seemed amazing at the time. Seeing the sunset, then darkness and the tail lights of the other cars. Driving through fog where you could only see a short distance, and slippery snow, it was pretty advanced for a 2600 game.

[@danielespeziari5545]

I have no nostalgia for Enduro, simply because I started playing it last December 😁 So I can confirm it's an impressive and really fun game. I also love the sound effects of the cars and the sound you hear when you're near sunrise and still have cars to overtake. Sometimes, at the end of the night, I have 60 or even 80 cars left, and at that point there's a strong sense of urgency, and it's so satisfying when you make it anyway

[@capitanclassic8624]

Enduro is the best racing game on the VCS (or arguably Indy 500), it should be S tier. Boxing and Dolphin are also way under ranked (B at least). A real human opponent improved the game immensely, and it does take a while to learn the 1-2 combos and putting your opponent to the ropes. Without figuring that out, the game might seem boring. The problem with many Activision games is the lack of randomness. Once you figure out the pattern, the game isnt nearly as interesting (see Laser Blast)

[@scottieg16]

Boxing is rated way too low on this list.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I saw a video on the history of Activision _Boxing,_ which said it was based on the unreleased _Boxer (1977)_ by Atari. It had the same overhead view.

[@charlessentenat1250]

See I feel the same about dragster. I think it's a ball in 2 player mode.

[@drno-xc1yt]

I generally agree with the rankings, although I might have put Enduro in the S tier. It's orders of magnitude better than any other racing game on the VCS. The other S tier games you listed are still amazingly playable yet today, and it took some real programming skill to make a game like H.E.R.O. on the 2600. It seemed like you were avoiding the green fish while playing Frostbite, but the green fish give you points - they're not enemies. I also always liked how most of the enemies in Frostbite weren't deadly to the touch - they just pushed you off the ice floes into the freezing water.

[@btr3k]

Absolutely, I don't know how many hours I spent playing Enduro as a kid, but it was a lot.

[@KeenRetroGames]

I think there were a number of games he didn’t actually know how to play, sadly. It’s good to play these in high score challenges so you are incentivised to actually learn how to play them right instead of playing them for five minutes and making an uninformed judgment.

[@stickyfox]

Enduro was incredible. I snuck it out from under the tree days before Christmas and played it for hours. I let my niece play it and she ratted me out. I was just playing it on my 2600 *yesterday* in fact.

[@monolalia]

I loved Beamrider! It gets more and more interesting and varied the farther you progress. The Yellow Chirper Ships are my favourite just for how bizarre of an idea that was…

[@johneysupergd7796]

Beamrider reminds me of Nintendo’s radar scope😁

[@SchardtCinematic]

The early games from 1980 to 1982 have a certain charm to them. That's what I love about the first few years of the VCS from 1977

[@StrattCaster]

So cool to hear the sound effects again after 40 years and to see video screens I haven't seen in many decades

[@GenXGrownUp]

Don't deny yourself the joy of replaying these - so many ways to do it today!

[@chriswheatley3146]

Enduro I'd give a S tier as it is probably my overall favorite 2600 game. It was one of the first racing games that I remember that had environment changes such as snow and fog as you raced along. Beamrider is an A tier (possibly S) as all versions are incredibly fun. The only knock I can possibly think of is having to push forward to fire the missiles (vs the other console versions) due to the limitation of the controller. It gets quite frantic later on as you need to start avoid obstacles and not shooting (as well as trying to grab) your extra ship becomes much more difficult. Outside those 2 games, I'd say your tiers are pretty accurate. H.E.R.O. is most definitely S tier as I would play that for hours on end on the C64. It was quite the hidden gem until Metal Jesus made it well known. 😅

[@sandal_thong8631]

I had fun playing _Enduro,_ but after winning in 5 days, is there a reason to play it again? Once I won _Pitfall!_ I didn't play it or try to win it again for over 20 years.

[@chriswheatley3146]

@@sandal_thong8631I always treated the game more as a score attack style game as it loops through the levels. Most 2600 games at the time were like that.

[@Emceemur]

2600 ranking hype!

[@IntoTheVerticalBlank]

NICE! When you take a hard look at the Activision 2600 Library, you can see just how innovative and incredible they were...and this is inly 1/2 of their games!

[@GenXGrownUp]

Right?

[@nyccollin]

Framerater already did this hehe

[@billkammermeier]

Kaboom is one of my favorite games from back in the day

[@Steven-kj7xq]

At the higher levels Kaboom is almost a zen like experience.

[@danielespeziari5545]

I haven't played all Activision games on the 2600, but for those that I have, I mostly agree with your ranking. However, Beamrider should be A or even S, it's a clever and addictive game that does everything right

[@adamshaw5975]

Absolutely agree 100%.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

For me Activision earned their reputation, deservedly so, by being the best at taking advantage of what the hardware on the VCS could actually do. David Crane especially devised many ways of doing things that had not been done (or even thought possible) on the VCS. Their games are glitch-less* for the most part and are generally playable right away without reading a manual. Right up there with Activision I would place Imagic as well, at least with their original team member titles. * Carol Shaw deserves recognition for making one of the smoothest scrolling vertical shooters ever with River Raid (especially on the VCS).

[@SyntheToonz]

I remember every Activision game seemed like they were putting their own custom graphics chips in the cartridges. When Kaboom came out we had to break it open to see for sure.

[@bredenis5]

Wow, did you know about custom graphics chips back in the 80s? That’s really cool. Do you know which Activision games did you use custom chipsets? I’m genuinely curious

[@shawndickmann8215]

Holy crap, didn't realize they made some of those titles, never seen them. Pitfall/ chopper command/ kaboom were all my families favorites!!

[@TiltingT]

Allot of work had to go into this one. Great video! Although I would've ranked Beamrider and Chopper Command an S

[@palaceofwisdom9448]

I remember being six years old and mastering Kaboom to the point that I couldn't lose. What I'd give to still have those reflexes and hand/eye coordination four decades later. It was so funny how the criminal's expression changed as he got faster until he was making an O face in disbelief.

[@jameserdmann2468]

H.E.R.O- Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation. I still remember the acronym. The last game I bought for my 2600. Fantastic game, definitely agree with S tier. Great video.

[@edwardmclaughlin719]

I love the boxing for some reason. B- Really nice video to see all of them. Well half for now. I remember always playing Skiing and the fast downhill slalom.

[@edwardmclaughlin719]

I know you gave me a ❤, lol. I just kept editing.

[@geekconnoisseur]

Beamrider is an exceptional game that undoubtedly deserves to be ranked among the Great or Superb titles, in my honest opinion. It excels in numerous aspects of gameplay, showcasing innovation, responsive controls, challenging levels, and captivating visuals and audio. The game offers an exceptional gaming experience that is further enhanced by its high replayability and enduring appeal. With these qualities, Beamrider undoubtedly secures its position as a classic within the Atari 2600 (and Intellivision) library, cementing its status as one of the finest space shooter games for this classic console.

[@GenXGrownUp]

So much love for Beamrider in the comments. It just didn't resonate with me like it has so many more, but I will be giving it some more attention because there must be more to it than I have seen before.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I've watched videos of it twice now, and even on 1.5x speed it looks slow. Maybe they were both showing the first or easy level?

[@markracer3281]

What a blast from the past! Thank you, Jon!!! Can't wait for part two!!!

[@stephens4175]

this is awesome!, the people that left Atari and formed Activision seemed to know the systems capabilities better than Atari themselves and it shows that they were hand tied there, they always knew how to utilize the colors and sounds better. I think they were a big reason the system became the powerhouse that it was thus lasting so long.

[@sandal_thong8631]

It's ironic. Licensing _Space Invaders_ and making a good cartridge sold millions of Atari VCS consoles, but the rot was already in with the contempt they they treated its programmer and others. If Intellivision had done it, that likely would have been the system to buy in 1980. Maybe the programmers would have gone to Mattel or formed a company making games for their system? It's possible Activision (and others) kept people interested in the Atari console in 1981, when they had three games that sold 1 million+: _Freeway, Kaboom,_ and _Laser Blast._ Also ironic, all those good 3rd-party games that sold 1 million+ in 1982 were beloved by those who enjoyed them, but the money going to their companies and not going to Atari meant their profits grew by 15% and not 50% which scared investors and was one part of the Video Game Crash of 1983-4.

[@obxmay]

Great vid! HERO is a top tier game for the VCS. I was floored when I first tried it. And hey, maybe do an Imagic vid? They had some great games, no doubt. Looking forward to Part 2

[@tigerwarsaw99]

Aw man, I loved Barnstorming back in the day. And yeah Frostbite was very addictive fun. Thanks for the list.

[@GenXGrownUp]

You bet!

[@sandal_thong8631]

I think _Barnstorming_ was the first Activision game I played. I was amazed at how good it looked when playing it at another kid's home, but that didn't inspire me to buy it, (probably for the reason your mentioned or its limited variations). I didn't buy any Activision (or 3rd-party) game before _Pitfall!_ I found the others were fun to play for 1/2 to 1 hour at another kid's home, but how much fun would it be playing by myself? I looked at my collection of Activision carts I picked up later, and _Stampede_ was one of the few I played during the Pandemic. I finally got _Grand Prix_ then (along with _Ice Hockey)_ and it's as much a memorization game as _Skiing_ and _Barnstorming._

[@edwardmclaughlin719]

HERO was incredible as was Kaboom.

[@mxwelch]

I was 10 in 1981 so I got to play many of these when released. I had forgotten many of the titles until I saw the gameplay. What a trip down memory lane!! There hasn't been a single ranking you've made that I disagree with. Great video.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Hey, thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. 😁

[@chucksudduth]

I had Chopper Command when I had my Atari 2600. I scored pretty well on that game too.

[@andyauthor2007]

H.E.R.O. is probably my favorite game all time on the 2600. I also love Pitfall II. There are so many Activision games to love on the 2600 it's hard to name all the best ones. I'm interested to see where you're going to put Robot Tank. I think that game is under-rated. It's basically Battlezone but so much more at the same time. Fun fact, the guy who made H.E.R.O. also made Cosmic Commuter.

[@markmorris76]

Love the 8 track "robot" in your background. Played with that quite a bit.

[@GenXGrownUp]

2XL!

[@mitchellschoenbrun]

I only remember one game Kaboom. When you got to the top level you were no longer conciously in control of the paddle. By that time you taught yourself to do it by reflex. There was no way you could keep up otherwise.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I tried taking apart my paddles and cleaning them to get rid of the flutter, but couldn't get back in the groove to improve my high score at _Kaboom._

[@PaulYoung-hn5ir]

Love that collection of vintage board games on your shelf. I have that Six Million Dollar Man as well.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Yeah, thanks. Which one do you have? Probably hard to see up there out of focus, but the Six Million Dollar Man game is sitting on top of Bionic Crisis.

[@PaulYoung-hn5ir]

@@GenXGrownUp Was hard to zoom in on the video but I’d be curious to see your collection. I tweeted at you.

[@CMRetroGaming]

great stuff. can't wait for part 2

[@GenXGrownUp]

Thanks for watching, Chris!

[@Atarifan72]

Great video can’t wait for part two!

[@MattHaynie]

Freeway deserves a second chance to move up. With single player I agree with you. Where it absolutely shines is playing against your older brother in two player. It's so easy to jump in and start playing (not unlike mobile games today). We'd get tickled pink yelling at each other and getting knocked back down in a chain of hits. This would always happen just before you'd win, and you'd laugh-scream all the way to your L. Two player is so clean and fun! Hilarious and devastating. The perfect game for two brothers in the 80s. Solid B for me (nearing an A).

[@GenXGrownUp]

It sounds to me like you and your brother made your own fun out of battling one another in such a rudimentary game. I'm not promoting Freeway, but I give the priceless memories you have with your brother a great big S! Thank you for watching. 😀

[@danlower7834]

That's how we played it too! I think there are a LOT of brother combos out there who laughed, yelled and had a lot of fun playing Freeway back in the day.

[@tornadotj2059]

Break it out during a party with friends, open some drinks (alcoholic) and let the feathers fly. I can't tell you how many times from the day we got Freeway to today that I've seen people laughing so hard that they hurt playing Freeway in that setting.

[@WagnersTechTalk]

Great video Jon!

[@philipdefibaugh5683]

Plaque Attack #1, Pitfall #2

[@tomy.1846]

Ice hockey was excellent! Loved it!

[@sandal_thong8631]

I got that title during the Pandemic (along with others) but couldn't really get into it. It's funny, but for two-player sports games they almost never allowed you to partner with another human player against the computer.

[@Carlb328]

Freeway is one of my all-time favorite Atari games and it's fun.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Yeah? I have plenty of fond memories of playing it with friends, but it's objectively simplistic. Still, I wouldn't be without it! 😉

[@animatsuri]

Freeway was the 1st Activision game I ever played. It was simplistic but back then it was still amazing enough for me to play it for hours back then. I would have rated the game one grade higher.

[@mikeburkhart8336]

Pitfall! greatest Activision game on Atari 2600! H.E.R.O.,Megamania,Keystone Capers,SeaQuest,Robot Tank,Enduro,Frostbite,Star master,and SpiderFighter. My top ten.

[@IuriFiedoruk]

I have to disagree with Enduro not being an S rating. I loved that game at the time, and I still love and can play it nowadays for quite time.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Completely understandable. There's certainly no shame in an A! I can still remember the first time I saw the Enduro box in a little local book store.

[@dancero643]

my tierlist: Barnstorming - C Beamrider - B Boxing - C Bridge - ? Checkers - ? Chopper Command - C (very difficult) Commando - D Cosmic Commuter - D (sorry) Crackpots - B Decathlon - ? Dolphin - B Double Dragon - F Dragster - D Enduro - A Fishing Derby - B Freeway - D Frosbite - C (very difficult for me) Ghostbusters - D Grand Prix - C Hero - B Ice Hockey - B Kaboom - ? ( I don't have paddle controller)

[@GenXGrownUp]

I must really be missing the boat with Dolphin. I need to give it more of a chance, maybe. Thanks for the list!

[@humormewithspecifics]

Jon, your videos fill quite a void in the retro market. With many you tubers like pat conti and others covering nes + consoles. You go over the exact journey I took a a kid with atari first. Thanks for helping me relive my childhood vicariously through your videos.

[@GenXGrownUp]

That very kind of you to say. Any time my channel is mentioned anywhere near the same sentence as once of these much larger channels, I'm flattered. Happy to hear you're enjoying my work. 🥰

[@humormewithspecifics]

@@GenXGrownUp yes I really appreciate and enjoy your contributions. My video game journey was very unique. Started with the Atari 400, 130xe, then added the Atari 1050 floppy drive. I played on my cousins VCS and Apple II E until the NES mainstreamed the journey. It was fun exploring the various pathways while the technology was still emerging..

[@SergioPL]

I beat H.E.R.O. when I’m only six years old. Is by far my biggest accomplishment in life!

[@BURRITO44]

Awesome video

[@GenXGrownUp]

Thanks for watching. Tell 100 friends! 😉

[@kpk33x]

Enduro was a great game. At the time the only better racing game was Pole Position, and you had to go to the arcade and pay for that. The game with the spiders reminded me a lot of Tapper but even better that they switched lanes! I never saw that one before, definitely a winner!

[@GenXGrownUp]

Couldn't agree more.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I liked _Turbo_ at the arcade, and _Enduro_ was a fun driving game like that. But I don't consider them (or _Pole Position, Night Driver,_ or _Grand Prix)_ to be "racing games" but rather "passing-traffic" games. (Someone else had another name for them.) _Indy 500, F-Zero_ and _Mario Kart_ are racing games.

[@TheMultiGunMan]

Thank you for making this video. I enjoyed it a lot. It will be a good resource for collecting games.

[@PCKid32]

Awesome trip down memory lane. Like your ranking. Time to bust out the emulator. Could you do a similar one on Imagic titles? Since Demon Attack was one of most favourite games on my VCS.

[@GenXGrownUp]

I'll put Imagic on my to-do list.

[@Celtchief]

my mom played the heck out of bridge on the Atari. I mean, she adored it. If nothing else I will always love Activision for giving my mom a chance to play bridge without needing 3 other people.

[@RCfromtheNYC]

I strongly believe that Activision helped take the VCS to a new level, and gave it extra legs well into to the 80s. P.S...Space Shuttle rocked. I'm RC, and I approved this message!

[@KeithPhillips]

*SPACE SHUTTLE ROCKED* (with 6 switches 😋)

[@19buseye71]

Most of my favorite games from that time on Atari were from Activision like Pitfall,Chopper Command,River Raid,Grand Prix,Sea Quest,Stampede,Keystone Kapers and Megamania

[@tomlevier3615]

We played Enduro for hours! River River Raid too. But Pitfall was the king.

[@safetinspector2]

Love to see the love for H.E.R.O. It’s the only 2600 game I still like to play regularly, what a masterpiece

[@benaiahburns4046]

I actually enjoyed Freeway immensely and I still play it today!

[@GenXGrownUp]

Awesome!

[@Fungib1e]

Wow. That Fishing Derby ranking was a gift.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Okay, some of my nostalgia might have seeped through. 😀

[@R4D4_]

Nice trip down memory lane, can't wait for part 2!

[@GenXGrownUp]

Coming soon!

[@daviddavies3637]

I absolutely adore Frostbite. I think I still have my original cart in the attic. There's just so much going on and the difficulty just ramps up nicely as you progress.

[@superturtle61177]

I think Decathlon is my favorite so far. I like the game, but the memories were the best part. I can still picture playing with my brothers and uncle in a hot house with no AC during the summer. My uncle had so much sweat dripping off of him that he looked like he actually competed. That and the intense look on his face made us crack up so much that it was impossible to beat him. The only downside was how many controllers we broke during competition. You needed something heavy duty to get your guy through the last 200m of the 1500m race.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I was worried about breaking controllers as it's L-R as fast as you can. I think you may be able to play the ones that just run and don't push the buttons by using the paddle buttons which match L and R.

[@jnbloss]

Great video! I'll take a snapshot of the final tier list to play! :)

[@GenXGrownUp]

How'd your tier-based play session go?

[@IleanaRivera-hr9gi]

As a kid I inherited my mother's Atart 2600. I was born in 1987, so my first memories of gaming are with my mother's Atari 2600. In 1992 for my 5th birthday my father bought me a Super Nintendo. I remember I had 3 games when I first took my SNES home. Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and Super Castlevania. I skipped the NES entirely. I had a cousin who had a NES and I would play games like Super Mario Bros, Techmo Bowl, WrestleMania, Mega Man, Double Dragon. Other than a night at my cousin's house I didn't play the NES. I played Atari 2600, and my Super Nintendo. I remember my brother getting a Sega Genesis, he got me into sports games like NBA Jam, NBA Live 95, NFL Madden 93, also, I remember Rocket Knight adventures, and The Sonic Franchise. In about 1996-97 I got a PS1 and a N64. On The N64 I enjoyed WCW Revenge, WrestleMania 2000, Golden Eye, Pokemon Snap, on The PS1 I enjoyed Tekken, Bloody Roar, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the dragon, NBA Live 99, Resident Evil, WWF Smackdown. I remember getting a Purple Gameboy Color, I had Pokemon Yellow and Red.

[@MrDuneedon]

My favorite Activision game, by some margin, was Spider Fighter. Probably largely because I was quite good at it-unlike most other games!

[@SchardtCinematic]

I recently got the Retron 77. It made me think about the earliest first games Atari and Activision first made for the Atari VCS. So I have basically all the original roms for the Atari VCS. So I started googgling the info on the first games made by each company. I now have folders separating the first 9 original Atari games. I then made a folder foe 1978,79 and 1980. I then did the same for Acticision games from 1980 to 1983 for now. I just wanted to try these original games out. Of the original 9 games Atari released I only ever had Combat because that was the packed in game. I'm on a quest to hopefully find the original 9 with the number on the end label before the name of the game. Such as 01 Combat. Even my original Combat lacks the number :(

[@10yard]

Fantastic! I’m really looking forward to part 2 of your review. There was something very special about Activision games on VCS. I knew from a young age to seek them out. The graphics were generally far superior to anything else on the system.

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

I had 2600 Double Dragon and my step-brother had NES Double Dragon. The 2600 version got played a lot more. A lot more.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Really?! What a travesty that thing is! Happy you got fun out of it, though. 😀

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

@GenXGrownUp Two player simultaneous play beats the single player experience.

[@unj]

My favourite take-a-way of the Activision games for the Atari 2600 games, is that as soon as Atari discovered they could make a pretty sunset with four colour bars, they went at that HARD. If they could sneak it into Ice Hockey they would! A least H.E.R.O. mixed it up with the blue wavy water.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Yes! That rainbow keeps showing up everywhere, especially as a sunrise/sunset on the horizon!

[@stabgod]

Loved Frostbite! Probably one of the best Atari 2600 games ever. I received the Arctic Architect patch after reaching the high score and sending in a Polaroid. Took forever for them to send me that damn patch! Back in jr. high, I worked part time job at a local transport company, tallying vehicle miles and cleaning out trash/ashtrays. Paid around $30 to $35 every Friday, in cash. I also got to keep whatever change found on the floor or under the seats. Every Friday at the end of my shift, friends would gather outside and we'd all walk to the game store as a group to decide which game I should blow my entire pay on. One particular week, one of the guys had a birthday so he brought $50 to Friday's ritual. After a lively debate he ended up buying Frostbite. I 'm convinced he bought it for attention just because it cost more than what I made that week. Typically, we'd all go back to my house and cram into my bedroom to play whatever game I bought, but this time some of the guys went to his house to check out the expensive game. I know he loved that. The game I got kinda sucked, and I secretly hoped his game would suck to. To my chagrin, ended up receiving a phone call later that night that the game was awesome. A few weeks later he so generously let me borrow it. I wanted to hate the game, but it was legitimately awesome! So many games in my collection but he didn't want to trade this for anything, surely because this was a tangible object, a symbol, a reminder of his brief moment as the alpha male in our neighborhood video game group. No pilgrimage after work the next Friday. I saved for two weeks to buy my own copy.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Love a good nostalgic story! Thanks for watching & sharing. 😀

[@sandal_thong8631]

The patches today cost more online than the cartridges! Imagine that. I think I got the one for _Pitfall!_ but I didn't have anything to sew it onto, so lost it.

[@greybush38]

Pretty spot on Gen-x brother. The early Activision titles were trial/error and we were young.

[@philippezsiga1125]

Emduro deserve SSSSSSSSS! Great video cheers from France ( Enduro was awarded best racing game in France , i think the previous year was pole position on Atari XL which was the best racing game on home system at the time)

[@GenXGrownUp]

Enduro is awesome, Philippe! No disrespect with an A! Enduro was right on the bubble between A/S. 🏎️

[@ltjjenkins]

Dragster was one of the best party games ever. You went head to head all night charted your time. Once the competitive juices started flowing look out.

[@laeditor]

I loved Dragster as a kid. Grand Prix as well.

[@allenantonio4389]

great list, I played about 80% of these games... KA Boom !!!!!

[@ywtcc]

Frostbite was the first game I got good at. When you get good at it, you're jumping around like crazy and the on screen elements really fly! It's simpler than Frogger, but I think the jumping and fast pace make it more fun. Glad to see it made the S tier, I've been recommending this one the whole time!

[@stevesstuff1450]

These were the great days of Activision! The days when Activision wanted to show you how good they were (mostly!), and not just how well they could keep cycling the same old games albeit with graphical upgrades here and there, and also trying to empty your bank accounts!! 😆 I have fond memories of many of these Activision games on the VCS from back in 1979/80 (it wasn't known as the '2600' yet), and they had the best graphics of anyone so far on the system, and the most compelling gameplay; things like "Kaboom" (and another couple of games that'll come in a later video I presume), just kept the interest of me and my work colleagues in the shop where I worked, so lunch breaks were always fraught Atari battles between us!! 🙂

[@ShadeofJeremy]

I've not played too many of these. But I gotta agree with you on those that I did. And yes H.E.R.O. is my all time favorite Atari game.

[@rcschmidt668]

Ah, the old Atari! Thanks for the memories.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Any time!

[@TheDanno210]

Hey Jon! I’ve been AWOL a while but so very glad to see you guys are still chugging along with fantastic content! Love this and although I haven’t played them all I can concur with your thoughts and grading so far - I’m in absolute lockstep with you 👍🏻

[@GenXGrownUp]

Who are you, again? 😜 Good to see you again, Dan.

[@TheDanno210]

@@GenXGrownUp 🤣😂🤣 you too brother! Got a big backlog of your content to catch up on. I recently got a New Wave Replicade Space Ace mini cab a couple weeks back. You guys checked out any of their gizmos yet? Impressive build quality.

[@GenXGrownUp]

@@TheDanno210 Not the Space Ace, but we have reviewed several of their units. George did the Dragon's Lair and I most recently did a piece on the Missile Command.

[@TheDanno210]

@@GenXGrownUp you gents had any luck with getting non-New Wave controllers to work with those? I guess that would apply more to the dragons lair than the missile command. I can’t find any useful info anywhere on which ones seem to work best - or at all hehe. I’m striking out with my attempts so far. Have a great day Jon!

[@GenXGrownUp]

@@TheDanno210 Sure. If you go watch the one I did on New Wave Street Fighter II, I connect that bonus controller up to my PC at one point and see that it's standard XInput. So I'd expect most any wired controller to plug in via USB would do the trick. Granted, I have not tested on a Dragon's Lair.

[@jimmickg]

2 player Boxing was actually pretty good

[@Dhi-fe5eu]

Kaboom and pitfall were my favorite.

[@kellychuba]

River raid. OMG the hours and soothing hours I could play this.

[@drewlovelyhell4892]

I'm surprised by how few of these I know. I only ever played Barn-storming and Grand Prix. My favourite 2600 games were Solaris, Joust and Yar's Revenge.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Good faves!

[@KeithPhillips]

I had no idea there were 44 Activision games for the 2600 😳 I always thought it was about 30! I'm surprised at the number of them that I never came across in the wild, too. I thoight Bridge would get a lower rating (mostly because I know nothing about how to play bridge) but the game actually seems pretty damn decent...from a non-bridge player 😋 In this tier list, I would probably give Chopper Command, Enduro and H.E.R.O all "S" rankings...and Crackpot would be a bit lower? Beamrider looks pretty great too! Freeway always just seemed kind of bland to me and would only be worth playing with 2 players...Frogger it ain't! Checkers as an "F?" Absolutely! They should have just scrapped the computer "A.I." and just shipped it as a 2-player only game once they realized how many thousands of CPU cycles would need to be burned for each move. That LOOOOONG blank screen is utterly embarrassing...

[@dancero643]

i love this kind of videos. Please, do the same for imagic games, atari and other companies. It's fun!. Edit: Dolphin only a D 😢 Fishing Derby i think is a ok game but it has a lot of charm!

[@GenXGrownUp]

I'm glad you are enjoying this one. If these do well, I will consider doing more tier lists. What am I missing with Dolphin?

[@dancero643]

I think it's an interesting game if you know how to control the water arrows. When you become the predator by touching the seagull and score points I love the sound effect! It's addictive to earn points in this game. But well, everyone has his own opinion. I really liked the video

[@chrisstory563]

what I love about Activision 2600 era is their cool box art covers. they pop out more then Atari and other companies that put out 2600 games back then. heck not even the PC games at the time could compete with.

[@puzzud]

HERO all the way. Although I've never played it on the 2600, I feel like that Ghostbusters deserves a bit more credit for what it accomplishes. I love that game on the C64. Not 2600 games but here are some Activision games that are severely underrated: Rock n Bolt, Park Patrol, Master of the Lamps.

[@GenXGrownUp]

I recall playaing Master of the Lamps on my Atari 800. It's been a while, though - something sort of Ali Baba-ish about it, right? Riding a carpet?

[@puzzud]

@@GenXGrownUp Yea like a tunnel runner.

[@smallspacearcade8158]

Hero is a fantastic game, there are plenty of magnificent Activison titles to pick from for the 2600.

[@Rickdell1967]

Great job Joh keeping them coming. Atari forever !!

[@jsucka7118]

I never played H.E.R.O., but watching the gameplay I realized that the bat graphic is the same as Pitfall II.

[@KeithPhillips]

*FANTASTIC!!!*

[@GenXGrownUp]

Look at you sporting that fancy members-only fire emoji! 😁

[@Curbjaw]

I wouldn't say that they were the pristine game developer, but they were amazing marketer... Me and my brother worked so hard at getting Activision patches for our scores... I'm fairly certain somewhere in all the stuff stored away, there's at least my ice hockey patch still around. I remember my brother obsessed over getting the Dragster one, and when he finally got the score, they were out of patches and only got a certificate.

[@ratmouth]

I still have my collection of about 15 or so patches you could earn by reaching certain milestones and sending in a picture of the screen. Boxing, Freeway, River Raid, Kaboom, Pitfall, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Grand Prix, all popular with me and my sisters. 2-player is where games like Freeway, Boxing, Fishing Derby, and even Dragster shine.

[@MrSlomo67]

Really like the graphics for sorting the games

[@GenXGrownUp]

Thanks, Mo!

[@djgrom9542]

Love the list. Thank you. Now please do Imagic :) Cosmic Ark is a game I still play to this day and they had the best looking carts.

[@GenXGrownUp]

On it!

[@igortakesabride1139]

Chopper Command was my jammy jam!!! I used to play that game for HOURS AND HOURS!!! Something about the sleek fun it was to hover and reverse that helicopter in midair as it was moving made me feel like I was Airwolf!

[@GenXGrownUp]

Yep! 😀

[@errollleggo447]

I would put beamrider in S tier, I still play it. :) Been to wave 15 a few times!

[@danielespeziari5545]

Yes, Beamrider is one of my favorites as well. It's a brilliant game

[@GenXGrownUp]

I'm seeing a lot of Beamrider love in the comments. Nice. 😀

[@johneygd]

Seeing those activision games,i can hardly believe that they had to raise the beam to create graphics by timing every pixel on screen per frame,per background and per sprite,and what if 2 or more sprites are moving in opposite directions,then you had to time that as well etc,,, I can’t even imagine were they would ever start,considering the 2600 graphics were extremely limited,UNLESS they had already better toolkits to work with in the early 80’s.

[@Official-Oldblox_2008]

4 days until my birthday. On my birthday, Im gonna get a replica of the Atari 2600, and I have 2 actual Atari games, I got combat, and KABOOM!

[@hosam7609]

Boxing gets D? Come on man, the game was very competitive 2 players we broke several joysticks playing it, and the AI made the single player game perfect as a quick 3 minutes exercise

[@GenXGrownUp]

Sorry, Hosam. Regardless of their rating here, that takes nothing away from the fun we all had playing them! Thanks for watching! 😄

[@galaxiesteve7139]

That's a great tier list Gen X. The only change I'd make is with Dragster. I'm a car guy, so it is automatically a favorite. Yeah, graphics aren't the best and game play is repetitive. But I can play it for hours just trying to get a hundredth of a second better. It's the trying to get a better time on the next run that gives it replayablility. Still, it's an A or B for me. I'd also bump Enduro up to S tier simply for nostalgic reasons. There was nothing like driving into the sunset or on icy or snowy roads at the time, very innovative.

[@GenXGrownUp]

Thanks! I can see how Dragster would have greater appeal for a motorhead. 😀

[@flatfingertuning727]

@@GenXGrownUp Another thing that's cool with Dragster is that one could restart it without having to use the console's reset button. I don't know if any other game could do that at the time.

[@BrianWalstad]

Dragster is highly replayable. I still get sucked into that game almost every night for an hour or 2. I've probably spent more of my life playing that game than any other game on any system ever.

[@joeg4707]

I received Kaboom as a Valentine's gift from my parents--I guess because the box was pink--and it quickly one of my favorites. Ultimately. it became my all-time favorite VCS game. What a fantastic paddle game. The speed/action of the game at the levels beyond 3,000 pts is crazy. Just to confirm it was the best paddle game, try playing it on a PC with a mouse or keyboard; or on the PS2 Anthology, or on a touchscreen. This one is paddle or nothing--literally.

[@marccaselle8108]

Awww! I liked checkers by Activision for the Atari 2600.

[@GenXGrownUp]

That's great! My "ranking" in no way speaks to how much fun we may or may not have had playing a game, but really just its subjective quality across the line. I saw another commenter who had a blast with Double Dragon - more power to ya! 😀

[@PitfallHarry72]

Kaboom is the first used game cartridge I've purchased. I just got it in today from eBay, and it works perfectly with my 2600+. I never played it as a kid, but I now wish I had, as it's fantastic! I tried it on my Flashback 12 Gold, but it's a little jittery on that, so I knew I had to get it for the 2600+. The cartridge is in perfect shape, save for the label, but I don't know if I'll buy one for it. Atlantis was one of my favorite games as a kid. I don't have a cartridge for that one, but with the game play not being movement demanding like Kaboom, playing it on the FB12G is good enough.