These Atari 2600 Games Have Real Endings! | Friday Night Arcade

Most Atari 2600 games last for five minutes and you're just trying to run up a high score ... but these games can actually be beaten!
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ATARI 2600 GAMES WITH ENDINGS
[0:46] - Raiders of the Lost Ark
[4:38] - E.T.
[6:57] - Riddle of the Sphinx
[9:00] - Secret Quest
[10:19] - Frankenstein's Monster
[11:33] - Starmaster
[12:44] - Star Raiders & Solaris
[13:43] - Jungle Hunt
[14:42] - Fatal Run
[16:30] - Adventure
[18:16] - Private Eye
[20:11] - Pitfall
[23:53] - Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
MORE IN DEPTH COVERAGE OF GAMES MENTIONED
Solaris - • Atari 2600 Games That ...
Jungle Hunt - • Awesome Atari 2600 Arc...
Starmaster - • Starmaster - Atari 260...
Frankenstein's Monster - • Frankenstein's Monster...
Secret Quest - • How Secret Quest Pushe...
Pitfall II - • Atari 2600 Games That ...
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#atari2600 #retrogaming #FridayNightArcade

[@plinkitee]

Seems like a lot of the Atari games you can beat are... complicated.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Every time I say the word "complicated" in this video... DRINK!

[@youneverknow111]

@@FridayNightArcade what about Bogey Blaster i played hell of that game

[@FridayNightArcade]

Did an entire video about it :D -- kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpaomJWfdq2UfdU

[@johna.7362]

@@FridayNightArcade Thank you for making this nostalgic video. We never owned a Atari 2600 , but we would play the demo in stores. My brother actually was able to beat Indy, but I think he got some advice beforehand. I faintly remember saving Quick Claw the Cat in Pitfall II and the game ending, but I don't think I got everything else, but Pitfall Harry was jumping excitedly. Is the game really over just by saving that character?

[@FridayNightArcade]

Yep that's the Pitfall II ending. You have to do three things in any order to "beat" it - save Quick Claw, save your niece and find all of the treasures. Whenever you do the last thing, the game ends with your character jumping back and forth all excited. Thanks for watching!

[@depalma13]

I remember when we beat Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time. Parachuting into the cave after missing numerous times. A bunch of 12 year-olds screaming in celebration at 3 am. Only to get scolded by the parents after waking them up. It was worth it.

[@utubeskreename9516]

Those were the days, for sure

[@heartoftoledo1560]

Totally worth it. On the flip side, how many times we would get to the cave, have the parachute catch on the branch, and then have our parents tell us it was time to get off the video games and do something else.

[@seanstevenson7533]

There was supposedly a signature if you got a high enough score. I won the game many times, but never saw it

[@estoy1001]

You forgot about Haunted House - it has several difficulty levels, a clear objective, and jump scares that even now can rival modern games.

[@Urban_Flux]

i played that game so much as a kid i could complete it with my eyes shut and I mean that!

[@dragondude9637]

Don't forget Ghost Manor and Spike's Peak!

[@JamesKelleyJr]

That game scared the shit outta me as a kid. Its the noise it makes. I never got used to it

[@bruknorx]

I played Pitfall 2 for weeks until I was able to beat it with a perfect score. Find everything without getting touched once. Even now, years later, I'm still proud of that. :)

[@tinyfistm.2607]

Heh, are you me? You're me, aren't you? I _think_ I got a perfect score, but I had no way to know for certain back then, and I don't remember it now.

[@willmistretta]

Pitfall 2 was one of the first games I ever played that made me feel like I was exploring a place. It was majorly mind-expanding; a real revelation. Sending away for the Cliffhangers Club patch was my first real gaming accomplishment. I got to meet David Crane in person last fall and gush to him all about it. He was remarkable patient and signed some sweet Pitfall wooden wall art for me. It was an amazing moment.

[@robertsaurer6431]

Will Mistretta that’s awesome you met David Crane!! As a kid in the 80’s I had the Activision high score patches for Kaboom,Seaquest,Keystone Capers and Pitfall!

[@supercoolyguy]

@@robertsaurer6431 Fun games fun times

[@kevinearney]

Yes it was the first game that felt like a world.

[@bonemasterd1]

Great video. Haunted House and Superman also have endings.

[@davidsenger4833]

Also adventure 2 has an ending

[@SuperBoomshack]

Pong does also

[@beatsinmycrates]

I beat haunted house like 1000 times , love the sound effects in that game

[@davidsenger4833]

I beat it like 30 times i like at the end you can still move the eyes in the rythem of the music hilarious

[@arthurallsopp9344]

Don't forget Adventure.

[@patrickols]

I played Raiders for weeks on end back in 82. When you look at it today, well it's a 40 years old looking game but back then it was just amazing, to me it was anyway.

[@imushavem7504]

I remember how happy I was when I finally beat it. As a kid, it was so much fun to me. I loved Raiders.

[@RavenRuled]

I remember getting it from a friend in 1988. Sister and I were playing Swordquest Earthworld at time so spending hours trying to figure out what do on Raiders was a fun distraction. We finally figured it out but the hidden "signature" alluding us. Now with the magic of youtube it is explained.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I don't think I was able to win back in '82. I remember trying to use the shovel on top of the mesa. (It wasn't my cart.)

[@JoeStuffzAlt]

Games like Raiders and ET would still be tricky for a single programmer to make, even with today's tools like Unity. Looking back, those games were pretty impressive feats

[@chewy2804]

Back in ‘82 I could throw a football over a mountain

[@hiqueabel]

"Superman" have a proper ending too. I beat it several times on my Atari in the old days. If I remember correctly, you must rebuild the bridge, put all the criminals in jail, transform back to Clark Kent in the phone booth and then walk inside the Daily Planet building.

[@syntaxerror9994]

Yes on all that.

[@DavidWonn]

With glitches, you could bypass a lot of steps and beat the game with a time of 000.

[@soonersfan60]

Best early game on the 2600! Even better than Adventure in my opinion... better graphics and followed the Superman story.

[@janetracer]

Myself and my older brothers were competing for the best time in the house. Slowly seconds were being whittled off, who would be the first to crack a minute? Well while we were at school my baby brothers (4 and 6 ) accidentally found the bridge Easter egg, broke a minute, would not let mom turn off the machine or tv and drove us older kids crazy by refusing to reveal how they set the family record.

[@andrewhawkins8349]

There was a cheat on the game if you push two buttons on the console at the same time you would instantly win.

[@MattMcIrvin]

Neubauer's 1979 Star Raiders was for the Atari 8-bit computers. The 2600 port was by Carla Meninsky and released in 1982. The original Star Raiders was a groundbreaking game--this whole genre of games like Starmaster and Solaris, and arguably Elite, Wing Commander and X-Wing, is derived from it. (Though Star Raiders itself can be seen as a fusion of the old text-based Star Trek games for 1970s mainframes, and simple first-person space shooters like Starship One.)

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Matt. I always appreciate your knowledge. I also didn't realize there were text based Star Trek games in the 70s and now need to know more about them lol. I'm trying to track down an Atari keypad so I can show more of Star Raiders for a future standalone video.

[@MattMcIrvin]

@@FridayNightArcade They were unlicensed games that started out on mainframe computers. I remember playing Star Trek on a paper-printing teletype. Eventually they became mainstays of the "type-in BASIC game" scene on early personal computers--the lack of graphics meant they ported easily to different systems: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(1971_video_game)

[@MattMcIrvin]

...The Atari 2600 cartridge "Stellar Track" was a more direct adaptation of these games to the 2600. It seems like an odd type of game to adapt because it's such a poor fit to the hardware, but they did it as a Sears exclusive. Anyway, you can see the influence of Star Trek on Star Raiders in the large-scale, strategic game: the Galactic Chart and hyperwarping, Long Range Scan, the damage-management system, starbases and the need to protect them. The difference is that Star Raiders is a real-time game, not turn-based, and it has first-person 3D combat. So the other half of that, the first-person cockpit view... That was clearly inspired by Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, but also by arcade games like Starship 1 (the 2600 adaptation was "Star Ship") and Exidy's Star Fire (which lifted its visuals shamelessly from Star Wars--probably the closest match to Star Raiders). But those all had really simple target-shooting gameplay. Gluing the two things together made something really mind-blowing for the time.

[@Sourdust]

@@MattMcIrvin Playing an ASCII "Star Trek" on the RML boxes in my school IT room in 1983: Probably my first taste of "retro" gaming! :-)

[@holyhex6520]

I hated Star Raiders. I guess I never understood it. I have the number pad for it too.

[@TheCrusaderRabbits]

Raiders was such a great game because it was like a puzzle. We would just ask other kids at school how they beat a certain level and then go home and continue. That is how we played. The fun was the frustration in trying to figure it out.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's how I was with the MacVenture games. I relished in the problem solving of games like Shadowgate.

[@robertsaurer6431]

TheCrusaderRabbits 100% I remember being in 4th grade asking the older kids in school what to do in Raiders! Looking back now I’m amazed I actually finished that game so young!!

[@JMcMillen]

Space Shuttle was another game with an ending. Also, in Pitfall 2 the treasure in the very upper right hand screen on the map must be retrieved before dropping into the cave as there's no way back up.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, John. That's a really good one and I want to cover it at some point - I'm actually trying to track down a physical copy of it with the box and all of the overlays and everything. It's such a complex and interesting game that I want to give it a standalone treatment video. Gotta find a CIB copy though - if you know anyone that would let me borrow it for a few weeks so I could do a video on it, that'd be awesome.

[@syntaxerror9994]

Never could beat space shuttle. Other than game mode one 😉

[@pqrstzxerty1296]

Spac2 Shuttle was so complicated hard, you just need a real NASA manual just to tell when to flick switches. I could only play it on level one. I was ten.

[@TortureBot]

Managed to figure it out in the 80's w/out the overlay. Took a long time, but I THINK I landed it, too.

[@ashleyvanhammer3448]

I enjoyed the 🔥 out of E.T. on my Atari back as a kid. It really has surprised me to see how much hate it gets and baffles me that so many people find it so confusing. I understood it fine and beat it many times, testing myself by super-running circles around the doctor or agent to see how low my energy could get and still beat it. I'm sure the experience wouldn't hold up next to most modern juggernaut titles but back in the day it was great fun.

[@JamesTomlinson2]

I loved it too drives me nuts everyone hating on it.

[@chedderz66]

No you didn't. You made up that story.

[@KabukiKid]

E.T. was not a bad game... it gets a bad reputation for two reasons... 1. the pixel collision issue with the pits, which was truly a problem, but if you got good at the game, it wasn't that much of a problem. 2. people just stuck the cart in and expected to figure out how to play without reading the manual. THAT is the thing that made this game frustrating for people, I'm sure. Without the manual, you can't play this game. E.T. is far from the worst game ever made... heck, it isn't even the worst game on the system! BTW... there is a "fixed" ROM floating around that remedies the pixel collision issue with the pits. Even HSW said that he would have fixed that if he wasn't so crunched for time when making this game.

[@matthewrease2376]

ET is actually quite easy. And honestly is much more fun than Raiders. I've beaten ET too many times to count now.

[@LanieG1]

Same here

[@markabene5741]

Ditto. It took me and a friend at least a week to figure out Raiders, but I solved E.T. alone in a single night, and could do it repeatedly. And I'm talking back then, the Christmas season when these were both released.

[@matthewrease2376]

@@markabene5741 I've never bothered with Raiders. I could never even figure out there was a bomb, let alone how to use it, I only know about it now from the internet.

[@markabene5741]

@@matthewrease2376 Raiders definitely required a LOT of patience and attention to detail. Using the parachute to enter the mesa by falling off the edge, and having the parachute only touch the branch without touching the leaves, caused us screaming excitement the first time we figured that out.

[@matthewrease2376]

@@markabene5741 you wouldn't believe how long it took me to start the game the first time. How was I supposed to know you can only start the game with the second controller? Sure I had the manual, but kids don't read that shit. :)

[@blindlemon9]

Hey! As a pre-teen, I loved the Indiana Jones game for the Atari 2600. When playing, I purposely avoided consulting the booklet, in order to boost the difficulty. And the game was often maddeningly hard, with countless swaps required, along with the entire multi-screen maze requiring all tasks to be performed in precisely the correct order and many at exactly at the right game-times. Perhaps the super-gamers who are prevalent today could easily whip through the adventure in six or seven hours, knowing the tropes used in this kind of game. It took me and my best friend several days, but half of this time was spent laughing hysterically at the horrific graphics, the sluggish control response, the super-annoying music, and the fact that Indy’s progress could not be saved. With all of its shortcomings, it was a change of pace from Asteroids or Pac Man, and it required real mental flexibility to win. It was a superior game.

[@TheAtkey]

I actually didn't know Pitfall had an ending. As a kid I just thought you collected as many points as you can before the timer ran out. I never read the instructions cause we got in in 1982 when I was 3 so I couldn't read yet.

[@gridlo]

This video still doesn't show it having an ending. Or ET. Misleading title.

[@Asterra2]

Pitfall's ending is both a masterstroke of game engineering and a testament to the expectations placed on gamers of the era. If you beat the game, you do so with something like ten seconds left on the clock. Imagine the planning that had to have gone into such close timing. And to accomplish this? The player absolutely had to make a map, and realize what was going on between the upper and lower layers. They had to be a master at a game whose controls made things excessively difficult. They could only afford to make a tiny handful of mistakes. Basically one accidental fall or one death. But the main hurdle, as you and almost everyone else encountered, was the simple fact that all of the difficulty and the ambiguity of the game's mechanics added up to the sense that there was no real (or realistically feasible) goal in the game other than a high score, so that ultimately, almost nobody actually took on the game's real challenge.

[@Zanshinkyo]

As most games didn't have and ending back then, I never suspected that Pitfall had an ending, and getting to the ending seems more complicated than I would have expected.

[@GhostsDontWalk1]

When I played Pitfall I drew a map on graph paper. It's the only way to plan out the most efficient pathway and beat it in time. Of course today people can look up the map on the internet, but I'll take any excuse to draw a map. I love cartography in games! I think that's why I love Pitfall so much.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Ending was anti-climactic as the game freezes. Before that I used to imagine you'd be rescued by a helicopter. After winning it once, I never played it again to the ending to get a better score. Scorpion timing was killer. Going to the left was better than right.

[@seandavis7218]

Jungle hunt is one of my favorite atari games. It always amazes me how ambitious some of these games are. Love the new format too perfect length

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks - Sean!

[@eugeneaxe]

Loved that game as a kid. Also Atlantis and Battlezone.

[@JinzoCrash]

I liked Jungle Hunt in the arcade, but when it was still Jungle King and had the Tarzan boy.

[@BurningUp99]

@@eugeneaxe omg I loved Atlantis I totally forgot about that one. I played Battlezone as well

[@acerumble4991]

I remember Barnstorming from Activision. The player pilots a biplane through an obstacle course of windmills, geese and, of course, barns. The goal is to complete a given course in the shortest possible time by flying the plane thru a number of barns based on the difficulty level. Believe I still have my patch somewhere....

[@Josh_Jackson]

Lol... it was a very frustrating game but that and river raid are my most memorable games for atari

[@BurningUp99]

@@Josh_Jackson River Raid was definitely a good one.

[@curbydinobot8633]

I believe Krull, Gremlins and Ghostbusters had endings as well

[@llaffer]

The arcade Jungle King has the "Tarzan"-looking character you talked about in the video. More than just the look, but it actually included the Tarzan Cry that played at the start of the game, which is likely what got them in trouble and required them to change it to Jungle Hunt.

[@protorhinocerator142]

Thee was also a Jungle Lord pinball machine that was pretty cool. user.xmission.com/~daina/images/rv/junglelord.jpg The Tarzan people freaked out of course.

[@markgodau5280]

One game that comes to mind is Escape From the Mindmaster. It was a Starpath Supercharger game for the 2600. In the game you have to navigate a 3d maze, solving puzzles and mini games to progress to the next level. When you beat it, the game gives you a congratulatory fireworks display.

[@stevew8513]

I was going to suggest that one. I'll also suggest Survival Island - it's been quite a few years since I played it on my Supercharger so I don't recall what the ending actually is. It's not as impressive as the Escape from the Mindmaster ending.

[@robertsaurer6431]

Mark Godau man those games were crazy on the cassette tapes! Mindmaster was awesome! Very challenging while learning to play. Eventually I could pass through it pretty quickly. I remember the A opening up and the fireworks shooting out at the end...... A Winner!!

[@markt1593]

Loved that game. I got this rating “The mind master considers you to be…Awesome”

[@markt1593]

It even allowed you to continue on the final level

[@one4allall4one91]

Raiders of the lost ark was the game I felt in love with adventure genre. I remember when me and a friend spend hours playing eventually getting to the end. It meant the world at that time.

[@kenwheeler3637]

I like both Raiders and ET (Brussels Sprouts too). Got to the end on both of them many times in the 80's and since. In fact you can keep going, revisiting the Earth over and over in the same game in ET. I borrowed Pitfall back then and never could get far. It wasn't until I got my own copy, many years later and acquired a map from Atari Age that showed the proper route to take that I finally finished it. Pitfall II is great. Beaten that a bunch of time but never the second adventure part on the Atari 5200 and 800 ports. Those are insanely difficult.

[@FridayNightArcade]

My wife wrapped brussel sprouts in bacon and pancake syrup and I still just couldn't do it.

[@dijabreu]

I always thought these dragons in adventure were really mean ducks...

[@renewagain6956]

Strong bad: "Someone get this freakin' duck away from me!"

[@MrSEA-ok2ll]

I received ET for my 13th bday and I did finish it. A basket quickly picks up ET and that's it. The 8 bit Atari computer version has actually a much more memorable ending with ET saying "ET go home", the ship slowly landing, the door opens and ET waddles up the ramp into the ship...oh, the early days of frustration.

[@tomsuzyinfluencerinfj2712]

Star Raiders (1979) on Atari computer was the first killer app.

[@jimcampbell]

I always like the smurfs game. It feels like a precursor to a Mario type sidescroller. Technically it loops when you reach the end, but I’d say you can pretty much say running through all 4 levels of the game is completing it.

[@jeffryfernandez4019]

I thought that was for Colecovision.

[@jimcampbell]

jeffry fernandez I don’t know what came first. The Atari version was made by Coleco. The colecovision system version plays the same but has better graphics and more complicated levels.

[@diyapia]

Jim Campbell My first addiction...and the music!! Jump sound was ridiculous...BOING!

[@blatherskite3009]

@@jimcampbell Smurf was developed for both the Colecovision and the 2600 at the same time, but the Colecovision was definitely the "lead format." Funnily enough, Smurf on the Colecovision was the first game I remember ever getting accused by reviewers of being "graphics over gameplay" - a common complaint these days when games look like movies, but (iirc) it was a first back then :) I suppose it really *was* a remarkably pretty game for 1982, but it's true that the gameplay was incredibly minimal stuff ... even by 1982 standards.

[@shawnclingman2576]

This is awesome. Apparently I had WAAAY too much time on my hands...I’ve beat RAIDERS many times (after a while it makes sense) and RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX (from opening screen, back up, get the staff, and then proceed...that’s all you need to do). I TOTALLY appreciate the Gary Larson ad bit...that’s great advertising and hilarious...ingrained on my memory. Good work!!

[@FridayNightArcade]

lol that's awesome - yeah, I mean if you had these games at the time, that's just what you'd play and you'd keep playing till you won probably. These games often retailed for $50-70 too so you'd wanna feel like you got your money's worth. Good stuff - thanks for sharing, Shawn!

[@sandal_thong8631]

I played that at a friend's house and wanted it. But I don't know if he kept it. I think kids at that time were buying games and returning them a week or so later; there were a lot of opened games taped up in the bargain bin.

[@EugenioAngueira]

ET, Pitfall II, Adventure, Pitfall and Jungle Hunt are all games I've beaten. Nice video. Now you need a Part II with more games on the 2600 with endings...

[@pixelmaverick7812]

I played both ET and Indy when I was 12. I had no issues playing and solving either one of these multiple times. I have never understood why these games are considered so hard or cryptic. Something no one ever mentions is that the Indy game would grade your performance at the end by raising you closer to the Ark at the end of the game. The higher Indy is raised, the better you did during the game. I would play again and again trying to get him to touch the Ark but could never achieve this.

[@lurkerrekrul]

I never played E.T. back then, but I did play Raiders. There's absolutely no indication in the game of what you're supposed to be doing. I had to read the "Hints" section of the manual just to figure it out. I was able to beat the game after that, but without those hints, I never would have known what to do.

[@KabukiKid]

@@lurkerrekrul Yeah, until I knew where to put the grenade to blow a hole in the wall, I was lost. Definitely not an easily intuitive game.

[@matthewrease2376]

I love Star Raiders! Beaten it on a few difficulties.

[@gregoryl.levitre9759]

Starmaster, Solaris and Star Raiders were among my favorite games from that era. I'd forgotten the titles and had been trying to remember them, thanks!

[@SNARC15]

14:29 Don't forget the PERFECTLY ACCURATE Tarzan yell at the beginning. Taito knew how to use sound hardware even back in 1982.

[@NotesandNerds]

Star Raiders was ALWAYS a favorite of mine. I know a lot of videos talk big about Starmaster, but I am a Star Raider fan through and through. Having that keypad that is required to play the game just pushes that "realism" for me. Putting it on the higher difficulties helps, too. So much more depth, in my opinion.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Nice. I'm trying to track down a keypad so I can do an extended look at Star Raiders.

[@NotesandNerds]

@@FridayNightArcade really? I may be of assistance. I have contact info on my channel page in the about section.

[@unholyperiodza5442]

Review Mountain King. That has an ending. That spider gives me nightmares whenever I think of it.

[@daveincognito]

I was a small child and I remember crying my eyes out because I was afraid the spider would get me.

[@Asterra2]

Mountain King has a special place in my heart because it had one of the most fascinating glitches ever in a video game. AVGN covered it in detail, to my amazement. The "city in the sky", combined with the equally inexplicable fact that it was possible to finagle a jump that actually reaches it. I had always vowed someday to take a really good emulator and fully explore that "city". Since it transforms at will, anything less than save states / rewinding functions would prevent it from being feasible.

[@constancemerryweather525]

Love the song (hall of the mountain king)!

[@dumpnchase]

Nothing better than a new video. Great topic!! I really enjoyed it. Thanks

[@SonicMrSumo]

Congratulations on your first "lengthy" and more "in depth" video...thoroughly enjoyed it :-)

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Sonic!

[@eternalrogue]

Our imagination back then was so much better. You could see yourself being Indy and with no internet to help, you had to figure things on your own.

[@SpeedStar76]

Absolutely! Back then, your imagination rounded off the corners of your multi coloured Lego tie fighter and you WERE there! Hdmi killed all that...

[@Zanshinkyo]

BacI when there were adventure games, you might spend months or even years stuck, trying to figure it out on your own. I was never able to figure out how to get past one part of Uninvited.

[@sandal_thong8631]

A teenager helped me get started on E.T. and Raiders. It turns out you're not supposed to use the grenade to get into the temple, because you lose points (my best was 18 1/2 dots). Instead you use the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra to get from the Marketplace to the temple. I went back to win this way (19 1/2?), then found the Easter Egg for max 20 1/2 points (which still leaves a gap between Indy and the Ark.

[@alostsol]

I know this is an older post, but I wanted to add that they did have cheat books and magazines. I think there was even a TV show that gave ways to beat or get high scores on video games.

[@Josh_Jackson]

Damn this brings back some memories

[@reagandow850]

Some retro goodness from the best channel on you tube always ends my week properly. Have a great weekend and thanks for another great video!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Reagan!

[@firehawk6188]

Keep up the videos. I enjoy them and I have a feeling your channel will catch on over time.

[@draketungsten74]

In Pitfall 2, I think that's Pitfall Harry's niece, not his girlfriend.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Ahhh yes, you are correct sir - I goofed.

[@draketungsten74]

@@FridayNightArcade I beat this one several times. I'd agree that this is probably the best Atari 2600 game ever.

[@DavidRomigJr]

Pitfall Harry and his niece Rhonda went looking for the Raj Diamond but Quickclaw ran off after a cave rat and Rhoda went looking for him. The game ends when you find the Raj Diamond, Rhonda, and Quickclaw. To max out your score, collect all the gold and the cave rat and never get hit.

[@draketungsten74]

@@DavidRomigJr Yep.

[@octoberphoenix]

Also they're vultures, not eagles.

[@Spiderdude57]

I remember bearing E.T. Super man also has an ending.

[@GoodDredd]

I had the Raiders of the Lost Ark game as a kid in the 80's. You taught me more about it than I ever figured out on my own. I hated that game and there was no way to learn how to play it. Appreciate the nostalgia!

[@classicmikecade]

Wow....what an amazing video Aaron. This is by far your best yet. Some of the games on here were dynamite. When you got to Pitfall 2 ALL the feels came back. Never beat Pitfall 2 or Raiders but I owned them. I beat ET but afterwards I didn't feel accomplished at all. Thanks again Aaron. Looking forward to your next video!

[@phildicks4721]

You forgot Superman, good sir.

[@originalfred66]

Superman was a great early game. In some ways better than Adventure.

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

Not to mention the only great Superman game.

[@phildicks4721]

@@ultrairrelevantnobody1862 definitely 1000 times better than Superman 64.

[@davidsenger4833]

I finished 6 of these and others one thing weird is a really awesome the by imagic is demon attack you don't really finish it but after surviving 20 to 30 minutes the screen with black out ! Try it it's cool!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Yeah I think it's the 84th wave the game ends.

[@handsomebrick]

One unique thing about Adventure is that it has a semi-persistent world where events happen even when you aren't around to see them, sometimes you can even hunt for clues to figure out what those events were. This kind of thing is extremely rare in games even now, and is usually associated with ultra-complex PC games like Dwarf Fortress.

[@purplesabbath9057]

Every Atari 2600 game has an ending. Each game ends when you turn off the console.

[@VaughnJogVlog]

This is the guy who actually buys KZbin ads and tries a Sean Connery voice.

[@somerandomidioticnerd9769]

Eh, I still enjoy his videos

[@FridayNightArcade]

Seems I was in the minority and everyone beat E.T. but me!

[@LanieG1]

Be glad to give you a hand with it

[@chiroquacker2580]

It should only count if you beat it before the internet became a thing LOL which means I have never beaten it either. I think for Indiana Jones we can be much more lenient since it would probably mean Howard Scott Warshaw would have been the only person in the world to have ever beaten it.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I think you said you were 4 playing some Atari. E.T. should have been rated 10 and up. Or better yet, just be a bicycle chase game that looked something like Paperboy.

[@FridayNightArcade]

@@sandal_thong8631 I know we for sure didn't have the manual.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

My main regrets about the 2600 is that I never played HERO or Pitfall 2. I am pretty sure I played Pitfall 2 at a relative's house on a different system ( Intellevision, I think.. That and Masters of the Universe)

[@shenanitims4006]

My brother and I used to beat ET back in the day. Once you figured it out, it's not that difficult. But the constant pits never become less annoying.

[@richardabkstorm9009]

Soooo glad I found your channel...I think your vids and topics are excellent fella, thank you so much!! 👍🙏

[@retrononsense582]

This was great. I’ve beaten Pitfall, Pitfall 2, and ET from your list. some other beatable games are HERO, Montezuma‘s revenge, Skate Boardin’, Moon Patrol, Vanguard and Kung Fu Master. The only one I haven’t beaten yet is Skate Boardin’. I love the beatable Atari games and I’m glad you made this video. Awesome job.

[@dylan.t180]

Love the video so interesting what talented people managed to accomplish with such hardware restrictions

[@FNAFEDITS171]

Love the channel, gonna be up for hours watching all these videos lol! Great job

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

Alright, the first vid in this new era of FNA - you weren't kidding when you said you could now put together longer stuff! Excellent job! This was definitely an enjoyable watch, and an interesting topic to cover. I always wanted to give Pitfall 2 a try ever since Jeff Gerstmann covered it (via the Microsoft Game Room release, of all things) years ago for Giant Bomb. It was so mind-blowing to see an Atari game like that, but I just haven't emulated it yet and given it a whirl for myself - it's really a weird hang-up on my part :P I think what happens is I usually end up thinking _about_ Pitfall and then trying something else sort of similar. For example; the last three times I thought "Hey, maybe I should play this" I ended up picking up La Mulana 2, 1001 Spikes and giving the "30th Anniversary Edition" romhack for the infamous _SUPER_ Pitfall a try instead of actually playing Pitfall 2. Gonna have to rectify that!

[@mikebianchini2230]

I feel like you and I are the same person because most of these games bring back fond memories, especially Indiana Jones, e.t., riddle of the sphynx, and pitfall ii . I can't remember beating any of them but the fact that they had endings explains why I played them so much. Thank you and keep up the great channel!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Mike!

[@entropy666w]

It has been YEARS since I saw these games...thank you!

[@danielespeziari5545]

Great video, as usual! I grew up with the SNES and mostly play NES-SNES-N64, but I'm always curious about what came before, and even play some Atari games from time to time on my Atari Flashback portable. I'll add some of the games you covered (especially Pitfall 1&2) to my list.

[@neuromancer9k]

Great video. I think I only found 1 or two treasures (if that) in the first Pitfall. ;) Now I want to track down some of those games I never played, like Private Eye.

[@LodgeMemphis23]

Great vid! If you do a part 2 to it, Superman, Haunted House, and Porky’s would be great to hear about.

[@donlupejkis3121]

And yet another entertaining vid from Friday Night Arcade! Brought back memories and also saw new things. You make me want to visit a flea market to pick up some of these and revisit my childhood.0

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Don! Get out there and hit some garage sales and flea markets! There's plenty of games that need rescued!

[@jun6174]

As someone who played Raiders Of The Lost Ark in 1982 I can confirm it was frustrating but I also very much appreciated the creativity involved in creating a game on the 2600 that tried to capture the puzzle solving of the movie. As someone who loved Adventure, this game played almost like a spiritual sequel. One of the first, if not the first, movie licensed games for th system. The E.T. game could've learned a lot from it.

[@TheWolferinDenver]

This is taking nerding out to new levels.

[@DrTobagen]

Absolutely fantastic content my friend. You have a new sub and I'm fixing to binge!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks for checking out the show, Franklin!

[@wildbillstatone]

I had Solaris as a kid and never beat it, but I always wondered whether or not it had a definitive ending. Thanks for covering it and for the great video!

[@NiiKEMAN]

When you started talking about space master. I can hear star fox music playing in the background. Nice touch man

[@FridayNightArcade]

😎

[@julsbarracuda9892]

This was worth the wait, thank you!

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Julz!

[@julsbarracuda9892]

No problem, keep making great content!

[@JohnHenrySheridan]

Thanks for your awesome videos !

[@davidprice7162]

Such a Great idea for a video! The only atari games I can remember that had real endings was the xonox double sided cartridge "ghost manor" and "spikes peak". Even though as a six year old, ghost manor absolutely terrified me, I figured out how to beat it pretty quickly, it was spikes peak that I maybe got lucky and finished once.

[@magnumrex]

I dont know how I beat Raiders as a 10 year old but I remember being super proud. I ordered it from Atari Age and still have it. I remember randomly blowing up that wall with the grenade. I could never figure out Riddle of the Sphinx. You could of added or do a whole video on Swordquest. That game had an ending I could never figure out and you would win jeweled items.

[@omegasupreme5527]

Probably like I did. Just spent a bit of time on it every day for awhile and puzzled it out. I mean heck there's only so many walls you can push against or try to bomb eventually you puzzle out how to solve it.

[@magnumrex]

@@omegasupreme5527 I remember it took a long time. Probably over a summer.

[@mournblade1066]

The solution to Riddle of the Sphinx is this: *****SPOILERS BELOW****** When you start, go down/backwards (instead of up/forward), and under one of the palm trees (I think it was a palm tree or oasis? I haven't played the game for over 30 years!) you'll obtain a cane or a staff. THAT is what needs to be offered at the Temple of Ra at the end.

[@HalloranIllustrations]

I never understood all the hate that the ET game received. I not only beat the game, but enjoyed replaying it numerous times. It was the skills I learned from that game that helped me beat Raiders of the Lost Ark. Adventure is still, to this day, my all time favorite Atari game. Could play it for hours and never get bored. Didn't matter the difficulty setting either. Funniest moment was when I was facing the red dragon. I was about to strike with my sword, only to have it stolen by the bat. I ended up being eaten by said dragon and watch it get slained by the sword carrying bat. Good times.

[@TortureBot]

Halloran Illustrations LMAO! Yes, Adventure was awesome!!!

[@billyheaning]

Holy moly, I completely forgot about Riddle of the Sphinx until literally JUST NOW. I used to play that game ALL THE TIME.

[@TangSooTerp]

This video really brings back memories. Way back when Pitfall II came out, my cousins and I took turns for days during the summer and finally beat it. We were pumped! Another cool game was H.E.R.O., similar to Pitfall, but you had a little helicopter backpack and flew from level to level. We played that one a ton, too.

[@kcsledge95]

‘Jungle Hunt’ would always start over with a harder level than before after you reach the end, so if we can count that, you can count ‘Tutkenkamen’, which did the same thing after you found all the hidden treasures. ‘Superman’ also had a definite ending, where after you rebuilt the bridge and jailed Lex Luthor and co., you changed back into Clark Kent and went back to work at the Daily Planet.

[@jenniferschillig3768]

I remember the original arcade game Jungle King--and it even had an audio sample of the Tarzan yell. I think that's what made the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate mad.

[@justintockey4774]

I used to beat E.T. all the time but you have to use the “easy” setting mode that removes the FBI agent and scientist. Once you collect the phone pieces then you have to find the “phone call” zone which is hidden in one random location and then find the “extraction” zone in the forest before a timer runs out.

[@DavidSchumaker]

These FNA videos are GREAT! I've since discovered/rediscovered so many retro games from these videos. I have often watched a video, only to immediately turn on my MAME machine and play the games shown in the videos. Good times. :)

[@FridayNightArcade]

Awesome - glad you're enjoying the show, David - thanks for checking it out!

[@iankempster7007]

Great video as always , always looking forward to new videos

[@FridayNightArcade]

Thanks, Ian!

[@7thangelad586]

Adventure looks like another favorite of mine from the DOS days. Castle: the Adventure is the one I remember! These videos remind me of the early days of PC gaming.

[@Anthony-qt8wv]

Yes, i beat E.T. back in the day. I got it when it was marked down at Kay-B-toys. I still enjoy playing it every so often along with Raiders of the lost ark!

[@jonfoster8063]

Great content man keep up the great work and more subs should come. You are like game shack minus the over the top geek fest and awkward banter. Subscribed.

[@FridayNightArcade]

lol thank you for the kind words.

[@elzar760]

Wow jungle hunt. This is really turning up the “takes me back” level to 10 now

[@Retro6502]

I beat this when I was a kid in the 80s. It's not too hard of a game honestly. The most frustrating part is getting out of the pits without falling back in, but you can figure out the way to get out of different shapes without touching them and then it's relatively easy. There's also a space on some screens that will show which pit a phone piece is in without having to fall in to find them.

[@renemolina3760]

You used "Deja Vu" music for the Private Eye section. Nice touch.

[@MrDogmeatman]

I used to complete ET when I was a kid. And I figured out how to avoid falling back into the pits in about 10 minutes. I don't know what all the fuss was about, it's quite a fun game. Try starting on game 3 as you can learn how the game works without the scientist and FBI guy following you around.

[@j.r.metalcomposer7452]

Love your videos;brings me back to a time when america was awesome & childhood was great👍👍

[@jeremiahthomas8140]

I have beat both Pitfalls, Star Raiders, Starmaster, and Jungle Hunt. I played Raiders and E.T. as a kid, but without the manuals it was difficult.

[@impaler_7425]

Nice video! I've beaten E.T. several times back in the day without having the manual. It took me a while to figure out the game but it's not as hard as most people say IMO. Another 2600 game with an ending is Ghost Manor from Xonox.

[@jamierose9095]

Ghost Manor. Hard as hell, but fun.

[@beatsinmycrates]

That's how it got done back in the day . If it wasn't just yourself, it was u and a buddy up late trying to figure it out. Good ol days.

[@bleirdo_dude]

In Adventure I liked to hit the reset button right after bringing in the Chalice (yellow castle) and you get this weird sound effect. The Easter Egg was cool too.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I don't remember learning the dragon names from the manual, but imagined the evil wizard from the story lived below the 4th screen in the white castle. I discovered that in game 3, despite being random, the black key is NEVER in the white castle, and sometimes the gold key is locked in the gold castle, so you can't win. Someone said the code chooses any of the 4 dungeons in the black castle or the 4 in the white for the chalice which are sequential (rooms 19-26). So to avoid black key in black castle, he puts it in rooms 1-18. He could have numbered it differently and fixed the gold key/gold castle bug or set up a cheat to get the gold key.

[@woolfy02]

The good old blaster master song! I always dreamed of getting one of those vehicles as a kid haha

[@marcchurchill3802]

I didn't scroll through all 604 comments, so in case no one mentioned before, Pitfall can only be beaten using a combination of above ground and underground play. You have to know where to go underground to skip above ground screens with no treasures. Another "pitfall" I remember is that somewhere in the middle of the jungle there is a screen that looks exactly like the starting screen, but it's not, making you think you've made it all the way around (it's a circular jungle)

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

The video game crash didn't happen because of E.T. It happened because of retail glut.

[@FridayNightArcade]

Correct.

[@bmkretrogaming7634]

Sweet video! Maybe they aren't all spectacular, but at least the Atari VCS/2600 games evolved enough over time for some to actually have endings.

[@stoney5137]

Raiders was the hardest most frustrating game. All the way towards the end you had to nail the parachute part and if you screwed it up, all was lost. It felt like the original "Rogue Like" game. It was probably more convoluted than you even explained (which was a really good explanation). Watching my father beat this game (who other than this game, was not a gamer) while I was about 6 years old is still a huge childhood memory for me.

[@FridayNightArcade]

That's awesome that you had a cool memory with Dad beating the game. Thanks for sharing, Jon. Love to hear about stuff like that.

[@ericblack8237]

Awwwwww thank you for bringing back some very fun filled memories !!!!!!

[@keith_5584]

10:00 Man what fluid control for the 2600! They must have had its clock screaming! 12:27 I want a bomber jacket with that patch!

[@robertsaurer6431]

Anybody notice the music in Activisions Private Eye is the same as the theme from Joes Bar in the NES game Deja Vu?

[@karenchristensen9226]

I played Superman a ton as a kid, it had a definite ending. I remember playing Haunted House when I was home with chicken pox and eventually beating it. This brought back great memories, thank you!!

[@harambezomb8373]

Not to mention that Fatal Run also has some of the best Atari 2600 music of all time!