Review Date: January 23, 2021 Release Date: December Something, 1982 (I’m just phoning in this performance) Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Action Adventure, allegedly Anecdotes: Occasionally, my aunt (not the mother of the earlier mentioned cousins) would throw family parties just to show off the grand record collection that filled an entire closet. However, what do… Continue reading E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
Category: Atari 2600
Space Invaders
Review Date: January 9, 2021 Release Date: March ??, 1980 Platform: Atari 2600 (and about 600 other platforms; it was multiconsole before that was a thing) Genre: Shooter Anecdotes: Being born in 1977, I was a bit young for the Space Invaders craze, but we did own a copy of the 800 version later on.… Continue reading Space Invaders
Adventure
Review Date: January 8, 2021 Release Date: December 25, 1979 (the date is a guess based on a Gamasutra article) Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Uh, Adventure, perhaps? Anecdotes: This is a game I came up with while doing research for this review project. It sounded interesting and it seems to take console gaming in a… Continue reading Adventure
Bowling
Review Date: January 7, 2021 Release Date: February 30, 1979 (I couldn’t pin down the exact date) Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Sports Anecdotes: This was another game we’d go over to the cousins’ house to play, but it never really hit the mark with us. We got a kick out of the animation whenever we… Continue reading Bowling
Breakout
Review Date: January 6, 2021 Release Date: November Something, 1978 Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Puzzle Anecdotes: Back as a child, I played an NES game called Arkanoid. Arkanoid was a ton of fun, with a “Vaus” hitting a ball trying to knock out blocks. There were also capsules that fell to cause all sorts of… Continue reading Breakout
Miniature Golf
January 5 Game: Miniature Golf Release Date: A bad day in 1978 Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Sports Anecdotes: “Hey, this looks fun!” “Let’s play.” “What’s that little dot?” “The ball.” “What is the big box that I can move?” “That’s supposed to be your club.” “What do I do?” “Well, you move the big box,… Continue reading Miniature Golf
Human Cannonball
January 4 Game: Human Cannonball Release Date: January Something, 1978 Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Puzzle Anecdotes: No, this is not the Human Cannonball from American Gladiators, nor is it similar. There’s no rope swinging here. The title is far more literal here. This would actually be a good game to teach geometry and physics, except… Continue reading Human Cannonball
Surround
January 3 Game: Surround Release Date: September 11, 1977 Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Puzzle Anecdotes: This is the third and final game I’m covering from the Atari 2600 launch, as I’ve got 45 years and 8 generations of gaming to cover and covering everything would be impossible. By the way, it’s hilarious how my PS2… Continue reading Surround
Street Racer
January 2 Game: Street Racer Release Date: September 11, 1977 Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Racing Anecdotes: Looking at the list of Atari 2600 launch titles, the only ones I had played were Combat and Air-Sea Battle. There were seven other games on the list. Of those, two of them caught my interest; today, I’ll be… Continue reading Street Racer
Air-Sea Battle
January 1 Game: Air-Sea Battle Release Date: September 11, 1977 Platform: Atari 2600 Genre: Shooter Anecdotes: For the record, my family did not ever own an Atari 2600. We had the Atari 400 and 800 systems. That completely obliterated our childhood thinking that the computer with the larger number would be the better system. The… Continue reading Air-Sea Battle