2600 games that astounded you back in the 80 ' s (or even 90's)

[Emehr]

In the early 80s I remember being impressed by Pitfall at a friend's house. In the late 80s it was Solaris. I played it all the time even though I never got very far. The graphics were excellent and the sound effects were cool. I loved the animations of the ships that would launch the little mini-ships. And the sounds that accompanied it were really cool.

[+Nathan Strum]

The earliest two were Missile Command and Berzerk, because at that time they were the first two games that closely resembled their arcade counterparts. Oddly enough, I didn't really care for the arcade versions, so the fact that I bought the 2600 ones must have meant they were pretty impressive.

 

I remember being most impressed by the look of Activision games. They consistently seemed to have more detailed, more colorful graphics. Imagic games also stood out - their graphics were typically against black backgrounds so they had this glowing quality to them.

 

Some other notable games:

Laser Blast (for the glowing laser effect - however, once I got it home and actually played it my opinion changed)

Tennis (the ball had a shadow!)

River Raid

Pitfall!

Demon Attack

Moonsweeper (swooping down onto the surface of a planet years before Solaris did it)

Cosmic Ark (how did they make those creatures so tiny?)

Phaser Patrol (there are a couple of other SuperCharger games I could list, but this was the first)

Gyruss (as already pointed out - the music was awesome, and they got much closer to the arcade game than I ever expected they could)

Tunnel Runner (first-person Pac-Man, eerie title music, and it freaked me out every time I got caught by a monster)

[Goochman]

Raiders

Berzerk

Pitfall

Tennis

River Raid

Megamania

Demon Attack

Turmoil

Chopper Command

Adventure

Circus Atari

Capture the Flag

 

Later:

Solaris

Defender II

Ms Pac Man

[Lord Innit]

Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space. It's a flight sim on a console that was released in the Pong console era! Inf***ingcredible!

 

And yeah, Solaris was truly amazing too. Battlezone with the 3D space you were within blew me away at the time too. Very immersive with enemies shooting from anywhere around you.

[ubersaurus]

From back in the day, I was really impressed by Solaris and Secret Quest. The idea of having these expansive adventures was mind blowing for the 2600 and more in line with what was going on over in NES land. I also thought Starmaster, Ms. Pac-Man, Keystone Kapers and Moonsweeper were all really impressive games too... and frankly Starmaster is still my favorite Star Raiders clone!

[cybercylon]

Pitfall over Pitfall II as the first one makes use of the hardware that is there without extra chips as far as I know.

Space Invaders

Atlantis

Bezerk

Phoenix

Ms. Pac-man

 

Probably others, but those stand out at first though.

[xybot67]

No love for Star Wars Arcade? I was truly astounded back in the day, I thought it was a great translation. Still do.

[+save2600]

No love for Star Wars Arcade? I was truly astounded back in the day, I thought it was a great translation. Still do.

Didn't even know it existed until the mid 90's! But yes... great game no doubt. I would have been astounded by it BITD too.

 

Pengo is another I had BITD and remember thinking it was an outstanding port. One of my favorites to this day.

[Jinks]

battlezone, California Games, river raid, dig dug.

[DanOliver]

I didn't know a lot of games but Demon Attack graphics blew me away at the time it came out.

 

Racquetball impressed me for how difficult a game that was to create. What other real 3D games were made? Did Tennis come out before or after Racquetball? All the shadows in Racquetball were confusing, but I don't know of another way to pull it off when dealing with 5 walls. To even attempt such a game in those days took guts. And Ed did it without breaking a sweat.

[Matthew]

Kung-fu master. Graphically, it blows everything out of the water.

[+Nathan Strum]

Racquetball impressed me for how difficult a game that was to create. What other real 3D games were made? Did Tennis come out before or after Racquetball? All the shadows in Racquetball were confusing, but I don't know of another way to pull it off when dealing with 5 walls. To even attempt such a game in those days took guts. And Ed did it without breaking a sweat.

 

I thought it was pretty impressive too, and bought it back-in-the-day. Unfortunately, it's effectively unplayable. Really cool intro music though.

[ianoid]

Like many of you, I was really impressed by the Imagic titles, but especially Demon Attack.

 

Pitfall seemed impossibly colorful, with the backgrounds. Pitfall 2 has to be one of the largest 2600 games, with good reason, and beyond nearly every other game.

 

The third party games pushed the envelope for the system.

[Bill Loguidice]

I remember being impressed (and showing off to my friends) the title screen transformation sequence for M Network's Masters of the Universe.

[Brazbit]

Of all the unlikely candidates it was Night Driver.

 

I was 3 or maybe just turned 4 years old and we had family over. The younger kids all went downstairs to play while the oldest kids and adults stayed upstairs and talked.

For some reason I slipped away from the cousins and was on my way upstairs when I heard an unusual sound. I peered through the iron railings with my nose just barely above the carpet of the second floor.

The television had been moved and everyone was gathered around it. They were laughing and having a great time yet I couldn't hear any talking coming from the television, just a stranger Rrrrrrr CSHSK sound over and over again. Each time it was greated with a new peal of laughter.

I continued my way ever so slowly up the stairs and could finally see the screen. Black with white rectangles that appeared to move toward the screen and weaved back and forth. Somehow I figured out that they were controlling what was happening on the TV. They... were... controlling... the... T.V! This was incomprehensible.

Now to be fair the dimmer switch on the dinig room lights was also on my list of incomprehensible things at this age. Who knows what would have happened had I noticed the parallel between the paddle controller and the spinning dimmer switch...

I learned several new words that day. Atari... Video Game... Night Driver... and a couple that were uttered by crashing drivers before they realized that I had snuck upstairs which can not be used in polite company.

I did get a couple attempts at the game before being sent back downstairs. I guess they left an impression on me as I still remember this 36 years later.

It turns out we owned a PONG console but it was too much hassle for my dad to find batteries and hook it up more than once or twice. We then got an Odyssey 2. But a couple years later we bought that same Atari from the cousins when they upgraded to the 5200 along with about 30-40 games (I swear they had nearly every title at the time) and a ton of peripherals.

Not included in that deal was Night Driver. They lost track of it. I never could find a copy of it as it was not a hot title by '82. I never played it again until I finally bought a copy for $2 a couple months ago.

These days the game is about as basic as it can get but back in the late 70s it astounded me on so many levels and ignited a lifelong love of Video Games.

I could list others but nothing comes close to matching the level of sheer mind blowing awesomeness that was Night Driver...

[chuckwalla]

Three games in particular:

 

Demon Attack's graphics;

Super Breakout's sound effects;

Pitfall's graphics (especially the campfire and cobra effects)

[gozar]

Ms. Pac-man, but that was mentioned right out of the gate. Three others were Empire Strikes Back, Mario Bros., and Real Sports Football. Playability and graphics!

 

Honorable mention goes to ET. The field where the spaceship lands and Elliot always impressed me. But then again, I like the game.

[BydoEmpire]

The first time I played Adventure I was pretty blown away... I hadn't really played a home video game before that... maybe Space Invaders or something.

 

The Swordquest games were pretty mind-blowing to me.

[+save2600]

...Capture the Flag

 

 

You were astounded by Capture the Flag? Really? Why?

 

This is one case (among many) where the box art was awesome and totally mislead the consumer.

 

 

[+thegoldenband]

The Artillery Duel/Chuck Norris Superkicks double-ender made me go "wow" at the time -- Artillery Duel because it had funny cutscenes, and Chuck Norris Superkicks because it was goal-oriented, created a sense of place, and let you acquire skills through combat.

 

I can't really think of any others, except maybe the Swordquest title screen.

[Goochman]

 

You were astounded by Capture the Flag? Really? Why?

 

This is one case (among many) where the box art was awesome and totally mislead the consumer.

 

 

1285823981-00.jpg

 

Actually I meant to say Maze Craze not Capture the flag - I stand corrected

[+save2600]

 

Actually I meant to say Maze Craze not Capture the flag - I stand corrected

 

Don't matter… Maze Craze, really?

 

Just kidding!

[Zonie]

Stargate was probably the most amazing arcade port for it's time. Pushed the limits.

[MeneerJansen]

A lot of them astounded me back then.

 

Remember: there was a time when that joke of a Philips Videopac (aka Magnavox Oddysey 2), the Vectrex and the Mattel Intellivision were it's concurrent. No Colecovision yet, no Commodore 64 and most certainly no NES yet. I've seen some pretty darn good Intellivision games now, but back then the stores simply didn't have a lot of them. Some kids that got an Intellivision for Xmas were instantly thrown out of some circles of friends. You could not lend games from them and playing the Intellivision at their house was no option either because we thought it's games sucked big, big time! I'm not even going into the Videopac or the Vectrex.

 

Anyway, the games that impressed me most were the games that I didn't have and played at a friends house. If I was lucky I could lend such a game for a week in exchange for Ms. Pac Man, which was the killer game that I had (i.e. a game that everybody wanted to lend). But the one that really springs to mind is Vanguard. It had good sounds, nice colors and multiple very differing levels! The game play actually varied from level to level. You could shoot in every direction, continue after your all lives were lost, there were power ups and very different enemies that not only looked different but acted different and every enemy type shot at you in it's own typical way. It blew me away!

 

Vanguard, by Atari

 

Another one that blew me away was Pac Man. A friend of mine got it some time after I got Ms. Pac Man. It just blew me away how this game could suck so extremely very much when the other one was one of the best Atari games ever. It was so embarrassing that I didn't even laugh at him. Might even have lend it from him for a week in exchange for Ms. Pac Man, out of pity.

Edited November 24, 2015 by MeneerJansen

[chuckwalla]

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