Atari 2600 games you can complete/beat

[JPjuice23]

I tried (sort of) to find a similar thread to this, but I couldn't find anything. Anyways, I want to try out Atari 2600 games you can complete, as opposed to just playing until you lose all your lives. The only games I can come up with is

 

Superman

Adventure

Raiders of the Lost Ark

E.T. (I think)

 

 

Aaaannnd that's pretty much it. If anyone can add to this list, or refer me to where I can find a list of them, please respond. Thanks.

[+thegoldenband]

I don't know if it's been "done" more recently, but here's one thread:

 

http://www.atariage....winnable-games/

 

It'd be nice to have a proper list, though there's some ambiguity around the edges. The one in the linked thread certainly isn't complete -- Rescue Terra I is missing, as are more borderline cases like River Raid and Chuck Norris Superkicks, and that's just off the top of my head.

 

BTW E.T. isn't really winnable in the usual sense, since it loops by design. I don't know if there's an upper limit to the score, though, or a kill screen (both of which are usually considered the equivalent of beating a game).

[Ranthulfr]

Haunted House

Secret Quest

Pitfall 2

[Mister VCS]

Ghostbusters. I quit the game with $ 130,000 (2600 HSC Season 6 Week 44)

 

Edited March 4, 2012 by Mister VCS

[Nukey Shay]

I'd guess that the games which continue indefinately is a smaller amount.

 

"Winnable" would include most Activision titles (or any game that features an intentional kill screen or score threshold...such as Dodge 'Em or Breakout), virtually all board or card games, most that are based on sporting events, and most of the Adventure and "Space Simulator" titles.

 

IIRC, the first games that were designed to repeat indefinately are Circus Atari and Space Invaders...so "winnable" games had a 3-year head start.

[Matthew]

1)Double Dragon

 

I was never able to beat Ghost Busters, I would always get squashed by the marshmallow man.

[high voltage]

I finished River Raid, Adventure, Raiders of the lost Ark, Pitfall 2 and most sports games and Strategy games (Slot Machine, Hangman). Also games like Smurf I consider completed once you rescued Smurfette.

Still trying to beat Dragonstomper

Edited March 4, 2012 by high voltage

[Thomas Jentzsch]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/174889-atari-2600-games-with-an-ending/

[ManCaveArcade]

If you are including homebrews, one of my favorites is Halo 2600. This one was really fun to play and gives you a since of acomplishment when you complete it. I think you are on to something here with this list. Games are A LOT more fun when you are playing for a goal other that getting as many points as you can before you die.

[Nukey Shay]

Smurf:RIGC, ET, repeat indefinately...so they don't apply. Neither do games which have kill screens that work only under certian conditions - like Galaxian (crashes when reserve ship count gets too high) or Yar's Revenge (revealing the author's signature) - since the player can simply avoid those conditions to continue playing.

 

A specific version of a game may be considered "winnable", however (such as the original release of Demon Attack).

[R.O.T.S]

I completed Raiders Of the Lost ark back in the day and all 9 games in Haunted House last year,Riddle of the sphinx is another one which can be completed.

[+SpiceWare]

Warlords, and my remake Medieval Mayhem.

[Mr SQL]

BREAKANOID has an ending but some versions like monochrome dreams do not; the BREAKANOID level editor lets you design a classic breakout style ending for the last screen or allow the user to loop back to the first level

[Deteacher]

Pitfall can be completed too. So can Fatal Run.

Edited March 6, 2012 by Deteacher

[CorTat-G]

Dolphin is technically beatable. At 300,000 points.

[chuckwalla]

STARMASTER!

[Lodmot]

The games I make for the 2600 are unbeatable.

 

.......... Aren't I mean? ;D

[Rex Dart]

I don't think Yars Revenge has anything to offer beyond Level 2

[jhammond]

I tried (sort of) to find a similar thread to this, but I couldn't find anything. Anyways, I want to try out Atari 2600 games you can complete, as opposed to just playing until you lose all your lives. The only games I can come up with is

 

Superman

Adventure

Raiders of the Lost Ark

E.T. (I think)

 

 

Aaaannnd that's pretty much it. If anyone can add to this list, or refer me to where I can find a list of them, please respond. Thanks.

 

don't forget about Riddle of the Spinx!

[WSGEXE]

Atlantis technically has an ending. When you lose it shows the survivors of Atlantis leaving in the Cosmic Ark, which returns in the game Cosmic Ark.

[+thegoldenband]

Learned today that Assault, by Bomb, has a kill screen at the 13th wave of enemies:

 

 

The enemies become invincible and invisible beyond that point, sort of like Chuck Norris Superkicks except that they keep shooting (and there's no timer). So reaching Wave 13 would seem to be the win condition for this one -- making it another Atari game that has a clear end point.

 

BTW there are a bunch of "games with endings/games that can be beaten" threads on the site:

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/60371-games-with-endings/

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/174889-atari-2600-games-with-an-ending/

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/30977-winnable-games/

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/39262-list-of-games-with-musicending/

 

If only one could wave a magic wand and consolidate them!

 

 

[+Sauron]

Megamania ends when you get to 1,000,000 points, although there's no proper ending. It just freezes.

[+thegoldenband]

On 3/15/2020 at 11:27 PM, thegoldenband said:

Learned today that Assault, by Bomb, has a kill screen at the 13th wave of enemies:

 

 

The enemies become invincible and invisible beyond that point, sort of like Chuck Norris Superkicks except that they keep shooting (and there's no timer). So reaching Wave 13 would seem to be the win condition for this one -- making it another Atari game that has a clear end point.

I played this one today on my 7800 + Harmony cart, expecting to get a kill screen at Wave 13, i.e. the start of the fourth cycle of enemies, just like the video above.

 

But unlike the above video, I didn't get one. Instead, the game began mixing things up, and ships that had been associated with other weapons started dropping ground forces instead (like the fourth ship type). I made it to Wave 15.

 

On the other hand, this longplay under the "Sky Alien" title hits the kill screen at Wave 19, i.e. halfway through the fifth cycle of enemies, and seems to match what I saw in Waves 13-15:

 

 

So now I'm curious what's going on with the first video. ROM variant, or is the trigger something other than the wave number -- maybe the score, number of shots fired, enemies killed, or something else?

 

Anyone have any ideas? I know RAM addresses $80 through $82 hold the score in BCD, but not much else.

 

BTW the manual makes it sound like the game ends at 999,999 points, à la Activision, but I can confirm that it doesn't, though it's hard-capped at that score. Also, if you hit that score and then change it to something else, you won't gain any further points (in other words, a flag is set that allows no further points to be earned).

 

EDIT: OK, $E9 seems to hold the number of enemies remaining per wave. Setting it to zero immediately ends the wave unless there's a flying alien onscreen, in which case you have to kill it first. I made it to Wave 20 or 21 this way and didn't hit a kill screen, so the wave number doesn't seem to be the trigger.

 

If not that, then what? The scores in those two videos don't match -- 12910 vs. 19751 -- so it can't be that either. Maybe a counter for number of enemies killed, or overall gameplay time? The first video spends a LONG time on Wave 12.

 

$E5 is lives in reserve. Setting it to $99 gives you a double-wide icon for the remaining lives.