Atari – Ms. Bella's World

3–4 minutes

Last week, I talked about the Atari 2600, my first gaming console. This week, I look at 10 Atari games I remember playing.

Pac-Man (1982) – This maze game features a single protagonist in a maze, gobbling up dots while evading four pesky ghosts. Despite it being a subpar port of Namco’s arcade classic, it remains the best-selling title on the Atari 2600. I spent countless hours playing Pac-Man and probably saved my parents a ton of quarters!

Breakout (1978) – Published by Atari, this deceptively simple game gave you a paddle, a ball, and one goal: demolish the brick wall. I might’ve spent almost as much time on this as Pac-Man, although it did tempt me to abuse the TV with the controller.

Space Invaders (1980) – Taito’s creation, this shooter placed you at the helm of a small cannon, defending Earth from a neverending wave of alien invaders. I spent a lot of time with this game and it’s still one of my favorites.

Asteroids (1981) – Continuing with the space theme, we have Asteroids, a multidirectional shooter that put you in charge of a spaceship in the middle of an asteroid field. You had to blast them while avoiding collision. Like many Atari classics, it began as an arcade game and was tons of fun.

E.T. (1982) – This was an Atari-published game based on the blockbuster movie of the same name. Playing from a top-down perspective, your mission was to find three parts of an interplanetary phone so E.T. could ‘phone home.’ E.T. also had to find and eat Reese’s Pieces to refill his energy. I played it for many hours, but it wasn’t a particularly good game. Both the movie, and the candy made famous by it, were tons better.

Superman (1979) – Released when Warner Communications owned Atari, this game was based off the prototype for another game, Adventure. You played as Superman, having to rebuild a bridge that Lex Luthor had blown up and avoid various enemies. While the game earned a few awards, it wasn’t my favorite, despite loving the movie and character.

Pitfall (1982) – Activision’s treasure-hunting adventure had you play as Pitfall Harry, dodging enemies, hazards, and a 20-minute timer in his quest for jungle treasure. While I didn’t play it as much as other games, it was fun.

BurgerTime (1983) – Originally named Hamburger in Japan for the DECO Cassette System, Mattel Electronics acquired the rights from Data East and rebranded it as BurgerTime for Intellivision and Atari. I still find it amusing to ‘assemble’ hamburgers by walking across ingredients to make them drop. It’s one of the more colorful games and one I wouldn’t mind playing again.

Donkey Kong (1982) – Donkey Kong hit the scene in 1981, courtesy of Nintendo. This platforming game introduced us to two iconic characters—Donkey Kong and Mario. In the game, Donkey Kong kidnaps Mario’s girlfriend, and it’s up to Mario to save her. Nintendo’s choice to work with Coleco for a license agreement led to versions for ColecoVision, Atari, and Intellivision. I remember having a blast with this classic that marked the beginning of an era.

Pong (1977) – This tabletop tennis simulator initially hit arcades in 1972, becoming the first commercially successful video game. Magnavox wasn’t happy though, and sued over patent infringement. Atari settled and paid $1.5 million to Magnavox, among other things. I remember playing against the 2600, which I swear cheated, and also against my brother. Both ways were loads of fun.

Bonus Entry:

Frogger (1982) – I set out to feature only 10 games, but during my research, I couldn’t resist including Frogger. This gem required you to guide a frog safely across highways and rivers. Developed by Konami, it was eventually ported to numerous systems, including the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and even the Apple II and IBM PC.

While there were other games, their names have disappeared down the memory hole, leaving only vague images behind. Perhaps someday, I’ll stumble upon a few more old classics. For now, I’ll cherish my memories, knowing that most of those games wouldn’t stand the test of time.

Do you have any games for your childhood that you remember playing? Let everyone know in the comments!

It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I’d own another console—the SNES. But that’s a tale for another day.

Until next time, bye for now!

2–3 minutes

Christmas, 1979: an exciting time when two children eagerly anticipated the opening of presents, new toys to play with, and the visits from nearby relatives who came to share dinner. This Christmas was especially exciting, with a toy unlike any they’d owned before.

I’d like to remember it that way. The truth is, I don’t recall exactly when it appeared. All I know is that it was a rectangle, black and brown, with an iconic logo and a strange name.

That toy was the Atari 2600.

Released in North America in 1977, the Atari 2600 was an 8-bit gaming console with a meager 128 bytes of RAM and a simple one-button stick joystick. Its price was not so low, coming in at $190, which would be approximately $970 in 2023. It came with two joysticks and one game cartridge – Combat. Eight other games were sold separately. You could say it wasn’t a very auspicious start.

Indeed, the console only sold somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000 units in its first year. The second year’s numbers weren’t much better. Coupled with the new competition from the Intellivision, another cartridge-based game system, the outcome looked bleak.

That is until Taito agreed to license one of their more popular arcade games, a game called Space Invaders, to Atari. The release of the game in 1980 doubled Atari’s sales. Other games followed, including the hugely popular Pac-Man.

But not all games started out being sanctioned by Atari. A new company decided to enter the cartridge-making game and released two popular games of its own – Kaboom and Pitfall. Atari, not being too pleased with this upstart, sued for intellectual property infringement. The two companies later settled out of court, with Atari accepting an arrangement to be paid a licensing fee for the games.

That other company? It was called Activision.

Unfortunately, the Atari 2600 declined soon after that, though it did continue to sell into the late ’80s, finally being discontinued in 1992.

While a majority of the games created for it wouldn’t hold up today, for two children, the Atari 2600 was their introduction to the world of video games.

Next week, we’ll talk about a few of the games I remember playing on the Atari. Some were good. Some were not.

Until next time, bye for now!

Tag: Atari

10 Atari Games I Remember Playing

My Introduction to Gaming