2600 Games that are still fun/worth playing

The 2600 had a lot A LOT of shit. Graphically it was simple, some games didn't even have title screens.
I also find it to be one of the hardest systems to get into. There are games I really enjoy for it, Like Tempest, Breakout, Circus and of course Asteroids. Pitfall 1 and 2 are classics, I'm watching Metaljesusrocks Play HERO which is what prompted me to start this thread.

My gaming philosophy is simple. If a game plays well, it should more than make up for any short comings, Especially if in the case of many of these old 2600 games.

Float me over a few games I should check out. When I build my Emulation box I want a hefty representation of Atari. While we're at it toss in a few 5200 and 7800 games. We'll talk about the Jaguar later.

 

There are the standard pacman, frogger, pitfall

But I find that the only games I ever want to play on my 2600 are multiplayer like Frogs and Flies, Combat

 

Tempest 2000

 

2600
River Raid - I played this about as much as Space Invaders
7800
Food Fight - my favorite because it features instant replay
Ninja Golf - think Kung-Fu for NES + golf
Pole Position II

 

I think pretty much any Activation game is a given, Which is more than a hardcore gamer can say about Activision some 30+ years later.

 

Missile Command (2600) is good and so is Choplifter (7800). Donkey Kong is also fun and it's on both the 2600 and the 7800. I've only played the 2600 version though.

 

So mostly it's the ones that are well known that people still consider fun, There are 1000s of unspoken of games that I'm sure are fun. Got any of those?

 

Frostbite is worth a look.

 

River Raid, Enduro, Keystone Kapers, H.E.R.O., Pitfall, Frostbite, Seaquest, Yar's Revenge, Berzerk,...

 

joust is a pretty fun game to play with friends

 

Honestly most of the stuff from the Activision pack for PC is the best stuff on the system. The problem with a lot of the arcade conversions is that they're a lot worse than the originals, which you can get on MAME easy.

 

Cosmic Ark is pretty good, I second River Raid as a good game. I liked Kung Fu Master as a kid, generally Activision games on the system were pretty good, as were imagic games. Atlantis is cool. Zaxxon on the 2600 is pretty much a completely different game compared to the isometric arcade version.

 

I doubt they aged well, but I'll always be partial to Iron Soldier, I-War, Alien vs. Predator, Zool 2, Attack of the Mutant Penguins, Battlesphere, Flip Out, and Hover Strike.

 

Tempest 2000 is fun game and one of the very few good Jaguar games. And games like this just don't age at all. They did games with simple graphics like this 30 years ago and they will continue to do 50 years later. It's just like a hammer - you can add adjustable weight and laser guidance but there's no point. Sometimes it's better to keep things simple.
P.S. Topic was silently switched to all things Atari.

 

Hence this thread, to weed through the crap.

 

I know it doesn't help, but honestly a lot of 2600 games have aged really really poorly. Even games that weren't that bad, like Space Invaders, are not as good as other versions of it you can easily find.

 

My favourite 2600 games are Warlords (With two sets of paddles this is the best four player game ever), Solar Fox, Amidar, Vanguard, Action Man: Action Force, Kaboom, and Pitfall.

 

It's honestly pretty difficult for me to play pre-NES games.

 

Same
I will never get why people in the UK hold the Speccy in such high regard. The games are 1 step above Tiger LCD games