Best Games for Atari 2600: Tried, Tested and Rated in 2024

The Atari 2600 is best remembered as the first true home game and video system that launched.

It actually wasn’t the first, that crown goes to The Odyssey back in 1972, but the Atari 2600 launched over 45 years ago in 1977.

It truly defined a home gaming era spanning four decades, and has no sign of slowing down.

Based on today’s ultra-high definition graphics, and AI absorbing go anyway gameplay, the graphics of the Atari 2600 may look incredibly dated, but back in the day they were incredible.

I was fortune to have my father work many overtimes and shifts in order to receive an Atari 2600 under the Christmas tree when I was just 3 years old.

The ‘woody’ version, as it’s now known, released way before the full plastic version a few years later.

The crack of the game cartridge going in to the slot, and the click of the metal on/off switch exploding the connected TV set to a screen full of pixelated shapes was an absolute dream.

The Atari 2600 had just 128 bytes of RAM, and Atari 2600 games usually had a maximum amount of 4kb of data in order to display, control and play the game.

4kb of data is very, very small.

By today’s standards a simple compressed website logo would be at least 100kb to 400 kb in size, so an Atari 2600 game had to be created using the storage memory of between 1% and 4% of a typical website’s logo.

What we learned back in the day is a game can be incredibly absorbing and fun without the need for high definition graphics and actor quality speech.

Pong was the very first computer and home video game released, and that simple concept of two white sticks and white ball became incredibly addictive to millions of players.

Having owned an Atari 2600 for many years, with a collection of wonderful cartridges owned and collected over the years, it was time to flick those Atari 2600 switches once again.

As you can image the now infamously bad E.T. didn’t quite make the list, but here are the best Atari 2600 games, tried, tested and rated.

Space invaders

We will start with the absolute most classic and iconic game ever made for the home video system, Space Invaders.

The popularity of Space Invaders holds no bounds, and even today, 45 years later, versions of Space Invader are still being created on mobile devices and even latest home consoles.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock on the moon, you will know and have probably played Space Invaders at some point.

Although, if you have never played the classic and original at the arcades on or an Atari 2600, then it’s one to add to the bucket list.

A games success relies on many factors. A certain addictiveness, playability, excitability, and reward factor.

Space Invaders, within it’s 4kb of casing data, has all of this and more!

Playing the game today, I believe one ingenious decision by the software developers made this original in to the unforgettable classic it is today – subsequent firing can only be done once the bullet has found a target, or goes off the top of the screen.

This restriction of ammunition, coupled with the increased speed of the descending spacecraft and adrenaline spiking increase in music, created one of the best examples of addictive and exciting gameplay there is.

It’s a lesson many developers are trying to learn to this day.

We can not of course compare graphics of the Atari 2600 to a PS5, and so all graphic scoring is based on the ability of the Atari 2600 as a video games console.

Space Invaders is, and will forever more, continue to be a legacy game in the history of video gaming alongside Pong.

For those who have not played this on the Atari 2600, or arcade version, it’s an absolute must!

Outlaw

Just the box art alone sparks so many nostalgic memories.

This was one of the first games I owned on the Atari 2600, along with Space Invaders and Combat, and I played this many an hour as a child with my father and uncle.

Outlaw is really a two player game.

There are a couple of options within the 16 different game scenario that allow for a single player to play against a bouncing ball object, but this can get rather boring after a while.

The two player element though can get very competitive.

Your stick gunslinger player has to shoot your opponent with either a straight direct shot, or bouncing the bullet off the top or bottom of the screen.

The goal is to avoid the bullets from your opponent whilst landing as many bullets as you can.

Many of the games have a cactus, carriage or rotating carriage between the gunslingers which can be as frustrating as protective.

Perhaps there is a bias here towards such as nostalgic game, but if you can play this against a friend I guarantee you’ll be playing many times over.

The graphics are of course simple, and much simpler than some of the developers of the Atari 2600 were able to create, but it’s an incredible fun and addictive game.

Single player games will not get as much out of Outlaw though unfortunately.

Even the sound of the bullet landing and the opponent hitting a seating position has a sort of rewarding nature to it.

Popeye

Popeye is one of those rare hidden gems on the Atari 2600 that people rarely talk about.

The exploits of the spinach eating Popeye, his love rival Brutus and of course Olive Oyl, made for some fun watching back in the day.

There were various ports of Popeye across different consoles, and the ZX Spectrum port an absolute delight, but the Atari 2600 version of Popeye is a really decent version.

The game starts with Popeye traversing four platform levels, and he can move up and down using stairs at either end or the ladder in the middle between floors 2 and 3.

Olive Oyl starts throwing love hearts (of course) for Popeye to catch and collect.

Sounds easy but of course Brutus, not so keen on the idea, is doing everything he can to stop Popeye by either barging him, trying to jump up from the below platform and grab Popeyes feet, or throwing a rock at poor Popeye.

The level is complete when all hearts are grabbed, and before 3 lives are lost to the determined Brutus.

The graphics are quite cute, and Popeye and even his pipe are quite recognisable, which is quite amazing for the limited memory space the developers had.

The controls are quite smooth, although the additional firing of rocks from the wings on platforms Brutus isn’t even on does add a slight negativity and challenge to the game.

Popeye another true classic of yesteryear, and those who are fans of the ZX Spectrum version will find this a delight.

Pitfall!

Pitfall! is an absolutely classic of a game on the Atari 2600, and one of the first to involve a platform type element to it.

In an Indian Jungle type setting the player needs to circumnavigate a number of objects such as rolling barrels, snakes, pits and lakes that open and close – and of course the snapping alligators.

As developers couldn’t rely solely on graphics to woo players, although it would have been considered graphically advanced back in the day, they focused on gameplay and making the game as fun and interesting as possible.

The developers, Activision, in this case came up with an ingenious idea to keep the screens rotating at random, meaning no two games were likely to be the same.

This means no getting used to the dynamics, it meant dealing with fun and surprises lurking across every screen each time the game was played.

This simple yet ingenious addition still makes the game fun and playable over 40 years later.

Considering the Atari 2600 joystick has a single button press, it was necessary to be able to create a smooth gameplay of jumping, swinging, and climbing using a 4-way control and button.

Jump at a swinging rope, and the Pitfall Harry will automatically grab, whilst pressing down on the joystick will release the swing.

A combination of controls and buttons are required, but how Activision managed to deliver this in just 4kb is beyond me.

There is even a countdown timer of 20 mins to last in order to be successful at the game, with the onslaught of everything mentioned.

Pitfall will continue to be one of the old school classic games ever released on the Atari 2600.

River Raid

River Raid often reaches top Atari 2600 poll lists.

The forward scrolling shoot ‘em up sees the player as a plane pilot navigating an endless river full of planes, birds, ships, and bridges all looking to get stubbornly in the way.

As time ticks away, so does the fuel, but there are various fuel blocks which will increase fuel to the plane every time one is flown over.

Be careful not to shoot them, as they may become very vital at times.

Aside from the fact that helicopters in the air, boats in the water and the riverbank all seem to be at the same level and cause a loss of life if any are hit in to, the gameplay is pretty fun.

Sure the game can get a little repetitive at times, but the continuously changing direction of the river, its banks and enemy fire keep things interesting and challenging.

The fuel gage is at the bottom of the screen and needs to be monitored too, along with everything else on screen, to make sure fuel levels do not reach empty, although flying over as many fuel blocks as possible as you go can solve that issue.

The controls are easy enough, and graphics are what are generally expected on the Atari 2600 – just enough detail to make out the objects in question.

Not the greatest Atari 2600 game, but it is up there in the top 10 at least.

Combat

Combat was one of the first games available on the Atari 2600, and still has an army of dedicated fans to this day.

The one drawback about Combat is that it can only be played by two players, it’s not possible to play the game solo.

Perhaps the developers never saw the future of gaming being pretty much an independent and solo one.

Still, the Atari 2600 came with two joysticks so as long as you have someone to play against, you can enjoy the competitive elements and gameplay of Combat.

The concept is simple.

Two opposing tanks, bi-planes or planes set off against each other. Each hit of the opponent adds a point to your score, and whoever has the most points when the time runs out wins.

Each hit not only sees a point, but also the opponent fly across the screen in to a random location. So continuously pointing and shooting at the same spot whilst your opponent struggles with their control is not an option.

One thing I didn’t remember is that the player can actually swerve the bullets using the joystick. A neat addition I forgot all about until playing recently.

Across the 27 different game types there are various obstacles in the way, or can act as a shield, plus both tanks can remain invisible meaning both players have to guess to position of their opponent by seeing where the bullets are being fired from.

For such a small amount of memory, and one of the first ever home video games released, it sure was a great an creative effort.

Combat is a true legend of a game, just make sure to invite a friend around before dropping in the cartridge.

Jungle Hunt

My very first fond memories of Jungle Hunt came when I was around 5 or 6 years old.

It began my journey as a platform game enthusiast, and an adventurer!

Through different screens and levels the would be jungle hero, sporting a traditional British bicycle moustache, sets off in to the wilderness to make their way past swinging ropes, crocodiles, rolling boulders and jungle warriors.

It’s a very unforgiving game, with no save points.

Lose your lives towards the end of the game, and its straight back to the beginning to start all over again.

It’s sometimes hard to see the age range of the targeted audience.

At times the games is quite simple, but other times a lot of skill, timing and patience is required.

Crocodiles can be punched as well as avoided (this is one tough jungle hero), but boulders and jungle warriors have to be jumped over.

Once the controls for each segment are understood, navigating around is relatively smooth, but timing is everything in Jungle Hunt!

It perhaps doesn’t grab and excite me as much as it did back in the day, I am now of course a lot older and have played many a game since, but I still have a lot of fond memories of Jungle Hunt – and that music and scoreline certainly takes me back.

Asteroids

Who could forget this absolute arcade classic, that took to the home video gaming system in 1981 through the Atari 2600.

The concept of the game is as simple as it is brilliant.

Co-ordination of both control, navigation and timing are required to the fullest extent to master the game of Asteroids.

The game is a challenging playing today as playing back in the early 1980s.

The player controls a spacecraft navigating an asteroid field in outer space, and each hit of the asteroid breaks it down in to smaller pieces.

Unfortunately for the player, each split of the asteroid means more pieces floating around in space and which seem to have a habit of aiming straight at you.

The goal is to destroy all the asteroid pieces to move to the next level.

The spacecraft floats as it moves, and doesn’t stay in a stationary position meaning each shift in its direction is a different control to manoeuvre out of the way.

The graphics are simple, but the controls are either going to make you love Asteroids or hate Asteroids.

Many top players had a love hate relationship with the game simply down to the controls. It truly is a skills to master the controls properly, and has been tried and failed many times more than It’s been succeeded.

If you have not yet ever played Asteroids, you simply must.

No game has been more challenging to completely master and control.

Now there’s a challenge!

Suggested Reading: For fans of 70s and 80s retro games you’ll love our best NES games tried and tested feature!

Double Dragon

This is a game I never would have expected to appear on an Atari 2600 games list!

Double Dragon, made famous through the arcade version and Amiga and Atari St ports, available to play on a memory limited Atari 2600?

No game of this depth and detail could possibly exist on a 4kb cartridge, right?

Double Dragon was one of the later games to launch on the Atari 2600 back in 1987.

It of course can not under any illusion compete with the quality of graphics and gameplay of the Atari ST or Amiga 500 versions, but it still has an alluring nostalgia to it.

The graphics aren’t too bad, considering this is an Atari 2600 port, but without knowing this was Double Dragon it would require a die hard fan of the game and franchise to sport the familiarities.

Gameplay though is a little challenging.

The Atari 2600 joystick of course has one single button, which in this version is a straight punch.

The opponents though are pretty tough and require multiple punches to eliminate and move forward. It’s quite a difficult game.

It had to be listed here because, well this is Double Dragon on an Atari 2600.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to try it out!

If you can look past the basic graphics, challenging fight technique and tough opposition, you may find the gameplay pretty enjoyable.

For fans though of the Double Dragon franchise, this version is a must to try!

Yars Revenge

Yars Revenge is another title I owned back in the day, but never really understood it then and not so sure I fully understand it now.

It was a game I repeated again and again, trying to understand what I was missing – and what the vertical fuzzy block was all about.

The box art of the giant bug is so full of wonder, and the game looks so promising, so I persevered.

It was incredibly popular game on its release in 1982, and always scored very highly in gaming magazine reviews (how I miss the old style gaming review magazines!).

Once the concept of the game is realized, and how to destroy the opposing enemy robot, the game truly becomes in a class of its own.

As a hint for newbies playing the game, once you have destroyed the shielding blocks around the robot you need to fly in to it to create a build up of ammunition on the left hand side – hit fire to release this ammunition at the right time.

If done correctly it will fire towards, and destroy, the robot moving you to the next level.

As mentioned on a few reviews in this article, developers back in the day had to rely on lots of imaginatively creative ideas to enhance a games playability when graphics are at a minimum, every kb of space a premium.

Yars Revenge is simple, clever and each level brings other challenges and well thought out concepts.