Atari 2600

[Anonymous No.2526991]

We do not have an Atari thread up. That's not right

[Anonymous No.2526995]

>>2526991
I hate every Atari system

[Anonymous No.2527005]

Because Atari is objectively shit that set gaming back 20 years. If it wasn't for them we'd already be having sex with our VR waifus.

[Anonymous No.2527031]

>>2526995
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF1mpV0sejs

[Anonymous No.2527047]

>>2526991
Still one of the best systems ever. I've never gotten into emulation for it though. Does anyone know what's the best emulator(s) for it?

[Anonymous No.2527069]

>>2526991
>More games
That's a bold claim when 2/3 of them are variations of the same game.

>>2527005
Shut the fuck up. You have no idea what you're talking about.
What would you like to discuss, OP? Anything specific about it?

[Anonymous No.2527080]

Most /vr/ posters are sadly too pleb to discuss the system.

>>2527005 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Mindlink

[Anonymous No.2527101]

>>2527031
it is useless
don't get me wrong the the games themselves were pretty sweet and I still play them, but the arcade versions rather than the shitty Atari ports.
Honestly atari made was trash and it was better for everyone that the market crashed.

[Anonymous No.2527172]

>>2527069
Who the fuck do you think you're talking to, kid? Literally go kill yourself please.

[Anonymous No.2527229]

I just DLed the complete set of Atari 2600 ROMs, but they're all zipped up as .7z files. Is there any way to unzip them all at once so I don't have to go through thousands of files individually?

[Anonymous No.2527287]

>>2527229
OK, I figured it out. I have no idea why it wasn't working before.

[Anonymous No.2527346]

>>2526991
Vanguard is the shit. I played it all the time back in the day

But it's better on any other system

[Anonymous No.2527362]

>>2526991
That gif has more pixels than the Atari could ever render... but...

I wonder if the actual "screen" has the correct number.

[Anonymous No.2527446]

>>2527362
It's pretty close. That may be what they started out doing and expanded it into pixel art

[Anonymous No.2527452]

>>2526991

[Anonymous No.2527473]

Anything from 1st and 2nd gen shouldn't be allowed on this board in my opinion. We should have a board called "unlikeable hipster retro garbage" for 1st and 2nd gen. 3rd gen-5th gen are the only generations worth giving a fuck about.

Before I get a lot of hate from 80s arcade lovers, the 80s arcades are the only exception.

[Anonymous No.2527491]

>>2527229
Weren't there like a fuckton of copycats and same games published differently?

I remember running across this on download pages anyway.

Also go play the fixed version of ET and Halo on the 2600, they're good.

[Anonymous No.2527493]

>>2527473
Your opinions. They're shit.

[Anonymous No.2527585]

>>2527172
The two people I quoted....?

[Anonymous No.2527602]

>>2527452
>>2526991
>this retro-hipster garbage probably made by some teen

[Anonymous No.2527604]

>>2527473
no pre-NES games are great, but only in arcade form, home consoles were really bad before the 3rd gen.

talking about arcades is fine but I can't stand the Atari 2600 no matter how many times I try it

[Anonymous No.2527621]

>>2527069

Just games in general.

I was surprised to find 2600 games are dirt cheap, even boxed copies. It's so cool

[Anonymous No.2527650]

>>2527604
>only in arcade form
You're ignorant but I forgive you.

The VCS just creates a dubious legacy for the second gen. It was groundbreaking at release compared to the likes of Channel F and became such a runaway success that it truly outlived itself, with such a massive installed user base that it remained profitable to adapt much more powerful games down to shitty imitations that are embarrassing in hindsight. There are VCS originals that are good - maybe 10% of the library.

But for the love of God play some other consoles and computers.

[Anonymous No.2527662]

>>2527621
That is pretty surprising, as I would imagine the bulk of them are long gone by now. Anything worth mentioning? My local Goodwill had an E.T cart recently but $4 was a bit much.

[Anonymous No.2527803]

>>2527662
ET is a meme game but yeah, loose carts of common games can be bought in huge lots cheap but most are shitty games like ET (inb4 ET apologists). Good, nonrare games can be had in new condition for under MSRP to this day. That's how overproduced they wete - although the rarest vcs gamed are every bit as pricey as the rare Saturn and Sega CD games.

[Anonymous No.2527823]

these people don't know
not one bit
I don't know if it's just one idiot going around hating on the 2600 or if it's a bunch of idiots.

The Atari 2600 has a fair bit of good shit
even many of the arcade ports are worth playing on their own merits
Space Invaders 2600 has co-op and better paced rounds. Battlezone 2600 is almost an entirely different game that's more about movement vectoring to dodge shit and looks fantastic. The asteroid movement in Asteroids 2600 makes things more interesting.
Many of the ports also have additional game modes to spice things up.

there is a lot of fucking awful shit though, the system pretty much defines shovelware

if you emulate, remember to google the manual to see what the console switches do
many emulators default to the easier setting (so in Asteroids, UFOs don't appear, in Berserk, Evil Otto doesn't appear, etc)

[Anonymous No.2527838]

>>2527803
>Meme game
Oh, I know. I've emulated it and it didn't seem much worse than many of the other games.


Out of curiosity would you happen to know of a list outlining what Atari games were just remakes of other Atari games?

Sorry if my post makes no sense, I took a muscle relaxer a little while ago.

[Anonymous No.2527852]

>>2527047
stella

[Anonymous No.2527869]

>>2527852
>Stella

Reminds me of summer of 1999 or so when my best friend and I first stumbled across emulation and I got Stella. Every time I started it up I couldn't help but yell "STELLLAAAAAAAAA"

[Anonymous No.2527875]

>>2527869
As Brando or Flanders?

[Anonymous No.2527879]

>>2527875
Flanders of course. We were kids after all

[Anonymous No.2527998]

>>2527875
>>2527838
You guys.

[Anonymous No.2528019]

can't you hear me yella
you put me through hella

[Anonymous No.2528086]

Intellivison, ColecoVision and Odyssey^2 were all better

[Anonymous No.2528559]

What's with all the 2600 hate on here lately?

[Anonymous No.2528618]

>>2528086
>Odyssey^2 was better than VCS
You fucked up

[Anonymous No.2528626]

>>2527069
90 percent of the Atari 2600 library is terrible

[Anonymous No.2528641]

>>2528618
Had more better games

Didn't cause the video game crash

[Anonymous No.2528663]

>>2527650
Activision co-founded David Crane thought Atari were wasting their time porting arcade games to weak hardware that couldn't properly replicate them and instead they should produce quality original title.

[Anonymous No.2528670]

Atari really lost it after the Warner sale and Nolan Bushnell's departure. For one thing, the lack of any technical innovation after the POKEY/ANTIC chipset and then their amazing lack of foresight. The Atari 7800 was originally supposed to go on sale in 1984 and it lacked read/write lines on its cartridge slot or other expansion capabilities and scrolling the screen was a major headache. The controller also supported only two buttons. Now, this was an entire year after the Famicom came out and had all of those features. Atari somehow just weren't able to imagine video games ever being more than single screen stuff on a black background.

[Anonymous No.2528675]

>>2527650
The problem was that the 2600 was a _very_ limited console hardware-wise since it came out in 1977 and by the time Reagan was president, arcade games were easily outstripping its capabilities. Later consoles like the NES allowed expansion capabilities to get more out of the hardware, but that didn't yet exist when the 2600 was designed. Imagine trying to do late 80s arcade games like Arkanoid or Bad Dudes on the base NES hardware (40k of ROM and no easy way to do split screen scrolling or animated tiles). That they were able to port some games like Defender to the 2600 at all is a miracle.

[Anonymous No.2528676]

>>2528675
>4k of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM
>no VRAM

[Anonymous No.2528678]

>>2528641
>Had more better games
No

[Anonymous No.2528681]

All these idiots who think the 2600 sucks should play some of the original games for the system rather than the arcade ports. Yars' Revenge, Frostbite, and Demon Attack are all just great games.

>>2528641
Odyssey 2 had almost nothing good to play and was weaker than the 2600.

[Anonymous No.2528682]

>>2528676
Yeah, that. The 6507 CPU (basically a cut-down 6502) could address 8k, but the cartridge slot only had enough lines for 4k because Atari got a discount on edge connectors that had 10 address lines on them and besides, it seemed like a lot of space by 1977 standards (and memory was expensive in the 70s anyway).

Some games used bank switching, usually 8k ones, but a few later titles like Winter Games and Double Dragon were 16k.

[Anonymous No.2528684]

>>2528675
Actually quite a few NES games didn't have any mapper at all and just used a TTL chip to swap the ROM banks.

[Anonymous No.2528691]

>>2528675
>The problem was that the 2600 was a _very_ limited console hardware-wise
Why are Atari threads always filled with loud mouth know it alls who don't actually know anything about the system?
The reason the 2600 survived as long as it did is because the architecture was incredibly flexible and with good programming had the potential for better graphics than even the Intellivision. By 1983 it was just beginning to reach its full potential.

[Anonymous No.2528910]

>>2528626
.... That's what I said...?

>>2528691
This. The Atari 2600 had loads of good software, but there's LOADS of crap too. You just gotta sort through the shit to get to the diamond.

[Anonymous No.2528946]

>>2528691
It's still hilariously limited. It's essentially fully programmable Pong machine.
It's considered so flexible because you outright HAVE to push the hardware to get anything more than 5 squares and a simple background on screen. You end up having to count cycles at every opportunity.

The system at least makes this "easy", since a lot of later systems are too asynchronous to allow cycle counting effects, where certain things end up taking a variable number of cycles due to competing memory accesses from different chips, etc.

as far as I can tell, the Intellivision is also capable of such cycle counting tricks
but the hardware was nice enough that it wasn't required (like, you actually had video memory)
The nicest thing about the Atari is the huge-ass color palette though, which shits on the Intellivision's tiny 16 colors.

[Anonymous No.2529036]

atari a shit

[Anonymous No.2529930]

>>2526991
Most kids here never played Atari. Most kids here dads never played Atari.

[Anonymous No.2530095]

>>2528086

Better graphics does not mean better games. The 2600 was the best of its gen

[Anonymous No.2530105]

>>2530095
Colecovision is pretty fucking awesome and has better versions of most of the best VCS games.

[Anonymous No.2530117]

>>2530105
>has better versions of most of the best VCS games.
Most of the best VCS games are exclusive, though.

[Anonymous No.2530152]

>>2530105
See: >>2530117 The best Atari 2600 games are mostly fixed shooter and Combat.

[Anonymous No.2530170]

Reposting GIFs of my 3 favorite 2600 games.

[Anonymous No.2530175]

>>2530170

Forgot to mention, that one was Robot Tank. This is Solaris.

[Anonymous No.2530179]

>>2530175

Fishing Derby.

[Anonymous No.2530221]

>>2528946
>>2530179
>>2530175
>>2530170
The scanline-based graphics on the 2600 allowed for some interesting effects that weren't possible on tile-based systems like the Colecovision and NES.

[Anonymous No.2530226]

>>2528946
>The nicest thing about the Atari is the huge-ass color palette though

Too bad it's very dull and muddy-looking, but then it was designed in the 70s and the palette looks like it.

[Anonymous No.2530281]

>>2530105

Controller still sucks

[Anonymous No.2530305]

>>2527346
I never thought much of Vanguard, good to know that it's better on other systems.

[Anonymous No.2530392]

>>2530179
This game is insanely underrated.

[Anonymous No.2530395]

What's with folks on here being dicks for no reason? That shit ain't /vr/ behavior.

Personally, I really enjoy the multiplayer games on the VCS. Warlords, Outlaw, Target Fun, Pong Sports, Space Invaders, and Sprint Master all come to mind.

[Anonymous No.2530497]

>>2530221
The ANTIC worked the same way as well; you can see how shit that Ballblazer was when they tried porting it to the tile-based Commodore 64.

[Anonymous No.2530505]

The 2600 probably has the best homebrew community of any retro system.

[Anonymous No.2530537]

>>2528946
There we go. Since the 2600 has no video memory, the background must be redrawn every frame and you have about 80 clock cycles to do that plus all game logic.

[Anonymous No.2530554]

>>2530395
It just goes hand in hand with the whole concept of 4chan if you think about it. Having no identity. Many of us come here because we have trouble making or keeping friends, so by coming here we can say whatever we please without fear of indefinite rejection because none of us can tell one person from the other. That's probably why some of us give tripcode users so much shit. We KNOW who we're ragging on then, so it's more satisfying.

Idk, it's late. Excuse me if this post is retarded.

[Anonymous No.2530920]

2600 haters need to whine somewhere else. People don't go into NES or Saturn threads to complain.

Mrs Pac Man is a pretty swell port

[Anonymous No.2531027]

>>2530505
Because anybody can just go in and program without any modchip.

[Anonymous No.2531042]

>>2531027
You know, the vast majority of SNES/Genesis games didn't use add on chips or bank switching either.

[Anonymous No.2531128]

>>2527602

It's cute, though.

[Anonymous No.2531138]

>>2531042
Too complicated for hobbyist programmers; the buggers can have games as big as 4MB while Atari 2600 games are 4k.

[Anonymous No.2531141]

Pitfall, De-make of Halo, Yars Revenge, Empire Strikes Back (its fun in small doses), Combat, Ka Boom, Tempest, and Adventure. Atari is such an interesting system.

[Anonymous No.2531149]

I dig the Atari computers, but the 2600 never interested me that much. More important as a piece of history than a great system.

[Anonymous No.2531203]

Activision 2600/VCS games are the only good ones.

[Anonymous No.2531468]

>>2531203
dude.

[Anonymous No.2531819]

>>2530920
>People don't go into NES or Saturn threads to complain

Um, yes. Yes they do...

>>2531138
There is literally a thread right now where a hobbyist programmer is writting a SNES game with some pretty good results.

[Anonymous No.2531861]

Honestly OP should've deleted the thread early on and tried again.
Anyway here's my favorite 2600 game, Tunnel Runner.

[Anonymous No.2532353]

[Anonymous No.2533137]

>>2527604
Funny how there's an arcade machine named Pac Rat, as there's an actual DOS game named like that. It's a strange little platformer, and the controls are slippery as ice, making it hard to play, but it's pretty fun
Also, this has nothing to do with Atari 2600, sorry

[Anonymous No.2533203]

>>2531468
Xonox weren't really that good either, although they did have those interesting dual header cartridges.

[Anonymous No.2533212]

>>2530170
That's pretty impressive, I didn't know you could render something like that with any speed on the 2600

[Anonymous No.2535723]

Hey /vr/, I recently picked up an Atari (kind of, it's pic related - not the genuine article, but the classic model my local shop had was sniped from under my nose so I nabbed this one instead) and am wondering what your own controller recommendations are.

The standard controller for this console, as seen in the pic, is a pretty convenient joystick/paddle hybrid, but the buttons being on the side and the fact that I practically have to slam it as hard as I can to make my press register is kind of uncomfortable on my hands. Maybe it's just my one controller being stubborn, but I need to pick up a second controller anyway so I'm looking into alternative options.

What do you recommend for an Atari controller? Does nothing beat the original joystick? Are there any other joystick/paddle combos? I know Genesis controllers work but I'm trying to keep it authentic, honestly.

I'm heading to bed soon so I'll check back here tomorrow to see your advice.

[Anonymous No.2535763]

>>2535723
That model was released in Japan as the 2800.

For me, the original Atari joystick is the one true stick. Maybe because it's the only one I ever had as a kid, so any others didn't feel "right."

Wicos I believe are highly lauded.
Suncom Tac-2 I've heard good things about, it's design is pretty solid.
Pointmaster looks cool, but I find to be lousy in use.

[Anonymous No.2535787]

I have an 2600 from my dad. Never bought any games for it. I have...

>River Raid
>Keystone Kapers
>HERO
>Frostbite
>Enduro
>The Smurfs platformer game
>Sea Quest
>Pitfall
>Pac Man
>Video Pinball

What other must-have games should I get?

[Anonymous No.2535804]

>>2535787
Winter Games, Double Dragon, Montezuma's Revenge, Miner 2049er (actually released on two cartridges with 8 levels each).

[Anonymous No.2535814]

>>2535787
Demon Attack
Kaboom!
Adventure
Pitfall 2
Warlords
Yar's Revenge

[Anonymous No.2535848]

>>2535787
Combat and some fixed shooters.

[Anonymous No.2536038]

>>2535723
Atati Flashback 3 has controllers that look exactly like original Atari controllers and are compatible with real Ataris but have microswitches in them. Epyx ergonomic sticks also have microswitches.

[Anonymous No.2537048]

>>2535763
>That model was released in Japan as the 2800.

Neat, I read about that shortly after picking it up but thought it was just some kind of knock-off. It's fascinating how easy it was for Atari to lend the design to Sears.

>>2536038
That looks like a mighty fine comfy controller, I might give that one a look.

Thanks guys!

[Anonymous No.2537573]

>>2533212
That's because the way the 2600 works is totally alien to anyone under the age of 50. You create each line (or less) of the display in the few CPU cycles available before it's displayed. So shifting parts of the play field left or right and changing the color of each line is actually one of the easiest things to do.

[Anonymous No.2538105]

>>2535723
7800 Joypad controller. They're kinda pricey and only released in Europe.

[Anonymous No.2538123]

>>2537048
>a mighty fine comfy controller
And they're exactly the right level of common to be available at a good price. They make them for NES and other consoles but the Atari ones are still nice and cheap, even if you have to buy on eBay. Chances are there's one in some dusty box at your local used game store though.

[Anonymous No.2539475]

So I was browsing my local craigslist, and see this ad for an Atari 2 controls and 18 games. I've secretly wanted an Atari just to say I have one. But this guy says some of his games go for $35-$75. I wasn't aware of any games going that high. What games could they be?

Here is full ad, (what the hell is beat?)
"I have an old Arari with 2 controls and 18 games all in good shape that are selling on beat for 499.99$ I am asking 150$for all because I can't find the power cord I have looked up some of the games that I have and that are going for 35 - 75 each. I will not separate and I am firm on the price of $150.00"

[Anonymous No.2539503]

>>2539475
Any ID on those carts without labels? But even then, unless those are titles released late in the 2600's run and he has the box & manual, (all of which I doubt,) nothing I see is worth anywhere near $35, or even $15. And $15 is if it's brand new and sealed. Looks like he saw ebay listings on new, still sealed games and applied the price to his grungy loose carts.

I'm sure none of those with the missing labels are anything special. If he had the AC adaptor, paddles, everything worked, and he cleaned it up, he could get away with $100 on a good day.

[Anonymous No.2539505]

>>2527602
>young people like the same things I do

The humanity

[Anonymous No.2539517]

>>2539475
Either some of those games with no label showing are rare (in which case the guy is an idiot for not showing them off) or he's just an asshole. Most of those games showing can be found online for less than $5 apiece.

[Anonymous No.2539527]

>>2539475
Atari expert here. All those games are shit, dirt common or dirt common shit.

[Anonymous No.2539532]

>>2539475
That dude is completely full of shit, don't even respond or deal with him. Those prices are bs, 2600 games are like one to five bucks at the most.

[Anonymous No.2539550]

>>2539532
There are plenty of crazy expensive VCS games but they are legitimately dicks rare. If he had any you can bet it would have been front and center in his ad.

OP just needs to send him a "welp I'll give ya $40 let me know when you want it" then maybe in a couple months he'll hear back when he's finally realized he's an idiot.

That's how I got the rear bumper for my truck!

[Waterworld Box-Chan No.2539551]

>>2539475
Unless the console is a Heavy Sixer (which does not look like the case here) or any of those un-labeled games happen to be extremely rare games (also very very unlikely), this seller's full of shit and is WAY over-pricing his stuff.

If you do contact this guy, at least try to politely correct him/send some links to eBay sold listings that show the actual value of these games. He most likely didn't do enough research or just pulled those prices out of his ass.

[Anonymous No.2539636]

ok I'm going to post what he sent me, 3 pictures, 2 of which are very shitty.

[Anonymous No.2539638]

here is number 2

[Anonymous No.2539641]

even with me barely knowing anything about atari besides a flashback, i know these aren't worth crap. did i miss something or is he just completely full of it?

[Anonymous No.2539642]

>>2539636
None of those are worth more than $10 even if they were complete. In a loose lot like that I'd seriously offer $40 but my buy prices are pretty old-school. I would slap you if you paid over $100 and even at $100 I'd be like whaaaaaat

[Waterworld Box-Chan No.2539687]

>>2539636
>>2539638
>>2539641

Basically, what >>2539642 said
The most valuable game in there, Donkey Kong, is worth no more than $4. And games like Pac Man can be found for literally .50 or $1

Confirmed, he's full of it

[Anonymous No.2539693]

>>2539687
Outlaw is also worth $4 and I actually don't have one in my collection. I checked and there's a complete boxed one for under $10, free shipping.

[Anonymous No.2539695]

>>2539687
>>2539642
lol no. Check your price guide, grandpa, it's not 1990 anymore.

[Anonymous No.2539706]

>>2539695
I'm looking at ebay right now, Son. I haven't checked every one but so far loose $3-$5 each, shipped. Nothing jumps out at me as rare.

[Anonymous No.2539773]

>>2539641
Nothing notable. Pretty much all early, common titles.
Only thing giving it any value (but nowhere near $150) is you'd be getting it all in one motion. But there's no AC adapter, so you don't know if the hardware is working or not.

[Anonymous No.2539810]

>>2539773
Lots sell for less not more

[Anonymous No.2540885]

>>2539695
Check ebay on your moms computer kiddo. Your friend who told you they're rare and expensive was laying. Also, bad news. His dad doesn't really work at Nintendo.