The Atari CX2600 Video Computer System – or just “Atari 2600” for short – was not, as legend would have it, the first home video game console, as anyone who’s ever played a dedicated Pong-type system could easily attest. It can’t even lay claim to being the first to feature interchangeable cartridges. (Depending on how you define the term, the first such “programmable” system was the Fairchild Channel F, released about a year before the 2600, or the grandaddy of them all, the original Magnavox Odyssey from 1972. Odyssey’s “cartridges,” however, were merely different patterns of soldered jumper settings, while Channel F’s actually had program code inside.) But it was the first to make a huge impact on the marketplace, and helped establish the nascent video game industry as more than just a passing fad once the Pong craze had died out; acquiring the rights to publish the home conversion of the smash-hit arcade game Space Invaders in 1978 went a long way towards leading Atari to the throne it enjoyed for much of the early ’80s as the undisputed king of toy stores from coast to coast. And its success begat Intellivision, which begat Colecovision, which begat the NES, which begat a legacy that continues to this day whenever someone shells out for a new XBox360 or Nintendo Wii.

But that was all in the future. Upon its October 1977 launch the 2600 was just another oddity in a marketplace that was still getting used to the idea that the “idiot box” in the living room could do more than just pipe mind candy and advertising – not necessarily in order of importance – into your home. Certainly if anyone had said back then that they were looking at something that would be as important in the annals of home entertainment as the Model T was to the development of the automobile, they would have in all probability been laughed out of any store with shelf after shelf full of unsold Atari product.

That’s right, folks. Despite the seminal place in history it now holds, the Atari 2600, in its first Christmas shopping season in 1977, was a commercial flop, selling only 250,000 units nationwide. As a matter of fact, the established Channel F (which is today all but forgotten by history) actually outsold it that first year! That’s something else the history books don’t always tell you. Remember that this was coming on the very very tail end of the Pong fad, and America was frankly burned out on these little bat-and-ball games you could play on TV. And the 2600, at first, appeared to be just another unremarkable entry into that sweepstakes at a time when the public’s fancy had moved on to Star Wars, disco, those little red-LED handheld games, and other things of that nature.

Why did this happen? Maybe it had something to do with the games.

When the 2600 debuted, it arrived on the scene with a whopping nine cartridges available for it – the first of what would prove to be well over 800 commercial releases for the system. And with only one or two exceptions, none of them really stood out as anything special; there was not yet that one “must have” game, something Atari would only get the next year with the Space Invaders license. And even the ones that do stand out in the launch library do so mostly in hindsight and retrospective; for example, Combat, which is paised today as being one of the greatest two-player video games of all time, was pretty much ignored at the time by Atari players, largely because it was the one game that by definition everyone had (it came with the system, if you’re too young to remember). They may have played well, and we may regard some as classics today, but in 1977 there was nothing here that was setting the world on fire.

Here, then, are the games that started it all… the nine launch titles of the Atari 2600, in alphabetical order. Read them, then judge for yourself if this rather mongrel assortment of games – individually fine, but as a whole a frenetic and unfocused car crash of different genres – played a part in the 2600 failing to become the overnight success that revisionist history has pegged it for.

(Note: Sears, as part of their longtime deal with Atari, sold a rebadged 2600 under their in-house “Tele-Games” label. They even sold Atari’s games under this brand, often changing the name of the cartridge in the process. If the Sears version of a game was called something other than what Atari named it, it will be noted.)

Air-Sea Battle (CX2602; AKA Target Fun as Sears version): The original catalog description for this game says that Air-Sea Battle lets you “become an artillery commander, a submarine captain, or an aircraft bombadier.” Except… not so much. It’s just a glorified carnival duck shoot, with different variations on the “can you hit a moving target” theme. (Buried deep in the game-select matrix is the only known home version of Polaris, a very early Atari arcade shooter.) A slow and rather dull contest, it is nowhere near as cathartic as Combat for two-player action. (It does, however, feature the one thing Combat always lacked – a single-player mode.)

Basic Math (CX2661): Remember your early logic courses? Given: Edutainment titles suck. Given: Basic Math is an edutainment title. Ergo: Basic Math sucks. QED. This is merely a ten-problem arithmetic drill for the very young, and frankly flash cards would’ve been a better investment (then again, I’ve always felt that you just cannot beat flesh-and-blood teachers for helping kids with these concepts). I guess Atari wanted to demonstrate the potential for video games to do more than just teach hand-eye coordination, but even at the time, this was a terrible “game,” and is easily one of the all-time worst 2600 cartridges I’ve ever seen — and that covers a lot of ground! (Warning: Atari later re-released this dreck under another title, Fun With Numbers. Don’t be fooled!)

Blackjack (CX2651): One of the very few Atari games to be pulled from shelves and replaced by an enhanced version (Casino, which also added two poker games to the mix). This take on the classic card game is about as basic as it gets; there’s a table limit of $25 per hand (and you break the bank if you win over $1,000 – this must be a really cheap casino), and some options that blackjack players would consider essential (such as split hands and insurance bets) are not present. Still, it plays a reasonable hand, and if you’ve got a blackjack itch to scratch this will probably do the job. However, you’re better off hunting up the Casino cartridge instead, which adds splitting and insurance to the game, and even lets you play poker.

Combat (CX2601; AKA Tank-Plus as Sears version): What more needs to be said? Two players face off on the ground or in the air, and attempt to blast the bejeezus out of each other as many times as possible within two minutes and 16 seconds. The tank games are the best-remembered, of course, but other variations put you behind the flight yoke of a WWI biplane or a modern jet. My favorite Combat game had to be the one that pitted a squadron of three biplanes against one giant “bomber”; I would always take the big, slow, and less maneuverable plane, and would usually win too! Virtually ignored in its day (because, as the pack-in title, everyone had it by default), Combat is still one of the best times you can have with a two-player contest. No complicated controller motions to master… just pick up the stick and start firing! It doesn’t get any more basic, or more fun.

Indy 500 (CX2611; AKA Race as Sears version): This game came packed with its own controllers, a pair of 360° paddles that served as steering wheels for the cars in this game. (Thus beginning a trend of Atari games with oddball controllers that were only ever used for one or maybe two games.) Indy 500 is your standard “race around the track more times than your opponent” game, and definitely held appeal for those who prefer a more pacifistic contest than Combat to test their mettle against an opponent. Different track layouts, the option to select mud or ice as well as asphalt for a track surface, and some fun variations on the theme made this one popular for a while, and is worth playing even today (assuming you can find the special contollers, as the game won’t work with joysticks or the standard paddles).

Star Ship (CX2603; AKA Outer Space as Sears version): Star Ship is the “forgotten” 2600 game. It’s one that quite frankly even many video game historians have forgotten ever existed. It sold so poorly that it was yanked from the market, one of only a few Atari games that got this treatment during the 2600’s lifespan. Star Ship is – get this – a first-person space shooter. Yes, in 1977. On hardware that was patently unsuitable for such a game. Really little more than your basic fly-and-zap with a few nonviolent “docking” games thrown in for good measure, it is eminently forgettable as a game… but its existence proves that even at this earliest period of its commercial life, Atari’s programmers were pushing the 2600 to places it was never really designed to go. Still, play Star Raiders or Solaris instead.

Street Racer (CX2612; AKA Speedway II as Sears version): The 2600’s launch library featured not one, but two racing games. Unlike the more clearly-defined Indy 500, however, Street Racer was a more abstract contest involving dodging obstacles in a vertically-scrolling street, gaining one point for each object you pass without crashing. Highest score wins. Variations on the theme include a slalom ski run and an odd game where you scoop up numbers on the road. Not really worth playing, but you may get a little fun out of it – and it does have single-player variants.

Surround (CX2641; AKA Chase as Sears version): Better known today as the Lightcycle sequence from TRON, Surround is based on the old “Snake” game from Unix terminals; try to trap your opponent in the walls you leave behind while avoiding crashing into them yourself. The game itself is fun, with variations including wraparound boards, diagonal movement, invisible walls, and the ability to temporarily stop drawing. However, an annoying “pulsing” sound accompanying movement is enough to drive anyone for the Mute button on their TVs.

Video Olympics (CX2621; AKA Pong Sports as Sears version): If you find Atari’s version, do not be fooled by the various tennis, soccer, and basketball players on the picture label, or even the word “Olympics” in the title. This game is, simply put, Pong. Actually, it’s every variation and twist on the Pong theme that Atari could squeeze into 2K of memory; in addition to the basic tennis, soccer, and handball games that were part of most dedicated consoles, Video Olympics included interesting contests such as foosball, “Quadra-Pong” (a four-way contest involving one paddle and goal on each of the screen’s four sides), and even rudimentary versions of volleyball and basketball. All great fun if you’re a Pong fan (full disclosure: I’m one myself), but there’s not much here for others.

And there you have it. As you can see, not much in the way of excitement or innovation, but still probably enough to convince the retail marketplace that the 2600 was, if nothing else, cut from a different cloth than the dedicated Pong systems that had gone from boom to bust overnight (sort of a mini-Great Crash, if you will, albeit on a smaller scale). And these nine cartridges can lay claim to something no other game can attest to: They saw it all from Day One.

It’s hard to believe that three full decades have passed since the 2600’s birth. There can scarcely have been a more important, influential “toy” released in all the latter half of the 20^th century; without it, video gaming as we know it would very likely never have existed, and the genre would have died when the Pong craze fizzled out. Or if it had somehow survived, it would certainly not be the multi-billion dollar, mainstream industry it’s grown into since. Even if you’re not an Atari fan, you have to acknowledge that it’s impossible tu understate its importance to history… we wouldn’t be where we are today without it, in all probability.

But in many respects, the 2600 succeeded in spite of its launch titles, not because of them.

If you liked that, try...

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