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| "People actually PLAYED stuff like that?!" Nick Rox, GameFan, Dec 1994, p26.. |
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The Atari Video Computer System (a.k.a. the 2600) was not the first home videogame setup,
but it was the first BIG one. Released in '77, I didn't get my hands on one until the 80's.
The graphics were made out of legos by today's standards, but the gameplay was all there.
Games like Combat, Air Sea Battle, Space Invaders, and Asteroids, I would truly consider to be
classics. Unfortunately in '83, so many third party publishers wanted a piece of the Atari pie, that for every Battlezone or Ms. Pacman made, many horrible games were released. This saturated the market causing the home videogame market crash in 1984. After the crash, the games were cheap (i.e. kids could afford 'em!). I kept playing my VCS, getting games I didn't have. |
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The games as a whole were of a wide variety (with a lot of space shoot 'em ups thrown in).
Some, like "Atari Video Cube", were really incredible. Others, like "Wabbit", made you wonder
what the designers were thinking. Finally, Activision probably deserves special mention, as they were the first 3rd party videogame company and made some of the best games for the system. |
| When I got to college and discovered the internet, I got into collecting Atari carts. I found out about the 2600 connection and the atari 2600 manual archive project (which I participated in, and now resides on the history of home videogames). I worked on a Windows help file of VCS Star Raiders for an internship when Craig Pell was working on what is now Indenture. This all happened a few years ago, before there were 'net search engines. I remember it fondly.. |
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Star Raiders Help File Page |
| gAME fAVORITES |
| Adventures of TRON | BMX Airmaster |
| Enduro | Joust |
| Pitfall | Snoopy & the Red Baron |
| Add your favorites.. |
| eMULATORS |
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| [Multiple OS] PROS - good emulation, good sound, starpath support. CONS - no joystick support. |
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| [DOS] PROS - very good emulation, good sound, starpath support, joystick support, keypad, paddle, and driving controller support, good interface, runs pitfall 2. CONS - none. |
| rESOURCES |
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| History of Home Videogames | Vgr's Homepage |
| Has archives for the VCS and other classic systems (with manuals, screenshots, and roms) plus more. | Maintainer of the Giant 2600/7800 List (now in html!), home of Indenture (an Adventure- clone for DOS), and more. |
| 2600 Connection A great Atari newsletter |
| Atari Gaming Headquarters Covers all things Atari |
| Sean Kelly's Homepage Maker of multi-carts for the 2600 and other systems |
| Various Classic Videogames Page Color scans of rare games, Classic game links |
VCSS hompage Atari 2600 "Simulator". currently simulates Star Wars: Ewok Adventure. |
| B-TECH Easter Egg list for the Atari VCS. |
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ET easter egg How to get the initials. |
| fUN |
 Classic Commercials |
 Pac Man Homepage |
maintained by Ben Langberg - bdlangbe@mailbox.syr.edu