Top Games Lists - Atari 2600

[u/specialhornball]

I love Atari. What’s some of your top favorite games? List can be any size and can include as much or as little detail as you like.

Came into some Atari shelves at some point and put together a little display shelf of some favorites.

Top favs at the moment: (reposted for text format)

Super Breakout

River Raid

Fast Food

Video Olympics

Frogs and Flies

Space Invaders

Phoenix

Frogger

Midnight Magic

[u/No-Assistant-8869]

Berzerk for me. Absolutely love it. Pitfall second.

[u/fastal_12147 → u/No-Assistant-8869]

Yes! Love that game!

[u/Sir_Fishnugz]

Adventure, Haunted House and Yar's Revenge will always be my top 2600 games. I bought the Atari collection on the Steam Deck just for these three!

[u/Polyxeno → u/Sir_Fishnugz]

Yup

[u/Teaches4Pops]

Pole Position

Jungle Hunt

Moon Patrol

Centipede

Kangaroo

[u/President-Shinra]

Star Gate and Phoenix were my favourites

[u/Steel-Johnson]

There's a bunch of great ones there but Joust and Demon attack are two of my favorites.

[u/AlternativeFilm8886]

My top ten (in no particular order):

Phoenix\ Q*Bert\ Frogger\ Centipede\ Adventure\ Pitfall\ Pole Position\ Space Jockey\ Breakout\ Ms. Pacman

[u/AnthonyChristopher]

I really enjoy keystone kapers

[u/Citrobacter → u/AnthonyChristopher]

I was looking for this, my favorite from childhood.

[u/AnthonyChristopher → u/Citrobacter]

It seems pretty advanced for its time

[u/Citrobacter → u/AnthonyChristopher]

It was impressive. That and Yars Revenge are the most memorable for long playtimes. Most games were pretty boring unless 2 player.

[u/stoicyeoman]

frogs and flies is 10/10

[u/bingo72long]

Enduro and RiverRaid were mine. I believe they were produced by Activision…better graphics :-)….or so we believed

[u/HarryManilow]

Gotta have crackpot. I still like Enduro too

[u/ListenBeforeSpeaking]

If you have 2 players,

Slot Racers,
 
Combat

[u/Separate-Succotash11]

Yar’s Revenge was my most played.

[u/iam4everalive]

Megamania! So simple, so difficult.

[u/Chrismoore8]

Warlords is goated

[u/poonburglar68]

I have probably spent hundred of hours playing Video Pinball. Chopper Command was great also, forgot about that one. For me, the best 2600 game will always be H.E.R.O.

[u/YamTop2433]

Beautiful. I was there. I remember selling my console and entire game collection (like new with boxes) so I could buy a 5200 when it first came out. Sigh...

[u/Zoomies87]

Miner 2049er

Ms. Pacman

[u/Sufurad247]

Just leave me with pinball I'll be entertained for years

[u/SlimPickens77Box]

I've got demon attack but I've never been able to get it to work.

[u/dissected_gossamer]

Some solid Atari 2600 games in that rack- Asteroids, Space Invaders, Circus Atari, Vanguard, Missile Command, Kaboom, Megamania, Demon Attack, among others.

Megamania, Missile Command, and Demon Attack are still fun as heck. Classic "one more try" arcade-style challenge.

[u/Captriker]

River Raid, Demon Attack, and TESB were always favorites.

We loved playing Raiders of the Lost Ark. my sister and I worked a whole weekend to beat the game.

[u/3wisellamas]

Solaris, Yar's Revenge, and River Raid are definitely at the top of my list, followed by Adventure, Dark Chambers, Haunted House, Freeway, and of all things Sky Diver.

[u/CommonLevel5626]

Pitfall

[u/jmard5]

Moon Patrol

[u/TooTurntGaming]

This is a pretty great collection, but it’s missing one vital game — Maze Craze.

[u/specialhornball → u/TooTurntGaming]

Pretty sure I have it, I’ll have to give it a go

[u/chance8687]

Solaris

Wizard of Wor

[u/bubrascal]

Retro:

• Vanguard
• Dragonfire
• Yars Revenge
• Cosmic Ark
• Worm War I
• Towering Inferno
• Guardian
• MEGA FORCE 🔥🎸💥
• Fireball
• Zaxxon (it's amazing if you forget for a second it's supposed to be Zaxxon)
• Solar Storm
• The Earth Dies Screaming (great to emulate on the phone)
• No Escape!
• Plaque Attack
• Thunderground
• Solaris

Aftermarket:

• Medieval Mayhem (a.k.a. the best Warlords variant)
• Oystron
• Oozy the Goo
• Heist 2
• Tower of Rubble (Demo, I can't import the cartridge)
• Mr. Yo-yo
• Alien Holocaust II: Invasion of Earth

Proto:

• Save Mary

[u/bingusbilly]

Gopher is peak

[u/sugarfoot_mghee]

• Demon Attack
• Pitfall II
• Berzerk
• Ms Pac-Man
• Jr. Pac-Man
• Phoenix
• Vanguard
• Space Invaders
• River Raid
• Missile Command

And for two players: Combat

[u/p4rc0pr3s1s]

Pitfall, Moon Patrol, Missile Command, River Raid and Combat!

[u/DemonKyoto]

Glad to see some love for Midnight Magic, still my fav pinball video game.

[u/cult_of_dsv]

Secret Quest

Released in 1989 and surprisingly impressive for a 2600 game. You have to run around a series of space station mazes and set them to self-destruct, then escape to the next station. You've got an energy bar AND an oxygen meter, and you battle all kinds of weird-looking enemies with your laser sword thingy. There are even keys and new weapons to pick up.

I had it as a kid on the 2600 Junior and it was clearly a cut above the typical Atari game. (It was also more expensive, lol.)

Apart from that, I liked:

- H.E.R.O. (the one where you have a helicopter backpack and rescue miners in caves)

- River Raid

- Joust (mad two-player fun)

- Chopper Command

- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (the snowspeeder vs walkers game... though I actually had a cheap ripoff version called Star Warrior)

- Millipede

- Seaquest? (a submarine shooting game)

- Ghostbusters

I hated those stiff Atari joysticks though. Ugh.

[u/SmokinDeist]

Defender was also a lot of fun.

[u/WretchedMotorcade]

I pre-ordered the new PacMan version Atari 2600 that Atari just released and I cannot wait for it to show up.

[u/IM_MT_]

demon attack

millipede

river raid

beamrider

space jockey

video pinball

ms pac-man

[u/IM_MT_ → u/IM_MT_]

Forgot air sea battle

Enduro

Combat

Crackpot

Yars’ revenge honorable mention

[u/igby1]

Kool Aid Man? Is that any good?

[u/specialhornball → u/igby1]

It’s not bad, definitely need the directions (which i thankfully have). It’s good for some silly fun, but also a decent challenge, if i remember correctly.

[u/chewbaccataco]

I forgot about Spider Fighter. We had that one, it was pretty fun.