Atari 2600

"This great little machine can be enjoyed, even in 2001!"

Atari 2600 was one of the first home video gaming consoles, and definitely was one of the best. Not to mention many great game companies got their start on this wonderful machine, like Activision and Nintendo. This 1981 system is a rare console, so if you can find one, buy it. Why? Just keep reading...

Graphics:

For the time when this console was made, the graphics were as limited as ****. At least the sprites were easy to see, and nice and big. Basically, the sprites had about 3 frames of animation per sprite, and looked _very_ blocky. There was nothing that would make you go ''WOW!'', obviously, but the games did look good (at the time). The colors were also nice and bright, and quite colorful. Some games actually looked decent, while others were an eyesore.

Controller

So, the Atari 2600 had one of the first game controllers ever, right? Yep. So, you can imagine how simple it was. There was a joystick, then a button right next to the joystick. That's right. No start or select buttons. Just one big orange button, and a joystick. The joystick was kinda small, so I just held it like the N64 thumbstick was held. Not only that, but the joystick only needed a little nudge to make whatever was on screen move, unlike today's joysticks where you have to push the entire thing very far... Overall, I liked the classic controller.

Games

This is what made video games what they are today, and what made Atari so big. The games. They're were quite a few crappy ones just like today's systems, and then they're were the excellent games, like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Ms. Pac Man, et cetera. All the classics could be played until the apocalypse happens, especially my personal favorite, Donkey Kong. These games were on little cartridges, somewhat smaller than a Super Nintendo cartridge, and all were tiny in file size. (Donkey Kong was the largest Atari 2600 game I could find, file size wise, and it was 3Kb). Overall, you should definitely keep an eye out for an Atari 2600, and if you somehow manage to get one, make sure to get as many games as possible. After all, roms won't cut it. Only bad part about the games is that some are 2 player only, such as Outlaw, so if you don't have a friend with you, you can't play that game.

Hardware

The Atari 2600 was a fairly big machine, and had several switches on it, such as Game Reset, On/Off and Difficulty (easy/hard). Not much to say here...

Sound

Just simple bleeps and bloops. Sometimes though, a game has a corny opening song... Not much to say here either...

Well, that completes my Atari 2600 review. Even if your a young gamer, you'll still enjoy this old school console, provided your willing to try a variety of games... I'll go and give Atari 2600 an 8/10. That is not an average.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/15/01, Updated 06/15/01