You can only pick 3. Desert Island Atari VCS/2600

[Lady Jaye]

This thread gets the seal of approval from the 12-year-old me, circa 1987.

Solaris -- such an underrated Atari 2600 game! Love it, one of my favorite games of all time (says she who wrote the review of the game for this very site). Shooting pink flying crabs was never so much fun!




Tutankham -- for the dungeon crawler fan in me, and for all the hours spent playing it in my youth.




Keystone Kapers -- one of Activision's fun efforts (among many, as the choice was a hard one to make). Strangely enough, I didn't know this game until Activision Anthology came out.

[ssjlance]

Custer's Revenge - Hah! Not really.

Asteroids - Seriously, I can play this game forever.
Space Invaders - Does it need any explanation?
Yar's Revenge - Just a brilliant game.

[DDCecil]

Tough choice, but I'd have to go with these 3:



I could play all 3 of them forever. Adventure and Solaris are obvious choices.

M*A*S*H may be a strange choice, but I love the Operating Room variation and I never tire of it.

Other games that almost made the cut:

Yar's Revenge
Q*Bert
Crystal Castles
Moon Patrol

[Night Driver]

Asteroids
Superman
Dragster

[Lady Jaye]

Of course! Moon Patrol! Duh! How could I forget that? I loved that game on the 2600 as a kid!

[TheDomesticInstitution]

M*A*S*H may be a strange choice, but I love the Operating Room variation and I never tire of it.

I found this for $1 at a thrift a few months ago, and picked it up because I hadn't seen it before. I wasn't expecting much, but I enjoyed it. Trying to get as many pieces out of the body in the allotted time can be nerve-wracking.

[8bitgamer]

Space Invaders
Phoenix
Jr. Pac-Man

[-hellvin-]

Damn this is tough but I narrowed it down to....

Demon Attack
Moon Patrol
Megamania

[Ryaan1234]

Mouse Trap

I don't care if it's a Pac Man clone! It's one of my all time favorite 2600 games. I could play it for hours on end. I've always thought of this game as what the 2600 Pac-Man should've been, with a few added features.

Robot Tank

In my opinion, one of the most graphically advanced Atari 2600 games made. Not only that, but it's an awesome game! It's so fast-paced and exciting!

Journey Escape

A lot of people dislike this game, but I think it's great! It's really addictive and the opening tune can distract me for hours.

Joke entry:

Video Life

Video Life, by Commavid, is one of the rarest Atari games. Ever. Not only is the actual "game" endlessly fascinating, I can imagine that more than one crazy Atari collector would be looking for me to get ahold of the game.

[Rickstilwell1]

I mainly love Atari 2600 for the shooters, so I'd bring

Space Invaders (I got that rhythm down!)
Galaxian (more interesting but just like Space Invaders)
Millipede (fast paced action and easy to get very far into)

these 3 are very addicting. 4th place for me would be Missile Command but I like constantly shooting more than aiming before shooting.

[neuropolitique]

Adventure


Vanguard


Berserk


Mostly because these are the games I've played since the beginning.

[Lady Jaye]

Is it me, or does Vanguard look like a clone of Scramble?

[Steve W]

Is it me, or does that Vanguard screenshot look like the 5200 version?

[tom]

Is it me, or does Vanguard look like a clone of Scramble?

Vanguard: horizontal/vertical & shooting in four directions
Scramble: horizontal & shooting in two directions
So, simular...but really no.

Steve W: yes. here's 2600:

[neuropolitique]

oops!

[Lady Jaye]

Vanguard: horizontal/vertical & shooting in four directions
Scramble: horizontal & shooting in two directions
So, simular...but really no.

Ah ok, the 5200 screenshot looked quite a bit like Scramble...

[Pantechnicon]

The "one standard controller" rule is befuddling me somewhat, so I'm going to give two 2600 lists: One for a CX40 joystick and one for a pair of CX30 paddles (not that I'd need the second paddle, `cuz I'm all alone).

Joystick:
Missile Command -because that's one of my best games. Me love you long time.
Montezuma's Revenge - It's got a lot of depth and it would take a long time to find everything.
Video Chess - I've got nothing else going on, so I might as well improve my game against the AI.

Paddle:
Super Breakout - To know Breakout is to know the tao.
Circus Atari
Casino - Same reasoning as Video Chess.

[old_skoolin_jim]

Oooh, good picks, everybody!
I think I'd have to take:

Popeye
Jr. Pac-Man
Keystone Kapers

Runners-up?
Mario Bros.
Q*Bert
Dig Dug

But in my eyes, they're all winners!

[Sparkster]

Adventure - I could play level 3 over and over again, and never get bored (mostly because it can be a different game every time, and not necessarily winnable).

Human Cannonball - there is something strangely satisfying about making your sprite miss the target.

Maze Craze - Many different levels and variations keeps this one fresh.

[k8track]

The "one standard controller" rule is befuddling me somewhat, so I'm going to give two 2600 lists: One for a CX40 joystick and one for a pair of CX30 paddles (not that I'd need the second paddle, `cuz I'm all alone).

Psst... take a look at my post and you can use the same solution I came up with regarding the "one standard controller" rule. Or maybe you'd want to take the "Lost" Island approach and have parallel universes, one for joysticks and one for paddles.