Taito‘s 1980 arcade hit, Phoenix, was converted to the Atari 2600 by Michael Feinstein and John Mracek and first published in February 1983 by Atari. Although it is a decent attempt at bringing the arcade version to the 2600, it still falls short of the original. I’d say that it’s still one of the better fixed-screen shooters on the VCS, though.
Tag Archives: 8-bit
Spider Fighter, Atari 2600
Created by Larry Miller and released by Activision in 1982, Spider Fighter sounds like it could be a really exciting game, something on a web, or a heroic character fighting off hoards of spiders with a sword maybe? No. In this case it’s a fairly bog-standard Galaxian rip-off, although it is a very well-made one.
Berzerk, Atari 2600
Berzerk is a conversion of the 1980 Stern Electronics arcade game of the same name. It was ported to the Atari 2600 by Dan Hitchens for Atari, Inc., who also published it. Atari 2600 Berzerk was first released in 1982.
Defender, Atari 2600
It’s no secret that the Atari 2600 port of Defender sucks. Thankfully, though, the 2600 has a saviour in form of Defender II, the much better sequel.
Pressure Cooker, Atari 2600
Pressure Cooker, by Garry Kitchen, was first published for the Atari 2600 in 1983, by Activision. It is a food-preparation game where you play as a burger chef (called “Short-Order Sam“) trying to package items with the right ingredients for your customers.
China Syndrome, Atari 2600
Loosely-based on the 1979 film, The China Syndrome , China Syndrome by Spectravision – first released in 1982 – is a “simulation” of a fission nuclear reactor going wrong. The aim is to capture neutrons, using a roaming cursor, to prevent a runaway nuclear reaction and eventual reactor meltdown.
Barnstorming, Atari 2600
Barnstorming was designed by Steve Cartwright and first published by Activision in 1982. Like most people who play it for the first time, I had to check if I was playing the game as intended, because there’s so little to it.
Missile Command, Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 version of the classic arcade game, Missile Command, was programmed by Rob Fulop and initially released in April 1981 by Atari, Inc.
Atari 2600 Special
We’ve never had an Atari 2600 Special before, so now’s the time to have one!
For the next ten days I’ll be adding only Atari 2600 games to the grabs collection.
International Tennis (1992), Commodore 64
As if one International Tennis wasn’t good enough for the Commodore 64, Zeppelin Games decided to release a second one in 1992. And it’s actually really good. Definitely much better than Commodore‘s previous 1985 version.
The King of Grabs 