Kotaku: Atari 2600

American Icons Gallery Show Recognizes Classic Gaming Consoles For the Works of Art They Are

Evan Narcisse — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST

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We live in an age of gaming gorgeousness. Gamers' lives nowadays are filled with fancy normal mapping and illumination engines, powered by slickly encased hardware that outputs onto super-sharp screens. In short, there's a lot of thought given to aesthetics in the present day. But, it hasn't always been this way and an upcoming art show will showcase the uglier—yet vitally important—gaming hardware of yesteryear. More »

Rape, Racism & Repetition: This is Probably the Worst Game Ever Made

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:00 EDT

When you think about it, commercial video games are usually pretty harmless. Sure, they can be violent, but there's rarely any larger controversy surrounding a game involving things like drugs, politics, or sex. More »

At Last, a Twin Peaks Game for the Atari 2600

Owen Good — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:00:00 EDT

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I'll confess to knowing jack shit about Twin Peaks, David Lynch's cult hilt surreal television mystery that lasted for a year but you'd think had a run twice as long as All in the Family the way people still talk about it. Anyway, someone has created an Atari 2600-style game based on the show, you can grab it for Mac or Windows PC. More »

Be Happy That James Cameron's Avatar Never Got That Atari 2600 Port

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:30:00 EDT

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Movie to video game adaptations of the early 1980s were difficult things. Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, and The Empire Strikes Back were as hard to master as they were hard to genuinely enjoy. More »

Do You Remember the Very First Video Game You Played?

Mike Fahey — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:20:00 EDT

Commenter UnstableArk has trouble recalling the very first video game he played, and wonders if there are more people out there like him in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »

You Could Actually Download Atari 2600 Games (on an Atari 2600!)

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Xbox Live Arcade is credited with popularising the notion of downloading console video games. Other consoles, like the Genesis, offered them a lot earlier, albeit with limited success. More »

Video Game "Poems" Get a Luxurious Special-Edition Release

Owen Good — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EDT

A Slow Year, the anthology of "video game poems" Dr. Ian Bogost wrote for the Atari 2600, has published a special edition befitting a work of art. The box is hand-crafted and bound in red leather, with foil-stamped gold lettering. The set sells for $500 and only 20 are available, but admiring it is free. More »

Let Us Mourn the Games We've Loved and Lost

Mike Fahey — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:20:00 EDT

Commenter Shin Lord was so certain his post about video games and consoles we regret trading, selling, or losing would make it into Speak Up on Kotaku he made his own image. Cocky bastard, isn't he? More »

What Do You Get When You Cross An Xbox 360 With An Atari 2600?

Mike Fahey — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EDT

Modder supreme Ben Heck marries Microsoft's current-generation console with an Atari 2600 to create the lovable monstrosity known as the Xbox 360 1977 Edition, making us wonder why faux wood paneling ever went out of style. More »

A Video Gamers' Christmas

Brian Crecente — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:00:00 EST

It was the winter of 1980. My brother and I, wrapped in blue robes, ran down the stairs to be greeted by a brand new Atari 2600 and bevy of games under the tree. More »

Atari Confirms The Return Of Star Raiders

Mike Fahey — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:40:00 EDT

In 1979 Atari introduced the joys of first-person space combat with Star Raiders. Next year Star Raiders returns, bringing team-based multiplayer space combat to the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. More »

The Original Atari

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:30:00 EDT

Atari's first prototype games machine, code-named "Stella", which would go on to become the Atari 2600. As seen on Wired, via Boing-Boing. More »

What's Inside An Atari 2600?

Mike Fahey — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:20:00 EDT

To celebrate the launch of video game repair guides, do-it-yourself repair website iFixit is tearing down old video game consoles all week long. Today they give us a peek at what's inside the classic Atari 2600. More »

It's All Headshots In Halo 2600

Owen Good — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EDT

Sort of a cross between Adventure and Berzerk is "Halo 2600" by Ed Fries, a clever little timewaster that riffs on the tropes of Atari 2600 game design, especially the snicker-inducing bleep-bloop Halo Theme in the intro. More »

Nothing Says 'Welcome' Like a Pitfall! Croc

Owen Good — Sun, 23 May 2010 19:00:00 EDT

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Bill collectors, petition gatherers, creepy neighbors, cheerful-looking people who want to talk to you about your relationship with God, tell them all it's safe to cross into your home when this Pitfall! croc shuts his mouth. More »

Give a Major Award to the Maker of this Atari Lamp

Owen Good — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:00:00 EDT

One year later, the Atari 2600 Joystick Lamp gets a worthy companion - this combination of a dead VCS, 10 cartridges, and a boxart lampshade. Put it in the living room window so people can see it from the street! More »

Atari 2600 Emulator Built for iPhone; App to Follow?

Owen Good — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:20:00 EDT

The folks behind an officially licensed Commodore 64 emulator on the iPhone are also working on an Atari 2600 emulators for the device, meaning more plink-plonk classics from the early 1980s could be on the way to you. More »

Extremely Rare Atari Cartridge Goes Up For Auction

Owen Good — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:30:00 EDT

The title of "Holy Grail of Video Games" changes almost monthly, or whenever an extremely rare specimen hits eBay. The latest claimant: a weird-shaped Atari 2600 cart by the name of Air Raid. More »

Who Remembers Their First Gaming Experience?

Brian Ashcraft — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:30:00 EDT

This Tuesday was a very important day. It was the first day my 1 and a-half-year-old son played his first video game. More »

The History Of The World Of Video Game Music

Mike Fahey — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:40:00 EST

If the history of video games from the Atari 2600 to the Super Nintendo were turned into a musical, this would be its soundtrack. More »

Historians Rebuilding Old Atari Chips

Owen Good — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:00:00 EST

The Atari Museum is reconstructing several of the original company's proprietary chips - including those from the 2600/VCS, 5200, and the 8-bit personal computer line - using data recovered from the reel-to-reel tapes used in their original manufacture. More »

The Atari 2600 'Jukebox'

Owen Good — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:00:00 EST

Not content with just stuffing a card full of ROMs inside the old-school Atari VCS case, one modder installed an LED screen in the cartridge bay that allows the operator to cycle through and select games. More »

Extremely Rare Atari Cartridge Sells for $5,000

Owen Good — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST

A sealed-in-the-box copy of "The Music Machine" - rated "Unbelievably Rare" by Atari Age - just went for $5,250 on eBay. The game, sold only in religious bookstores, is prized by collectors. More »

Toys R Launches Game Trade-Ins Nationwide - Update

Mike Fahey — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:20:00 EDT

The trade-in program Toys R Us was testing back in March seems to have tested well, as the retailer launches said program nationwide today, accepting used games from the Atari 2600 on up. More »

A Match Made In Post-Apocalyptic Heaven: PitFallout!

AJ Glasser — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:20:00 EDT

So apparently some good came out of watching a robot learn to play Pitfall: a Pitfall/Fallout mash-up. More »

Old Atari Cart Remade Into Wallet

Owen Good — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:30:00 EDT

It is $55, however, the maker of this fine conversation piece says all of an Atari 2600 cartridge's parts, except for one screw, are repurposed to help make it into a wallet. More »

Jimmy Fallon Brings Love of Gaming From SNL To Late Night

Brian Crecente — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:20:00 EDT

Tonight on his NBC late night show, Jimmy Fallon will talk video games with Microsoft. It won't be the first time that gaming has cropped up on the show, and Fallon promises it won't be the last either. More »

Kids Make Old Games Look Good On New TVs

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:30:00 EDT

Earlier this week, we saw the ugly side of modern emulation. So, in the interests of fairness, today let's look at some people hoping to set things right. More »

Kotaku's Old-School Easter Egg Hunt

Owen Good — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:30:00 EDT

It's become something of a tradition ‘round the Tower to observe Easter with, what else, lists of Easter eggs. So here is my dirty half-dozen, from well before the 8-bit days. More »

With This Atari, I Thee Wed

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:30:00 EDT

I'm getting married later this year. Need a wedding ring. Funny, then, that at this precise time in history, I come upon this gold ring, made out of the heart of an Atari. More »

How a Lightweight Console Lay the Foundations of Game Design

Owen Good — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:00:00 EDT

A book by two professors of media studies examines the challenges of designing games on the Atari 2600, and posits that the infamous port of Pac-Man wasn't a half-assed effort after all. More »

Madden's First Video Game — It Wasn't Football

Owen Good — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST

Tucked in a gallery of vintage video game ads is that at left — John Madden lending his cred as "sportscaster for CBS Video Games" to Atari 2600 versions of GORF and Wizard of Wor. More »

The Most Beautiful Atari 2600 Lamp Ever Created

Mike Fahey — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:20:00 EST

In the long and storied history of Atari 2600-themed lighting projects there have been countless interesting creations, but only one Atari 2600 lamp deserves to be called the Ultimate. This is that lamp. More »

Steve Wiebe Explains His Stampede Score

Owen Good — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST

If you saw this week's King of Stampede, you might have wondered "Why the hell was Steve Wiebe getting a certified score on that game?" In this outtake, I asked, and he answered. More »

People Magazine Plugs Atari, Snubs Nintendo in “Celebrate the ‘80s!”

AJ Glasser — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:40:00 EST

The latest special issue of People celebrates the Atari 2600 as the console that “ruled the interactive gaming world” in the 1980s – no mention of the original Nintendo, Sega Master System or even Coleco Vision. More »

Retro Consoles Return As Adorable Papercraft

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:30:00 EST

Thanks, Marshall Alexander! Were it not for your heart-meltingly cute papercraft renditions of 70s/80s game machines, we don't know how we would have made it through Monday. But make it we did, clutching that little C64 to our hearts all day long. Hit the link below for the papercraft templates in question. More »

Atari 2600 Plus SEGA Game Gear

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:00:00 EST

Recent modder trend: Cramming game machines in other game machines. It's shoehorning for shits and giggles. Case in point, this project, an Atari 2600 in a SEGA Game Gear. More »

World of Warcraft Gets Its Atari 2600 Port

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:40:00 EST

Earlier this year, Blizzard once again impressed us with its ability to churn out a handful of April Fool's Day news pranks that were not only hilarious, but were uncharacteristically delivered on time. One of those was the announcement of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core, the first WoW release for a console, the Atari 2600. The game is a fabrication no longer — someone's made it. More »

Adventure, Yes Adventure, Comes to iPhone

Brian Crecente — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST

It was bound to happen. More »

If Only - Atari Modern Classics

Mike Fahey — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Video game packaging has come quite a long way over the past 30 years or so, but did it really have to? The -Minus World takes a fascinating look at how today's games might have been represented by yesterday's artists with Atari Modern Classics. They've created retro covers for Halo 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Portal, Resident Evil 5, GTA IV, No More Heroes, COD4 and God of War 3, but by far my favorite is their take on BioShock, depicting an epic battle with a Big Daddy in a way only simple block graphics ever could. Atari Modern Classics [The -Minus World - Thanks Brian!] More »