Bank Heist

Also known as: N/A

Developer: 20th Century Fox

Every now and then, I'll play an older, obscure video game that seems to be lost to time, and it will make me wonder how in the world I've never played it before and how it doesn’t seem to get the attention that I feel like it deserves. Bank Heist is one of those games. While the gameplay is very simplistic by today's standards, in my opinion, Bank Heist can hold its own against any other game on the Atari VCS console and can definitely be in the conversation of the absolute best games on the console. It's easy to look past it, though. Being released around the video game crash, where a lot of awful games hit the market, it's hard to blame anyone for thinking that this would be another one of the bad ones. Oh, but it's not. In Bank Heist, the goal is to drive your car around the Pac-Man-like maze screen, picking up bags of cash that you find laying around. Each time you pick up a bag of cash, a police car arrives on the screen to chase you down, complete with a siren sound. Eventually, money will no longer appear on screen, and the only way to get it to appear again is to start getting rid of those dang cops. Good thing that your car can drop unlimited sticks of dynamite to blow ‘em away. But, you need to time it correctly to lose the coppers chasing your tail. It's just a very well-done game that I think any fan of early video games will appreciate. If my heart was a bag of money, this game may have just picked it up.

Review added: 05/10/2022

Barnstorming

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Activision

Barnstorming is a so-so game on the Atari 2600. Essentially, you control a plane and your goal is to get the best time possible while you fly through a set number of barns while avoiding obstacles along the way. The obstacles are mostly fying birds and tall weather vanes - they not only stop your plane in its tracks, but it bumps your plane backwards. I've heard of bird strikes before…a flock of birds versus a plane doesn't end well for the birds. And I can't imagine that those tall weather vanes are sturdy enough to withstand a plane barreling in at full speed, either. But, still, despite the lack of logic, the obstacles do provide some nice scenery as you play. The game has four variations…only one of them really brings any longevity to the game. The first variation has you flying through 10 barns as quickly as possible. The second and third variations have you flying through 15 barns. These three variations are different courses, but they're fixed…so once you master one, there's not much else you can do….except maybe blindfold yourself and see how fast you can make your way through the course while blind. The last variation, though, helps a bit. In that version, your goal is to fly through 25 barns and the course is randomly generated each time you make the game selection. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all this game is. It does look nice for an Atari 2600 game in 1981, and it can be mildly fun to play with a group of friends, with everyone trying to top each other's time, but Barnstorming simply isn't anything beyond being merely passable and will likely leave most players wishing that they could just park the plane in one of the barns and take a nap instead.

Review added: 04/18/2026

Basic Math

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Well…Basic Math doesn't technically do anything wrong with what it's attempting, so that’s something. Essentially, Basic Math is a video game version of flash cards. Arithmetic problems pop up of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Basically, the player moves the joystick to cycle through numbers zero through nine and between the first and second digit of the number. Each of the four forms of arithmetic in this game have two variations to play. The first variation is where the player simply has to answer the math problems correctly. The second variation has the player pick what the top number in the equation is, the computer picks the second number, and then the player gives the correct answer based on the numbers chosen. The switches on the Atari 2600 console can also change the rules of Basic Math even further, allowing the player to add a time limit and add to the challenge. If I had Basic Math as a kid, I probably would have enjoyed it…I've never been great at math beyond basic arithmetic, and having flash cards in video game form may have motivated me to practice more. That said, if you absolutely despise math and hate everything about it, there's not anything here that'll make you feel like you need to play it. As a video game, I feel like Basic Math is just short of passable, but as a learning tool for young children, it has quite a bit more value.

Review added: 11/20/2025

Basketball

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Basketball is a passable sports game that Atari made back in the late 70's. It's not great, but it's okay. It's designed to play against a friend, but it also is one of the few early Atari 2600 games that allowed you to play single player and compete against an AI opponent. As for the gameplay, this is basic stuff, really. You start with a jump ball…then you just shoot and/or try to steal when the opponent has the ball. That's pretty much it. The person with the most baskets at the end of the time limit wins. Again, it's not great, but its an okay time killer if you've got a friend around, but actually going out with said friend and playing with a real basketball is a bit more fun. I do, however, have to point out that Basketball will always have a place in my heart for it being played in the movie Airplane!...Even if part of me wonders if they could have picked out a better game to be playing while they ignored their monitors.

Review added: 04/13/2025

Beat 'Em and Eat 'Em

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Mystique

I don't really know where to start with this game...Nor do I have any idea how the people at Mystique/Playaround came up with this stuff. I think they didn’t get enough attention at home, so they acted out by releasing these games. But anyway, Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em has you controlling two naked women on the street while a naked fellow on a rooftop, with his dingaling hanging out over the roof ledge, shoots his semen down to the street. Or drops of urine…the drops are yellow. Or maybe it’s semen and the guy has an infection or something….which makes this concept even more disgusting now that I’m thinking of it. Anyway, your goal is to catch the semen in the mouths of the naked lady folk. If any touches the street, it's game over. You can’t waste that semen. There’s starving folks in China, after all. If the ladies catch all of the weenie water during the course of the level, they look at you and smile. It's rather disturbing, honestly. Perverted aspects aside, the game itself is mildly entertaining...I like to pretend that the ladies on the street are dairy enthusiasts and the guy up top has pulled an udder from a cow and is sending milk down below. What? I’m from Wisconsin. That stuff happens here. This also may be the best Mystique game that I've played...But honestly, that's like someone stabbing you in the kidney and you thinking, “That was the most pleasant kidney stab that I’ve ever experienced.” In other words, it’s not really that great of a compliment.

Review added: 08/06/2019

Bermuda Triangle

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Data Age

In Bermuda Triangle, you control a one-man sub and your goal is to pick up as much treasure and artifacts as you can before you get killed by squid, sharks, drones, mines, bombs, or enemy ships. According to the manual, when exploring in your mini sub, you discover a city at the bottom of the ocean, which is where all of the treasures and artifacts come from. Since these artifacts are just laying around all over the place, I guess it shows that the folks in that city are a bunch of litter bug slobs. There are four game modes in Bermuda Triangle, two single-player modes and two two-player modes. The only real difference between these modes is when a laser beam starts firing at you as an extra obstacle to avoid…after 10,000 points have been collected or immediately when you start the game…both for one or two players. Anyway, for what it is, Bermuda Triangle is a decent little game. I also appreciate the little backstory provided in the manual that allows your imagination to fill in gaps that the graphics were unable to provide back then. It's nice to know why I'm in the ocean shooting up the wildlife. Anyway, while Bermuda Triangle isn't one of the must-buy titles on the Atari 2600, it's still a pretty solid scrolling shooter worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre.

Review added: 04/11/2024

Berzerk

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Berzerk is a very, very good translation from the arcade to the living room. Everything from the arcade original is here from the electrified walls, to the need to flee from that awful Evil Otto. The same strategies can be used too, like tricking the enemies to walk into the electrified walls to cause their own demise, or you can let them collide with each other or shoot each other, so you have fewer foes to contend with…of course, if you plan to try to manipulate your enemies like this, make sure that you do so quickly otherwise the smiling face of pure evil, Evil Otto will appear and you'll need to flee as quickly as possible. The game itself plays and controls as smoothly as the arcade game does, and visually, it's mostly the same as well. The only real notable difference is that the Atari 2600 port of Berzerk lacks some of the audio that the arcade version had, which is to be expected given how much space an Atari 2600 cartridge holds - the file size for this single web page, for example, is larger than dozens of Atari 2600 games/cartridges combined. Oh, and I suppose the difference of not having to shell out quarters each time you want to play is there as well….and no need to wipe down the joystick and buttons when you play after some greaseball with pizza sauce al over his face….unless you are the greaseball with pizza sauce all over your face…in that case, clean up after yourself, ya slob!! Anyway, Atari did a very good job of bringing Stern's arcade game home. It's not quite arcade perfect, but it's about as arcade perfect as it can be with the limitations of the Atari 2600 hardware.

Review added: 04/18/2026

Blackjack

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Blackjack is exactly what the title suggests—a game of blackjack with nothing fancy and no frills. It’s a very simple game. For those who don’t know the rules, you’re given two cards. You need to decide whether to stick with those two cards or request a third card, or a fourth, or however many your heart desires. The goal is for the cards to add up to a total of 21 or as close to 21 as possible without going over. The dealer also has two cards and is attempting to do the same thing. The winner is either the person who hits 21 or is the closest to 21 between the two hands. It’s a mildly fun game when you’re at a casino and winning; otherwise, I’ve always found the real-life version to be fairly dull. This video game version is somehow even less exciting. One might wonder why you would want to play it in video game form, especially when real playing cards are much nicer to look at than the graphics displayed in this game and provide a better experience. Practice for the real world? Maybe. Or perhaps this is really only useful to gambling addicts so they don’t lose any real money, or children too young to gamble but not too young to pick up a lifetime of gambling addiction. After all, just look at how successful the gambling people on the cover of the box art look. For the most part, though, it’s a pretty useless game.

Review added: 07/07/2019

Bowling

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Bowling is the definition of a deceptively good video game. It's not overly complex - there's three different game modes with the option to play alone or with a friend. It looks simple, it plays simple…but it's fun. It was also the best bowling game ever created at the time of its release. Basically, Bowling was the first game of the sport that allowed both the ability to position the bowler on the alley AND the ability to throw the ball with a curve. The bowler himself, while crude by today's standards, is a nice touch, too. For the time, the bowler looked nice and had some nice animation as he rolled the ball towards the pins. The ball also doesn't just plow through the pins. Hitting the pins in a certain way can also cause the ball to bounce off a little bit, showing a solid attempt a real physics of a bowling ball hitting pins. I mentioned before that there were three different game modes. Basically, you can play where you're able to curve the ball up or down after it is thrown, you can play where you can freely move the ball up and down after it's been thrown, and where you aren't allowed to curve the ball at all and all balls are thrown straight. That tiny bit of variety isn't major, but it does add a little bit to an already good game. Bowling is such a simple game, but if you're like me, you'll find yourself saying, "One more game," multiple times before you finally power the console down.

Review added: 11/20/2025

Boxing

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Activision

Boxing, much like Pong, is a prime example of how games can be very simplistic, and yet still provide a lot fun. Compared to modern games, there's not really much to Boxing in terms of content. There's no story mode or elaborate control scheme here. Essentially all you do in boxer is invite a friend over and hand them a joystick. Then, both you and your pal move your joysticks to move your boxer and press the button on the joystick to punch. The goal is to land as many punches as you can within the time limit and hope that you landed more punches than your opponent. That’s the entire game. This is mildly fun playing alone, but an absolute blast when playing with a friend...Especially when the friendly trash talk gets going. A game like Boxing would probably be panned today for its simplicity and lack of content, but for its time, this was quite a fun game to pop in for a few minutes of fun here and there…and it’s one of my personal favorites on the Atari 2600.

Review added: 01/27/2023

Brain Games

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Fun fact, in the 1984 book "Clinical Management of Memory Problems," Brain Games was suggested as an effective clinical device for memory retraining exercises. My problem with that suggestion is that if my memory is fixed, then I'll remember my time playing Brain Games…and I'm not entirely sure that I want that. Anyway, Brain Games is a selfish game…everything is me, me, me. It's so needy. There are six game types here - Touch Me, Count Me, Picture Me, Find Me, Add Me, and Play Me. See what I mean? How self-centered can a game get? Touch Me is basically just Simon…and I have always loathed Simon. Count Me shows a sequence of numbers on the screen, then you've got to match that sequence. Picture Me is similar, but it has the player memorize the placement of pictures rather than numbers. Find Me is what I want people to do when I'm playing this game so that they can pull me away and save me…er, I mean, figures flash on the screen and you need to find the differences in the images. Add Me has the player adding up the numbers that are presented on the screen. Play Me turns the keypad controller into a musical instrument…I failed to mention that earlier. Brain Games uses a special 12 button keypad instead of the traditional joystick. The lack of a joystick may be part of the reason that this game lacks any joy. Anyway, I like puzzle games that make me think…but Brain Games reminds me of those old anti-drug commercials…:) <--This is my brain. :( <---This is my brain playing Brain Games. Any questions?

Review added: 11/20/2025

Breakout

Also known as: Breakaway IV (Sears)

Developer: Atari

Pong was a “breakout” hit…get it? ‘Cause Breakout is the name of the game I’m writing about here…sorry. Anyway, Pong was beloved, but it had one flaw – you needed to have a friend around to play it. And for some of us, especially those of us that just love their solitude, we don’t always have a friend around when we want to bounce a dot around on a television screen. Back in ’77 you could try to play Pong against yourself to pass the boredom. In ’78 you could play Breakout, which had the frantic fun of Pong, but for a single player, and a twist in the concept to make it somewhat unique while still being familiar to anyone that played it. That twist is that instead of trying to slip the dot past an opponent, in Breakout you’re instead trying to manipulate the dot towards various, colored blocks on the screen. If you can bump the dot into a block, that block disappears. Clear the screen of all blocks, and you’re off to the next screen. It’s a simple concept, but it’s also a very fun one. Breakout is one of those great, simple games, that hasn’t lost anything with age. It’s still a great game to play to kill a few minutes like it was four decades ago when it first hit store shelves.

Review added: 08/05/2019