M.A.D.

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Western Technologies, Inc.

M.A.D. (which stands for Missile and Attack Defense) feels like a different take on the Missile Command formula. The big difference is that instead of dealing with missiles, in M.A.D., you’re forced to deal with kamikaze pilots that control planes and helicopters. The aircraft enter the screen and turn white if they're about to nose-dive into the buildings below. You're also not armed with explosives, but bullets and you've got to try and carefully aim for the suicide aircraft as they try to take everything out. It's not a horrible game, but it does feel like an inferior (but still mildly fun) knock-off of Missile Command rather than a good, unique game. Regardless, I can’t be too mad at M.A.D….it’s still passable, even if this awful close to the review is not.

Review added: 09/24/2019

M*A*S*H

Also known as: N/A

Developer: 20th Century Fox

MASH is a surprisingly good game for its time on the Atari 2600. Released in 1983, right as the video game market was seemingly about to become extinct, MASH is a game where you control a paramedic helicopter, competing against a rival paramedic helicopter while you try to pick up passengers to bring back to your hospital. The first one to reach 999 points wins. You’ll have a few obstacles and hazards that will slow you down, like trees, bullets, and your rival, who seems to be okay with you dying as long as it means they can save everyone else. Every now and then, the action will pause for you to participate in a screen similar to the board game “Operation,” where you want to pull what I’m assuming are bullets out of a patient’s body, but if you hit the sides as you do so, the mini-game is over. No blinking red nose for the patient here, unfortunately. Like most good Atari 2600 games, this is a solid choice if you want to kill 5-10 minutes of time, but it’s not likely a video game that you’ll be putting hours and hours into.

Review added: 02/15/2020

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Mattel

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man is a little hybrid of genres, blending third-person shooter segments in your ship and action-based segments on foot. While that sounds like a solid formula for a good Atari 2600 game, and it is a good formula for a few games on that console, neither one is done particularly well in this instance. Regardless of that, I somehow found myself playing this for much longer than I should have anyway. Maybe it's because this game has the power of Grayskull...Or maybe I have the power of Softskull, since I felt the need to continue playing this far longer than a rational human being should. Either way, while this game had promise with its concept, this is ultimately a game that just falls short of being passable. It’s definitely not the master of any universe.

Review added: 09/24/2019

Math Gran Prix

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Atari

Math Gran Prix would have been a game that I loved when I was a kid if I had owned it. When I was a wee lad, I “made up” a racing game where I would use a Monopoly board, and roll dice to determine how many spaces a car would go. The first one to the finish line would win the race. Math Grand Prix was essentially the video game version of that, but instead of rolling dice to advance a vehicle, you just solve basic math problems. It's a very basic game, but considering the target audience, it didn't really need to be fancy. It lacks enough variety for me to give it a higher score, but it's still a quality game in the education genre, and one that would have been worth playing if you were a young’un back when the game was initially released. I’m not a big fan of math, but I can honestly say that I likely would have put plenty of time into this if I had it as a grade schooler.

Review added: 07/28/2019

Miniature Golf

Also known as: Arcade Golf (Sears)

Developer: Atari

What a mess. Miniature Golf looks and plays nothing like the sport that it claims to be...That wouldn't be a huge deal if it was fun, but it's not. It's not even close to being fun. Playing the Atari version of Miniature Golf is about as fun as jamming a needle into your eyelid and then counting how many blinks it takes before you start to cry blood. Sorry, that’s a bit of an exaggeration…the crying blood game sounds a bit more fun. I shouldn’t have claimed that they had an equal enjoyment level. Apologizes if that created a visual that made you squeamish. The visuals here aren’t really anything special, either…even by Atari 2600 standards. So you get bland visuals with bland gameplay…not a winning combination. Anyway, while less fun than jamming a needle into your eye, Miniature Golf is technically the same thing, except you're jamming a needle into your soul every time that you play this garbage instead. This is terrible. Avoid it and go out and support your local, real miniature golf course instead.

Review added: 09/24/2019

Missile Command

Also known as: Comando de Misseis (South America)

Developer: Atari

Missile Command was fun in the arcades, and while graphically inferior, the Atari 2600 version was successful in bringing a very similar experience to your home, without the need for quarters or dealing with joysticks coated with pizza grease from the hands of total strangers. The concept, for those not in the know, or too young to remember, is simple - missiles are coming down from the top of the screen. Your goal is to cause explosions in the air to destroy the missiles before they can destroy anything on the ground. Trying to destroy multiple missiles with a single explosion is a big part of the fun here, and being successful with those attempts is essential to survive the later stages of the game. Missile Command is a very simple concept, but it’s done very well. And like most simple, fun games, it has aged well and is still fun to play today.

Review added: 09/24/2019

Mouse Trap

Also known as: N/A

Developer: James Wickstead Design Associates

Mouse Trap was Coleco's answer to the popularity of Pac-Man. It plays like Pac-Man except that in Mouse Trap, you control a mouse. Well…the head of a mouse. It’s kind of disturbing now that I think of it…you control a giant, decapitated mouse head. Anyway, instead of obtaining power pellets that instantly allow you to eat ghosts, the mouse can pick up power-ups and stock up on them, to use when needed. When used, these power ups transform the mouse into a giant dog head, which scares the cats into hiding. And yes, you can eat the cats as the dog head. One has to wonder, though, the mouse head is the same size as the dog head…and the cats are full-bodied cats…why isn’t the mouse head gnawing away at those felines? Anyway, Mouse Trap is a decent Pac-Man clone, and much better than the 2600 port of Pac-Man, but it’s also nowhere near the quality of the arcade version of the game that the yellow Namco mascot stars in.

Review added: 09/25/2019