These memories started 40 years ago...
In January 1983, when I was 4 years old, my father brought an Atari 2600 from the United States that I still have at home:
This was my first contact with the wonderful world of electronic games. I'm going to comment on some games that my father brought along with the Atari 2600.
- Missile Command
I was really good at that game. There was an afternoon when I played straight and managed to reset* the score twice in a row without losing. When I finished it was already night, in the living room there was only the brightness of the television light. As I was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed, my legs have gone numb and I struggled to get up.
* The scoreboard in Atari games was usually 6 digits long. When the score in the game was greater than 999999, the score reset to zero.
- RealSports Soccer
This game was very fun, with great gameplay that allowed for well-played matches between friends.
I have fond memories of this game because that was the only video game my dad played with me. He wasn't interested in any other games.
- Star Raiders
Star Raiders is a space combat simulator. It was initially released for Atari's 8-bit computers and is considered a killer app on this platform. The Atari 2600 version came with an extra controller that was needed to access some spaceship commands.
Our spaceship could suffer damage to the shield, weapons, engine or HUD. This damage was very noticeable in the game making it difficult to survive. At the end of the game we received a type of military rank that indicated the performance in the match.
- Freeway / Activision
I have at home the Freeway game cartridge and a catalog of Activision games from 1982. Activision was the first third-party company to produce video games. It was founded by 4 developers who were frustrated with Atari's treatment of game designers. Activision always looked for quality in its games and valued the work of the game designer.
The Atari 2600 was present throughout my childhood. I've played dozens of games alone and with friends. My two favorite Atari 2600 games are H.E.R.O. and Montezuma's Revenge.
- H.E.R.O.
Your character has a backpack with a helicopter in it. He needs to rescue people who got trapped in a mine. He has some dynamite which is used to destroy walls and the helicopter's power is limited.
- Montezuma's Revenge
This is a platform and exploration game. You need to collect keys, torches and swords to be able to find your way through the maze that leads to the treasure room.
The complexity of this game for the time is impressive. It is considered to be one of the first examples of the genre known today as Metroidvania.
In Brazil there were some Atari 2600 clones manufactured by national companies. I have the Supergame manufactured by the company CCE:
There were cartridges with several Atari 2600 games. To switch between games it was necessary to change the position of the switches that are in front of the cartridge. I have a cartridge with 4 games (2 switches) and a cartridge with 32 games (5 switches):
One day when I was looking through some old photos, I found this picture of me playing Atari 2600:
