Happy Holidays 2025!

Welcome to the end-of-year roundup, an annual traditional where I (sort of) provide updates but mostly ramble about the state of things! I feel like I can almost start off by a copy/paste of last years update... once again I didn't keep up news updates and reviews quite as often as I would have liked. Sorry. But, a lot did get done behind the scenes in a very busy year. Some new features to the codebase have been added, including a spot for some hints and tricks (see the walkthrough for Jupiter Mission 1999 as the first example for this). A better process for noting which magazines marketing materials and more came from is in the works as well. And early this year a feature for technical specs to list video resolutions utilized was finally available. The database is slowly being update to fill in blanks with all the new features and old ones as well. So it's back to work, and I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season!

As always, let's take a look at this year's database stats:

• Game listings: 3172
• Screenshots: 64151 (4226 screenshot groups)
• Cover scans and photos: 13255 (2250 cover groups)
• Other photographs: 16621 (2182 picture groups)
• Technical specs: 8189
• Game credits: 3121
• Releases: 13344
• Game logos: 1603
• Company logos: 152
• Related game groups: 256
• Instruction Manuals / Documents: 1180 (852 games)
• Game Overviews: 902 (464 games)
• Advertisement scans: 4851 (2530 groups for 1879 games/tech specs/game groups)

Mini-reviews have become an end-of-year tradition also. For this year's mini-reviews I'm going to take a quick look at a handfull of Atari 2600 games. As one of the best selling and most famous game consoles, it certainly saw some highs and lows when it came to games! That's especially true as an extremely popular console that was around for the video game crash of 1983; every company and then some seemed to be jumping into the fray. Many if not most did a pretty lousy job, but a few gems emerged from the era. So here's a relatively random selection of Atari 2600 games, some good, and some...not so good.

• 

  Dig Dug

  Dig Dug is one of those titles it seems everyone remembers from the golden age of arcades, and for good reason; it's an original, fun game that appeals to a wide audience. A mix of action and strategy, cute and detailed graphics, and addictive gameplay made the arcade original an instant hit, but can the Atari 2600 version stand up to it? A reasonable question after the disasterous Pac-Man port, and surprisingly, the Atari 2600 version is a faithful adaptation of the arcade classic! It has all of the elements; the gameplay recreates the original action and strategy quite well, all of the original characters are there, sound effects are pretty good, and even the background music theme is present (something that's not always a given on the 2600, although in this case it sounds like they had to transpose to a minor key or something to make it work with the 2600's note capabilities).

  It is, of course, no surprise that the Atari 2600 graphics aren't nearly as detailed. The dirt maintains the colored gradiations, but is otherwise a solid color with some stripes and has perfectly rectangular tunnels instead of the more granular, organic shapes of the original. The color changes as the levels progress are there, and follow the arcade game accurately. Rocks do look more like boxes than rocks, and there is naturally some flicker due to the large number of characters on the screen. But really, despite all the graphical differences, the gameplay is there and the graphics are clear enough to not get in the way. There are also two difficulty levels, Easy and Normal, although I think the easy is a little too easy. But overall, this is a solid conversion that I give an A-. Dig Dug is still fun to play even today!

  Rating: A-
• 

  Airlock

  Airlock from Data Age is an Atari 2600 original and one of the many games companies were churning out to try to jump on the video game bandwagon. This awful title looks like it's not much more than a starting point or even just a programming exercise than an actual, complete game. The goal is to have your man escape a sinking sub; starting at the bottom, the goal is to climb up multiple floors before the rising water catches up. Not a bad concept, but it goes downhill from there. For starters, there's not much to the game — if you make it to the top, you win and the game is over. If you don't, the game is over. There's no real variations, or continuing on to more difficult levels, scoring, or anything at all to keep you wanting to come back to the game; once you make it to the top that's the entire game! Graphically, the game is unimpressive. If you're playing the U.S. version, there's not even any animations to your character as it moves. The European version is a little better looking with a running animation for your character, but that difference doesn't affect the gameplay. This lack of animations applies to the water also; you have limited time (10 seconds) to make it through each floor, and then the water instantly jumps up to fill the entire floor (if you're still there, game over). If you get knocked down by one of the torpedoes, you are temporarily stunned — recovery isn't impossible but it can be very difficult, especially if the torpedo reverses direction and almost instantly knocks you down again. The barriers you need to jump can be annoying when there's more than one near each other. They knock you backwards costing time, and the timing for when to correctly jump over them is a little twitchy. Sound is, well, present; there's some bings and buzzes, nothing noteworthy.

  All around, this title is a terrible effort for the 2600, especially in 1982 when there were plenty of fun games available; definitely a D-. I like the unique concept, and had the developers taken the time this probably could have been turned into a decent title. But as it is, it's an annoying and dull game to play, and there's no reward for it all if you win other than a simple man jumping up and down animation.

  Rating: D-
• 

  Raiders of the Lost Ark

  Raiders of the Lost Ark, based on the movie of the same name, is another Atari 2600 original that aimed to expand the system's library beyond just arcade style action games. Loosely following the film plot, the goal is to find the famed lost ark of the covenant. The game is part action, part puzzle. There's a nice title screen to start things off that even offers a reasonable rendition of the movie's theme. The graphics are decent with a pretty solid Indy animation, but other graphics are blocky and/or more abstract. There are numerous rooms to explore (although some do look rather similar but with different colors), a variety of items to pick up with different uses, and even some other characters to interact with. To reach the end, you'll need to find and use items to open up secret rooms, talk with some characters to obtain additional items, and of course avoid snakes and many other dangerous creatures. Everything you would expect from an Indiana Jones adventure!

  The control scheme is a little unusual; given the simple joystick with just one button the Atari had there wasn't much opportunity for complex game controls, and this title works around that by requiring a second joystick (one to control Indy, one for the inventory). This system is a little awkward, but does work and isn't too bad once you get used to it. Be careful, though, as it can be frustrating if you accidentally drop the wrong object and instead drop one you wanted to keep!

  You will definitely need the instruction manual for this game. Extensive in-game game text wasn't possible on the Atari 2600, so there's nothing like modern games which have in-game descriptions or otherwise essentially teach you the game mechanics as you go along. That's all in the manual only! The difficulty learning the game also is due to the system's graphical limitations. It's often not obvious what some of the objects are even supposed to be without referencing their description in the manual. Just determining what certain screens are supposed to represent or what you're even supposed to do on these screens can't be picked up well either from just in the game alone.

  Despite the limitations, overall I think this is still a fun title that mixes together some action, adventure, and puzzle solving. The controls aren't entirely intuitive and some of the graphics are confusing, but it's otherwise a solid effort to bring more complex gameplay to a very limited console, and if you take some time to learn how the game works it mostly succeeds. I give this one a rating of B.

  Rating: B
• 

  The Official Frogger

  Frogger actually has two different ports of the arcade game for the Atari 2600. The most common one is the Parker Brothers version released on cartridge which, despite more limited graphics, is still pretty solid with great gameplay. This version is more obscure (and, since Starpath licensed the game from Sierra On-Line, it was titled as The Official Frogger like Sierra's computer releases and even featured the same artwork on the box). The two versions were possible since Parker Brothers had the rights for cartridge releases but not magnetic media. So Starpath's version was instead released on cassette tape and required use of the Starpath Supercharger to run on the 2600. In addition to the additional space cassettes offered over cartridges for storing the game code and data, the Supercharger also included additional RAM available for games. The extra resources were taken advantage of here and the result is incredible; this is definitely one of the better ports of Frogger!

  For starters, you would hardly recognize this as an Atari 2600 game from the graphics; there is an impressive amount of detail for the 2600, excellent use of color, and animation is smooth as well. The sound is far better than most 2600 games and this is one of the few ports to include the background music during gameplay, not just in the intro. Not only is the background music present, but there are multiple themes that rotate (like the arcade version) so you don't hear just a single theme over and over again.

  Impressive technical details aside, how's the gameplay? Turns out pretty much perfect; this version captures the action and gameplay of the arcade version almost exactly. All of the arcade game elements and characters are there, from disappearing turtles, racing cars, snakes, and more. Like the Parker Brothers counterpart, there is also a setting allowing your frog to move off the right or left side of the screen and wrap around instead of losing a life.

  The only drawback to this version is that it requires the Starpath Supercharger (along with a cassette player); this add-on isn't super common so you may have trouble coming across one, and cassette tapes can be a pain compared to cartridges with long load times and occasional finickiness getting the program to load correctly. Still, I have to give this one an A; Frogger is an incredibly fun arcade game, and this version probably captures it as closely as possible on home consoles of the era with some of the best graphics and sound you could find on an Atari 2600.

  Rating: A
• 

  Miner 2049er

  Miner 2049er is a port from the incredibly fun Atari 8-bit version, and unfortunately the results here aren't pretty. The game begins showing the first level with a rendition of "Clementine", the same theme used in other versions. It's not great, but at least not too hideous. But things do get worse once the game starts. Graphically, the game is mixed, but overall poor. The various platforms and slides look fine even if a little blockier than the 8-bit counterparts. But our hero, Bounty Bob, and his nemesis mutants are horrible! The developers didn't even try to come close to the original, and both are a blocky, unrecognizable mess. Sound is very limited as well; there's some shuffling and plinks and a few other noises, but nothing impressive. Some sounds are missing, I think it would have been no problem at all for the 2600 to handle the flashing screen and alarm sound that starts each attempt in other versions (on the other hand, maybe it's good that was left out if they couldn't be bothered to do it well like the other half-baked elements in the game). Ok, so expecting a perfect graphics and sound translation isn't reasonable for the Atari 2600, but I think they could have done a much, much better job than we have here.

  I wouldn't be so worried about that, though, if the game played well as the graphics and sound might be ugly but are clear enough that some stellar gameplay could easily make up for it. But, alas, in this version, it does not. For starters, there's only three levels somewhat based on the original ten! I can see some cuts being made due to more limited ROM's for the 2600, but really, only three? A sequel of sorts, Miner 2049er Part II, was released which is an identical game but with three different levels to (sort of) account for this. And due to the blockier graphics, the levels are more limited in scope as well and almost look as if they're zoomed in on a small portion of a larger screen. There's fewer platforms, fewer ladders, and all around fewer contraptions than the original. The gameplay is also far more sluggish on the Atari 2600; Bounty Bob moves around taking his sweet time. The slow shuffle of our character is especially frustrating as each level has a time limit and you'll need to traverse the platforms around the entire screen. The time limit exists in all versions, of course, and naturally it seems there's rarely enough time as well, but the slow movement makes that fact feel more aggrivating than when Bounty Bob runs along at a decent speed. Jumping seems to be tougher as well; in other versions you did need to be sort of precise in leaping over mutants, but it wasn't bad; in this version you have to be extra careful and it's downright annoying. Since there's less room on the screen most of the mutants also don't wander as far left and right as in other versions. This means they have to turn around far more often giving you less space where it's safe to jump over them.

  Overall, this is easily the worst version of the game. It's missing too many elements, the gameplay is too clunky, and it just completely fails to capture the feel of the original. Atari 2600 hardware is so limited it can be forgiven when games don't get everything exactly right, but Miner 2049er is what happens when too much is wrong and the results aren't even particularly fun. I'm going to give this version a D-.

  Rating: D-

That's all of the Atari 2600 mini-reviews (for now). It occurs to me that I've now done enough of these things that actually finding a review across all the news items has become difficult; addressing that is something I'm hoping to complete soon in 2026, as well as continue adding game and other updates. That's all for now, so until next time stay safe, stay healthy, and take care!