Classic Summer Games for Atari 2600

Enjoy the dog days with ice cream, sparklers, and Missile Command!

A flickering torch and musical fanfare make for an exciting title screen.

Summer Games

The title says it all! Whether jumping hurdles, swimming relays, or shooting skeet, Summer Games delivers superb summertime fun. Expect excellent graphics and gameplay; as usual, Epyx excels. Call your friends, because Summer Games supports up to eight players for these Olympic events!

Summer Games is more intuitive than Epyx's California Games. This means simple controls (excepting gymnastics) for fast, fun competition. I especially enjoy the split-screen rowing race!

Fun Note: I'm pretty sure some of the sound effects were reused in the next game on this list.

California Games

Another great title screen from Epyx, with groovy effects and a surprisingly catchy chiptune song.

A year after Summer Games, Epyx released California Games, with even more detailed graphics: the vibrant title screen, the finely rendered half-pipe, and of course, the whooshing wave. I recall being amazed with the foot bag game, with its large character sprite and actual drifting clouds. California is totally rad!

The churning wave in the surfing game is one of the best visual effects I've seen in any Atari game.

My favorite game in California Games was, and continues to be, the BMX course. I still haven't mastered the controls, but I don't care, because it's still fun to leap from ramps and jump over what appear to be cow skulls.

Whether you play solo or with eight friends, California Games is a great way to beat the heat!

Fun Note: When I was seven, I loved watching the flashy title screen and humming along to the music. I wouldn't realize the music was a stripped-down version of "Louie Louie" until my teen years, when I played the oldie song with my high school band, snapping at my snare drum and realizing it all sounded strangely familiar.

Raft Rider

If you've ever read Wind in the Willows, you'll know there's no finer summertime activity than drifting down a river, merrily. Of course, Raft Rider presents a less leisurely cruise.

Raft Rider, by U.S. Games, is a kind of oddball title for Atari 2600. At first, I really disliked this game, but once I got the hang of the controls, I decided I actually kind of liked this game. Raft Rider appears straightfoward. It's really quite tricky. This game requires constant vigilance, quick decisions, and precise movements. It's damn near complex. Oh, and the graphics are bright and overall decent, even if the red moose looks like it's made of bricks.

Fun Note: If you try Raft Rider, don't give up. Read the manual and try again. It's not perfect, but this is the kind of title that grows on you the more you play it.

Picnic

What's summer without a picnic? Here's another oddball title from U.S. Games, though not so compelling. In Picnic, you must defend your meal from, um, laser bugs or something?

In short, this is a picnic you may wish to avoid. It's another shooter clone among dozens, except you don't even get to shoot, instead reflecting the bug's beams back at them, or something. And yes, I should read the manual, and no, I'm not.

What I find disappointing is that the picnic theme seems shoehorned into a shooter game. If we'd been swatting at waves of ants, maybe some feisty bees, and perhaps from an overhead view, this could have better maintained the thematic setting. Regardless, I don't hate Picnic. The boss bugs are big. And when you strike a bug, it turns into a silly bug face that bounces around. The paddle controls feel precise, and hey, it's always fun to give a paddle game a couple turns.

Fun Note: I totally forgot that I already reviewed Picnic. That's how forgettable it is. Now, I recommend Picnic to both Atari nerds and collectors.

RealSports Volleyball

Alright, RealSports Volleyball! Possibly the best of Atari's Realsports titles, I have always found this game fun to play solo, and a blast to play with a friend. The controls are easy, the ball's physics are fine, and the graphics are great. It's like a visually appealing Pong. And it's perfect for a lazy summer afternoon.

RealSports Volleyball is not only fun to play, but also does a surprisingly effective job of capturing the beach setting. The colors are bright as a summer day. Waves continually roll in the background. A corresponding susurrus creates the lolling sound of surf. Sure, it mostly sounds like static, but it's an ambient kind of static, meaning it's not annoying, and actually conveys the sound of waves crashing and receding. On top of this, the sun slowly sets over the horizon as you play. These are the kind of details that make a good Atari game great.

Fun Note: If you want to witness the ominous Easter egg (think Jaws), you'll have to play (or wait) until the sun sets.

Shark Attack

The best part of Shark Attack is the scene on the top: a tropical island, a detailed boat, and fluffy clouds. What a pretty summer day up there! You, however, are trapped in a poorly designed underwater maze, collecting pixels and avoiding gray shark-shaped blobs. Do you spy the purplish starfish in the right center of the image above? I guess that's supposed to be the Loch Ness monster. Well, at least the diver looks good.

Apparently the publisher, Apollo, required four-to-six weeks to program a game, start to finish. This explains the overall awful throwaway quality of many Apollo games. Here, your diver gets stuck on the scenery, again and again, as though the real enemy in this ocean are the sticky green walls. Add inexact controls, and constant random sharks, and you've got an excellent example of the kind of shovelware that led to the Video Game Crash of '83. Bust out Shark Attack once, for Shark Week. Then forget about it.

Fun Note: Shark Attack was originally released as Lochjaw. Apollo changed the title when threatened with legal action from the Jaws property owners. As a result, an actual Lochjaw cart is rare, and can fetch a cool grand. For that price, I want an Atari Cosmos, at the very least.

Wabbit

Here's another questionable game from Apollo, though more playable than Shark Attack. As Billie Sue (considered the first named playable female protagonist in a console game), you must chuck eggs at "wabbits" intent on stealing your garden goodies.

Wabbit looks pretty good. Billie Sue is finely rendered in a staggering five colors! If you don't find this impressive, just compare Billie Sue to the monochrome players in RealSports Volleyball. Plus, the scene is bright and colorful, with a beaming sun in the corner.

Wabbit's graphics are good. Wabbit's controls are fine. Wabbit's gameplay, however, is repetitive and tedious. You must carefully time your throws, which grants a degree of strategy, and, well, that's about it. I tried many variations, some too fast, some too slow, and all equally uninspiring. This is unfortunate, because I think some more time spent polishing the gameplay (more critter variety, bonus power-ups, etc.) could have made a good-looking game a good-playing game, as well. If you need a break from actual summertime gardening, give this a go. You'll be ready to head back outside in a few minutes.

Fun Note: For a fascinating tale, look up the history of Wabbit. Apparently, video game historians spent many years tracking down the programmer, a Vietnamese-American woman named Van Mai. She offered some curious details about working for Apollo and the development of Wabbit (i.e. potentially creating a game directed at girls). If Wabbit was intended for younger players, this helps explain the repetitive nature. And hey, everyone agrees that Van Mai did an impressive job with the graphics, considering the limitations.

Tennis

Activision's Tennis is best enjoyed with a friend, perhaps to cool down after a match under the hot summer sun. Unlike RealSports Volleyball, I lost interest quickly when playing against the computer, perhaps because it kept beating my ass. In an effort to win, I set the ball to a slower pace, but this slowed down my player as well. If you've ever wanted to play tennis in slow motion, here's your chance.

Overall, Tennis is the generally decent, utterly functional kind of title you can expect from Activision's games for Atari 2600. The isometric view of the court is the only distinct detail that sticks out to me, but what more details does Tennis really need? Like RealSports Volleyball, this game is closer to a visually striking Pong than actual Tennis; don't expect usual rules to apply. Pop this one in the old Atari 2600 when your friend gets tired of RealSports Volleyball.

Fun Note: The game designer, Alan Miller, worked on many titles for Atari 2600, including two of my favorites, Atari's Basketball and Activision's Robot Tank.

Miniature Golf

Wow, that picture is supposed to be . . . what? Miniature golf?

Released in 1979, Atari's Miniature Golf should go down in video game history as Atari's blockiest game. Even Adventure, in which you play a square navigating rectangular mazes, featured more detail than this abstract and absurd art piece. It's like a conceptual artist broke down "the idea of miniature golf" into the most basic two-dimensional representations.

All that said, I was delighted to find Miniature Golf somewhat playable. It's very satisfying to position your block (putter) as far away from the smaller block (ball), because the greater the distance, the faster and farther the block-ball with bounce, much like a pinball, which is fun. With luck, your ball will cease bouncing somewhere near the other smaller block (hole).

Miniature Golf functions as a curious novelty, more a surreal work of art, with its abstract courses, obtuse controls, and zany pinball bouncing. They could have called this "Pong Ball" and it would have made more sense.

If you're an Atari nerd like me, you may find this game fascinating, even kind of fun, in a weird, unintended, utterly abstract way. In the meantime, go out and enjoy some miniature golf, before the summer sun sets into fall.

Frogs and Flies

Finally, my favorite summer game for Atari 2600! Just as RealSports Volleyball conveys the ambient vibe of the seaside, Frogs and Flies manages to capture the peaceful quiet of a forest pond. We get bird calls and crickets. We see lily pads, cattails, and trees (though as a child I thought the cattails were a city skyline, and the trees giant hands). And, of course, we get our wonderful hopping and tongue-flashing frogs.

Play this game solo for practice. Play with a friend for fun. And play with the difficulty switches in "A" position for ultimate leaping control (and splashes).

Fun Note: Read my early and extensive review for all the wonderful details!

And Now . . . Some Atari Classics for Those Still Summer Nights!

No summer Atari party would be complete without some genuine classics, the games that always find their way back into the stack, the games you return to, season after season.

In the summer night, hear the buzzes and beeps. Lose yourself to the trance-inducing flicker of exploding pixels. The nocturnal animals are buzzing out there, the moths transfixed by the porch light, the owls secreted away and playing their own wise little abstract games. Be one with the summer night. Grab a classic Atari game. Play, reset, play again. It's summer.

Check out this excellent video detailing the nostalgic, surreal, and aesthetic values of playing Atari games in the summer night. Be sure to like his video and subscribe to his channel!

Missile Command

Enter an endless hypnosis. Succumb to the flow. Allow the flickers and static to carry you beyond the realm of midnight.

Fun Note: A friend once told me this was the only Atari game they ever played. They were a kid, sick in bed, and claimed to have played Missile Command up to one million points. Then the game ended there. I have not verified if this is a thing, or if their memory is incorrect.

Night Driver

The road beckons. It's so dark, all you can see in your headlights are the posts whizzing past, and the occasional tree or house. Grip the wheel, lean into the curves. This night is all yours.

Fun Note: I need to re-review Night Driver. Playing it today, I'd recommend it to the Atari curious, after all.

Yars' Revenge

Yars' Revenge may be the most Atari of Atari games. Simple yet deep. Clean, blocky graphics. A detailed Yars surrounded with glitchy visual tricks. Bleeps and explosions and wild audio effects. Technically a fixed-screen space shooter, but unlike any others. Perfect for the summertime Atari game stack.

Fun Note: Yars' Revenge came with a comic book. Yars eat metal!

E.T.

What the hell? How did E.T. end up in my Atari play pile? Because E.T. feels like a very summer Atari game to me, that's why! I'm aware this game was rushed and released in December 1982, but the movie was a summer blockbuster only six months before. And even though the movie is set in autumn, it still feels like a summer movie to me. That, and what better time to give this game another go? It's deeper than Picnic.

Fun Note: Everything that can be said about this game already has been said. That said, just be a wimp like me and play E.T. on "easy" mode, Game 3. Without pesky humans chasing you through every screen, you just might finish the game!

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming, y'all!