In 1983, This Was Unimaginable Riches

I recently received a large box of Atari 2600 cartridges from a friend who apparently got the box when a video game shop divested itself of its Atari 2600 stock. So I integrated the cartridges with my existing set, and I can say definitively that I own at least 350 Atari 2600 Cartridges.

My Atari 2600 Collection

I say at least because it’s entirely possible if not probable there are more cartridges scattered among the Ataris in their boxes.

If you’re a complete geek, you’ll want to see the list below.

                2	Adventure
                3	Air Sea Battle
                2	Alien
                14	Asteroids
                2	Astro Blast
                2	Atlantis
                1	Backgammon
                1	Basic Programming
                3	Barnstorming
                5	Basketball
                1	Battlezone
                8	Berzerk
                2	Blackjack
                1	Bowling
                2	Boxing
                1	Brain Games
                3	Breakout
                1	Canyon Bomber
                2	Casino
                3	Centipede
                2	Championship Soccer
                1	Checkers
                2	Chopper Command
                2	Circus Atari
                1	Codebreaker
                1	Commando Raid
                20	Combat
                1	Cosmic Ark
                2	Crackpots
                1	Dark Cavern
                8	Defender
                1	Defender 2
                3	Demon Attack
                4	Demons to Diamonds
                1	Dig Dug
                2	Dodge 'Em
                1	Dolphin
                4	Donkey Kong
                3	Donkey Kong, Jr.
                3	Dragonfire
                5	Dragster
                2	Enduro
                7	E.T.
                1	Firefighter
                1	Flag Capture
                5	Football
                2	Freeway
                1	Frogs and Flies
                5	Frogger
                1	Frostbite
                4	Galaxian
                1	Golf
                4	Gran Prix
                1	Haunted House
                3	Home Run
                1	Human Cannonball
                5	Indy 500
                1	James Bond 007
                1	Journey Escape
                2	Joust
                1	Jungle Hunt
                4	Kangaroo
                3	Keystone Kapers
                4	Laser Blast
                3	Lock and Chase
                1	Mario Brothers
                1	Math Gran Prix
                1	Maze Craze
                1	Megamania
                1	Millipede
                14	Missile Command
                1	Moon Patrol
                1	Mountain King
                1	Ms. Pac Man
                6	Night Driver
                1	Outlaw
                17	Pac Man
                4	Phoenix
                4	Pitfall!
                3	Pole Position
                1	Popeye
                2	Q-bert
                1	Raiders of the Lost Ark
                4	RealSports Baseball
                1	Riddle of the Sphinx
                1	River Raid
                2	Robot Tank
                1	Sea Quest
                1	Shark Attack
                3	Skling
                2	Sky Jinks
                1	Skydiver
                2	Space Attack
                1	Space Jockey
                8	Space Invaders
                3	Space War
                2	Spider Fighter
                1	Stampede
                3	Star Master
                4	Star Raiders
                1	Star Voyager
                7	Street Racer
                6	Super Breakout
                1	Super Challenge Baseball
                1	Super Challenge Football
                1	Surround
                2	Swordquest EarthWorld
                2	Swordquest FireWorld
                2	Target Fun
                2	Tennis
                3	Towering Inferno
                1	Trick Shot
                4	Vanguard
                1	Video Chess
                4	Video Olympics
                6	Video Pinball
                1	Wabbit
                3	Warlords
                1	Wizard of Wor
                1	Word Zapper
                8	Yar's Revenge
                1	Zaxxon

That’s 350 cartridges over 121 different titles. Man, the eight-year-old me thinks I am rich.

I’ll leave it to you, gentle reader, to imagine what my beautiful wife thinks about this state of affairs. Let’s just say she and my eight-year-old self agree to disagree.

As I mentioned, I got a bunch of them from a friend. He was a recipient of some of the games from the Great Software Purge of 2012, in the terms of absolute volume (comparing the boxes of the games he took to the box of games he gave me), it’s probably less cube, so his family can rest assured of a Christmas card in 2015.

Now, to plug in one of the Ataris and try some of the new titles.

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1 thought on “In 1983, This Was Unimaginable Riches

  1. I have fond memories of Combat.

    My wife is beginning to look askance at the growing collection of comic book art on the walls of our home. She, too, struggles to see the magnificence of 80s and 90s geek culture.

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