[aside] Visit Atari Age for a good site with lots of information on Atari games… you can look up rarity, instructions, screen shots, etc., allowing you to make a good wish list, know how much you should (or should not) pay for games, and how to play some of the more involved titles. And, when you get tired of the older titles, you can then take a look at the brand new titles people are programming today for the 2600… many of which are beyond what anyone in the 80s thought possible on the system. [/aside]
In general, you won’t go wrong with any titles from Imagic, Activision, CBS Games, or Parker Bros. Coleco and Mattel/M Network/INTV are toss-ups, with some good games, some bad. Of Atari-branded games, I find the majority of silver/grey label and red label games (look at the primary background color of the main label) are very good games… you’ve found one of the dogs (Swordquest: Earthworld), though, and ET is another bummer. Atari games with black labels can be more hit-and-miss, being older, less impressive titles.
Since vintage game shops aren’t guaranteed to have select games in stock, I’d recommend keeping an open mind and being willing to gamble a couple of bucks on titles you don’t recognize… even bad games can be fun when you only have spent a few bucks. That said, a few random, fun titles that should be relatively easy to find:
Solaris- graphically impressive late release from Atari, a space shooter/sim that is a semi-sequel to Star Raiders
Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man- unlike the major disappointment of the original Pac-Man, these are great Pac conversions
Midnight Magic- single-screen pinball; decent graphics, good physics, IMO better than the old Video Pinball
Video Olympics/Pong Sports- the same game, “Pong Sports” is the Sears title; every Pong variant known to man in one cartridge, and up to four players if you have two sets of paddles
Pitfall! and Pitfall II- the original jumping game and sequel from Activision; the first is plentiful and cheap, a basic twitch title, the second is harder to find and more expensive, and more of an exploration/adventure
Superman- built on the engine that drives Adventure, and to-date probably still the best video game based on Superman
We’re going there in a week, so I’m looking for recommendations for games to buy, and also ones to avoid.