Atari 2600(+) Games for Christmas 1983/2023: Chosen by my Kids 

Very impressed with the smart kiddo that guessed correctly why the sprites were flickering.

Your family is delightfully wholesome, Robin. Merry Christmas to you and family and god bless you all.

8 kids for an 8-bit guy, thank god you weren't into 16, 32 or god forbid 64-bit machines.

I enjoyed hearing the kids chuckling at the different games. Our picks for best 2600 would be surprisingly similar! Merry Christmas to you and the family Robin!

I am shocked that you’re raising kids in 2023 and they were engaged the entire time! You are very multi-talented.

8 kids...How do you have time to do these videos... Faints at the thought... What a fantastic and wholesome video, tell all those kiddos thank you for helping dad make this great content!

Wait. Multiple of your children can coexist in the same room without a death match breaking out? Please teach me your ways!

I love hearing your kids laugh - it's heart-warming to hear the bonding.

What a nice Christmas gift! Your kids surely appreciate having such a cool dad. Merry Christmas to the entire 8 Bit Family!

And I love how you all moan, groan and cheer together. LMAO... so awesome. ❤

That was really fun and what a lovely family! In 1983 I got Keystone Kapers from my grandparents and it remains my favorite Atari 2600 game to this day.

Wow I didn't know about the reset-hold on Space Invaders. That's amazing.

I love that your kids are quoting Homestar Runner in this

8 kids? you got my full respect - thanx and merry xmas to yall

While playing Adventure, I always think about the secret dot and the easter egg and the story of Atari not giving coders recognition on the games and how Activision happened etc.

I used to slum it with my neighbour and spent many hours playing playing QBert with her on the 2600. I had a 64 but carts were much better than cassettes we had in the UK! Merry Christmas to you all and thank you for a lovely video :-)

Oh no he touched an Atari!! 😂 Also: missed opportunity of episode name: “8 kid show and tell” (And OF COURSE 8 kids!) God Jul 🎄Robin

That walking bass line! What a Christmas Treat! Thanks! 😀

You're much more fun than my dad was. :) Merry Christmas to the 8-Bit Show and Tell Clan.

My cousin had a 2600 when I was a kid and I remember playing River Raid and Pitfall. And maybe Vanguard. Something Defender like anyway. Great video. I enjoyed the commentary from the kids on the various games. And hearing you and some of the kids say “ugh” when you died. Haha. Merry Christmas 1983!

Great video Robin. Love the Atari 2600. My cousins ended up with an NTSC 2600 in the early 1980s. Playing games in black and white with no sound on an Australian PAL TV wasn't the best. I think they ended up with an NTSC to PAL converter that was more expensive than buying a PAL 2600 🙂

27:21 "I'm going to be like Uncle Shroomie and restart the game every time I die." 😀

Seeing this wholesome interaction with the family, seeing kids enjoy these simplistic games, using their imagination and creativity to interpret what the games are meant to represent, it brings a tear to my eye. I was born in 2002, so I was well past that time, but yet still I adore the Atari 2600 and I hope that when I have a family of my own, we can all enjoy these relics of the past

This was so wholesome that it even warmed my cold, dead black heart for a few minutes :D Your kids seem absolutely awesome!

So blessed to spend time with your family for the Holiday. I choose River Raid for my game!

That was hands down the most adorable video I have seen anywhere in months. Watching this made me feel like a kid again. My first systems were C64 and Atari VCS. Had a lot of the games you showed.

Wow so much tech hit the scene in 1977. Atari, Commodore PET, TRS 80, Apple II and…me. I had not seen ET or Spiderman since I last played them in the 80’s. What a flashback! Thanks and enjoy the holidays.

I have to say that I appreciate you sharing such a special moment. Although I never owned an Atari, my friend had one and I would often visit them as well and play games at his house. My favourite was definitely pitfall.

Although I did not have an Atari back in the day, over at one of my friends place the favorite game was definitely Enduro. Many hours spent playing that after school! Oh yes, also, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!

My guy... I had that exact style of Atari when I was a child. I have the 'newer' version that's smaller and w/o the wood grain still, but this one? Oh this one brings back memories. Thanks for that, and have a safe and wonderful holiday season :)

Your kids are having the best childhood ever!

My dad had a 2600 back in the day before I was born (I was born in 1984) and he lent it to my cousin who lent it to her friend and never saw it again. which made him not so happy. His favorite game was Pitfall and my moms favorite was frogger. Christmas 2010 I got him a 2600 from someone online which I made sure had Pitfall and Frogger among the games it had with it. My father turned into N64 Kid that morning when he opened it. One of the games it had was Yars' Revenge and I never did figure out (until now just seeing it in your video) how to play that game. Dad and I spent all morning that christmas with a little 13" CRT and COMBAT I never did really see him use the 2600 after that (Granted I didn't live at home) but I am sure he enjoyed owning it again. He passed away September 2023, and christmas 2023 Facebook reminded me of the morning I gave him the 2600 so this video is perfect Merry Christmas to you and yours Robin. also, I'm now a dad myself but I only have 1 child. I don't know how I could handle as many as you have but if it works for you then awesome.

Great fun! One of my favourite videos. It would have been great growing up in your house.

Idea for channel rebrand: 8-Kid Show and Tell. Thanks for sharing the Christmas spirit Robin. Happy New Year!

18:51 For anyone curious about that, Retro Game Mechanics Explained released a video just the other day where he deconstructs the whole code for it, Robin-style.

Nice memories exprienced, thanks for this one!

Canadian kids are happy to stand by while dad plays. American kids all want the joystick.

i was just thinking about you, i finally went through my C64 disks and got the roms i grew up with onto my thumb drive for my maxi, so i can have a nostolgia trip tonight. Merry Christmas ! also, pacman on atari is the most nostolgic for me, all the sounds take me back so hard, it was my first pacman game

12:27 WHAT! Double shot?! Why did I not know this?! 21:01 My friend had cosmic ark and we'd play it at his house. I could get up to the pacman creatures but never past that. I wrote a letter to Imagic asking what came next. A woman wrote me back and said to keep at it, as there's a surprise after that level. From reading online, apparently it just repeats after the pacmans (and I looked at the rom's sprites, and sure enough, nothing new past that). :D I so wish I still had that letter, I might, but it would take some serious searching. 23:55 Yup, my brain thinks pitfall is years younger than the C64, that interesting... Wow, every kid liked a different game! Great Christmas episode Robin. And a very merry Christmas to you and yours.

Yeah, that was fun. Happy holidays!

Excellent choice of games, as I had most of the ones mentioned myself. I'd add Warlords due to its 4-player simultaneous mode, provided you have 2 pairs of paddle controllers in good condition (mine always get shaky over the years.)

Merry Christmas Robin and family. Great video!

Nice video, Robin. What a great idea! It did drive me nuts watching you play "Empire Strikes Back" that you forgot you could land your Snowspeeder on the flat ground to repair it. And... Totally missed opportunity to not put your kids hands in the video!

My word, 8 kids? If I didn't know, I would say you didn't have any entertainment at home to keep you busy, but from your videos, we all know you had plenty of games and commodore stuff to keep you busy. How did you have time to make them?😲 But seriously thanks for sharing your family time with us, I have to agree Fast Food is fun.

Merry Christmas Robin and family. Great family video, many great Atari picks.

Awesome video! Berzerk was definitely my fav. I remember losing my mind the first time I got shot through the neck.

What a treat! Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family!

That was nice and fun!

Merry Christmas Robin and family!!! Thanks for another year of great videos (even if I didn't understand half of them)

Jungle Hunt was my favourite !

It's funny that you mentioned the pac-man 'wafers' - as a kid, i remember seeing them called 'wafers' in the instruction booklet and not understanding why they changed it!

I got the VCS for xmas in 1980 or 1981, I remember in 1982 my mate had Pacman and we swapped carts for a few days over xmas and I was shocked how bad it was. Space Invaders, Asteroids and Defender were incredible feats for the VCS. Megamania looks great in an Astroblaster type of way. Individual games were altogether too expensive for most families back in those days however so we didn't have so many games and so swapping was essential. I remember seeing a picture of some celebrity in one of those glossy magazines you'd get in Sunday newspapers (perhaps it was Joan Collins but not sure...) back in the day and she had a VCS and TV at the bottom of her bed and literally 100s of carts...

Great games, great video! Thanks a lot and Merry Christmas to you all. 🙏😉

What a cool dad!

Mery christmas all and Robin in family

Merry Christmas Robin and family! God bless you all!

the sears cover of bowling looks so 70s it actually transports you back to the 70s just by looking at it.

Late Merry Xmas to Robin and happy fam. :)

Merry Christmas! I remember spring or summer early 1980s, probably 1985 my father brought someone's old Atari 2600 and all the games and cases and stuff. Me and my brother sat in my room playing on an old black and white white 13-In TV. And I think eventually we got a 13" color TV because I do remember playing it in color. I remember getting confused and frustrated with a bunch of games and there were a lot of games you had fun with too. I remember hearing how popular Pac-Man was and that was one of the games that was in this collection and we had fun with it and that's what I thought the actual Pac-Man was. I don't think I even knew there was an arcade version. I think Phoenix was my favorite game too. And me and my brother had a lot of fun playing circus the one with the two clowns bouncing around the screen. You would just have fun trying to kill each other and hearing the fart sound when they splatted. The odd thing is that's the one system I don't have any nostalgia for.

Merry Christmas!

Atari made more Pacman cartridges then the total number of Atari 2600's that existed. They lost a ton of money on Pacman, expecting to sell more systems just for this game. Empire Stikes back was a fav of mine, once you make it thru all the waves it repeats.

Missed the game I played most as a kid. Friend of my had A2600 and he had Dig Dug for it and it was game we played most.

I remember playing asteroids for like a whole day one time.

i am somewhat surprised, that these kids are not disgusted by the primitive gfx!

Finally! Christmas Special yeaaaa! Even if im not nostalgically connected with ataris or nintendos (just connodore hehe) your videos are really relaxing and enjoyable, have an happy and Saint Christmas!

See how wonderful and fun it is to have a large family? the more the merrier! Merry Christmas Robin and the 8 bit-crew!

In 1977 there was barely a home video game market. Basically a bunch of Pong clones. Everyone was clamoring for Star Wars toys. Granted I was likely in Kindergarten when Space Invaders and Galaxian were the hot new thing, but I have memories of PAC-Man being a “new” game a year or two later. And I remember trying to put nickels in dimes in the sit down console of Sega’s Monaco GP not understanding that 25 cents meant quarters only 😊. The existence of the 2600 wasn’t on my “radar scope” (see what I did there, Nintendo?). I recon that the big marketing push on tv and in-store displays got our family interested. In particular, at Sears where we bought their Tele-Games Video Arcade flavor of the 2600. I can’t say when we got it but the 2600 Pac-Man was not out or even announced yet. I’m going to guess Christmas 1980 or perhaps earlier in 80. And, to the point, that’s when arcade games started to get really good. And I started spending time there and our earliest 2600 games (again, the Sears version that sadly did not have the artwork on the cartridge, only the box) were Combat and Space Invaders and Asteroids and Night Driver and Indy 500 (with those special 360-degree paddles). And soon Activision was on the scene. Dragster and Laser Blast and Kaboom. In a way, the 2600 just got started by 1980 - early 1981. And it was fresh enough that even when I got my 5200 in September 1983, and we gave our Sears “2600” to my cousins, I kept many games and even played Pitfall II on a 2600-adapter for our Coleco Vision (yeah, got one of those too, also had 5200-2600 adapter but it would not work on the original 4-port 5200 without paying a technician to mod it and I guess my dad thought “why not just get the Coleco?!?” I’m not complaining!). So by 1984 it was all 5200/Coleco (mainly 5200, the one I wanted and liked and saved up for myself). But the 2600 platform had 6-7 years overall and games were still trickling out. PLUS any game you wanted but had not gotten previously due to, you know, budgeting concerns, we’re now discounted!! I didn’t get Adventure until close to my replacing it (hardware) with the 5200. So while that may have still been in the prime price days , I see how I did not get every game when they came out but rather a year or two so later. And I’m still working on the list. I kid you not, Christmas is two days away and I have a plastic tub full of 5200 games and Intellivision games that I need to move elsewhere. I had them on top of the fireplace mantle but had to move them for the garland and other decorations. Wife doesn’t want this tub sitting around. To me, it IS Christmas all over again. I got the 5200 Trak Ball for Christmas 1983 (thanks Dad! [R. I. P. ]) Anyhow I have most of the 5200 games in box. I can’t believe I passed on an auction for Meteorites for $150 the other year. Stoopid grocery shopping responsibilities!! But I am gonna keep hunting. And does my teenager need to go to college? I need to afford Bounty Bob Strikes Back !😂

Merry Christmas Robin!!! 🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅🎅🎄🎄🎄🎄❄❄❄❄

Yar's Revenge was my favorite.

Pacman was rewritten recently by someone and its almost like the original arcade version!

I was probably playing Omega Race or Radar Rat Race on my VIC-20 in 1983. Never had a 2600 VCS.

Good audience! :) I loved Pac Man back in the day, it was my only game for quite a while. So I would either pick that one or River Raid, which is a really excellent shooter.

Hitting the 1/3 pins results in a strike.

Danke!

I chuckled at seeing a cartridge system with a loading screen

“Only 1-player games?!” …when you have an in-room audience?! Boo! Growing up with my twin brother, the 2P-only games like Combat were GLORIOUS. If I recall correctly, there were only two or three games that were 2P-only, and Slot Racers ended up being our absolute favorite game on the system. It was like Atari’s version of Super Mario Kart Battle Mode… which wouldn’t exist for many more years. :)

ET Phone home! I think someone phoned in ET's face.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!!!

Never seen _Cosmic Ark_ before; that interstitial section where you shoot meteors flying at your ship looks like it might be the world's first quick-time event.

You should have shown the hands of all your children. LOL Nice system! I have a few original carts from back then (including the famous ET). I may have to look into that system. Anyhow, love their giggles and laughter... sounds like wonderful children who have a kewl dad. ❤👍 I think Pitfall 2 was my favourite cartridge. I also didn't think ET was that bad as, like you, I understood how to play it. The worst game for me was some adventure game, I forget the name... Quest for the Sword maybe? Had a sword prize you would win, but nobody ever claimed it. It was confusing and very poorly mad I felt.

My buddy had Colecovision and that Smurf game was awesome.

The tune vanguard played was from flash Gordon by queen

Merry Christmas Robin and Family! Are those all your kids or did you borrow a few? 😂 Simon

My all time 2600 favorite is always going to be Reactor, maybe you can pick it next year? Merry Xmas and a happy new year!

It's amazing, the Bowling game on the VCS is more advanced in terms of its controls and gameplay than Bowling Night on the Commodore 64. Have you played Bowling Night? It's one of the first C64 games I remember playing when I was about 5 years old or so.

I love it! Thanks for sharing this. "A whole 20 years before I was born.." "Amazing. Ok...!" *moving on* I handle my kids' comments the same way. 🙂 What a great video showcasing a great system that brings back many memories from my childhood, as well as showing what a great set of kids you've got. My 3 sons, who are now in their 30's -well, the 2 youngest are right at the cusp- used to give me hours of entertainment, mainly on the early Nintendo systems, until they could easily and routinely whip my rearend in them. They still have a penchant for playing old-school games that I'm surprised they still have; must've gotten it from me! Merry Christmas!

Watching this console 'boot' was ..... well, let's just say that back in my day when you pressed the power button the game was ready to play. As in right now, not 10 seconds from now...... It's interesting to see how technology has 'progressed' here when the original Atari console actually boots several orders of Magnitude faster than this current reproduction.

Have you got or used a Vectrex? cartridges like the PiTrex open up a lot of possibilities for it

I dig some of the cartridge art. Yar's revenge or Asteroids. It's so funny how much the game graphics are different from that art xD . Pitfall II was was a real banger. I like Demon Attack, too. The different sounds the demons made when they got destroyed were mesmerizing. And that increasing pitch, like the motion tracker from Aliens. I'd like to have enough place to set up my C64 and Vectrex but I guess I don't :( . Also: where the heck is my Atari 2600? I got the small black version first, but it somehow broke. After that my cousin gave me his "wood" version. I wonder if it's somewhere in my parent's cellar. I'd put it onto the "retro desk", just next to the C64 and Vectrex!

The C64 version of River Raid is the definitive version IMHO.

Great review, thank you! I spent hours on Space Invaders and Pitfall. Do you remember Kangaroo? Kind of a Donkey Kong knock-off.

Interesting piece of trivia which you may already know, the 2600+ was manufactured by the same company who make the Retro Games products, TheC64 etc, it's made by RichCo Asia Pty Ltd.

It's interesting that they made okay to insert the cartridge while the system is on, which is something that is DEFINITELY not recommended on an original Atari 2600! Interesting also that it "loads" the game once inserted, meaning that the cart is not mapped to any internal memory per se but loaded into memory space in the emulator (or FPGA. Not sure which approach they used). It's a shame that they didn't include an SD card slot so you can play your own digital files though. Is there a cartridge out there that has one so you can choose your cart and then insert it? As lively as the Atari community is, I would be very surprised if such a cartridge didn't already exist.

18:00 Yars has the source code scrambled on the screen

"Ive got a bunch of my kids here", how many do you have? 🤣 Merry Christmas, Robin and family from here in the UK.

Drop down! Reverse direction! Increase speed!

I had an awesome double sided cartridge with “Pikes peak” and “haunted house “ from xonox. Does anyone else remember this?

Where's Custer's Revenge? BTW, that purple pickle is an often used emoji.

No Demon Attack by Imagic? Can't be a top 20 or top 10 list without that one! Phoenix is good but no Demon Attack ! :)

I wouldn't keep my two girls interested longer than 30 seconds if I had shown them the atari 2600. Kids these days are spoiled with the modern stuff.