The Ultimate Activision/Atari 2600 Tier List - ALL 44 GAMES RANKED - Part Two 

Giving Stampede a D? We would not have been 10 year old friends.

I absolutely think that River Raid is one of best Atari 2600 games. Played it with 2600, C64, Colecovision and Atari 5200. Carol Shaw was one of first woman game programmers and she made just amazing game. If I had select two flying games of that age those would be River Raid (Any version) and Blue Max C64.❤

River raid….S…..it also destroyed controllers in my house!! Great video!!

Really enjoyed this list, that is some true nostalgia. My only gripe is that Pitfall 2 was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen on the Atari, how they could fit so enormous a world into that little cartridge. Took many days to even figure out that map or how to solve the overall puzzle, it was a new level of immersion. That said, yes, why-oh-why couldn't they let us turn off the music, maybe just flick the difficulty button or something..

I agree with most of your rankings. I would give Keystone Kappers an S as it is one of my all-time favorite games.

Pitfall II is a transcendent masterpiece that is the God of all Activision titles for the Atari. It is analogous to Super Mario Bros. being compared to Mario Bros. or Donkey Kong. The first true modern adventure game. I guess it’s only “A” rank to demonstrate God’s humility to associate His divinity with His creation. And why would you ever want to turn DOWN the music!?

River Raid is possibly the best VCS game of all time. Giving it an A instead of an S is a travesty.

Outside of Stampede most of my picks were the same, or one above or one below. I give Stampede an A though. That was my first patch though, so that may have influenced my opinion.

I have to disagree with you. When little Andy got Pitfall II home he was VERY happy. He was older than you, but he was still VERY happy. There is a lot of innovation in Pitfall II, you have the bats, condors, frogs, eels, you have to find Rhonda, the Raj Diamond, Quickclaw, the Rat, and as many gold bars as you can all in a maze of caverns that takes a long time to explore and learn. They even added a swimming mechanic that was not in the original. You have the healing crosses that act as checkpoints, you even have to take a balloon ride to find Rhonda. Decades later I still can't do a perfect run of this game. I know where EVERYTHING is, but I always flub up somewhere so to this day there is still replay value here. I also would have put River Raid, Keystone Kapers, and Robot Tank as "S" tier. And Pressure Cooker as "A" tier. All-in-all, little Andy was VERY happy when he brought home a new Activision game for the Atari 2600 back in the day.

Wow! So happy to see my all time fave 2600 title Megamania make it to S tier...such a fun game and the reason I still have a OG 2600 and my Megamania cartridge and STILL play it to this day. Classics just don't go away.

Seaquest was one of my favorites at age 4 and is still in my top 5 as I close in on 44.

River Raid is an example of one of the earliest Procedurally Generated games. There is a video somewhere here on YT about how it was done but it was a masterpiece in coding.

Well done!!! I 99.9 % agree!!! Only game I would have ranked higher was Stampede, maybe 1 more tier... :)

I remember calling Service Merchandise every day asking if Activision Decathlon was in stock. I had tried it once and couldn’t wait to get it. Of course now, I don’t want to break my joysticks, so it rarely gets played. Love all of the Activision games I have and still play them today!

S- H.E.R.O. (‘84), Kaboom (‘81), River Raid (‘82), Star Master (‘82), Robot Tank (‘83) A- Dolphin (‘83), Enduro (‘83), Keystone Kapers (‘83), Megamania (‘82), Spider Fighter (‘83), Pitfall (‘82) B- Chopper Command (‘82), Crackpots (‘83), Decathlon (Aug’83), Frostbite (‘83), Pitfall II (‘84), Stampede (‘81), Seaquest (‘83), Tennis (‘81) C- Beamrider (‘84), Boxing (Jul‘80), Bridge (Dec‘80), Cosmic Commuter (‘85), Freeway (‘81), Fishing Derby (‘80), Grand Prix (‘82), Kung Fu Master (‘87), Laser Blast (‘81), Oink (‘83), Plaque Attack (‘83), Pressure Cooker (‘83), Private Eye (‘84), Ice Hockey (‘81), Skiing (‘80), Sky Jinks (‘82) D- Barnstorming (Mar‘82), Commando (Jun’88), Double Dragon (‘89), Dragster (‘80), Ghostbusters (‘85), River Raid II (‘88), Space Shuttle (‘83), Rampage (‘89) F- Checkers (Jul’80) Good video overall. Disregarding any games that are +/- 1 tier, these are the only titles I differ with your “how 10yo me would have ranked these.” Cosmic Commuter (‘85) - (A vs C) Fishing Derby (‘80) - (A vs C) Plaque Attack (‘83) - (A vs C) Private Eye (‘84) - (A vs C) Robot Tank (‘83) - (B vs S) Dolphin (‘83) - (D vs A) Stampede (‘81) - (D vs B) Kung Fu Master (‘87) (F vs C) Of these above, I haven’t put much time into playing Cosmic Commuter / Plaque Attack, other than the High Score Club challenges from AtariAge. The game seemed fine, except for the touchiness of the landing, but it wouldn’t be a S/A tier go-to-game I would recommend people play for the 2600. I am probably being too hard on Fishing Derby. When it came out in ‘80 it looked amazing and like Tennis is one of the few dozen simultaneous multiplayer games on VCS. I cannot say that Private Eye grabbed me the way Raiders of the Lost Ark did. Maybe I just didn’t like it because I only played Haunted House bitd and didn’t have Superman / Adventure until I discovered emulation. I love Robot Tank, the deaths didn’t seem as cheap as in Battlezone. I might be rating this too high though due to playing it so much and being able to get the highest patch (72 enemy tanks). I think you are being too hard on Dolphin / Stampede. Like Kaboom, you can get into a zen state while playing them. They are both great looking Activision games, and the gameplay is good as well, once you learn the techniques. Kung Fu Master is also under rated. It doesn’t play badly like Double Dragon or Rampage, but does suffer from the lack of 2-buttons. I prefer the NES version over it (or even the Arcade), but it is an impressive looking game that plays well with controls it was saddled with. Activision has a good reputation on the 2600 because as seen in the tier list, it has more hits than misses, and has quite a few of the top S tier games on the system.

Star Master is probably my favorite Atari 2600 game of all time. Its honestly amazing all they were able to do with that game. Probably one of the more complex games on the system. I was lucky to have it as a kid although back then i didnt quite understand what to do haha.

Love both these videos: some ranks I don't agree with, some games I've not played and now will, but all really informative. The pace and content was just perfect! Cheers!

One of my most frustrating Atari experiences back in the day was obtaining a used copy of Space Shuttle without the Instructions. The game seemed so cool, but I was just so lost when it came to knowing what to do. Years later, I finally tracked down a copy of the manual online and realized how hopeless the situation really was.

I was fan of Seaquest and River Raid for sure. I played many of these games but do not remember them all.

I really like Robot Tank, Keystone Cops ( I didn’t recognize the box art) and Starmaster

I was little Johnny and I played Stampede endlessly. I always recognized that there was a pattern, but I didn’t figure it out completely until much later which made it much harder and gave me a lot of pride when I earned the patch. Now, like anything else from that era, it seems simple, but even knowing the pattern it remains difficult when things get faster and playing with the short rope. 40 years later I still enjoy it.

Starmaster is still one of the absolute best Activision VCS games. It's remarkably close to Phaser Patrol that came bundled with the Arcadia/Starpath Supercharger without the extra hardware.

As others have said, River Raid should be S tier. I didnt not know a single Atari 2600 owner that didnt own the game; and they all loved it. I played it a ton on my C64 as well. I still fire it up on Stella/Retroarch every once in a while as well. Another accurate list with only a minor blemish 👍

River Raid for the S or we riot.

I am OK with your list with one exception. River Raid - My young self loved this game and played the you-know-what out of it. My old self still plays it once in a while and I have a hard time putting the joystick down. Nostalgia brings me to the game, but the game is still great fun to play today. I have a large 2600 game collection, and try not to horde games so others can collect and enjoy them. River Raid is one of about five games that I have a second copy of just in case something happens to the other. I can't have my 2600 and not be able to play River Raid. If I was forced to give up every game except one, regardless of who made it, River Raid would be my keeper. Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, I'd give it an S. Thanks for the video.

I fondly remember the Tennis game. I always liked how where you hit the ball on the racket determined the trajectory of the shot. Doing so was a way to trick the computer AI as well. If you just hit the ball straight back every time, you'd never score any points against the computer.

I absolutely loves Space Shuttle. My dad would laugh when I would play and simulate mission control during the game. I could never watch a shuttle launch on TV or in the news and think of the many hours I enjoyed playing that game. It'll gets a Superb from me! 👍🏼👍🏼

In River Raid, the map is actually randomly generated on the fly. However with old computers, the random numbers are generated by a formula with a 'seed' value . Every time you start the game, the formula gets reset to the original seed value (and get the same random numbers). So whenever you play the game, you also get the same map. This is also true for Pitfall as well.

Team *SPIDER FIGHTER!!!* 💪 (I like it more with the difficulty switch to disable the shot-following)

Thanks for putting this list together. I still love Robot Tank. It's my all-time favorite Activision title for the Atari VCS. My teenage daughter? Her favorite is Keystone Kapers. My family loves to play Fishing Derby and Tennis together.

Another Gen X adult here. I had lots of these games as a kid, and I think you did a more than fair job ranking them. Kaboom was my absolute favorite game growing up,. Thank for the trip down memory lane.

Cool I was waiting for this. I actually loved Laser Blast back in the day. But I agree with your take on it from my perspective today. It's almost like the challenge is to see how long you can keep up the firing pattern without dying. I'd probably put it at about a C instead of a D. I'd probably rank River Raid an S. I think it's in my Top 10 Atari of all time. And Starmaster was so awesome back in the day. Still one of my favorites. Definitely deserves an S. Nice roundup here! Of the 10 tracks I have finished for my soundtracks project I did music for Enduro, River Raid, and Megamania. So you know I love me some Activision.

Excellent video as always John. Thank you for making these videos.

Fantastic video Jon and really enjoyed reliving a lot of these truly classic games. Great job!

I'm glad we agree on MegaMania. I consider it the best game on the system.

Maybe you should rank all the 2600 games ? Loved your video, as the Atari was the home console I played I would like to see more content on the 2600.

Very nice ranking. Some of those I had never heard of. The ones I am familiar with would rank pretty solid with what you chose. Excellent excellent video. Thanks, Jon. Very entertaining.

Pretty spot on. You had logical justifications for all and the ones I consider the best were unsurprisingly at the top of your list. Enjoyable 2 part episode.

cool video as usual..keep up..i played plaque attack and river raid in the 90ies....cool stuff

You couldn't be more wrong with Boxing. This is one of the best 1-1 Atari games. It's simple to learn, hard to master. We used to have battles in boxing, and it was one of the first 2600 games I introduced to my kids.

Great series of ranking videos! Very much enjoyed them. I was with you 90% of the time. All in all very good analysis and rankings.

10 year old me would rate Keystone Capers, Pressure Cooker and River Raid as S. Many here that I didn't get to play so your video will be an invaluable reference when I crank up a VCS Emulator. Thank you.

I keep checking back to see how much longer I have to wait for this video 😂

S-tier games: Pitfall 2, Pressure Cooker, Stampede, Kaboom!

Andy Williams below mentioned my fav, the Space Shuttle game, it came with a expansion pack that increased the RAM of the system. It had much better graphics and more detailed action. It also had an additional keyboard type controller. I won a NASA Space Shuttle Astronaut patch as one of the first to manually fly it to orbit and back. It was hard, I could see pitch, yaw, and roll meters in my sleep by the end of that.

Hi there! Recently found your channel, and as a GenX gamer, I just HAD to sub. I grew up playing these games, so it's a wonderful trip down memory lane.

I'm the kind of person who never pays more than 20$ for a game with one major exception; Space Shuttle. I have so much respect for it that I forked out 80$... in 2017. The programmer was truly passionate and talented and created a quality product. Hats off.

I wanted to see the full list on the screen a bit longer in the end but I guess that's what pause if for. Good job sir!

I agree with many of your choices except for one. I loved pitfall when it first came out, but I soon found it monotonous. I mean, there’s never an end to the game! It just goes on and on forever with no real challenges. When the sequel came out I loved it so much that the first one seemed almost like a “proof of concept“ version which I never played again. I joined the pitfall harry club by getting over 10,000 points and I will never forget when I completed pitfall 2. It was amazing. Also, the music you complain about doesn’t always play throughout the entire adventure.

i liked cosmic ark and enduro

I would put starmaster lower on the list. The programmers put epileptic like flashing lights everytime an enemy is destroyed. If they did not have those flashing lights all the time. I would agree with your ranking

Can't argue with your rankings here overall, but I'm still charging you with a Bro-Code Violation for giving Bridge high marks in Part One! 😊

Wow, most of my favorites made the S tier. Only one I didn't really agree with was Stampede. I loved that game and recall it being quite challenging at times. Pitfall and River Raid were all time favorites. Love the list.

Glad that Space Shuttle got a decent shake! That one was created by Garry Kitchen's (of Keystone Kapers fame) brother Steve. He spent time in an actual NASA shuttle simulator to make the game, which I always thought was pretty awesome! Took me 35 years for me to score a single point in the game though 🤣

Pitfall 2 was so awesome! I couldn't believe there was a waterfall in the game

Great video, sure brings back memories. I agree with others though, River Raid is an S. It was a go to for me that I came back to time after time.

You brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid. I counted and had 16 of these. My favorites were Megamania, Keystone Kapers, Pitfall, and Chopper Command. I remember playing Decathalon with friends and loving that game, but hating to do the long distance running event.

I agree with everything… Apart from Keystone Kapers should have been S tier. But I get what you are saying. 😊

Two things - #1 Thanks for putting this 2-Part Series together, I found it interesting and fun to play the "Ranking Game" as you were going thru these. #2 The ATARI BASEBALL CAP --> Where did you get it?!?! I want one too!

Your list is very good, thank you for that. Anyway, congrats for your excelent work, I'm a new subscriber.

I'm curious to see where Pitfall II falls

Seaquest and Stampede are a A for me

Great video!

Man, I love these 2 episodes. My personal ranking isn't that much different. One question though: where's the E in the ranking?

Amazing series! Talk about a nostalgia flood! I agree with most of the rankings except for kung-fu master. I played the ever loving you know what out of that game and while yes, it wasn't as good as the arcade or the Nintendo version, it was pretty decent for the time considering the 1 button controller. I would have given it a solid C IMHO. I still have many patches for the games from mailing a polaroid of the screen which I believe is the original achievement list.

I loved Space Shuttle. I played it over and over for hours. Having to rendezvous with the satellite, then fire retros to deorbit and land as a sort-of-glider brick was, for me, a fun challenge.

Glad to see Megamania get its proper position. Was easily my favorite game as a kid and one of th best overall titles for the 2600 IMO.

We didn't have a ton of Atari games, but we definitely had River Raid and Chopper Command. I'm not surprised you ranked them high in your video. It's funny how all these Activision games have the same lovely art on the box but widely range in quality.

3:56 reminds me of Astro Blaster

Keystone Kapers is my 2nd favorite 2600 game (#1 is Yars' Revenge). S teir no doubter. So is Enduro.

What do you mean Pitfall II didn't innovate? It clearly innovated alot. David Crane pushed Pitfall Harry's adventure to the next level. Having multiple levels. New creatures like poiseness frogs hoping over a hole. The vultures. Having to ride a balloon to get over to the final section. I undetstand why you don't lose lives. At that time this was one of the biggest Activision games for the Atari ever made. I loved playing Pitfall II way more than the original. It took me awhile to beat it too. I mean now with my Retron 77 I can save where ever I want. But back then I had to float back to the last cross I walked over. I think David Crane might have been afraid to give limited lives fearing young kids would never finish it. We couldn't save games back then.

Great video and well put together. In my opinion, River Raid is absolutely an 'S' rating and I would give it to Keystone Kapers as well. Stampede was at least a 'C' to me.

You should play River Raid on the Atari 8-bit or 5200. There’s detail along the river bed, there are additional enemies like helicopter gunners, balloons, tanks that will shoot at you from the river beds and tanks that are crossing the bridge, and since the game has more detail there are narrow passages that are more difficult to navigate. Plus 8-bit/5200 Pitfall II has an additional quest after you beat the original game. I look forward to a potential Atari 8-bit/5200 tier list video. If you want to do that sometime that is. 🙂

God I have to get an Atari 2600. I recall and love many of these games.

Megamania was a favorite in our house. One of the few games everyone liked.

appreciate the list. unlike a couple of games in part 1, in part two I would rank these games more or less the same as you.

Atari 2600 is my 12 year old son's favorite game system. He is definitely an old soul!

Robot Tank was amazing and I don't know of any other game that played like it. Nevermind that this was an Atari title. Current titles have that jam covering your eyes healthbar and head-bobbing, but it isn't close.

Rank Imagic next! Spider Fighter I took as Activision took on Stratovox.

Spider Fighter is one of my fav Atari Games so that would have been ranked higher but other then that I like what you did.

1982: Atari: We present to you, "Star Raiders". Activision: Hold My Beer! (Presents "Starmaster") Need we say more?

Of all the Atari games, Robot Tank gave me the most anxiety when you lost one, two, three of your systems and still had your turret. Being able to still destroy the enemy after that is something you remember well after the game is over. It deserves an A. P.S. Atari's 2600 version of Battlezone deserves an A as well. It's one of those games that actually improved what they released in the arcade.

If you didn't give Pitfall an S rating I would have stopped the video and never watched anything from you ever again lol. J/K. I enjoy your videos and it gives me a trip down memory lane.

Megamania drove me nuts, hard game.

I always liked Stampede a lot. Yeah, gameplay isn't that varied, but it did present a nice challenge to get a better score. (I'd probably also given River Raid an "S"). Fun ranking!

Jon thank you for this wonderful list it was a pleasure to watch both of these videos and I really enjoy your channel. I do have one disagreement. I would like you to reconsider Pitfall 2 for superb. We have to give it credit for one very impressive innovation for the time which was the ability to save progress. Also it just deserves to be there. How about the scene where he has to jump on the hot-air balloons and the music changes to the circus anthem? The graphics are noticeably improved with a gorgeous skyline. This was truly my favorite game. Just some thoughts thanks again for the great videos!

My top 3 2600 games are Kaboom, River Raid, and Enduro so I'd give them all S's. Sorry you didn't find Stampede that good though! It is a clever and fun game trying to make progress and round up those doggies - an "A" game for me. Thanks for the show!

Jon can you do a Neo Geo tier. Love those classic games and never did get a system but just got a mini and got a few games for my switch. Would love too see you break down these games. Thanks for the videos.

I must admit that I'm a non guided bullet/shot player. Be that on spider fighter or river raid ect. PS, good call on frostbite, that is one of my favourite games 👍

I have fond memories of River Raid, Spider Fighter and Boxing

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Most of 10 year-old Mark's favorites are in your D category... O' well, still fun to see your rankings.

Space Shuttle was one of the most unique games I have played. You had to push the sequence of buttons and levers in proper order and time or the mission would be scrubbed. Then you left out the coolest part of the game which was piloting the shuttle back from space based on actual flight patterns of the shuttle and then landing it. I would put this game at S due to how cool it was.

my first console was the 2600 but I don't remember many of these games.

River Raid WAS my childhood. It was a no-brainer S title. Laser Blast should be B or C. Sea Quest should be an A or B.

Your videos are always in depth and well crafted! I enjoy, thanks. I totally agree big time EXCEPT I would move up Pitfall 2 to superb! I would also move up Oink and Pressure Cooker one level to your ranking but yes this is subjective and understood! THANKS for your nice efforts! Appreciated. There were yes some duds like Dragster but I loved the box art!

*EXCELLENT* two part series! 👏 But, I disagree with your placement of “Stampede”. To me that is one of Activision’s absolute best games and I played it endlessly back in the early 80’s as a kid. I would rank it a solid “A”.

Loved Skiing. Always trying to beat my time.

My tier list for the second half of Activision: S-Pitfall!, Stampede, and Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space A-Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, Starmaster, and Keystone Kapers B-Robot Tank and Skiing C-River Raid, Tennis, Spider Fighter, Megamania, River Raid II, and Laser Blast D-Sky Jinks, Seaquest, Oink!, Kung-Fu Master, and Private Eye F-Plaque Attack, Rampage, and Pressure Cooker Now would Space Shuttle have made S tier if I had not been playing it solid for the last week and actually finally made Space Shuttle Commander rank yesterday, probably not. Since I have been playing it a ton and had a great gaming high off of making that top rank yesterday, it is going at the top.

You make me want to brake out my atari I've got as a kid and still have .

I think I had Stampede, although I had forgotten about it until now. I definitely had Chopper Command. I was trying to explain it to my kids the other day and they just didn't get it. So I said, "It's kind of like Defender." Head shakes, walks away. Nevermind!