7 classic video games for the Odyssey 2

Pick Axe Pete

This was one of the most popular video games for the Odyssey 2 home systems. It was a climbing game sort of, in which you controlled the Pete on the screen who had to collect keys while avoiding boulders and other objects tumbling in his direction before going through doors and on to the next level. This was my personal favorite of all the Odyssey 2 games from Magnavox.

Killer Bees!

This was one of the more unique games not only for the Odyssey 2, but for all the home gaming consoles during the early 1980s. You play a swarm of bees attacking robots while avoiding other bees.

Q*bert

This arcade classic was still fun to play at home on the Odyssey 2, though I have to admit the graphics could have been better. Still, the Odyssey 2 had a lot going for it, but often the graphics paled in comparison to other home gaming consoles.

Turtles

One of the few arcade games to make it to a home version for the Odyssey 2 gaming console. The graphics were pretty good, the sound decent and the gameplay just like the arcade version of Turtles. For the early 1980s, this was an alright game.

Popeye

Based upon the popular arcade game, which was based upon the popular cartoon, Popeye brought arcade-style fun to the Odyssey 2, though admittedly it didn't have the same quality of graphics. Still, Popeye was a lot of fun to play on the Odyssey 2, also known as the Philips Videopac in Europe.

Atlantis

This game from Imagic was popular on the Atari 2600 and other gaming consoles and computers in the early 1980s, so it's only proper the Odyssey 2 had a version, especially since there never was a lot of third-party software for this gaming console. Atlantis here is great fun, and has great gameplay and colors.

UFO

Much like the arcade game Asteroids, you pilot a ship through space while avoiding the enemy. However, that's where the similarities end. UFO is an awesome game in its own right, and is worth playing for all its differences from asteroids. Oh yeah, and just for the fun of it!

Video game links

10 Awesome Arcade Games from the 1980s

10 Forgotten Arcade Games I Still Love

Classic Video Gamers, a blog for old school gamers

5 classic Atari 5200 games

Realsports Baseball

In my opinion, this is still one of the best baseball video games of all time. The graphics were sharp, the sound excellent, and you could control pretty much everything on the screen. There were even line scores!

Zaxxon

Though many gaming fans were not impressed by the version of Zaxxon for the Atari 2600, this version for the Atari 5200 set many things right, mainly moving back to the isometric, sort-of-3D viewpoint.

Space Invaders

Space Invaders might have been old hat in 1982 when the Atari 5200 came along, but this gaming console still managed to bring some new, entertaining qualities to this classic arcade game.

Gremlins

With the huge success of the Gremlins movie in 1984, it was no surprise Atari produced video games based upon the movie, the best of which (in my opinion) was this game for the Atari 5200 which came out in 1986. Lost of frantic action here with solid graphics and great gameplay.

Defender

This version of the classic Defender video game is darn close to the original arcade version by Williams Electronics from 1980. The graphics are fantastic and the sounds are awesome. The gameplay is somewhat chaotic, but that's just how the arcade Defender was, with lots going on on the screen at any time.

More video game links

10 Classic games for Atari 2600

Remember Those Awesome Mattel Handheld Games?

Classic Video Gamers, a blog for old school gamers

2 classic Intellivsion video games

Boxing

Released in 1981, this was one of the most realistic boxing sports video games for the longest times. The graphics weren't the greatest, but there was a lot of variety to this game, and you got to play a full 15 rounds, each one 90 seconds long.

Armor Battle

Back in the late 1970s there were not a lot of military video games to play, but Intellivision came up with this nifty game, which had graphics a couple of years before its time for home consoles.

More video game links

10 Classic games for Intellivision

10 Classic Games for Intellivision, II

Classic Video Gamers, a blog for old school gamers

Game of the week: Cosmic Avenger for Colecovision

History records the arcade game Cosmic Avenger as being the very first continuous horizontal space shooting video game that also included side scrolling. Some might argue that Defender was the first such game, but the screen in Defender was technically not continuous but looped back in upon itself.

Unfortunately, despite its little place in history, I don't remember Cosmic Avenger being a big hit at the arcades back in the day. Oh, I'm not saying I never saw a Cosmic Avenger game in the arcades, but it wasn't very often that I'd run across one, and I'm thinking I would be hard pressed to find a working Cosmic Avenger game today.

However, Cosmic Avenger was fun to play back in the day and it must have had something going for it because it was ported to the Colecovision home gaming system.

The arcade and Colecovision versions of the game are quite similar, but that shouldn't be a surprise because the Colecovision was known for quality graphics back in the day.

The gameplay is quite simple by today's standards. The player controls a spaceship that flies over cities and mountains and even under water, all the while shooting at enemies in the sky and on the ground below.

The graphics are a bit garish, even for the early 1980s, with lots of bright pinks and yellows, but they felt appropriate to this game. The Colecovision game had one fault I did not care for which was the choppy frame rate; the screen didn't blink all the time, but it seemed whenever action heated up, then there would be blinking, blinking and more blinking, which wasn't all that common in Colecovision games.

How does Cosmic Avenger hold up today? Well, it's a horizontal shooter with somewhat cartoonish graphics, so what do you think? So, probably not very well. Still, Cosmic Avenger offered plenty of action, and collectors could do much worse in finding this cartridge for their old Colecovision.

Video game of the week: Venture for Atari 2600

In 1981 the arcades were full of maze games and shooting games. Little yellow fellows zoomed around a screen eating dots and alien menaces died by the millions. There were a lot of arcade games, and after a while many of them started to look the same, like clones of other games.

Of course there were some games which were different from many of the others. Venture is one such game.

Released in 1981 by the Exidy Company, Venture grew to some success in the arcades, though it never quite had the legendary status of such games as Donkey Kong or Space Invaders and the like. The player controls a small dot on the screen known as Winky, and Winky's goal is to travel around a dungeon and collect treasure while avoiding or slaying monsters. It's a fairly simple process, and the first dungeon (of three) is pretty easy for most players, but there was still fun to be found here.

In each of the three dungeons there are four rooms that Winky must enter. Those rooms contain the treasure. Out in the dungeon are giant monsters roaming around, and Winky isn't able to kill them. But in each of the rooms are monsters Winky can kill with his trusty bow and arrows; even after slaying a foe, however, Winky has to be on his toes because touching the body of a dead enemy can still kill Winky. And if Winky takes too long in any of the rooms, one of the giant monsters from the dungeon will pop into the room and make a beeline for Winky.

It wasn't soon after Venture became known in the arcades that Coleco made a home version available for the Atari 2600 and just about every other major home gaming console of the day.

One could call Venture a minimalist game, and to some extent that is true. The sound is very basic, almost monotonous, and the graphics are pretty bland, even by standards of 1981. However, perhaps it is only nostalgia, but there was plenty of fun to be had having Winky traverse around the dungeon slaying monsters and stealing treasures. Perhaps we just didn't know better back then because we were all thrilled with every new game that came along, but I, for one, always appreciated the simplicity of Venture and the fun that came along with the game, despite that once you've master this game it does not have much replay value.