The Atari 2600, first released as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) in 1977, is a second generation home video game console. It was manufactured and sold by Atari Inc., then a subsidiary of Warner Communications. After 1984, the console was sold by Atari Corp., following the acquisition of the brand by Jack Tramiel. It was discontinued as a commercial product in 1992, six years before the Atari brand would be again sold to Hasbro and eventually Infogrames (today known as Atari SA). In its early years, Sears also sold the console under its own branding as the Tele-Games Video Arcade, releasing many early games under that label as well. Most were rebranded Atari games but three cartridges were released exclusively by Sears. Many reproductions of the Atari 2600 hardware have been produced, in some cases with exclusive games. These include the ColecoVision's Expansion Module #1 adapter, the Coleco Gemini, the MegaBoy, and most recently the Atari Flashback and Atari 2600+ systems.
This list is divided into four sections:
games had a retail release, widely available on store shelves before 1993. games were sold in limited numbers at events or through mail-order. More than games have been released after discontinuation, mostly by hobbyists as homebrew projects. At least previously unreleased games have been discovered and sold in some capacity as prototypes.
In 1977, the console was released with nine cartridges: Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Blackjack, Combat, Indy 500, Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround and Video Olympics. By the start of 1980, 31 games had been released, all produced internally at Atari. In 1980, Atari released Space Invaders, the first externally licensed port of an arcade game and an unprecedented success that catapulted the 2600 into mainstream popularity. A new company called Activision also started releasing games for the system in 1980, they were the first third-party company to release games for any home console. Activision initially released games without a license, but eventually paid a licensing fee following the settlement of a lawsuit with Atari.
Heading into 1982, many companies, looking to capitalize on the boom in video game sales, followed Activision's lead and began publishing their own games for the 2600. These included toy companies, such as Mattel, Coleco, Parker Brothers, and Fisher-Price (through sister company U.S. Games), entertainment conglomorates such as 20th Century Fox, CBS, and Paramount Pictures (through Sega Enterprises), and video game startups such as Imagic, Games by Apollo, CommaVid, and more. The amount of game releases spiked, from 16 games in 1981 to 105 games in 1982. On December 8, 1982, following a disastrous sales report by Atari, stocks related to video games began to plummit. This marked the beginning of the video game crash of 1983. By the end of 1984, almost every single third-party publisher besides Activision had been forced out of the video game market, either by bankruptcy or restructuring. The sudden volume of game releases is commonly accepted as one of the main causes of the crash.
The newly formed Atari Corp. and a handful of other third-parties would continue to release new games for the Atari 2600 and the backwards compatible Atari 7800 into the early 90s, especially in PAL regions. However, sales were dwarfed by other systems, such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, and new game releases disappeared by 1993. The final licensed games released in North America were Ikari Warriors, MotoRodeo, Sentinel, and Xenophobe in July 1990, and the final licensed games released in Europe was Acid Drop in 1992. Since 2023, Atari has released games designed for the system via the Atari 2600+. The best selling game for the system was Pac-Man, followed by Space Invaders and Donkey Kong (see List of best-selling Atari 2600 video games).
Retail game releases
Every game on this list would have been widely available on store shelves around the time of their release. They were also generally previewed at trade shows, such as CES or the Toy Fair, and covered widely by contemporary gaming magazines. Most games by M Network, a label of Mattel, were re-released Intellivision games, sometimes under different names. Games released by Starpath were cassette tapes compatible with the Starpath Supercharger. A small number of games, most notably X-Man and Custer's Revenge, were pornographic and faced heavy controversy upon their release. Programmers in were not credited in the box art, manual, or game itself, and instead were only revealed through later research and interviews.