Nine Atari Games

TCW Podcast Episode 257 - Nine Atari Games The Atari VCS launched with nine games to entice consumers into the new gaming medium, and Combat set the trend of packing multiple "games" into a single cartridge. Featuring a wide array of game modes, Combat holds its own even today and served as the console's official tie-in title. Atari's partnership with Sears, however, rebranded all but one of the launch titles under different names, including Target Fun, released elsewhere as Air-Sea Battle. Many of the launch games carried multiple modes to stretch their value, and even these early titles pulled clever tricks to push past the VCS's five sprite limit. To justify the console's cost to families, Atari aimed squarely at adults with Blackjack while also including the educational game Basic Math. While many of these early titles were forgotten as more advanced games arrived over the course of the Atari VCS's life, their influence on a foundational system cannot be disputed. Atari Archive: Atari Archive (Youtube): Combat: Air-Sea Battle: Video Olympics: Indy 500: Street Racer: Star Ship: Blackjack: Basic Math: Surround: How to do long form Square Roots: TCW 051 - Sons of Pong: TCW 201 - Advanced Balls and Paddles Part 1: TCW 202 - Advanced Balls and Paddles Part 2: TCW 009 - History of Mediagenic Part 1: TCW 010 - History of Mediagenic Part 2: New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month! TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com BlueSky: @theycreateworlds.bsky.social Patreon: Alex's Video Game History Blog: Alex's book: Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode - Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: Copyright: Attribution:

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Nine Atari Games is an episode from They Create Worlds by Alex Smith, and Jeffrey Daum.

This episode is 77:56 long.

This episode was published on May 1, 2026.

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