Atari 8-bit Computer Games that You MUST PLAY

Are these available as roms to load on the system?

Must haves: Dropzone, Archon, Rescue on Fractalus, The Eidolon, Mercenary, Elektra Glide, Pharaohs Curse, Pole Position, Star Raiders, Star Raiders II, Montezuma's Revenge.

Well done video sir. Blue Max was my favorite growing up. Must play for sure. As I collect for the console Super Zaxxon is another outstanding game .

Mind blowing stuff😁

It would be helpful if you provided links to the various games you profile. I can't find any sign of Tempest Elite (For example).

With the Atari 400 mini , this video come handy, thanks John !

I’ve never played games from this computer but I’m excited to check them out

It’s great to see a video on the Atari 8-bit. I could go on raving about this great computer for hours. As always, I’ll strongly recommend MULE, Seven Cities of Gold and Ballblazer, just for starters. Donkey Kong is also excellent, and as we can see, the indie/homebrew scene has kept Atari alive all these years. Thank God for the diehard Atarians in Poland.

Oh, and have you seen Space Harrier? Holy buckets, that was an achievement. But I believe that required the 1MB RAM expansion, so it’s probably only playable via emulator for most fans.

I want one so bad man. I’m actually looking to buy a 5200 or 7800. I’m just so discouraged about the controller situation regarding the 5200. Is there really no affordable solution? Those custom controllers cost more than the system.

I got a 600XL a few weeks ago and upgraded the ram to 64k. I'm finding so many weird and cool games for it that it's starting to become my favorite 8-bit computer.

And where is the Amico? 🤔😂

The Atari 400 Mini is cute, but like all the mini computers coming out are only legal emulators and roms. I have my original 1200XL, that got me through college in the 1980s. It's been "fixed" and upgraded but is still my favorite. I also picked up a 130XE, a few years ago, heap, just for fun.

Nice choices. The Bosconian homebrew looks amazing.

Yoomp is an awesome game, it can also be found on the Atari 50 Anniversary Celebration.

That version of Donkey Kong might be my favorite version to play on any platform! 🔥

Man I had one of those back in the day. I worked all summer to buy a disk drive for like $400.

I recently inherited a 130xe from a co-worker, and I had never heard of Atari’s computer line before then. I totally fell in love with the pick up and play nature of the games. It’s now become one of my go to gaming machines—endless hours of fun.

Star Raiders

I really liked Nebulus. IMO, the best joystick for the Atari 8-bit PCs was the microswitch-based, bat-handled Wico Command Control Joystick.

My uncle had a 400 and he had this really cool game that was like that Zepplin game and helicopter game but it was submarines instead.
It had all these amazing detail of underwater caverns ya could enter and ya had to destroy force field generators and/or walls and knock out enemy power plants and weapon installations,but there were surface ships dropping depth charges and torpedos and enemy subs patrolling.
Ya had your own home base also ala Capt.Nemo where ya could repair or refuel your sub i think.
There was another aspect to it underlying your actions,like some other mission ongoing ya had to accomplish but i cant remember exactly.
It was one of my favorite games as the physics of it was very "realistic" it gave you the feeling of actual underwater motion because the sub had momentum and ya had to be careful when you lessened forward speed or to stop, the sub kept moving like it had actual mass. Same for moving up and down.
Maybe im recalling it wrong, or embellishing it in my nostalgic mind. Lol
Anyone know what it was called? Ive been trying to find it again for emulation onto another device, like maybe the GSP.

I got the Atari XEGS for Xmas '87. My parents got it for me instead of the NES which was sold out everywhere. Didn't want it because I felt at the time that there weren't a lot of games for it that I really wanted to play or own. Turned out that I had a classmate that had a bunch of carts for the 800. I borrowed a couple just to see if they would work on the XEGS, I had no idea. They did, and my friend said he was moving on to the NES and I could have all of his Atari 800 carts. I still have them today.

Lots of good recommendations here. I didn't see Sirius Software mentioned though so I'm going to throw that one out there. Sirius published a lot of Apple II stuff back in the day and ported most to the Atari 8-bits and C64. I was an Atari man and games like Space Eggs, Bandits, Sneakers, Repton, Wavy Navy, and who can forget Wayout. Check 'em out for some Sirius 8-bit fun. :)

I hope they announce the Atari 5200 Mini. That's an under appreciated console no thanks to the bad controller, but the games on it are great! There are some amazing arcade ports on the 5200. Centipede, Moon Patrol, Berzerk, Robotron 2084 and Missile Command to name a few. It would also give Atari a chance to redeem themselves by actually making the controller work well.

I loved the Atari 8-bit, so many fond memories. Good choices here, ten must play games that quickly spring to mind for me would be: 'Alternate Reality: The City' (and it's sequel 'The Dungeon'), 'Elektraglide', 'Mercenary' (and its follow-up 'The Second City'), 'Rescue On Fractulus', 'Bounty Bob Strikes Back', 'Montezuma's Revenge', 'Zybex', 'Jetboot Jack', 'Kareteka', 'The Lone Raider'. All fabulous games, some ported to / from other platforms, but the Atari 8-bit versions were usually always the best.

Spelunker was one of my favorites

what ever hapoend to his museum , did he open it

The 800XL was one of the systems I used to own that got lost when I moved out of my parents house, I still have tape copies of Blue Max, Fort Apocalypse, and Draconus in the loft. I've often thought of getting another 800XL. Hopefully they bring out an 800XL Maxi... One can only hope!

Blue Max is one of the best Atari games

While growing up in the eighties, our household was very Atari based, with an 800 and 800XL, and my own 65XE with all of the trimmings ;) (1050 floppy drive, 300 baud modem, etc..) that I received in grade 7. The games that I played the most were, Star Raiders, Fort Apocalypse, Great American Cross Country Road Race, Blue Max, Joust, Karate Champ, Karateka, Donkey Kong, Pole Position, etc.. Such a fantastic system and I have many warm memories.

What's the difference between this computer and the atari st?

The real classics are : River Raid, Monty (Montezuma's revenge), International Karate, Boulder Dash, Robbo (veeeery cool Polish game, check it out), Panthera. All Zeppelin games : Draconus, Ninja Commando and Zybex are the best. My favorite is Dan Strikes Back. Also, Ninja game was very popular in Eastern Europe. But version we've got here was Atari 65XE and 130, sometimes Atari XEGS - some weird game console variant with a lightgun and "Bug Hunt" cartridge. 800s were seldom, but they were here

Too many to not miss anything.

The C64 is better.

Very insightful. That donkey kong port looks fire.

I adore Fort Apocalypse and Zeppelin. There are so many great Atari 400/800 games!
Starting with the less mainstream ones that I can't get enough of are Rainbow Walker, Necromancer, Flip & Flop, O’Riley’s Mine, Pharaoh's Curse, Mountain King, and one of my top favorite maze games is: Serpentine. One must-play unreleased arcade game that started on the Atari 400/800 computers before being ported to arcades is Blaster!

Very nice

Had an 800XL my dad acquired in the mid 1980s. Let's just say my Dad had a good friend, as we had access to games and midi on floppy disks. DK was great!

My first PC, was an Atari 400. I just bougth this Mini, and also have the real 400, 800, 800xl, 7800, 2600, 5200 and 130XE in my collection. Atari was so under rated vs C64 etc

I kept my 800xl since the late 80's. In the early my rf connector failed and I couldn't find the power brick. In 2020 I brought a power and monitor connectors . Once it started working I played carts. A few months later I brought a sdsio drive. I still playing now. I love galaxian.

Seeing these games shows how amazing these systems were.. this is late 70's tech!

Epyx had many good games on this platform. Jumpman, Jumpman Junior, and Pitstop were all great.

I also really enjoyed the Atari 800 versions of Karateka and Boulder Dash. And no list is complete without 1st party titles like Robotron 2084 and Star Raiders.

Henry's house and hoover boover are a challenging games.

Why just 10?

Sidewinder, Necromancer, Bruce Lee, Spy Hunter.

John Atari made a lot of mistakes, but it was a new product and no one knew what was happening. But I never understood why they didn’t market the 400/800 as an update to the 2600. They had the hardware, the games. The games were perfect step up. Oh well, I had one and I knew..

My favorites on my 130XE were Ballblazer, Rescue on Fractalus, Defender, and some PD games like Buried Bucks. These days, I've enjoyed Scorch.

Preppie! is excellent!

My first non-pong machine was the Intellivision and I loved it. However, when it came time to buy a computer, as soon as I saw Eastern Front '41 running on an Atari 400/800 I had to have one. Owning the Atari 400 with 48k and a keyboard add on made me an Atarian.