Atari 2600 Video Game Console of 1977

• video game console credited for popularizing use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code
• 8-bit home computer using MOS Technology 6502 CPU
• bundle came with 2 joystick controllers, pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game
• hundreds and hundreds of games!

MATH SKILLS

Math Grand Prix: have fun learning/testing math skills

Objective of game: do math problems to get to the end of a race track before another car.

Bad Review:




READING/WRITING SKILLS

Alpha Beam: for ages 3-7

Aimed at:
1. Matching idential letters
2. Matching upper case letters with their corresponding lower case letters
3. Discriminating between confusing letters

Object of the game:
Beam the lettered fuel tanks that are floating in space into the docking bays of Ernie's rocket ship.


Comes with an "attention grabbing" story

ERNIE THE ASTRONAUT

"Space is terrific," said Ernie the astronaut as he flew his rocket ship
past the beautiful ringed-planet Saturn. "But I'm really getting homesick
and I miss my old buddy Bert. I think I'll turn around and start for home.
I'd better take a look at my trusty space map first so I won't get lost."

But as Ernie unfolded the map, his glance fell upon the fuel gauge of his
rocket ship.

"Uh oh! I'm almost out of fuel!" Ernie began to worry. "I hope I can make
it to the next refueling station in time."

Just as his ship coasted to a stop, Ernie spotted the Alpha Beam Fuel
Station. He put on his space suit and got into his space shuttle to go
collect the fuel for his rocket.

"Boy am I lucky," he said. "I just made it!"

First, Ernie flew his shuttle over his rocket fuel bays to see what kind of
fuel he needed. Then, he flew to the fuel station and carefully selected
the right tank for each fuel bay on his ship.

"The `A' fuel tank goes in the `A' docking bay, the `B' fuel tank goes in
the `B' docking bay, and so on," said Ernie. "If you're planning to fly
a rocket ship through outer space, you've got to know your ABC's!"

Ernie knew he had to fill up the fuel bays as quickly as possible because,
according to his automatic countdown clock, his ship was set to blast off
in a few seconds.

"Nine...eight..." ticked the clock. (Ernie loaded the first fuel tank.)
"Seven...six...five...four..." (The `B' and `C' tanks were loaded.)

"Am I loading the fuel correctly?" Ernie wondered. "Will my ship make it
all the way back to earth?"

"Three...two..." (Ernie loaded the last tank and jumped aboard his rocket
just as the fuel bays closed.) "One! Blast off!" The great rocket ship
headed towards Earth.

"I sure hope I make it," said Ernie. "I really miss my old buddy Bert!"

"Ernie began to feel better as he passed Saturn again and saw Jupiter
straight ahead.

"If I can just get to Mars," he thought. "Earth is only one stop away."

But Ernie's ship started to slow down. He looked at the control panel and
saw that his fuel indicator was nearing the empty mark again.

"Oh no!" he groaned. "I'm running out of fuel. Now I'll never make it all
the way home. I'll never see my buddy Bert again!"

"What do you mean, Ernie?" asked Bert. "Of course you'll see me again.
I'm just going to the kitchen to make oatmeal for breakfast."

Ernie opened his eyes and realized that he was safe in his own room. His
toy rocket had fallen off his bed and was lying on the floor.

"Boy did I ever have a crazy dream, Bert!" laughed Ernie with relief.
"You'll never believe it, not in a million light-years!"

Bad Review:
"This game was a commercial failure, having the dreaded combination of being a children's game and requiring a nonstandard controller. It was barely worth licensing Ernie for this title as he is only shown on a single screen."





Word Zapper:

Objective of the game:
Your goal is to zap three words in 99 seconds. First, the current word will appear at the bottom of the screen. You then have to recreate this word by controlling your spaceship and zapping letters in the correct order which will be scrolling by at the top of the screen. To make this task more challenging, various asteroids will fly by horizontally; some asteroids will cause you to lose time, others destroy your ship ending the game. To help protect yourself, your spaceship is also equipped with lasers which can be used to destroy the asteroids. If you shoot five asteroids in a row, you earn a "freebie" which can be used in place of any letter. You will also need to use the "freebie" to move on to the next word after all the necessary letters have been zapped. The game ends when you successfully zap three words, the time limit runs out, or your spaceship is destroyed by asteroids. Numerous game variations are available. These control the speed and density of the asteroids, the speed of the scrolling alphabet, and allow you to choose between zapping words or random letters.



Bad Review



PUZZLE/PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

Riddle of the Sphinx: explore the Egyptian Desert for clues and solve the riddle


Bad Review



Code Breaker: solve simple code combinations using logical deductions

Codebreaker Manual



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Bad Review:



Good Review!