Introducing My Daughter to the Atari 2600 - Every* Game Console in Order

Originally posted on my Medium account

When I first came up with the idea of introducing my daughter Sarah to all the game consoles in order (criteria listed here), the console I was most excited to share with her was the Atari 2600. It was my main inspiration for this endeavor, and I thought it would really kick things off for her after some of the earlier console duds like the RCA Studio II (covered here).

I figured the limited controls and simple gameplay would be perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. Tactile controls, concise visual feedback, and no microtransactions — the antithesis of iPad games.

But did Sarah enjoy it?

The Atari 2600

The Atari 2600, originally known as the Atari Video Computer System, was released in 1977 and has since become a massive success in gaming as well as a cultural icon. I imagine most readers of this article are familiar with it, either through playing the original hardware, game re-releases, or through the many pop culture references it inspired🕹️.

I will be light on the introduction to what is likely one of the most recognizable and significant game consoles of all time, but the short of it is that the Atari 2600 is widely seen as the first big success in home consoles, selling over 30 million consoles and an estimated 120 million cartridges throughout its life.

This success attracted the interest of third-party developers to expand the game library further than what Atari could produce in-house. This led to the concept of third-party game developers springing up to make games for Atari, like Activision, who started out making games for the 2600, and big successes in the arcade space like Konami and Sega, porting their popular arcade games to the home console market.

Atari’s early success in the video game market led to many companies attempting to cash in on the 2600’s popularity, resulting in over 400 games being released for the platform, many of which were from companies with poor quality control. To put it into perspective for the time, each game console reviewed previously in this series (Magnavox Odyssey, Pong, Fairchild Channel F, and the RCA Studio II) had fewer than 30 games released for them. The number of low-quality games released for the 2600 is likely the first instance of shovelware, leaving customers unsatisfied with boring, rushed games (e.g., the E.T. for the 2600 fiasco), eventually contributing to what has become known as the Video Game Crash of 1983, where the game industry saw a massive collapse in sales and public interest, primarily within the United States.

Controllers

Before Atari, controllers and control schemes were all over the place. Some consoles had knobs like Pong consoles (covered here), some had knobs on top of other knobs like the Magnavox Odyssey (covered here), and some had simple numeric keypads like the RCA Studio II (covered here), as the only methods of interacting with the games.

Then Atari came along and released the 2600. It had a much simpler control scheme, compared to previous options, just a stick to move forward, back, left, and right in games, then a simple action button to do stuff in games. Easy to grasp and seemingly perfect for new gamers.

Most games on the Atari 2600 are played with the standard “Joystick Controller”, which enables users to move in the four cardinal directions with the stick, and a single action button on the top left of the controller for triggering various in-game mechanics. Nothing fancy like the Fairchild Channel F controller, which incorporated twisting and pulling of a knob on the top. Just basic directional movement and a button, not unlike modern game controller standards that use directional pads (D-Pads) for movement and buttons for input.

In addition to the standard Joystick Controller, Atari innovated in the input space by releasing several specialty controllers for various styles of play and game genres, for example, the Paddle controllers for Pong/Tennis games, a Driving Controller for racing games, a Keypad for math and programming “games”, and even a Kid’s Controller for education and simple games. I believe the 2600 may have been the first console to support different types of specialty controllers (other than light guns like the Light Rifle for the Magnavox Odyssey), including several made by third-parties such as Milton Bradley, kicking off the third-party controller industry, which is still alive and well today.

The second most common controllers for the 2600, the Paddle controllers, function similarly to the knobs on Pong consoles, but with the addition of a button for mechanics like serving in Pong or launching the ball in Breakout.

The Kid’s Controller, pictured below, takes a different approach to input compared to the previous controllers. It was made for kids, as were the games that supported it (mostly Sesame Street games), and featured big, easily pressable buttons labeled with game-specific overlays.

The overlays insert into the Kid’s Controller and feature embossed bumps that help players feel which buttons the game supports.

But how well was she able to use these controllers?

Controller Difficulties

Not very well. At first.

Sarah is able to differentiate her right from her left very well and she was able to easily pick up that moving the joystick in a direction made things in games move in that direction.

However, moving the joystick around quickly tired her out. I noticed she had a lot of trouble moving the stiff joystick with one hand while holding the base with her other hand. We experimented with several ways to hold the controller, for example between her knees, pressing the controller onto the ground and kind of pushing into it, and even just me holding the base of the controller for her.

The joystick’s stiffness, as well as many games requiring simultaneous joystick movement and button presses, both tired her out and frustrated her. I saw quick bursts of fun, followed by frustration. She would often move the joystick in the right direction, but would become confused when the character on screen was not moving the way she expected, not realizing she was not pressing on the joystick hard enough.

When her frustration set in, it was difficult to correct her and keep her interest. She had a lot of fun, right up until exhaustion set in.

But what about the other controllers I mentioned?

Sarah got pretty good at Pong during our initial time playing various Pong consoles, so I wanted to introduce her to some games that utilize the Paddle controllers.

Unfortunately, the only 2600 games we have that use Paddle controllers (e.g., Breakout, Circus Atari) were far too fast paced for her to keep up. Her hand-eye coordination is improving, but most of these games are just too fast for her right now.

Sarah keeps asking to play Pong on the Pong consoles, so we have been playing those as well from time to time. I think the large base and the fact that she can play the Pong consoles one-handed help a lot with usability for her, as using the Paddle controllers requires one hand to be holding the base while the other turns the knob.

Getting Better with Controllers

Sarah and I took a long time writing this article because I could see how much she enjoyed herself, but she wasn’t quite coordinated enough to play for very long or make the most of the games she was playing.

So, we practiced. Or rather, I explained the basics to her, and I let her play games the way she wanted to play. She loved exploring and messing around in games that didn’t require simultaneous use of the joystick and button, like “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back”. Simply flying around fast was fun and graspable for her.

But the real star of this experience was the Kid’s Controller.

It was an instant hit. She was actually able to play games. Most of the Kid’s Controller games had a good balance of challenge and simplicity, and the controller was easy to understand. It had a big base, easy-to-press buttons, easy-to-understand numbered labels (she can count quite well at this point), and overlays to reduce ambiguity.

Sesame Street is also her favorite franchise, so I’m sure that helped as well.

There was a minimal learning curve for her with the Kid’s Controller. I told her what each number does in each of her games, or what the buttons do on the overlays, and after a few reminders, she had it. She was playing her games, albeit while still needing to look back down at the controller each time to read the button labels.

Sarah’s Experience

This was a fun one.

Sarah has been playing the Atari 2600 for around 4 months at the time of this writing. This write-up took me a while to finish and at many points I contemplated moving on to the next console. Sarah was often excited to go play games, but she would usually lose interest and give up after only a few minutes of playing. She is almost four years old at this point, so a short attention span is understandable, but it seemed like she was more frustrated than bored. So, we kept at it and played when she asked to play.

Her frustration seemed to stem from the same thing she had struggled with on each previous console: the controls. Thankfully, the variety of options available for the 2600 gave her different ways to play. When she became tired with the Joystick controller, we switched to a game that used the Paddles or the Kid’s Controller.

She had a lot of fun with many of the games that used the Joystick controller in short bursts. She preferred to play her way, typically just enjoying watching her character move across the screen as she pressed something on the controller. After getting tired moving the joystick around, she often asked me to play so she could watch.

Games requiring fast reaction time or simultaneous input with the action button and joystick movement tripped her up, but she enjoyed the show in between game resets.

The real stars of this experience were the Kid’s Controller and the Sesame Street games. Sarah loves Sesame Street and having an accessible controller with a big base and big buttons, along with games that have simple gameplay, allowed her to actually play her games — not just according to her own rules, but by following the game rules and objectives as well.

Overall, Sarah had a great time. She had a difficult time with the controls (a recurring theme with these retro consoles and her age/level of hand-eye coordination), but she eventually found her footing.

What’s Next

I am not sure when exactly Sarah and I will move on to the next console, as she is still having a lot of fun with the 2600, but next up is the Magnavox Odyssey 2 from 1978. It’s a proper sequel to the original Magnavox Odyssey (covered here), and it’s the first console with a built-in keyboard.