The Cheapest Atari 2600 Games Worth Your Time

When you add a console to your collection, the first thing you want to do is get a handful of games to keep you busy with your new toy. However, most of us can’t spend afford to spend fat pile of cash for a few games. This budget-friendly list should help you quickly find which games will start you off well without emptying your wallet. (Prices listed are an average eBay price for US games, including shipping.)

Check out the other Cheapest Games Worth Your Time articles

Original Atari 2600 Cartridges

Since there are a lot of popular 2600 games that are dirt cheap, and those that are actually interested in 2600 carts probably already know about the games, I won’t write anything about them this time. I’ll just provide your with the prices.

  • Asteroids: $4
  • Missle Command $4
  • Asteroids Atari 2600 BoxBarnstorming: $4
  • Battlezone: $4
  • Breakout: $4
  • Centipede: $4
  • Circus Atari: $4
  • Combat: $4
  • Frogger: $4
  • Pitfall: $4
  • Space Invaders: $4
  • Tac-Scan: $4
  • Warlords: $4
  • Atlantis: $5
  • Chopper Command: $5
  • Defender: $5
  • Demon Attack: $5
  • Dodge ‘Em: $5
  • Haunted House: $5
  • Megamania: $5
  • Pole Position: $5
  • Q-Bert: $5
  • Star Raiders: $5
  • Yar’s Revenge: $5
  • Enduro: $6
  • KaBoom: $6
  • River Raid: $6
  • Star Wars – Empire Strikes Back: $6
  • Frostbite: $6
  • Spider Man: $8
  • Adventure: $9

Atari Anthology Compilations

If you want to play some classic 2600 games on your more modern consoles, you can look into the Atari Anthology for the XBox and PS2. The Atari Anthology features a a ton of great games, so I won’t list them all here. But the complilation does include a number of Atari’s best games such as

The emulation for the 2600 games are spot-on. The only real emulation issues seem to be with some of the vector-based arcade games that are also included on the compilation

Price Point: Around $10

Atari Flashback 2.0

Atari Flashback BoxThe Atari Flashback 2 is probably the best compromise for those that want to have the authentic look and feel of the original Atari 2600 games without having to hunt down all their favorite cartridges, deal with old hardware, and ultimately pay a decent amount of change. Instead of that extra hassle and cost, the Atari Flashback is actually a new piece of hardware that is actually an updated version of the actual 2600 hardware with two controllers and 40 games included. Atari even gives instructions on how to hack the Flashback 2 in order to play real cartridges.

Reviews for the Flashback 2 have been very positive and is considered a great value for those wanting to re-live their early gaming experiences.

Find Atari Flashback 2 on Amazon.com

7 Comments:

  1. My cousin had one of the rarest 2600 games. he sold it for $2600 ironic XD

  2. At 11/14/2007 1:26 PM, Garth said…

    D’you see that Atari just bailed from the game development industry? Alas! While not wholly unexpected, this is terrible, terrible news.

    Here’s a question for geekland: with Atari officially kaput (at least gaming-wise), what should I do with my old 2600? Use it as a doorstop? Any cool ideas for modern workarounds? Ways to MacGyver it into something (anything) usable?

    This seems a bit like cryogenically freezing my dog…

  3. I don’t think I payed more than a buck for any of my Atari games.

    River Raid was always my favorite back then.

  4. At 12/4/2007 7:56 PM, markus said…

    Many atari games are public domain.

  5. omg a post on atari!!! i had the atari 2600 when i was little and i had so many games which i used to play all the night long :P really nice work of the atari now it a little old but still rock like hell ^^

  6. At 9/15/2008 6:30 PM, Ryan said…

    Yeah if you go to rummage sales or garage sales you can get them for 25 cents. Never pay more than $1, unless really rare

  7. At 10/10/2009 4:50 AM, Morgs said…

    The best Atari game by far has got to be H.E.R.O.
    Man with a helicopter backpack and laser eye goggles, ring a bell anyone?

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  1. [...] Now here’s something I haven’t given much thought to: The Cheapest Atari 2600 Games Worth Your Time. [...]

    Posted on 11/14/2007 10:45 PM
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