The Ultimate Imagic/Atari 2600 Tier List - ALL RELEASED GAMES RANKED

I still remember the day I beat Demon Attack! It took 84 waves to do it, and I called my friend to tell him. He wasn’t home, so I asked his mom to give him the message. I said, “Just tell Kurt, ‘84 waves!’ He’ll know what I mean!” And his mom was like, “Okayyyyyyy…”. LOL! He called me back later and yelled into the phone, “84 WAVES!!!” LOL! Oh, what a fun childhood we had!

Demon Attack is one of the games from the 2600, I can still play today and have fun.

Of all my Atari 2600 games, Atlantis had the best sound effects. I fondly recall turning up the volume to better feel the impact of those explosions!

John, I love your channel and you have excellent content! I am 70 years old and over the years have tried to complete my library of Atari games. Your ranking of IMAGIC games is spot on. I owned every one of the ranked games except Winged War. I say “spot on “ with one HUGE exception. To this day ( I’m 70 years young ) I still play my all time favorite IMAGIC game which is Subteranea. Your rating is correct for the first two levels , however, a few years back I continued to play beyond level 3 and , boy , was I surprised and now addicted to this game. It speeds up and gets WAY more intense. I still love this game! Again, love your channel and keep up the excellent content. SIDENOTE: Are you still officially unemployed? And putting all your effort and energy into your passion? It shows you love what you do. Thanks for being there for this “seasoned “ player! Dan

Picked up Demon Attack for my VCS when it came out. Admittedly it was the shiny box that got my attention but I was not disappointed. Imagic and Activision made some of the best games I ever played.

I picked up a 2600 a few years back. I wasnt around when it was a thing, but along with the console I did get a copy of Demon Attack. I couldn't believe how fluid the graphics were. The sprites were really unique. Sounds felt right. And I thought the 2600s controller would be terrible to play with but it actually was quite good. Really impressive. Definitely S tier.

Demon Attack and Cosmic Ark are games I played a lot as a child (especially Demon Attack). Rob Fulop (founded Imagic after receiving a voucher for a turkey as a bonus instead of a bonus check from Atari) is one of my all time favorite programmers

Love the tier videos! I preemptively vote for Parker Bros. next!

I am truly enjoying the tiered lists. Several of these I never played. Demon Attack, Atlantis and most of all Dragonfire were my favorites.

Fathom is absolutely an S tier game. Look at the Sprite design, look at the scrolling, the volcanoe. The different things you're required to do.

Moon sweeper among other games just looks mind blowing ,and since some atari 2600 games do show more then 3 spries atonce,i might wonder how this was done,it’s possible that they rendered extra sprite trough software or they used the background as an extra sprite alternative or they cycle trough each 3 sprites by by showing each of them at different positions depending per frame to make it appear as if there’re more sprites on screen.

Not directly related to this video, but sometimes I think about buying a wood grain six switch version of the Atari VCS. I have my childhood "Vader" 2600, but something about having all the switches on top and the classic color appeals to me.

I literally mapped out fathom since the manual told me "Free the mermaid seven times and watch for a special surprise." I was confused back in the day when I did, nothing happened except for a bunch of random letters and numbers appeared at the bottom of the screen. Pitfall II had the character celebrate the best they could, and I was expecting something similar. I didn't know until years later it displayed an address on the final screen.

Of the games covered in this video, I enjoyed Demon Attack, Cosmic Ark, aaaaaand...Riddle of the Sphinx. It took me about an hour to get a feel for the dual stick controls, and it is the only game that I had someone help me to finish (volun-turned a cousin to sit with me for over 3 hours).

I totally understand why the games get the rankings they get. Hell, I'm glad that he rated some of the games more fairly than other reviewers, because he actually went through the manuals to learn how to play the games .. something that many of the younger reviewers don't bother with .. "well, it's a 2600 game so it SHOULD be simple. If I can't figure it out on my own, it MUST be the designers fault that I can't just pick up the game plot!" I loved the games ranked S and A as well, but I do have a fondness for both Riddle of the Sphinx and Trick Shot. As an only child, there were SO MANY games that needed another player or the game was pointless, and most of the time I was by myself. Riddle of the Sphinx was so detailed that I could get immersed in it, and those times I could beat it were just SO Glorifying to me! And Trick Shot was one I could play with a friend, or just play as both players and play "pool" on a console that felt more like real pool. It wasn't until a year later with "Billiards" for the C64 that I was able to get a better version.

Man Imagic made some great games. Even though it was kind of a stinker, I loved riddle of the spinx. I had a thing for RPGs even back then, riddle and raiders of the Lost ark were as close as possible to a 2600 rpg. Great video

I had both Fathom and Wing War, but for the Colecovision. Wing War was released in the US, but only for the Colecovision. Those versions of each. They were my two favorite Colecovision games out of my small collection, but I put Wing War on a higher tier than Fathom. The reason is because while both were expanded upon for the better system, they are both essentially the same game, the difference being Fathom is broken up into stages, and Wing War is one HUGE world filled with more variety.

Imagic games were great and got the most out of the 2600. Loved Demon Attack, Dragonfire, and Atlantis. Awesome stuff Jon!

Loved Cosmic Ark and Demon Attack as a kid playing the 2600. I always thought that Demon Attack was a follow up to Phoenix with the birds flying back and forth. I didn't care... just thought it was fun.

There's quite a few great games on this list. You're making me want to go play some games on my Atari 2600.