Spending a bit more time with Atari Vault over the last few days makes me appreciate one of the most interesting things about the 2600 — and something that, to my knowledge, hasn't really been done on any other console since: its use of difficulty switches and game selectors.
It wasn't unusual to see 2600 cartridges promising "9 video games" or similar on their front covers; by modern definitions, this wasn't entirely accurate, as each cartridge did indeed contain just one game, but tended to have multiple variations available to play. In some cases, these variations were minor — difficulty modes, essentially — but in others, they changed the gameplay fairly drastically. And along with these selectable games, the 2600 also afforded both players the opportunity to select their difficulty independently of one another.
Handicap systems are still found in modern multiplayer games in various ways, the most common of which being racing games' tendency to give the pack's back markers a slight speed boost to allow them to catch up a bit. But on the 2600, this was a revolutionary feature: by setting difficulty levels independently for each player, it became possible for experienced players to play "fairly" with newcomers, youngsters or those who simply didn't have quite the same dexterity and/or ability to handle those horrible Atari joysticks.
The ways that the difficulty switches were implemented varied from game to game. In the case of Air-Sea Battle, for example, the difficulty switches allowed players to set the size of their bullets independently — less experienced players could have larger bullets, making it easier to hit the targets. In Combat, the difficulty switches adjusted the speed of the player's bullets — more experienced players could choose to have slower shots, making it easier for their opponent to dodge. (Of course, you could then tweak the difficulty further by playing one of the variants where you could "bend" your shots around corners by steering after firing.)
It's a really interesting idea, and one of the coolest things about the 2600. I knew about the existence of these switches before — I've played some 2600 games before — but it hasn't been until I've actually started investigating some of these games in detail that I've really appreciated the surprising amount of interest and flexibility that they bring to these rough-looking but surprisingly fun old games.
Plus another nice feature of 2600 games I've discovered is that they're straightforward and easy to learn enough that my wife and I can play together without me having to spend hours explaining how to do things, or for us to play with an enormous skill imbalance thanks to the fact I have more experience than her. Thanks to the 2600's switches, we can tweak the experience to one that we both find challenging, but fair — and, it has to be said, the 2600 had some enormously fun two-player games that, while simple, can get very, very competitive very quickly!
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Glad you and your wife are having so much fun with my childhood, lol. In many ways I am glad that I had that 2600 foundation before I entered into NES and PC games.
I had a foundation in old Atari games too — but on the home computers rather than the 2600. Didn't get into consoles until the SNES.
Bugs me that there have been lots of Atari compilations over the years that have always included the 2600 version of Star Raiders rather than the considerably superior home computer version! PC MASTER RACE or something.
That's interesting Pete. I did not realise that Atari had that facility.
In the HO Adventure games most have Difficulty Modes now, which tend to be taken for granted. Initially there were none – you got Timed regardless of your degree of dexterity. It made games very frustrating at times. Now, not only do you get Easy/Normal/Hard (by various names) Modes, but also in quite a few, a Custom Mode which allows you to finesse the setting to suit yourself. Of course some of these are basic, while others have multiple settings to tweak. And best of all – allow the player to TURN OFF the ridiculous, unnecessary Overclicking Penalty – game players do not need to be punished for frustration intentionally caused. Anyway this provision of detailed Modes for Player comfort and pleasure is to be applauded.