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Halo 2600 is an action-adventure video game developed for the Atari 2600 video game console, inspired by the Halo series of video games. Halo 2600 was written by Ed Fries, former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft, who was involved in Microsoft's acquisition of Halo developers Bungie.

Gameplay

The player uses the joystick to control the character of Master Chief as he makes his way through 64 screens, divided into four zones: outdoors, Covenant base, ice world, and a final boss area. Weapons and power-ups are available to combat the many enemies that appear. The player and enemies can each be killed by one hit unless a shield is collected. There are two power-ups in the game, both guarded by what appears to be nine enemies but is actually three. The first is a gun with a faster rate of fire. The second is a pair of boots that allows the player to move faster. In addition to these, by killing certain enemies, the player can obtain an energy shield that will take one shot to prevent the loss of one of the player's three lives. After successfully completing the game once, the game returns to the menu screen, but with a red sky. If the player chooses to play again from that screen the game will run in "Legendary" mode and the player will move and shoot at a slower rate.

Development

Ed Fries got a taste of game development in his teenage years, developing Atari 800 games at home. Fries took a summer internship with Microsoft in college and eventually joined the company. In 2000, he was head of Microsoft Game Studios, trying to develop a launch lineup for Microsoft's unproven Xbox console. After being contacted by developer Bungie's vice president about a possible acquisition, Fries shepherded Microsoft buying Bungie and their developing project, a game that would become the Xbox's killer app, Halo: Combat Evolved. Fries left Microsoft in 2004, after 18 years with the company.

Fries read the book Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, about programming for the Atari 2600, and was inspired to create his own game. Initially, Fries only intended to recreate the Master Chief, but decided to finish the project after encouragement.

Fries found the challenge of Halo 2600 one of adapting to constraints. The Atari 2600 has millions of times less space and memory than was available for Halo. With only 128 bytes of RAM, drawing Master Chief was difficult, and creating a game with other characters even more so. Fries later stated that making the game taught him that constraint is sometimes a fuel for creativity, comparing the process of adapting Halo to the effort in turning a novel into a poem or haiku.

Reception

The game was released in July 2010 at the Classic Gaming Expo. At the exposition, 150 physical copies of the game were on sale. It was one of four new Atari 2600 titles released by AtariAge at the 2010 Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, including Duck Attack!, K.O. Cruiser (a boxing game) and a port of Sega's 1981 arcade game Turbo. The effort was called "rough" but "amazing" by TechCrunch, citing the immense size constraints involved in creating the game. Destructoid called the game's controls "surprisingly capable", and The Escapist called the game's chiptune soundtrack "perfect". The A.V. Club noted the incongruity of seeing a "modern blockbuster" transformed into a devolved version on the 2600's "aesthetically abrasive" hardware.

The source code of the game was used to create an 8-bit poster representation of Master Chief. The cartridge version was rereleased through AtariAge in 2013.

In 2013 Smithsonian American Art Museum added Halo 2600 to its "The Art of Video Games" exhibition.

As of August 2019, Halo 2600 is still the second-best selling game on AtariAge (the exclusive store to purchase the game).

References

1. Melanson, Donald (August 3, 2010). "Former Microsoft VP brings Halo to the Atari 2600". Engadget. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
2. News, Bloomberg (March 24, 2004). "Microsoft to simplify its Xbox software". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved March 23, 2013. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
3. ^ Good, Owen. "It's All Headshots In Halo 2600". kotaku. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
4. Doree, Adam (August 3, 2010). "Interview: Ed Fries reveals Halo 2600". VideoGamesDaily.com. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
5. ^ Zimmerman, Conrad (August 2, 2010). "Master Chief joins the Atari age in Halo 2600". Destructoid. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
6. ^ Alexander, Leigh (August 14, 2009). "Interview: Former Microsoft Exec Fries Talks Xbox's Genesis". Gamasutra. UBM Technology Group. Retrieved September 6, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
7. Haske, Steven (May 30, 2017). "The Complete, Untold History of Halo". Vice. Vice Media. Archived from the original on March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
8. Fries, Ed (August 1, 2010). "Halo for the 2600 Released at CGE!". AtariAge. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
9. Beschizza, Rob (August 3, 2010). "Former Microsoft VP brings Halo to the Atari 2600". BoingBoing. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
10. ^ Fawcett, Kirstin (March 2014). "Demaking Halo, Remaking Art: Halo 2600 Developer Discusses the Promise of Video Games". Smithsonian (magazine). Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 6, 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
11. ^ Biggs, John (August 2, 2010). "Halo 2600: Halo Redone For the Atari 2600". Tech Crunch. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
12. Pearson, Dan (May 12, 2011). "Ed Fries: Creativity and constraint, Halo 2600 and a Donkey Kong haiku". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
13. Kohler, Chris (September 14, 2010). "Retro Halo 2600 Reaches Into Videogames' Past". Wired.com. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
14. Gilbert, Ben (August 1, 2010). "Promise you'll play Halo 2600 (that's a covenant we can get behind)". 1UP.com. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
15. Yarusso, Albert. "AtariAge at CGE2010". AtariAge. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
16. Kent, Brian (August 1, 2010). "Halo 2600: The seminal franchise finally comes to the Atari 2600". 1UP.com. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
17. Chalk, Andy (August 2, 2010). "Halo 2600 Brings Seriously Old-School Action". The Escapist. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
18. Agnello, Anthony John (November 19, 2013). "Back from the dead: 9 modern games for obsolete consoles". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
19. Hannley, Steve (December 31, 2012). "'HALO 2600' POSTER INSPIRES ATARI NOSTALGIA". hardcoregamer. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
20. Good, Owen (March 31, 2013). "Play Halo's Atari 2600 'Port' With This Cartridge Now On Sale". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
21. Wawro, Alex (17 December 2013). "Flower, Halo 2600 head to Smithsonian American Art Museum". Gamasutra. Think Services. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
22. "Bestsellers". web.archive.org. 2019-08-04. Retrieved 2019-08-04.

External links

• Play Halo 2600 online

• 2010 video games
• Atari 2600 homebrew games
• Atari 2600-only games
• Halo games
• Video game demakes
• Video games developed in the United States