Some of our younger readers here on TMC probably won’t appreciate this, but for the rest of you twenty (and thirty) somethings, today is a birthday of an old friend. The Atari 2600, the game console that dominated the industry for the first half of the 1980’s, is thirty years old.

The Meaningful Collateral’s writers all have fond memories of the 2600, which for most of us was the first video game system we ever had at home. While it didn’t have the graphical capabilities of the Nintendo 8-bit, or the sports-customized controls of the Sega Genesis, the Atari still holds a fonder place in my heart than either of those two systems. What better way to celebrate the system’s anniversary than by looking back at some of the sports titles which were published for the Atari? More after the jump.

As anyone who was there remembers, sports gaming on the Atari was…different. It was neat because there were no other alternatives — and the whole concept of “controlling a sports game on your television” was brand new. That said, the Atari’s simple controls didn’t exactly lend themselves to the most accurate (or enjoyable) sports gaming experience. Let’s take a look at some of the better-known titles:

Atari Super Baseball: This game managed to turn me off from the ACTUAL game of baseball at a very early age (it’s taken a long time to overcome it). Most of this was due to the strange mechanism that the system forced you to use when pitching, where you’d press the joystick a particular direction and then hit the button to pitch. Problem was, the joystick didn’t always recognize the command, and would just throw an average-speed gopher ball to your opponent. Plus, strangely, the sound effects from this game were reminiscent of Missile Command.

Super Challenge Football: Now this one I recall fondly. It was much better than “regular” Atari football, it had customizable plays (well, sort of…), and it had that nifty trick where you could run the defender off one side of the screen and re-appear on the other side. The only problem I ever had with this game was the lack of single-player action. None of my friends ever wanted to play it, and my sister hated sports games.

Atari Tennis: One of the earliest Activision titles that we owned in my house. It’s a tennis game…there’s not much more to add. Although it did include the “official” tennis scoring method, with Ad In and Deuce and a bunch of other terms that were very confusing for a 4-year old Thermocaster who hadn’t ever seen tennis before.

Pole Position: Yes, it wasn’t as pretty as the arcade version. But it was far more challenging, mostly because you were dealing with a poorly-moving joystick as opposed to a wheel. Plus, the “intro” music at the start of each race is among the catchiest sound clips you’ll ever hear in a video game. 24 years later, I’m still hearing it in my mind.

What was your favorite Atari sports game? We’ve only mentioned a couple so far, but we’d love to hear your suggestions.