Ladies and gentlemen, here it is... cartridge video game number 1. CX-2601, Combat, was the first game manufactured for the Atari VCS, later renamed the 2600. It was actually originally packaged with the VCS system, making it the first cartridge game most VCS buyers would ever play. And play they did.

First off, let me state, this is the Atari VCS, goddammit. We're talking about a system with an upper limit of 4 Kb ROM per cartridge, 128 bytes of RAM onboard, and a 1.19 MHz processor. Deep Blue, it wasn't. Combat does the best imitation of tanks and airplanes possible when your pixels are about a half-millimeter across. Yes, we all know bullets aren't square. Yes, we all know tanks aren't pink and neon green. Shut up, already. If you want graphics, go buy a PC. If you want solid, classic gameplay, hit the VCS.

Repeat above rant. The VCS has three-channel mono sound. This is something that can't even compare to fifty-cent discount cassette tapes. Most of the Atari sounds were square-wave beeps. You try hard-wiring Beethoven's Ninth into a 4 Kb cartridge.

This is where it gets interesting. Combat has a bunch of different games, including (unofficial names) Tank, Tank Pong, Invisible Tank, Fighter Jet, Double Fighter Jet, and Giant Stick-Looking Airplane Thing Against Three Vaguely Biplane-Shaped Airplane Things. In Tank, you roll your tank around shooting at the enemy and trying not to get shot. In Tank Pong, you do the same thing except that your shots bounce off of the various walls. In Invisible Tank, your tanks are invisible except when they fire or are hit. In all of the Tank modes, in defiance of all laws of physics and probably as part of a glitch, you can steer the bullet in midflight by turning your tank. In the various Airplane modes, you do the same thing, except now you are continually in motion; you can speed up and slow down but never stop. Every game has the same objective: hit your opponent more than they hit you in a given time, which nobody really knows because there's no timer. The screen does blink a bit shortly before the end, though. By the way, Combat is a two player ONLY mode. No fancy AI for you, bitch - go teach a dog to play.

Man, oh, man, this game shines in controls. Remember the old Atari controllers? A button and a stick? Well, this game is just that easy to control. Turn left or right, push the stick left or right. Go faster/move forward, push the stick forward. Slow down/go backward, push the stick backward. Fire, push the damn button. Even Barbie Boy should be able to figure this game out.

Atari's first cartridge game was also one of their best. Often overlooked in favor of Donkey Kong and Frogger, this is an old-school gem. If you already have a VCS/2600 or a later system that'll play this cartridge, go find it. If not, there's no way in hell you're going to be able to find a VCS these days, so don't even try.

+ hours upon hours of pixellated hilarity

+ hey, it's better than Pitfall

- single player mode? what's that?

? relativity-defying guided bullets

Overall (not an average): 7/10
A must for VCS/2600 owners; Combat is to the VCS what Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt is to the NES.