No page about playing Atari 2600 games is complete without some mention of emulators, so here you go. If all you want to do is play a few games then The Stella emulator is about as perfect as you can get. Go to the Stella website, download the emulator software, get some ROMS, and off you go. It's what I use myself when I want to get screen shots.
The problem is that using the keyboard for games that require a joystick usually sucks. And let's face it, playing in front of the computer screen is just not the same as using the big TV in the living room. Much less, crowding around the computer in the back room to play COMBAT is just not a good group activity.
Original Atari 2600
Ok, you can't get more retro than this.
I got the original old family Atari 2600 from my brother but alas, it had not withstood the test of time and would not power on. There were some sites online that talked about replacing the power supply or other fixes that required soldering and voltage meters, but that just seems a bit much.
I did find some information on how to connect an original machine to a modern TV by using an Atari 2600 RF TV Coaxial F Plug Female Adapter for about $6 so if you do find an old piece of hardware one of these might be just what you need. It's crazy to think these machine existed before cable or AV plugs on TV were common and what Atari used to do to work around this was to send the signal using the antenna jack.
Other articles that would become useful were the articles on how to fix your old Atari Paddles by cleaning the potentiometers. Some of the best Atari 2600 games were made for paddles and replacement paddles are difficult to find. Edit: This would be so hard that I made a dedicated page for it.
Hyperkin RetroN 77
The RetronN 77 by Hyperkin.
$75 on Amazon, but don't forget an extra joystick for $17 so you can play head to head.
Cartridges
Now, that you have your Retron, you need some real cartridges. Ok, in truth, you can just find a game ROM online and copy it to the SD card, but where is the fun in that?
What I did was to go to eBay and find a few auctions like the one below. $35 and about $10 in shipping. A great start to any collection. You will not find an auction with all of the games you are looking for, but you will not beat the prices for a starter pack if you buy them individually.
To fill out the collection, I went to one of the online stores that sells old Atari cartridges. DK Oldies, eStarland, and Trade-N-Games all seem popular so it will probably depend on price and availability. I went with eStarland to round out my collection. For $26 and free shipping I got six more games which is a higher price per game, but no filler.
EBay example listing: ATARI 2600, Lot of 35, INSTANT COLLECTION STARTER 009
Atari Flashback 8
I purchased this on 2/2019 when it went on sale for only $36 and I'm glad I didn't pay more. It does work which is more than I can say about the Flashback Blast, but it does not support paddles. Trying to play paddle games with a joystick is just a study in frustration so this will have to go into the "NO" category.
The lack of HDMI output is also starting to date this one. While I guess most TV's still have at least one composite input, some like my new TV requires an adaptor to use the input. To add insult the makers of this device only have 2 connections, 1 for video, and the other for mono audio. Yes, I know the Atari is only mono, but most AV systems still expect 2 channel audio so another connector is probably required.
Atari Flashback Blast! Vol. 3, Pong
My first retro purchase back in 2/2019. For only $6 I thought "How could this possibly not work?"
How bad is it? Worse than you can even imagine.
Horrible lag and a lack of fine adjustments make this unplayable. I am at a loss over how a product this bad could even be made intentionally, much less by sheer carelessness. Just how can you mess up Pong this much?