So I have decided to talk about one of my favorite Atari games in this post, but not by choice. I decided to get a conversation going about a specific 2600 game so I could get everyone's thoughts on it. Initially, I thought of starting a Tunnel Runner conversation, my favorite 2600 game of all-time, but I decided since I already talked about that game to death on other forums I'd choose a new game. You see, right next to my desk I keep a case of 18 or so of my favorite 2600 games for easy grabbing when I want to play them. I ran my hand along that case and picked a random cart out of it. So here we are now with Exidy's Venture, ported by Coleco to your Atari VCS and Sears Tele-Games systems in 1982.

I never emulated this when I was younger, and I don't think I ever even heard of Venture until last year. I think maybe this February is when I finally tried emulating it on my Wii. I really enjoyed this game! So much so, in fact, that this along with a few other games were the first additional 2600 cartridges that I purchased after I got my initial batch of 2600 stuff from my dad's cousin this March.

Gameplay wise, this game is like a mix of Berzerk and Adventure. I think it's about the best way you can put Adventure in an arcade setting. Your goal is to grab the treasures in all 16 rooms spread across 3 hallways. Shoot enemies and beware the indestructible hall monsters!

I didn't think the 2600 version was all that bad. Sure, it's a bit like Donkey Kong and several other Coleco ports where they didn't include all the content from the arcade, but I feel that's understandable for the system. Coleco gets a bad rap for its 2600 ports, but I feel in a way that they were dealt a bad hand. Many of their games, like Donkey Kong, were simply to complex for the 2600 given the memory limitations and programming knowledge at the time. I feel they did the best they could for the system with many of their games, and I don't think they really had many games that were truly bad. Many of their games are some of my favorites on the system.

Overall, where it definitely isn't a contest between the arcade version (never played) and the 2600 Coleco port, I would call Venture one of my favorite games on the Atari VCS! But that's just my silly opinion, so what do you all think? Never played Venture before? What are you waiting for, go do it now! It's a dirt cheap game and worth picking up in my humble opinion.

Feel free to reply to this thread with your thoughts!