Video Chess

Video Chess is one of Atari's earliest attempts to bring a full board game to the 2600, released in 1979. Fitting a working chess engine into the console's tiny memory was a genuine feat of programming for the time, and the game offered several difficulty levels, with the higher settings taking the machine a very long time to calculate its moves. For a system built around fast reflex arcade titles, it was an unusually cerebral offering.

Judged today it is very much a museum piece: the AI is limited, the presentation is stark blocky pieces on a flat board, and thinking times on the tougher levels test any player's patience. Its interest now lies in what it represents, an early proof that even the primitive 2600 could host a thinking-person's game, rather than in how well it plays against modern chess software.