Basketball

Name:	Basketball
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-2624
Programmer:	Alan Miller
Year:	1978
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Alan Miller also programmed Basketball for the Atari 400/800

After the initial wave of launch titles, Atari decided that they needed some sports games to help round out the action heavy library.  The first batch of sports games (Football, Basketball, and Home Run), were all done in early 1978.  As these sports games were all developed very early in the Atari 2600's life, they only bear a passing resemblance to the games they're supposed to be depicting.  The biggest challenge in most of these games was figuring out how to allow the player to move multiple people at once.  Football and Home Run solved this problem by making the players all  move in tandem (with mixed results), while Basketball solved the problem by making the game into a one on one style of play.

Although it might seem quite primitive today, Basketball was actually a pretty decent representation of the game for the time.  The rules were heavily simplified (no time outs, no free throws) and all the fouls have been removed.  And while you'd be forgiven for thinking that the three point shot was one of the featured that didn't make the cut, it turns out that it actually didn't even exist when Basketball was being programmed.  The three point shot rule wasn't adopted by the NBA until October of 1979, over a year after Basketball was released. 

As previous mentioned, Basketball's gameplay is pretty simple.  After jumping for possession of the ball the player can attempt to shoot a basket by holding down the fire button.  At this point the ball will continually move between being above the players head or in front of it.  If the player lets go of the button while the ball is above his head he will make a high arcing shot.  If the player releases the button while the ball is in front of the player he will make a short low shot.  The other player way attempt to block the shot by jumping in front of it (pressing the button), but only when the ball is on its upward trajectory.  Once the ball is arcing downwards you can't do a thing about it.  After a basket is made the players return to their Home positions.  Each game only lasts for one four minute quarter so games don't drag on.  Basketball only has one difficulty adjustment: the Left Difficulty switch controls your players speed (A=Slow, B=Fast), but has no effect in two player mode.

If there's one thing Basketball does well is its implementation of the steal.  To steal the ball the player must be toe to toe with the opposing player and bump into them while the ball is not in the players hand (meaning when it's bouncing between the hand and the floor).   Not only is this easy enough to do once you get the hang of it, it makes the game a lot more strategic.  If your opponent is taking too long to decide on where they're going to shoot the ball from, just bump into them and steal it away!  Players can play against a human opponent or try their hand against the computer.  While the computer isn't a bad player, it tends to be cheap with its stealing but you can't really expect a fancy AI from a 4K cartridge.

While it won't win any awards for realism, Basketball is a fun one on one take on the game.  Basketball is probably most famous for being featured in the movie Airplane! where two radar technicians can briefly be seen playing it on one of the radar screens.  Amazingly, due to the cancellation of RealSports Basketball, Basketball remained the only basketball game for the 2600 until Double Dunk was released almost eleven years later in 1989!  Then again the 2600 was never known for its sports games.  Although the RealSports series attempted to fill the gap, true sports fans knew that the Intellivision was where the serious sports games were.

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