In case you did not know, there is an Atari 2600 version of Halo, it was not endorsed by Microsoft and is not recognized as part of the Halo franchise. It was developed by Ed Fries, former Vice President of Game Publishing at Microsoft – he was apparently involved in the acquisition of Bungie, the Halo developers. Yep, he took an Xbox game and demade it for the Atari 2600, a console originally released in 1977, sitting tightly in a 4k cart. The text document for this article is bigger than that.
Not the First Time Available
Halo 2600 has already seen a very limited release at the Classic Gaming Expo in 2010. The ROM file is available on the AtariAge forums. It is free.
Halo 2600 for the Atari 2600 has also been entered into the Smithsonian American Art Museum in late 2023.
The game features four different zones requiring you to infiltrate the Covenant base. Just like the original, this is not an easy task.
In case you are not aware, Atari acquired AtariAge.com, a popular website focused on retro gaming on September 7th, 2023. I mention this because sources for this article are users of the AtariAge forums and want to be transparent in this process.
Another AtariAge forum member, INTIMIDAT3R has pulled select screenshots from elsewhere on the site. These screenshots show Ed Fries mentioning there are talks between Microsoft and Atari in an effort to make Halo 2600 an official release on the modern Atari consoles (Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+).
This is not confirmed in any fashion. The only reason there is any clout to this being true is Mr. Fries’ connection with Microsoft and him being the programmer of the port.