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The Atari 2600 is one of the oldest game consoles. It was released back in October 1977.  This console is known as the one to make popular the hardware and cartridges containing games, instead of using games integrated in the console. So this way people were able to play any game they want just by buying it or changing disks with friends. Otherwise if you wanted other games, you had to buy a different game console. First there were some kind of cassettes with games, then they advanced to diskettes, CD-s and now most of the video games come on DVD-s. The name Atari 2600 comes from the part number of this console which was CX 2600.  The console had two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers and a cartridge game. You had to connect this console to your TV and enjoy your favorite games.

This console was very popular in the 80’s and I’m sure that most of you who were child in that period remember the fun you used to have with games such as Pacman, Pitfall, Missile Command, E.T the Extraterrestrial , Atlantis, Kaboom, Space invaders and others. Today we are going to discuss the second most famous game for the Atari 2600 console, which is called Pitfall. This game has  about 4 million copies sold!

Pitfall is a video game released by Activision, for the Atari 2600 console in the year 1982. It is a pretty nice and good looking game (for the 80’s time)  and it is composed out of 255 different jungle scenes laid out horizontally. By running to the end of one scene you will get to the next. As advancing there are many dangers and obstacles to avoid and overcome as Harry (the game character) searches for 32 treasures. Because he has only 20 minutes to complete his quest he must utilize underground passage ways via latters. Each underground scene covered equals three above ground scenes. So these shortcuts can be very useful, if you know which are really shortcuts and which are dead ends. The player can run either to the right or to the left.   Running to the right, this way Harry will encounter more treasures early in the game then by running to the left. However, if you have trouble, remember that you can go the other way too. The fun thing of running to the left is that you move along with the direction of the rolling logs and not against them. Also if you die trying to cross an obstacle your next life will begin on the other side of it. By traveling down the latter 13 scenes to the right on where you start, take a shortcut to a latter leading to the scene 19. This way you will pass 5 above ground scenes, one of which contains crocodiles, your worst enemy. But you can find a even better shortcut than this if you take the latter found in scene 15, jumping 5 scorpions on your root. Notice that scorpions are wide enough to require exact timing on the jumps, otherwise they are easy enemies.

The latter leading up will go to scene 33 having skipped 4 crocodile scenes and one gold bar. You might skipping the gold bar is a bad idea, but between scenes 41 and 57 you will encounter six different treasures, which makes skipping the gold bar a good strategy. Now let’s talk about how to avoid your worst enemies: the crocodiles.  Run Harry to the edge of their lake and wait for their mouths to begin closing. You will notice that there are three crocodiles and all of their mouths are closing at the same time. Then jump on the first crocodile (with its mouth shut), and position Harry behind his jaws, where it can’t be grabbed by the first crocodile and neither by the second one. But also be careful not to stay on the blue surface (the water) because you will fall on it. Wait for all the mouths to close once again and then jump behind the jaws of the second crocodile. Do this again with the third crocodile and then jump again and move forward into the game.

We got so caught up in describing the game, that we forgot to mention that it is not necessary to have an Atari 2600 console to play this game. Yes it is true…you can play it directly on your computer. Just search for it on the internet, and you will easily find it on some sites. Here you will control Harry using the left and right arrow keys, and you will jump using the space bar. But of course this is not as fun as playing the game on a real console, with a joystick.

First you have a 20 minutes time, a score of 2000 and three lives (even though you see just 2 bars, there are actually 2 lives because 0 bars is also count as a life). As you begin the game time will begin to decrease. Your score will also decrease if you get hit by the logs.

The audio quality of the game is pretty nice, considering the time when it was made. You can hear a sound when jumping, when getting killed or collecting treasures and also when jumping on ropes. When doing this, Harry will make some kind of Tarzan noise :).

After all the game is quite difficult to play, especially with the jumps. Probably it’s more easier to play with a joystick, but when playing it from the keyboard of your computer you will easily get annoyed. But if you loved this game as a child, and you want to play it again…but your Atari 2600 console is broken, then you can always play it for free on the internet, without having to download or buy anything.

The free online games that can be found on so many sites on the internet are very diversified. You can find games with all sort of crazy and funny topics. Some of the games are using fictional characters, but others are using real persons as characters to make the game more fun to play. Whether if they are using real or fictional characters there are many games categories. Here are some of them: racing games, adventure games, RPG (role playing games), shooting games, dress-up, games for boys, for girls, for adults, educational games, puzzle games and many more. But one of the most famous category of games are the sports games (such as : football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, golf, ski, surf and so on).

Cycling is also a famous sport, so there are many cycling games on the internet. Whether if you find it in the sport games category or in racing games, you can always enjoy a fun bicycle game online. So this is what we are going to discuss in this article. We’ll search for some cycling games, play them and then talk more about each one.

Let’s begin with the Mountain bike game from the famous site miniclip.com. In this game you will have to perform crazy stunts while racing to the finish line with your mountain bike. For each stunt you will get a number of points, and you can see your final score after completing the level. Use the UP arrow key to pedal faster and accelerate and the DOWN arrow key to slow down. The left and right arrow keys are used to lean forward or backward. These keys are useful to adjust the bike when you are in air and also  to do tricks (such as wheelie, flips and others).  You can also perform cool tricks by pressing the space bar, which will make your bike change direction. This it is not a race to be the first across the finish line  so you can always turn back on the track and do more tricks, and get to the finish line when you see the time is running out. Don’t try to make crazy stunts, and be careful to land safely. If you don’t, your bike will crash into many pieces and you will get a time penalty. Before starting the real game, we suggest to go in the training mode. Here you will learn all the possible tricks from the game. First you will see an demonstrative movie, and then you can try that trick yourself.



All the other games from miniclip.com containing the word “bike” in their name, are actually motor bike games, so we have to move on to another site. Another famous site with free online games is funny-games.biz. Here you will find an interesting and also weird bicycle game. It is called “Weird bicycle game”. We also mentioned that is interesting because it is one of the few games where you get to see the action behind the handlebars. In most of the games you can see just an outside perspective of the bike, but here you can feel like you are really riding a bike. All you have to do in this game is drive forward and avoid the white teddy bears that will get in your way. Use just the mouse to steer the bike. The game is weird because you ride a bike on a field, and there are white bears on the field. But the great thing about it is the famous “Bicycle race” song from Queen that you can hear as background music. Have fun!



It seems like all the sites have just one bicycle game, and the rest are motor bike games, so we have to go on another site. Let’s choose the Downhill Mayhem game that we found on gamesfreak.net. First you can choose your name and your shaving style. There are all the bear types, such as hunter, dirty shave, Hollywood style, chin puff, goatee and others. The goal of the game is to race to the end of each level busting out as many tricks as you can. If you land in the water or run out of time, you will fain the challenge. While in the game, press the UP arrow key to accelerate and the space bar to jump. In the air, press the space bar and one of the arrow keys to make tricks. Your time bonus and trick bonus are combined to give you a final score, which is then given a color rating. By clicking on the “Trick guide” you will be able to see all the tricks that you do, and also the score for each one. The graphic of the game is really simple, and you can’t even see the face of the bike rider. So now you might wonder why it was necessary to choose a shaving style for your player. Well the answer is: because this game was made to advertise the famous Braun company, which among other products it also makes electric shavers. Good luck!



Finally we found a site that has more than one bicycle game (gamefreak.net). So now let’s play the BMX Pro Style game. As the name says, in this game you will ride a BMX. First you get to choose the name and design of your rider. You have many kinds of helmets, T-shirts, trunks and shoes. After that you can pick a track and from what we see there are just 2 of them. This game has quite a lot of controls. You have to use the arrow keys to steer the bike, the Q, W, E keys for hard style, the A, S, D for easy style (all of these keys are used to make tricks) and the Z and X for rear and front break. So if the controls are complex, the graphic of the game is also complex and really nice. I never seen a bicycle game that allows you to use both the front and rear break for the bike, so after all this is quite a nice game, especially for the extreme bike sports fans.



Another fun bicycle game from the site is called the “Alex Trax”. In this one you will have to use your kid from the bike to reach the exit and complete the level, without breaking your neck. In some levels you will also need a key to open the exit, so be careful to pick it along the way. Use the arrow keys to control the bike and the SHIFT to jump and accelerate and also to perform stunts. The space bar is used to flip direction. As you advance on the track, you will also see some panels containing useful hints, so be sure to read them and respect the advices. If you don’t you might fall and breack your neck, and then start the level all over again. Good luck!

So these were just a few fun bicycle games, and there are so many more to be found on the internet. Just make time and search for them. And if you find some that are really cool, tell us all about them!

Anyone who used the internet so far, probably also played a free online games. These are absolutely free games, that can be found on many sites, and most of them are using the flash technology. They have a simple graphic, simple controls are they usually don’t last for a long time. The most famous flash games, especially among the kids, are the funny ones. They feature some crazy and funny looking characters and you can get them to do all sort of things. Some of the characters are even inspired by the real life. For example you can shoot aliens with Barrack Obama, or make George W. Bush to dance or help Paris Hilton escape from jail. But not all the online games are funny or silly, there are some serious games too. These can be educative games (especially for kids) or can be more complicated games for the adults. In this category the most famous are the word and puzzle games. These games usually take a much longer time to be completed, and they also stimulate your intelligence, creativity or language knowledge.

Some of the games require installation, but you can also play many free word and puzzle games without downloading anything! Just go on a site, choose the game, and play it directly from that site. A site that offers many cool and free games is shockwave.com. Beside the games that we are going to discuss today (word and puzzle) the site also contains other types of games. These are: jigsaw games, action, strategy, racing, sports, adventure, card and board games, shooters, family and kids, hidden object, matching, music and photos and also time management games. So you have many categories, and much more games to choose from, so you will never get bored with the same game.

Like we said before, today we are going to discuss some puzzle and then word games. Let’s choose a random puzzle game first, and we’ll pick the “Grave Shift sewers”. Here you will have to reclaim King Krump’s lost treasure and to collect all the gold and gems you see. Make your way to the White Warlock’s  lair and deliver the message. Look for the keys to unlock the many gates to his hideout. Rid the land of the Warlock’s minions and slide the right blocks onto the Monster Generators to destroy them. Also find the stolen relics for extra gold and don’t forget Kink Krump’s Violin. To replenish your health and courage, look for food and elixirs. When you reach the Warlock;s portal you will complete the level and unlock the next one. And finally…be brave! So don’t get scared of all the creatures that will get in your way. The character looks and sounds really funny, especially when he gets injured :). When in the game, just use the arrow keys to move him in all the directions. Good luck!



Now let’s play another puzzle game, for example the “Civiballs 2: Empire Bounce & roll”. This is quite an interesting game that will stimulate your mind. Your goal is to drop all the colored balls into the pot that has the some color. For example the red ball must go into the red pot. You will have to use just the left mouse button to cut a chain. When you cut a chain, the ball attached to it will fall. You will have to calculate the exact trajectory of each ball, and make sure that it will go into the correct pot. Be careful at any object in front of you, because it will change the path of your ball. The first levels are really simple, just so you get used with the idea of the game. But it will get more and more difficult as you advance in the game. You will have to trigger different object, and the paths of the balls will become more and more complex, but also interesting to watch. So this game is really fun and addictive. If you noticed that you made a wrong move in a level, just press the space bar to restart that level. In this game there are three major levels (Rome, Vikings and Inca) and each one has 10 other levels. So have fun!



Now let’s play a word game too. The “Hollywood jumble” sounds really good, so let’s pick this one. By the way, if you don’t see the “Word games” category on the site, press on the “More” button to reveal the hidden game categories. Now let’s get back to the Hollywood jumble game. This game will test your English knowledge, but also the information you know about Hollywood, movies and celebrities. You will have a few questions in front of you, and you will have to answer to each one, in the fastest time possible. There is no time limit, so you can always visit google and search for the answer to a question that you don’t know.  Just drag and drop the scrambled letters into the solution box, or simply type the word on the keyboard. The red circled letters contribute to the clues in the game’s final Jumble Solution. To complete a level you will have to reveal the final solution. Good luck!



These were just some of the many free word and puzzle games and there are so many more to be found on the internet. So whenever you want to have some fun, but also stimulate your brain at the same time, pick a game of this type. Enjoy!