Atari 2600 VCS Emulator

An Emulator enables your computer to function like another kind of computer (or game system as in this case). There are many Atari 2600 Emulators, for all sorts of computing platforms (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Amiga, ST, etc.) Check out the Links section to find an emulator for your computer. Download and install an appropriate emulator and you're one step away from emulating a real Atari 2600.

Cartridge ROM Images

An emulator needs the code from the original game program cartridges such as Asteroids, Defender, etc. These are digital files containing the code inside the actual video game cartridge ROMs. Copyright Laws may require that you own the original cartridge if you want to use the ROM images. It is possible to build cartridge readers that enable you to make ROM images of your own cartridges. Program Cartridge ROMs are easily found elsewhere on the Internet. See the Links section for more information. You can program your own real ROM cartridges with special hardware and adapters available at myatari.com aka B&C Computer Visions. Of course you'd have to know some seriously low level machine language programming, so that's not for everyone.