Video Checkers - Atari 2600

Video Checkers is a turn-based adaptation of American checkers for one or two players. In a single-player game, the player competes against the computer; in a two-player game, both participants share the console and take turns. Each side begins with 12 pieces and attempts to win by capturing all of the opponent’s pieces or leaving them without a legal move.

Players use a joystick-controlled cursor to select a piece and its destination. Regular pieces move diagonally forward across the dark squares, while kings can move in either direction. Captures are compulsory, and a piece must continue jumping if another capture is available. A piece that reaches the opposite end of the board is crowned as a king, but its turn ends immediately, even if the newly crowned piece could make another jump.

The Atari 2600 cartridge contains 19 game variations. Games 1 through 9 provide standard checkers against the computer at nine progressively stronger difficulty levels, while Game 10 is a two-player match. Games 11 through 19 offer nine difficulty levels of giveaway checkers, in which the objective is reversed: the first player to lose all of their pieces or become unable to move wins.

The Atari 2600 console’s difficulty switches control additional options rather than the computer’s skill. The left switch can replace the normal starting arrangement with a board that the player may configure manually. The right switch determines which side uses the black pieces and therefore moves first; in a single-player game, this selects whether the human or computer begins.

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