In 2010, Fries, a former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft, released a landmark demake, Halo 2600—a version of Halo, the multibillion-dollar series that has dominated 21st-century gaming—for the Atari 2600, the 1970s vintage console that brought us Pac-Man. Now, Halo 2600 has been added to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's permanent collections. A playable version will go on display at a date yet to be determined.
After reading a book about programming for the 1970s …
Halo 2600 is an original homebrew game created by Ed Fries for the Atari 2600. Ed Fries once worked as the VP of Game Publishing for Microsoft's Xbox division and was instrumental in bringing Bungie Studios into the Microsoft studio family). AtariAge worked with Ed Fries to produce Halo 2600 in physical cartridge form, and a limited run was produced for the 2010 Classic Gaming Expo. After the Classic Gaming Expo, additional cartridges were produced using a different label (pictured in this a…