Atari 2600 FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER! | Cage the Creature Before He BREAKS FREE!
Frankenstein’s Monster is a platform game developed for the Atari 2600 video game console, based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. It was released by Data Age in 1983.
The player character has to “make his way through the ghoulish castle of Dr. Frankenstein,” where he “must prevent him from completing his creation.” The player must “gather stones from the dungeon and bring them to the tower where [he] must build a barricade around Frankenstein’s monster before he has accumulated enough energy to come alive,” which he does using the so-called “Power Probe,” a device absorbing energy from an electrical storm.
#atari #retrogaming #frankenstein #genxgrownup
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@katmacoconnor
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
👾💜
@charlesbronson4282
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
I remember sending off for this. It was part of a sweepstakes deal..i think…if you bought 4 atari games and sent in the proof of purchase, they would send you this..if i remember right. And i waited, and waited, and waited. And then 2 months later…this game arrived in the mail. Cool game. Very tough…and scary when you have the sound WAAAAY UP.
@JohnHenrySheridan
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Just enjoyed watching your playthrough with my son. Fun and cool! Thanks Jon!
@theTemplar08
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
It’s definitely not the worst Atari game I’ve seen
@cackers4752
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
By the way, there's a new Pac-Man Halloween Google Doodle playable now! It's pretty fun! I think it'd be cool if they popped this Halloween one into a mini cabinet like the Hello Kitty ones
@nutherefurlong
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
When I was a kid and saw the still of the game, I thought the capacitor or whatever it is at the top was his head, and he was wearing a weird hat or something 🙂 I like how elaborate some of these games wound up getting
@johnturley273
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
One of the best sleeper games ever! I got it out of the 99 cent bin at Ames, I would love to go back to that day and buy them all!
@miked4377
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
its cool how frankenstien fills up and comes at you! 83 this was out halloween of 83 was alot of fun..kids today will never understand how fun it was…
@tubewatcher155
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
In case anyone is interested I found a Homebrew edition of this game for intellivision. The rom is free and the game goes by a shortened name Franken. It has the classic intellivision look as far as the graphics go. The gameplay is pretty much the same as the atari. However there's a bit of a I won't say Easter egg but perhaps bonus at the end if the creature happens to come to life. I won't say what it is but it is very familiar to all of us gen xers out there.
@williamhunter5830
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Have u played the so called worse game ever? ET on the 2600
@desperatedan3985
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Awesome game👍 would like to see Kaboom and or Adventure👌
@Splusmer
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
How about Mountain King? I think there might be a 2600 version, but I enjoyed it on my Atari 800 and I believe it was released for the 5200 as well.
Also, maybe for Tuesday night plays the much more recent Phantasmaphobia? My son easily jump scare, and I can remember lots of shrieks from his room when he played it with friends. That one might still cost more than a buck or two, so maybe not.
@TheGroovySideOftheTube
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
LOVED this game when I was a kit in the 1980s. Played the heck out of it – and found the way the monster comes to you at the end quite scary! It was also pretty hard. It has Pitfall elements but it's NOTHING like Pitfall.
@karasstig1207
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Excellent video as always! Thank you! Never tire of 2600 content!
@shapesinaframe
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
So many confusing aspects of this game compared to games now. A horror theme game where the NPCs don’t hurt you. A bat cave that looks like grass. The complete scene change on touching the grass (sorry, cave). Nothing to provide perspective when moving in the bat cave, it looked like space invaders.
I would have sucked playing this as a kid. If I had made it to the cave I would’ve spent way too long at the bottom of the cave dodging bats before realising I could move up towards the top 😅
It’s funny how you thought the log was radioactive. That was one fun thing I had forgotten about these old games; their sprites are so rudimentary you had to come up with your own story to understand what one block was doing in the game vs another very similar looking block.
Fun! 😊
@janetcarr1576
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Frankenstein's Monster is one of my favorite 2600 games. Most of the time, I can finish it if I don't rage quit after losing the first life. My highest score is 4420, but even 4000 isn't easy to get to. The easiest way to get past the bats on the harder screens is to get to one side and zig-zag up.
@kenwheeler3637
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
I was surprised to discover, a few years back due to a contest on AtariAge, that this is a decent, fun and challenging game.
@jonsharman6853
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
I watched the whole play through and thought yep that’s the game for me, can’t wait to give that a go, I went to eBay to look for prices, it’s £110 British pounds, that’s $146 US dollars 😩 maybe not.
@sithcritic8906
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
That Frankenstein game over attack is a menacing fright. Definitely a highlight of the 2600 catalog.
@KatDoomsong
April 5, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Heroic effort. With most games for the 2600 being "accumulate as many points as possible before you lose," it's neat to see another game that you could theoretically win/complete the game. When you first started describing the scoring, it immediately made me think of Pitfall II. How close to perfect can you get?