Blackjack (Atari 2600 video game)
Introduction


***Blackjack*** is a [video game](/wiki/Video_game "Video game") simulation of the [card game](/wiki/Card_game "Card game") [blackjack](/wiki/Blackjack "Blackjack"). It was designed by [Bob Whitehead](/wiki/Bob_Whitehead "Bob Whitehead") for the Atari [Video Computer System](/wiki/Atari_2600 "Atari 2600") (later known as the Atari 2600\). The game allows up to three players to play a variation of blackjack. All players are given 200 chips which they can use to bet 1 to 25 during each round. The game ends for a player when they either run out of chips or earns 1000 chips or more.

Computer simulations of blackjack have been developed since the 1950s with all the home video game consoles released in the 1970s having a variation of the game released for their system. Whitehead developed the game following his work on *[Star Ship](/wiki/Star_Ship "Star Ship")* (1977\). He was responsible for specific development choices, such as controlling the game via the paddle controllers and initially planning to include other card games on the cart. Whitehead made *Blackjack* the first Atari 2600 game that would be able to copy graphics [on the fly](/wiki/On_the_fly "On the fly"), which would be used continuously in later games for the system.

On the games release in September 1977, it was the most well received game of the systems launch titles by *[Video](/wiki/Video_%28magazine%29 "Video (magazine)")* magazine. *Blacjack* was no longer promoted by Atari following the release of Whitehead's *[Casino](/wiki/Casino_%28video_game%29 "Casino (video game)")* in 1979, but still continued to sell in small amounts as late as 1989\. Retrospective reviews were generally dismissive, with Brett Weiss and AllGame noting low quality sound and graphics while Kevin Bunch in *Atari Archive: Vol.1 1977\-1978* found that the release of *Casino* made *Blackjack* a relatively superfluous game for the Atari 2600\.


Have there been any updates or modifications to the original Blackjack game?