@jamrom2 Same with me in only having friends with a 2600. My own console was a Tchibo Tele-Fever, a rebranded Emerson Arcadia 2001. There was only one electronics shop in my whole city (population about 3 million!) that had games for this system after it was discontinued by the coffee roaster chain Tchibo after only some weeks or months. But that fact made the trips to buy a new game kind of a holy pilgrimage. 😆 And it made me actually read their manuals completely on my way home.

Yes, Activision made some of the best games of that era. One of my favourites was H.E.R.O. on the C64 which I played through until its "end" when you reached the maximum points the game could display (999,999?) and the score would turn to "!!!!!!" or something similar, I don't remember clearly after all those years. You could then send a photo of the screen to the publisher and get some goodies for it, but I never did that to my deepest regret up until this day. (I actually took the photo but never sent it in.)

edit: And I just learned that it only had 20 levels. I never noticed that! 😲 🤪

I played Syndicate for a long time on my Amiga, it was one of my absolute favourites back then.