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> Then why does Tank Battalion share so many similarities with the 2600 version of
> Combat?

They both have a tank battle element. The reasoning is akin to why X fighter shares so many similarities to Y fighter.

Armor Attack released the same year as Tank Battalion (1980) shares just as many - if not more - similarities to Combat.

Nonetheless, the above is focusing solely on the tank aspect of Combat. That is only half of the games on the cartridge. The other half has nothing to do with tanks and is air flight based.

Going back to the earlier fighter game analogy, it was the explosive popularity and selling power of Street Fighter II that led in part to so many (sequels and) clones. Realizing both the popularity and selling power of Combat/2600 could be a possible reason why Tank Battalion and Armor Attack are so similar to Combat.

Side note: BattleZone was also released in 1980 by Atari. 1980 may have just been the year for many "tank" games.

EDIT: Going back to your original Namco/Atari relation inquiry... It could very well be Namco released some similar games after seeing what was released on the Atari system. Notice this:

Atari 2600 Console:
1982 Activision's Pitfall
1984 Activision's (Vertical) Scrolling Pitfall II

Arcade:
1984 Namco's (Side) Scrolling Pac-Land

Or it could all be just pure coincidence and just happened to be the kinds of game/gameplay type that technology encouraged or/and evolved to at the time.

Edited by Trebor (09/14/12 05:17 PM)