The Atari 8-bit version of Konami‘s classic arcade game, Pooyan, was coded by Scott Spanburg, with graphics by Kelly Day, and was published by Datasoft in 1983.

This port has been adapted to fit a horizontal screen, rather than the vertical screen of the arcade game, but the gameplay stays pretty much the same.

You play a pig in a basket being winched up and down a cliff face, and the aim is to fire arrows at – or throw pieces of meat at – wolves that are riding balloons and trying to get at you and your piglets.

The game features two different screens. In the first the wolves are floating down on balloons, and trying to get at you by climbing a ladder. In the second the wolves are floating upwards and will push a rock down onto you if enough of them make it to the top.

After completing both screens there’s a bonus level where you can only throw meat at the wolves to knock them off their balloons, and after that the game repeats but at a higher difficulty.

Pooyan is a decent port on Atari 8-bit machines, but it does have limited longevity. It’s good for a half hour of fun once in a while, but doesn’t have enough variety to warrant playing for any longer.

More: Pooyan on Wikipedia