This notorious 1982 release for the Atari 2600 was – at the time – the most expensive movie license ever acquired by a video game company ($35 million dollars it apparently cost), and it also undoubtedly hastened the demise of Atari Inc. (as it was back then), and was also a major contributing factor to the video game market crash of 1983.
Tag Archives: Atari
Desert Falcon, Atari 7800
Desert Falcon is an obscure isometric shooter with an Egyptian theme, released exclusively for the Atari 7800 in 1987.
You play as a falcon, flying diagonally over the landscape, shooting stuff as you go, in a way similar to that seen in Sega‘s classic coin-op, Zaxxon.
Gauntlet II, Arcade
Gauntlet II is the 1986 sequel to the classic four-player arcade game, Gauntlet. It was made by pretty much the same Atari Games team that made the first game, so retains a lot of its qualities. Which is great, because the first Gauntlet was brilliant and fans wanted more of the same – only with enhancements. Which is exactly what they got.
Spy Hunter, Atari 2600
You’d expect the Atari 2600 version of Spy Hunter to be the runt of the litter, and… it’s actually not too bad.
Defender, Intellivision
Intellivision Defender is a very good conversion of the timeless Williams arcade game. It was developed by Atari and released for the Intellivision in 1983.
Vindicators, Arcade
Vindicators is a one or two-player futuristic tank combat game released into arcades by Atari Games in 1988.
The simultaneous two-player co-op mode is arguably the most fun you can have with Vindicators, although the single-player game is also challenging.
Super Sprint, Arcade
Released into arcades in 1986, Atari‘s Super Sprint was remarkable because the cabinet had three steering wheels, thus could accommodate up to three people playing simultaneously.
Zany Golf, Atari ST
Zany Golf was released by Electronic Arts in 1988. It originated on the Apple IIgs but was quickly ported to 16-bit computers, including this fine Atari ST version.
Klax, Arcade
It says “copyright 1989” on the title screen, but Klax actually made it into arcades in June 1990. Klax is a real-time puzzle game – for one or two players – with falling tiles that you must catch, then drop, into a small trough at the bottom of the screen.
Cavernia, Atari 8-bit
A British platform game that came quite late in the life of the Atari 8-bit computers (released by Zeppelin Games in 1990), Cavernia is a fairly simple left to right run-and-jump-a-thon but with nice presentation and decent controls.