Boxing

How to play Boxing online

• Move the white boxer (player 1): arrow keys
• Punch: Space bar; hold it down to throw combinations
• Move the black boxer (player 2): T/F/G/H, punch with A
• Choose a game: F11 (Game 1: you against the computer, Game 2: two players)
• Start the bout: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
• Slow a boxer down: F4 (player 1) or F9 (player 2 or the computer); position A is slower, B is normal speed
• Save and load: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it

Gameplay

You control the white boxer; the computer, or a second player, controls the black one. Move close enough and press the button to punch. Every punch that lands knocks your opponent back a little. A long jab thrown from a distance is worth 1 point, and a power punch landed up close is worth 2.

There are no rounds and no knockdowns. A bout lasts two minutes. If one boxer reaches 100 points before time runs out, that is a knockout and the match ends at once. Otherwise the judges’ “decision” goes to whoever has the higher score, and a tie is possible.

The difficulty switches work as a handicap. Setting a boxer to position A makes him move a bit slower. A stronger player can slow himself down against a newcomer, or you can give the computer the edge when you want a harder fight.

Tips for winning by knockout

• Work him to the ropes. Because every hit pushes your opponent back, a string of jabs drives him toward the edge of the ring. Once he is trapped there, he cannot back away from your punches.
• Then move in close. Up close, each punch counts double. Hold the button for combinations and alternate your hits so he gets bounced back and forth against the ropes.
• Hit and move. Standing still in front of your opponent just trades points. Punch, step aside, and come in again from a better angle.
• Keep going in the second minute. Whitehead’s own advice in the manual was that the computer boxer tires after the first minute, so a match that starts badly can still be turned around.

The story behind Boxing

Bob Whitehead was one of the Atari programmers who left in 1979 to found Activision. Boxing borrowed ideas from Boxer, a 1978 Atari arcade game by Mike Albaugh that was never released. Whitehead deliberately kept the rules simple rather than trying to model a real boxing match. The game shipped alongside David Crane’s Dragster and Fishing Derby and Alan Miller’s Checkers, the lineup that proved outside companies could make and sell games for Atari’s console. Whitehead went on to design Skiing and Stampede for Activision.

The game has had a long afterlife. It was re-released for Microsoft’s Game Room service in 2010, appears on screen in an episode of The Walking Dead, and turns up as an Easter egg in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.