Games by Apollo was a small company from Richardson, Texas, founded in late 1981 by Pat Roper, head of an educational film company. It was among the first companies after Activision to make games for the Atari 2600. None of its games became a big hit, and Apollo filed for bankruptcy in November 1982, one of the first victims of the collapsing games market.
The site has eleven Apollo games. Ed Salvo was the company’s main programmer: he wrote its first release, Skeet Shoot (December 1981), its best seller Spacechase, the shadow-filled Racquetball and the baggage-catching game Lost Luggage. Dan Oliver designed Space Cavern, which Panda later sold again as Space Canyon. Wabbit, by Van Mai, is the earliest surviving console game with a named, playable female hero. Steve Stringfellow made Lochjaw, renamed Shark Attack after an objection over the title, and Larry Martin finished Guardian just before the company closed. Infiltrate, made for Apollo by an outside studio, completes the list.
Pick any of them below and play it in your browser.
Lost Luggage is a 1982 catching game for the Atari 2600 from Games by Apollo, a small studio in Richardson, Texas. An airport baggage carousel goes haywire and starts flinging suitcases into the air, and your skycaps have to catch them before they burst open on the floor. It is a light-hearted change from the space shooters of the time, with planes landing in the background. You can play it here in your browser.
Final Approach is an air traffic control game released in 1982 by Games by Apollo, a small Texas company that made games for the Atari 2600. You work at a busy airport, steering up to four planes around a radar screen and then talking each one down onto the runway yourself. It is a game of planning and juggling rather than shooting. You can play it here in your browser.
Space Canyon is a 1983 re-release of Space Cavern, the 1982 shooter from Games by Apollo, released under a new name by the publisher Panda. The game itself is the same: you stand at the bottom of the screen, shoot upwards at creatures hovering overhead, and turn to blast the attackers rushing in from either side. You can play it here in your browser.
Wabbit is a 1982 Atari 2600 game from Apollo, a small publisher based in Richardson, Texas. You play Billie Sue, a farm girl whose carrot patch is being raided by rabbits, and your only weapon is a supply of rotten eggs. It is a relaxed, cartoon-style shooting game, and it has a place in history as the earliest surviving console game with a named, playable female hero. You can play it here in your browser.
Spacechase is a space shooter from Games by Apollo, a small company from Richardson, Texas, that made games for the Atari 2600. It was designed and programmed by Ed Salvo and came out in early 1982. You fly a Starcruiser in orbit above a slowly turning moon and shoot down wave after wave of alien raiders. It became Apollo’s best-selling title, and it is a fair, quick-to-learn shooter with more freedom of movement than most games of its type. You can play it here in your browser.
Space Cavern is a 1982 shoot-’em-up for the Atari 2600 from Games by Apollo, designed by Dan Oliver. Your spaceman stands on the floor of an underground cavern on a strange planet. Above him hover horned creatures that rain energy blasts down on him, and from the caves on either side furry beasts charge in to attack. What sets it apart from other shooters of its time is that you fight on two fronts at once: you shoot upwards and to the sides. You can play it here in your browser.
Skeet Shoot is a simple target-shooting game from 1981 and the very first cartridge released by Games by Apollo. Ed Salvo programmed it on his own before the company even existed as a game studio. You stand at the bottom of the screen, launch clay pigeons and try to hit them as they fly past. It is rough, but it is a piece of early third-party Atari history. You can play it here in your browser.
Racquetball is a 1982 sports game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Ed Salvo and published by Games by Apollo, a small company from Texas. Two players share an indoor court and try to keep a fast ball in play as it bounces off the front wall, the side walls and the ceiling. Shadows show where the ball is in the air, an ambitious idea for 1982. You can play it here in your browser, against the computer or a friend.
Lochjaw is a 1982 maze game from Games by Apollo, designed and programmed by Steve Stringfellow. As a deep-sea diver you collect diamonds from a sunken galleon while sharks sweep across the screen and the Loch Ness Monster lurks in the caves. It is the original release of the game Apollo soon renamed Shark Attack. You can play it here in your browser.
Infiltrate is a 1982 Atari 2600 action game published by Games by Apollo, a small company from Richardson, Texas. You play a secret agent who has to work his way through an enemy fortress of floors and elevators, grab the secret documents and survive the laser-firing assassins along the way. Ducking under enemy shots gives it a rhythm of its own. You can play it here in your browser.