Developer: Bob Whitehead

Bob Whitehead joined Atari in January 1977 and programmed some of the first Atari 2600 cartridges, including the launch titles Star Ship and Blackjack. His other Atari work includes Home Run, the card games of Casino, and Football, where he repeated and flickered player graphics to field two teams of four. On Video Chess (1979), written with Larry Wagner, he solved the problem of showing eight pieces in a row with the “Venetian blinds” technique. An earlier prototype, Computer Chess, is on the site too.
In 1979 he left to co-found Activision. His games there include Boxing, one of the company’s first four cartridges in 1980, and Skiing, a race against the clock with no enemies at all. Stampede, Sky Jinks and Private Eye followed, along with Chopper Command (1982), a desert shooter that won Best Action Video Game at the Arkie Awards.
All thirteen are listed below, and you can play every one of them in your browser.

Casino – Poker Plus

Casino is an early Atari 2600 card game cartridge programmed by Bob Whitehead and released by Atari in 1979. Sears sold it under the name Poker Plus. It puts three card games on one cartridge: blackjack, five-card stud…

Play ▸

Private Eye

Private Eye is a detective game for the Atari 2600, designed by Activision co-founder Bob Whitehead and released by Activision in early 1984. You play the French detective Pierre Touché, driving a jumping Model A car around a…

Play ▸

Football

Football is Atari's early American football cartridge for the 2600, programmed by Bob Whitehead and sold by Sears as part of its Tele-Games line. It is a two-player game only: one person plays offence, the other defence, and…

Play ▸

Video Chess

Video Chess is Atari's chess cartridge for the 2600, released in November 1979. It was programmed by Larry Wagner and Bob Whitehead, with help from chess expert Julio Kaplan. You play against the computer on a full board,…

Play ▸

Star Ship

Star Ship is one of the nine cartridges available when the Atari Video Computer System (later called the Atari 2600) launched in September 1977. It was programmed by Bob Whitehead, who also wrote the launch title Blackjack, and…

Play ▸

Stampede

Stampede is a 1981 Activision game designed and programmed by Bob Whitehead, the author of Boxing and Skiing. You ride a horse across a scrolling prairie and lasso runaway cattle before they slip past you. It looks gentle,…

Play ▸

Skiing

Skiing is a 1980 Activision cartridge designed and programmed by Bob Whitehead. You steer a skier down slalom courses and downhill runs, dodging trees, flags and moguls in a race against the clock. There are no enemies and…

Play ▸

Sky Jinks

Sky Jinks is a 1982 air racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by Bob Whitehead for Activision. You fly a low-level P41 racer through a course of pylons, watched over from above as the ground…

Play ▸

Home Run

Home Run is a baseball game that Atari released for the 2600 in October 1978. It was programmed by Bob Whitehead, who later co-founded Activision, together with David Rolfe, and it was the first baseball game on any…

Play ▸

Computer Chess

Computer Chess is an unreleased 1978 Atari prototype by Bob Whitehead and Larry Wagner. It is the early version of the program that Atari later shrank and sold as Video Chess. It never reached the shops, but it…

Play ▸