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.
Chopper Command is a horizontally scrolling shooter designed by Bob Whitehead and released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1982. You fly a helicopter gunship over the desert, shooting down enemy jets and helicopters before they can…
Play ▸
