Roklan was a contract developer of the early 1980s that wrote games for larger companies instead of publishing under its own name, so its work is easy to miss. On the Atari 2600 it converted two Midway arcade games for CBS Electronics, both released in December 1982.
Wizard of Wor: one or two Worriors hunt monsters, some of them invisible, through dungeon mazes until the Wizard appears. AtariAge credits the programming to Joe Hellesen and Joe Wagner.
Gorf: several short missions in one game, ending at the Gorfian Flag Ship. Alex Leavens programmed it.
The site also lists Roklan for two Parker Brothers versions of Konami games, Super Cobra and Gyruss. AtariProtos and AtariMania say Roklan worked on both, but accounts of its role in the released cartridges differ, and our Gyruss page credits Joe Gaucher. Choose a game below and play it in your browser.
Wizard of Wor is the Atari 2600 version of Midway’s 1981 arcade maze shooter. CBS Electronics published it in December 1982, and the conversion was made by Roklan. You lead a squad of Worriors through a series of dungeons, shooting monsters, some of them invisible,, until the Wizard himself comes out to fight. Two players can share the maze at the same time, as partners or as rivals. You can play it here in your browser.
Super Cobra is Parker Brothers’ 1983 Atari 2600 version of Konami’s 1981 arcade game. You fly a helicopter through eleven levels of hostile terrain, firing missiles and bombs at ground guns, rockets, fireballs and mines while keeping an eye on your fuel. The goal at the end is a treasure worth 5,000 points. You can play it here in your browser.
Gyruss is Parker Brothers’ 1984 Atari 2600 version of Konami’s 1983 arcade shooter. Your ship circles the edge of the screen and fires in towards the centre, while enemy formations swirl out of deep space on your trip from Neptune back to Earth. The 2600 cartridge was programmed by Joe Gaucher, and it plays Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor throughout, which is unusual for the console. You can play it here in your browser.
Gorf is the Atari 2600 version of Midway’s 1981 arcade shooter, published by CBS Video Games in December 1982. The port was made by Roklan and programmed by Alex Leavens. Instead of one kind of alien attack, Gorf strings together several short missions, each a different style of space shooter, ending with a showdown against the Gorfian Flag Ship. You can play it here in your browser.