Thwocker is an unreleased Activision prototype for the Atari 2600, discovered in 2001 at a thrift shop alongside other prototypes. Developed by Charlie Heath, who also created Reactor, Thwocker has been described as “Joust with musical instruments.” The player controls a little conductor character, resembling a bowling ball, and must bounce around a maze collecting … Read more
Swordfight is a two-player competitive game that features one-on-one sword duels. The game is designed for players to face off against each other, with each player controlling a character wielding a sword that closely resembles a lightsaber from the Star Wars franchise, both in appearance and sound effects. To play the game, players use the … Read more
Stunt Cycle was one of Atari’s first non-Pong standalone consoles. In 1980 Atari decided that Stunt Cycle would make a great Atari 2600 game, so programmer Bob Polaro was asked to do the conversion. Using the Paddle Controllers to simulate the original consoles bike grips, Polaro made a near perfect port of the standalone console. … Read more
An unplayable demo, never got past the early prototype stage.
It’s a prototype, never released.
Save Mary! may have been in development longer than any other Atari 2600 game. One reason for this was Atari management constantly making changes to an already complex game, but another reason for the long development cycle was that programmer Tod Frye may only have been working part time for Atari at the time and … Read more
It’s a prototype.
Pharaoh’s Curse is a platform adventure game for the Atari 2600, inspired by the popular Boulder Dash. In the game, players explore a series of tombs to collect 16 treasures while avoiding various traps and enemies. The game begins with the player character falling into the tombs below. Players can navigate the rooms using ropes … Read more