20th Century Fox, the Hollywood film studio, entered the Atari 2600 market in 1982 with its own game label, Fox Video Games. The idea was to turn films from the studio’s catalogue into cartridges, but most of the games were made by outside teams. Sirius Software, a computer game company, supplied a large share, including Fast Eddie, Deadly Duck, Worm War I and Fantastic Voyage. Doug Neubauer, who had left Atari, programmed Alien, Mega Force and M*A*S*H as an independent contractor. Some cartridges simply borrowed a film title, as The Earth Dies Screaming and Spacemaster X-7 did. The label closed in 1983 during the video game crash, and several finished or nearly finished games were never sold.
The site has 22 games under this name, released cartridges and prototypes alike. A few to start with:
Alien (1982): a maze game based on Ridley Scott’s film, with a flame thrower and a bonus stage.
Fantastic Voyage (1982): David Lubar’s scrolling shooter set inside a patient’s bloodstream.
Fast Eddie (1982): Mark Turmell’s platform game about grabbing prizes that float above you.
M*A*S*H: fly wounded soldiers to safety and then operate against the clock as Hawkeye Pierce.
Bank Heist (1983): rob banks in a getaway car while every second costs you fuel.
Meltdown: an unreleased reactor game, thought lost until a copy turned up in 2004.
Pick any of them from the list below and start playing in your browser.
Beany Bopper is a 1982 Atari 2600 shooter developed by Sirius Software and published by 20th Century Fox. You fly a purple eyeball called the Bopper around a field of blocks, stunning and then catching the Beanies, little creatures with propeller hats. The twist is that shooting is only half the job: a stunned Beany still has to be touched before it counts. You can play it here in your browser.
Flash Gordon is a 1983 Atari 2600 shooter based on the comic-strip space hero. David Lubar designed it at Sirius Software, and Fox Video Games, the game division of 20th Century Fox, published it. You fly a rocket ship through the tunnels of Spider City, rescuing lost spacemen and wiping out nests of spider warriors. A split screen shows a close-up view on top and a map of the whole city below. You can play it here in your browser.
Alligator People is an unreleased Atari 2600 game from 20th Century Fox’s video game division, programmed by John Russell in 1983. It is based on the 1959 horror and science fiction film The Alligator People, in which an experimental treatment slowly turns people into alligator-like creatures. The game was never sold, but a prototype survived and turned out to be fully playable. You can play it here in your browser.
Worm War I is a 1982 shooter for the Atari 2600, developed by Sirius Software, programmed by David Lubar and published by 20th Century Fox. You drive a tank up the scrolling screen through the city of Teriyaki, blasting giant worms and blocks while keeping an eye on your fuel. It mixes a fixed shooter with a scrolling drive, and the fuel stops along the way make you plan ahead. You can play it here in your browser.
Turmoil is a fast-paced shooter. You pilot a ship that is trapped within a chamber of seven tunnels. Your ship can only move up and down along a vertical corridor connecting the tunnels. You are not alone, however. A variety of enemies travel along these tunnels, focused on destroying you. Therefore, the ultimate objective of … Read more
Unknown 20th Century Fox Game is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype that is attributed to 20th Century Fox, whose Fox Video Games label published 2600 cartridges in 1982 and 1983. The name is only a placeholder: the prototype’s real title, its programmer and its date have not been confirmed, and it was never sold. You can load it here in your browser and see what survives.
Spacemaster X-7 is a 1983 space shooter for the Atari 2600, published by 20th Century Fox and made by Sirius Software, with David Lubar as the programmer. You fly an assault ship against enemy bases, each wrapped in a pulsing force field and shields that keep growing back, so timing and positioning matter more than firepower. You can play it here in your browser.
Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes is an Atari 2600 game from 20th Century Fox, programmed by John Russell and released in February 1983. It is an odd mix of shooter and building game: you steer a flying Tomato Sprayer, catch coloured bricks and drop them into place to wall in a row of angry tomato plants, while their bombs and a squadron of flying tomatoes try to stop you. You can play it here in your browser.
Planet of the Apes is an unreleased Atari 2600 prototype from 1983, programmed by John Marvin for 20th Century Fox’s video game division. You play Colonel George Taylor, the astronaut from the 1968 film, fleeing an army of apes on the way to the Forbidden Zone. For years the surviving prototype was known under the wrong name. You can play it here in your browser.
Porky’s is a 1983 Atari 2600 game based on the 1981 teen comedy film of the same name. It was published by 20th Century Fox’s video game division and made for Dunhill Electronic Media by a small team that included programmer Randy Hyde of Lazer Microsystems. You help the film’s hero, Pee Wee, get even with Porky, the owner of a roadside bar, across several very different screens. You can play it here in your browser.