CBS Electronics published Atari 2600 games in 1982 and 1983, many of them licences of Bally Midway arcade games. Gorf and Wizard of Wor, both converted by the outside developer Roklan, came out in December 1982, followed by Solar Fox, Blueprint and Omega Race. Some CBS cartridges carried “RAM Plus”, 256 extra bytes of memory that made more ambitious games possible, such as Tunnel Runner and Mountain King. CBS closed its cartridge development on 23 October 1983.
Gorf: several short space missions in one game, ending with the Gorfian Flag Ship.
Wizard of Wor: a dungeon maze shooter for one or two players at once.
Solar Fox: collect a grid of solar cells while guards fire at you.
Omega Race: the arena shooter that came with the Booster Grip controller add-on.
Tunnel Runner: a first-person 3D maze with an eerie soundtrack.
Wings: a flight simulator cancelled weeks before release and found in 2004.
Every game below runs in your browser, so take your pick.
Wings is an unreleased air combat simulator made by CBS Electronics for the Atari 2600 in 1983 and programmed by Stuart Ross. It was cancelled only weeks before it was due in shops, and the prototype did not turn up until late 2004. With its cockpit full of gauges it is far more ambitious than most 2600 flying games, and this prototype is the only way to see it. You can play it here 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.
Tunnel Runner is a first-person maze game published by CBS Electronics in 1983, programmed by Dick Balaska with Stuart Ross. You run through smoothly scrolling 3D corridors, hunting for a key and an exit while creatures called Zots hunt for you. Few Atari 2600 games attempted a first-person view like this, and its eerie sound makes it genuinely tense. Play it here in your browser.
Solar Fox is CBS Electronics’ 1983 Atari 2600 conversion of the 1981 Bally Midway arcade game, programmed by Bob Curtiss. You steer an unarmed starship around a grid of solar cells, collecting every one while two guards on the edges of the screen spit fireballs at you. It is simple to learn, quick to play, and the speed button adds a surprising amount of skill. You can play it here in your browser.
Omega Race is the Atari 2600 version of Midway’s 1981 vector-graphics arcade game, in which you fly a fighter around a rectangular arena and shoot down waves of enemy ships. CBS Electronics released it in 1983, and the manual says it was programmed for CBS by Bally Midway. It came with a special controller add-on, the Booster Grip, which gave the joystick separate buttons for thrust and fire. You can try it here in your browser, but read the control notes first.
Mountain King is a platform game for the Atari 2600, where the player assumes the role of an explorer in search of a diamond mine and the temple of an ancient civilization. The objective is to discover and collect the Golden Crown and take it to the summit of the mountain. The mountain environment is … Read more
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.
Blue Print (spelled Blueprint on the cartridge) is the Atari 2600 version of the 1982 Bally Midway arcade game, published by CBS Electronics in 1983 and programmed by Tom DiDomenico. You play a hero with a plan: search a neighbourhood of houses for the parts of a strange machine, build it piece by piece on a blueprint, and use it to stop Ollie Ogre before he catches Daisy Damsel. It rewards planning as much as quick reflexes. You can play it here in your browser.