Parker Brothers was best known for board games, but from 1982 it also published a long run of Atari 2600 cartridges. In 1982 its version of Konami’s Frogger and The Empire Strikes Back, the first licensed Star Wars video game, were its two best-selling video games. The site has 26 Parker Brothers cartridges, and they fall into three groups.
The first is arcade conversions, many of them from Konami (Amidar, Tutankham, Super Cobra, Gyruss) and Nintendo (Popeye, Sky Skipper), plus Gottlieb’s Reactor and Q*bert. The second is licensed games: Star Wars, Spider-Man, G.I. Joe and Strawberry Shortcake. The third is unreleased prototypes such as Ewok Adventure, Care Bears and a McDonald’s demo. Good places to start:
Frogger (1982): one of the best-selling games on the system and easy to pick up.
The Empire Strikes Back (1982): snowspeeders against Imperial Walkers on Hoth.
Spider-Man (1982): the first Spider-Man video game, with web-swinging up skyscrapers.
Gyruss (1984): a circling space shooter set to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
Montezuma’s Revenge (1984): a tough platform adventure through an Aztec fortress.
Journey to Rivendell: an almost finished Lord of the Rings prototype found in 2001.
Browse the full list below and play any of them in your browser.
Q*bert's Qubes is the sequel to Q*bert, based on the 1983 arcade game from Mylstar (the company formerly known as Gottlieb). Parker Brothers published the Atari 2600 version, programmed by Todd Marshall. Instead of changing the colour of…
Play ▸Star Wars: Jedi Arena is a 1983 paddle game from Parker Brothers, programmed by Rex Bradford. Two Jedi Knights face each other across a training arena while a floating Seeker ball fires laser bolts, and you use your…
Play ▸Mr. Do!'s Castle is Parker Brothers' Atari 2600 version of Universal's 1983 arcade game, released on the console in 1984. The clown from Mr. Do! swaps his orchard for a castle full of ladders and stone floors, and…
Play ▸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…
Play ▸Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Death Star Battle is a space shooter published by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600 in October 1983. It was the first video game based on Return of the Jedi. You…
Play ▸Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – Ewok Adventure is an unreleased Atari 2600 game, programmed by Larry Gelberg for Parker Brothers in 1983. An Ewok on a hang glider flies over the forest moon of Endor to…
Play ▸Star Wars: The Arcade Game is Parker Brothers' 1984 Atari 2600 conversion of Atari's 1983 Star Wars arcade machine. As Luke Skywalker in an X-wing, you fight TIE fighters, fly over the surface of the Death Star and…
Play ▸Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1982 Atari 2600 game from Parker Brothers, programmed by Rex Bradford. It was the first licensed Star Wars video game, and it recreates one famous scene from the film: Rebel…
Play ▸Strawberry Shortcake: Musical Match-Ups is a 1983 Atari 2600 puzzle game for young children, published by Parker Brothers and programmed by Dawn Stockbridge. The Purple Pieman has cast a spell over Strawberryland and scrambled the characters' heads, bodies…
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