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.
James Bond 007 is a side-scrolling action game published by Parker Brothers for the Atari 2600. It was developed by On-Time Software, with Joe Gaucher as designer and programmer. You drive Bond's multi-purpose vehicle, which works as a…
Play ▸Frogger II: Threeedeep! is the 1984 sequel to Frogger, made and published by Parker Brothers. The Atari 2600 version, programmed by Mark Lesser, came out in September 1984. Instead of one road and one river, each level spreads…
Play ▸G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike is a 1983 Atari 2600 action game designed by John Emerson and published by Parker Brothers. It was the first licensed G.I. Joe video game. A giant robot cobra rears up over a G.I.…
Play ▸Care Bears is an unreleased Atari 2600 game that Parker Brothers had in development in 1983, programmed by Laura Nikolich. It was meant to be a simple game for young children based on the popular Care Bears characters,…
Play ▸Action Force is the European release of G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike, a 1983 Atari 2600 game designed by John Emerson and published by Parker Brothers. In Europe the G.I. Joe toys were sold under the Action Force name,…
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