Zimag (also written ZiMAG) was the brand that Magnetic Tape International used for its consumer products, including blank cassettes and video games. In 1983 it released four games by the Taiwanese company Bit Corporation in North America, converted from PAL to NTSC and given new names. Its KidStuff label was aimed at children under nine. The company went out of business before some planned games came out, and those survive only as prototypes. The site has six Zimag games:
I Want My Mommy (1983): a teddy bear climbs a six-floor building to find his mother.
Dishaster (1983): keep spinning plates from crashing, based on Bit Corporation’s Dancing Plate.
Tanks But No Tanks (1983): Bit Corporation’s Phantom Tank, with enemy tanks fading in and out of view.
Cosmic Corridor: Bit Corporation’s Space Tunnel under a new name.
Immies & Aggies: an unreleased marble-shooting prototype.
A Mysterious Thief: a one-of-a-kind burglary prototype credited to Zimag or Vidco.
Choose one below and play it in your browser.
Tanks But No Tanks is a tank battle game for the Atari 2600, sold in North America in 1983 by Zimag, a label of Magnetic Tape International. The game itself was made by the Taiwanese company Bit Corporation, which released it as Phantom Tank. You are the last tank guarding an outpost against enemy tanks that fade in and out of view as they close in. You can play it here in your browser.
A Mysterious Thief is a 1983 Atari 2600 game in which you play a burglar raiding a four-storey building against the clock. The version on this page is an NTSC prototype, and only one copy is known. The game itself did come out in Europe under other names, and it is now thought to be an American game by Zimag or Vidco. You can play the prototype here in your browser.
Immies & Aggies is a 1983 shooting game that the small American company Zimag planned to sell for the Atari 2600 but never released. The name comes from marbles: “aggies” are agate marbles, and “immies” are glass marbles made to look like agates. On screen, though, the marbles are simple coloured squares. What survives is a prototype, and it plays more like a rough experiment than a finished product. It is still an interesting look at what a small 1983 publisher had in the works. You can play it here in your browser.
I Want My Mommy is a gentle climbing game for young children, published by ZiMAG for the Atari 2600 in North America in 1983. Teddy, a little bear, has had a bad dream. You help him climb a six-floor building, past patrolling dream demons, to find his mother and get a comforting hug. Its simple controls and time-based scoring make it a good first game for small players. You can play it here in your browser.
Dishaster is a 1983 Atari 2600 game released in North America by Zimag. It is the NTSC edition of Dancing Plate, a PAL game from the Taiwanese company Bit Corporation, renamed for the American market. The idea comes from the old circus act of spinning plates on poles: you run back and forth, steadying wobbling plates before they crash to the floor. You can play it here in your browser.
Cosmic Corridor is the North American edition of Space Tunnel, a shooter by the Taiwanese company Bit Corporation. Zimag sold it in 1983 under this new name and with its own box and manual. You fly a laser cannon through a corridor with jagged walls while aliens attack and fire at you. You can play it here in your browser. Full details on the game are on the Space Tunnel page.