Dodge ‘Em (Sears title: Dodger Cars) is a driving-themed maze game for the Atari VCS (later Atari 2600), where the player controls a car driving counter-clockwise, avoiding computer-controlled cars trying to cause a head-on collision. The goal is to collect all the dots from the maze. The maze’s roadways have four gaps at the top, … Read more
Unfortunately by the time Wizard was ready to be released (1980), Atari was starting to make 4K games with better sounds and graphics than their 2K predecessors. According to programmer Chris Crawford: ‘It didn’t fit well into the product line’. Wizard was simply too dated to be released as is, but probably could have been … Read more
Video Checkers, released in 1980, is a video game created and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600 platform. The game was developed by Carol Shaw during her time at Atari. As one of the first female programmers, Shaw’s work on Video Checkers (alongside 3D Tic-Tac-Toe) marked one of the earliest instances of a … Read more
Video Pinball is a loose simulation of an arcade pinball machine: ball launcher, flippers, bumpers, and spinners. Hitting the Atari logo on the playfield four times awards an extra ball. To play the Arcade Pinball game on Atari, you use the joystick controller to interact with the pinball machine. To launch the ball into the … Read more
Stunt Cycle was one of Atari’s first non-Pong standalone consoles. In 1980 Atari decided that Stunt Cycle would make a great Atari 2600 game, so programmer Bob Polaro was asked to do the conversion. Using the Paddle Controllers to simulate the original consoles bike grips, Polaro made a near perfect port of the standalone console. … Read more
Steeplechase is a sports video game launched in arcades in 1975 by Atari. This multiplayer game allows up to six players to compete against one another, each selecting a horse, while the computer manages the seventh horse at the bottom. As the horses begin to gallop, players must clear obstacles in their respective lanes by … Read more
The game is called “Steeplechase” and can accommodate up to six players who compete against each other by choosing a horse each, while the computer controls the seventh horse at the bottom. The game begins with all horses galloping and players must jump over obstacles in their respective lanes by pressing their colored buttons. The … Read more
Stellar Track, a game where players take on the role of a warship commander tasked with eliminating enough aliens before depleting stardates, was published by Sears under the “Tele-Games” brand in 1980. This game is one of three exclusive releases available only through Sears. Stellar Track is a text-based game inspired by the mainframe computer … Read more
Space Invaders, developed by Tomohiro Nishikado in 1978, is a groundbreaking shoot ’em up arcade game that set the standard for the genre. The objective of the game is to eliminate waves of descending aliens using a horizontally-moving laser, accumulating as many points as possible in the process. As one of the most influential video … Read more
Skiing is a single-player Atari 2600 game that simulates the experience of skiing downhill or through a slalom course. The player uses the joystick to control the speed and direction of a skier at the top of the screen, while the background graphics scroll upwards to create the illusion of the skier moving downhill. Players … Read more