Entombed is a 1983 maze game for the Atari 2600, developed by Western Technologies and published by U.S. Games. Tom Sloper designed it and Steve Sidley programmed it. You are an archaeologist trapped in catacombs full of zombies, inside a maze that never stops scrolling and is never the same twice. Decades later its maze-building routine puzzled researchers, which makes it one of the more talked-about 2600 cartridges today. You can play it here in your browser.
Dragon Defender is a horizontal shoot ’em up for the Atari 2600 from the unlicensed Taiwanese cartridge scene of the early 1980s. It was sold in Europe and Australia by several labels, including Ariola, Suntek and Rainbow Vision, and the version on this page is the European PAL release. You fly a dragon and shoot down waves of enemies coming from the right. It is a simple, obscure game, and an interesting look at the budget cartridges of the time. You can play it here in your browser.
Demolition Herby is a 1983 Atari 2600 game from Telesys, a small publisher in Fremont, California, programmed by Don Ruffcorn. You steer Herby, a little green car, around a grid of white lines, painting them red to black out the squares, while chase cars try to undo your work and ram you off the track. It plays like a demolition-derby take on Amidar, and a second player can take over the chase cars. You can play it here in your browser.
Depth Charge is an unreleased 1983 Atari 2600 submarine game, programmed by Jerry Lawson’s company Videosoft for Amiga, the firm that later built the Amiga computer. You look through a periscope at ships sailing across the horizon and try to sink as many as you can before your torpedoes run out. It plays a lot like the arcade game Sea Wolf. The game was never sold at the time, and you can play the surviving version here in your browser.
Dice Puzzle is a quiet one-player logic game for the Atari 2600 from 1983. This page runs the European PAL cartridge, which carries the Sancho name (the label of Tang’s Electronic Co.) and shows “© Sancho 1983” on screen. The same game was sold in North America by Panda; you can play that NTSC version on the Dice Puzzle (USA) page. There are no enemies and no reflex tests here, just sixteen dice and one goal: make every one of them show a six. You can play it here in your browser.
Dice Puzzle is a one-player number puzzle for the Atari 2600, released in North America by Panda. This page runs the American (NTSC) cartridge. The site also has the European PAL release, which AtariAge lists under the Sancho label, on the Dice Puzzle page. The game itself is the same simple idea: turn every die on the board into a six. You can play it here in your browser.
Licensed by Namco DIG DUG original Atari 2600 manual DIG DUG GAME OBJECTIVE You are Dig Dug, the underground miner. With your jet-powered shovel, you create intricate, subterranean mazes. Ever on the watch for vegetable prizes, you must also look out for the fierce Fygar(tm) and mean Pooka(tm) that lurk underground. Their touch kills| Worse, … Read more
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.
Dolphin is a 1983 Activision game designed by Matthew Hubbard. You guide a dolphin through the open sea while a giant squid chases her, and the most unusual thing about it is that you have to play partly by ear: the dolphin’s sonar tells you where the next gap in a school of seahorses will be. It was Hubbard’s first game for Activision. You can play it here in your browser.
Donald Duck’s Speedboat is an unreleased Atari 2600 game from 1983, programmed by Suki Lee with graphics by Dave Joly. You steer Donald’s speedboat through a watery obstacle course as fast as you can. It was cancelled very late in development, and it was never sold anywhere. You can play it here in your browser.