1984 Archives - Page 3 of 4

Gyruss, a shoot ’em up arcade game developed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released by Konami in 1983, features a contemporary Atari 2600 port by Parker Brothers. The game employs one-point perspective graphics, with the vanishing point at the screen’s center. The player’s spaceship moves along the screen’s edge in a circular path, with all shots … Read more

H.E.R.O.

H.E.R.O. (Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation) is a video game developed by John Van Ryzin and published by Activision for the Atari 2600 in 1984. In the game, the player takes on the role of a rescue worker equipped with a helicopter backpack and various tools to save victims trapped in a mine. The mine consists … Read more

Gremlins

Gremlins is an Atari 2600 game based on the 1984 movie of the same name. The game features two playable screens and can be played by one player or two players taking turns. The game’s objective is to help the protagonist, Billy Peltzer, prevent the Mogwai from transforming into destructive Gremlins. The first screen resembles … Read more

Garfield

Garfield was never finished. According to Woita, Garfield still needed about 2 to 3 months of work before it would be complete. The final game was to have hundreds of screens and probably would have been the largest 2600 game to date. Garfield finally turned up when Jim Davis finally gave Woita permission to distribute … Read more

Frogger II: Threeedeep!

Espial

In Espial for Atari 2600, you play as a space attack pilot navigating dangerously close to a massive spaceship. Your mission is to battle endless waves of enemy spacecraft and launch missiles at the spaceship. Use the joystick to control your ship and press the button to shoot both lasers and missiles at the same … Read more

Dune

Based off the 1984 movie, Dune was to be an action/adventure game along the same lines as the classic VCS game Adventure. Dune was originally started by programmers Bruce Poehlman and Gary Stark, but they had only gone through the brainstorming process when work was stopped. It appears that another programmer may have been assigned … Read more

Cosmic Commuter

Cosmic Commuter is an Atari 2600 game released in 1984 by Activision. Set in the year 2075, players take on the role of a Galactic Travel Agency employee responsible for helping citizens commute between their homes and work. The gameplay is divided into several parts: Throughout the game, various obstacles pose challenges to the player’s … Read more

Crystal Castles

Atari 2600 Crystal Castles is one of the first arcade action games with an ending, instead of continuing indefinitely, looping, or ending in a kill screen, and to contain advance warp zones. Crystal Castles gameplay Crystal Castles has 9 levels with four castles each, and a tenth level with a single castle—the clearing of which … Read more