Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back?

by Old School Gamer | May 4, 2024 | 1980s, Atari 2600 Encyclopedia, Columns

Release Date: 1982 Publisher: Parker Brothers Controller: Joystick Players: 1 – 2 Genre: Shoot’em Up Alternate Title: N/A Model #: PB5050 Rarity: 2 Programmer: Rex Bradford This movie based shooter is one of the finest, most challenging titles around. Join the...

Atari’s SwordQuest: What Went Wrong? [Part I]

by John McNichol | Jun 9, 2023 | 1980s, Atari, Atari 2600 Encyclopedia, Console/Handheld

Atari’ Swordquest Series: What Went Wrong? Part I   On the face of things, Swordquest looked like the idea that couldn’t miss. It had elements that had never been done before in videogames, but that had the recipe for success that had worked time and again in...

Defender : Arcade to Console – by Eugenio Angueira

by Eugenio Angueira | Feb 16, 2023 | 1980s, 1990s, Atari 2600 Encyclopedia, Console/Handheld

In 1981, Williams Electronics released a horizontal shooter game by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar that took the arcades by storm. That game was Defender. In this game the player controls the Defender to protect humanoids, who have been stranded in some planet, from...

Billie Sue of 1982 – The First Playable Female Protagonist in Video Game History

by Suzana Krcmarek | Nov 2, 2022 | 1980s, Atari 2600 Encyclopedia, The Story Of...

Like some antediluvian myth, the history of playable female protagonists in video games is often shrouded in mystery. One could argue that Ms Pac-Man was the first or even the female protagonist of the lost game “Score” by Exidy. But while Ms Pac-Man may have been the...

Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Chase the Chuckwagon?

by Derek Slaton | Jul 19, 2022 | 1980s, Atari 2600 Encyclopedia, Columns

Release Date: 1983 Publisher: Spectravision Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Genre: Arcade – Maze Alternate Title: N/A Model #: N/A Rarity: 8 Programmer: Mike Schwartz This is quite possibly the first (and only) example of a video game being based on a television...

Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Air-Sea Battle?

by Derek Slaton | Jul 11, 2022 | 1970s, Atari 2600 Encyclopedia, Columns

Release Date: 1977 Publisher: Atari Controller: Joystick Players: 1 – 2 Genre: Shoot’em Up Alternate Title: Target Fun Model #: CX2602 Rarity: 3 Programmer: Larry Kaplan Given that this is one of the earliest 2600 games to be released, it comes as no surprise...