Skeet Shoot

Last updated

Skeet Shoot
Skeet Shoot Coverart.png
Developer(s) Games by Apollo
Publisher(s) Games by Apollo
Designer(s) Ed Salvo [1]
Platform(s) Atari 2600
ReleaseDecember 1981 [2]
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player, two-player alternating

Skeet Shoot is a skeet shooting video game for the Atari 2600 and the first game released by Games by Apollo in December 1981. [2] Players assume the role of a skeet shooter shooting clay pigeons. There is a two-player mode where the players alternate.

Contents

Skeet Shoot was developed by programmer Ed Salvo [1] in his Iowa home and purchased by Pat Roper under the newly formed Apollo. Despite negative reviews, it was a financial success and led to Salvo's continuation with the company, where he became Director of Development.

Gameplay

The shooter is at the bottom of the screen. Skeet Shoot gameplay.png
The shooter is at the bottom of the screen.

The player controls a skeet shooter who is shooting clay pigeons. By pressing the button on the controller, a clay pigeon is sent out and pressing the button again will shoot; moving the joystick changes the gun's angle. A point is earned if the bullet hits. Difficulty varieties adjust the speed of the pigeons. [3]

Two two-player gameplay variations exist and are activated by modifying the Atari 2600's difficulty switches. There is an alternating version where players take turns shooting the clay pigeons, and another variation features one player shooting while the other controls the angle of the clay pigeons. Other variables that can be changed are the position of the shooter and the direction the bird will enter the screen from. [3]

Development

Ed Salvo developed Skeet Shoot independently. Salvo had self-taught himself to program for the Atari 2600 after purchasing an Atari 800; the dealer wanted a flight simulator for the 2600 so he contracted Salvo to make one. The game was never released as the dealer had lost interest. According to Salvo, the development of Skeet Shoot took him around a month at night in his home to finish. After his friend sent him an advertisement from a Dallas newspaper by newly founded studio Games by Apollo that asked for programmers, he contacted Apollo founder Pat Roper and showed him Skeet Shoot. [4] Roper decided that Skeet Shoot was a good enough game for a first time. [2] He offered Salvo a job at Apollo, which Salvo declined, believing it would be too risky. When Salvo returned to his Iowa home, Roper contacted him and told him he would buy Skeet Shoot for five thousand dollars which Salvo accepted. [4]

Skeet Shoot still had glitches when it was released; one caused the image to flip vertically. Salvo learned of the glitch and fixed it, and the only cartridges that bear the bug are European versions. [4]

Reception

Reviews were negative, as Apollo's publicist Emmit Crawford acknowledged. [5] Crawford believed that the reason people did not like Skeet Shoot was because it did not provide enough challenge for most video game players and that the company had distributed it in too much of a hurry. [6] He later said that "All in all, Skeet Shoot wasn't a spectacular game to start off with." [5] Despite the poor publicity, the game sold very well. [7]

Author Brett Alan Weiss wrote that Skeet Shoot was "a shoddily programmed, graphically primitive game" and said that the poor controls and difficulty levels rendered the game "virtually worthless". [8] A writer for Atari HQ called it a mediocre game. [7] Lee Peppas of ANALOG Computing remarked that "Atari & Activision have nothing to fear from the graphics on this first release." [9] TV Gamer opined it was one of the worst games for the system, saying that it was boring and criticizing the fact that it was difficult to hit the skeet. [10]

Mark Androvich of Classic Gamer Magazine was similarly negative, writing "Games by Apollo released a couple of decent games before going bankrupt, but you never would have guessed that anyone at the company knew how to program the Atari 2600 judging by their debut game." Androvich opined that while the game was playable, it was not "a step in the right direction" for Apollo. [11]

Legacy

After Skeet Shoot, Salvo signed a contract that led to the creation of Spacechase . Eventually, Salvo became Apollo's Director of Development and was given the job of hiring 25 programmers to work on Apollo's games. [4] Apollo went on to release seven other games after Skeet Shoot. [12] One year later, the studio eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 12, 1982, due to pressure from its advertising agency, Benton & Bowles. Apollo owed the company $2.5 million (half of its total debt). Although Roper expected Apollo to return in "smaller form", [13] the company closed in 1983 after reorganization attempts failed. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Asteroids</i> (video game) 1979 video game

Asteroids is a space-themed multidirectional shooter arcade video game designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a single spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The object of the game is to shoot and destroy the asteroids and saucers, while not colliding with either, or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari 2600</span> Home video game console

The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. Branded as the Atari Video Computer System from its release until November 1982, the VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat and later Pac-Man.

<i>E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial</i> (video game) 1982 video game

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 adventure video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600 and based on the film of the same name. The game's objective is to guide the eponymous character through various screens to collect three pieces of an interplanetary telephone that will allow him to contact his home planet.

<i>Centipede</i> (video game) 1980 video game

Centipede is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. Designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg, it was one of the most commercially successful games from the golden age of arcade video games and one of the first with a significant female player base. The primary objective is to shoot all the segments of a centipede that winds down the playing field. An arcade sequel, Millipede, followed in 1982.

<i>Adventure</i> (1980 video game) 1980 video game

Adventure is a video game developed by Warren Robinett for the Atari Video Computer System and released in 1980 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a square avatar whose quest is to explore an open-ended environment to find a magical chalice and return it to the golden castle. The game world is populated by roaming enemies: three dragons that can eat the avatar and a bat that randomly steals and hides items around the game world. Adventure introduced new elements to console games, including a play area spanning multiple screens and enemies that continue to move when offscreen.

<i>Tempest</i> (video game) Atari vector arcade game from 1981

Tempest is a 1981 arcade game by Atari Inc., designed and programmed by Dave Theurer. It takes place on a three-dimensional surface divided into lanes, sometimes as a closed tube, and viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped "blaster" that sits on the edge of the surface, snapping from segment to segment as a rotary knob is turned.

<i>Gravitar</i> 1982 video game

Gravitar is a color vector graphics multidirectional shooter arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1982. Using the same "rotate-and-thrust" controls as Asteroids and Space Duel, the game was known for its high level of difficulty. It was the first of over twenty games Mike Hally designed and produced for Atari. The main programmer was Rich Adam and the cabinet art was designed by Brad Chaboya. Over 5,427 cabinets were produced. An Atari 2600 version by Dan Hitchens was published by Atari in 1983.

<i>Spelunker</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Spelunker is a 1983 platform video game developed by Timothy G. Martin of MicroGraphic Image. It is set in a colossal cave, with the player starting at the cave's entrance at the top, and the objective is to get to the treasure at the bottom.

<i>Haunted House</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Haunted House is an Atari 2600 video game written by James Andreasen and published by Atari, Inc. in February 1982. The player, represented by a pair of eyes, must navigate the haunted mansion of the late Zachary Graves to recover the three pieces of an urn. The game has been identified as one of the earliest examples of the survival horror genre by a GameSpy article.

<i>River Raid</i> 1982 video game

River Raid is a vertically scrolling shooter designed and programmed by Carol Shaw and published by Activision in 1982 for the Atari 2600 video game console. Over a million game cartridges were sold. Activision later ported the title to the Atari 5200, ColecoVision, and Intellivision consoles, as well as to the Commodore 64, IBM PCjr, MSX, ZX Spectrum, and Atari 8-bit family. Shaw did the Atari 8-bit and Atari 5200 ports herself.

<i>Grand Prix</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Grand Prix is a Formula One Grand Prix motor racing-themed video game. It was designed and programmed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1982.

Gust Buster is a video game written by Ed Salvo for the ColecoVision console and published by Sunrise Software in 1983. A Commodore 64 port followed in 1984. Salvo previously developed several Atari 2600 releases for Games by Apollo.

<i>The Texas Chainsaw Massacre</i> (video game) 1983 video game

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a video game for the Atari 2600 based on the slasher film of the same name written by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel. The game released in March 1983 Wizard Video Games. The game was designed and programmed by VSS, a software development company started by Ed Salvo and several other ex-Games by Apollo programmers.

<i>Eggomania</i> 1983 video game

Eggomania is an action video game released in January 1983 by U.S. Games for the Atari 2600. Similar in design to Kaboom!, which itself is a derivative of the arcade game Avalanche, the objective is to catch eggs in a hat which are thrown by a chicken.

<i>Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back</i> (1982 video game) 1982 video game

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is a scrolling shooter video game written by Rex Bradford for the Atari 2600 and published by Parker Brothers in 1982. It was the first licensed Star Wars video game. An Intellivision version was released in 1983.

Games by Apollo Inc. was a third-party developer of games for the Atari 2600 video game system, based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded in October 1981 by Pat Roper as a subsidiary of his National Career Consultants (NCC). Apollo's first title was Skeet Shoot, and neither it nor the ten games that followed caught on, and the company was one of the first to declare bankruptcy as a result of the video game crash of 1983.

<i>Stampede</i> (video game) 1981 video game

Stampede is a video game written by Bob Whitehead for the Atari Video Computer System and published by Activision in 1981. Stampede is a left-to-right, horizontally-scrolling, action game with a cattle round-up theme. An Intellivision version was released the following year.

<i>Space Cavern</i> 1982 video game

Space Cavern is a 1982 fixed shooter video game for the Atari 2600 developed and released by Games by Apollo. Players control a spaceship commander who has landed on a planet and must defend the ship against its hostile creatures. Games by Apollo founder Pat Roper was impressed by the game Demon Attack and tasked Apollo member Dan Oliver with making a game very similar to it.

<i>Spacechase</i> 1981 video game

Spacechase is a fixed shooter video game for the Atari Video Computer System written by Ed Salvo and published by Games by Apollo in 1981.

<i>Lost Luggage</i> (video game) 1982 action game

Lost Luggage is a 1982 action video game developed and published by Games by Apollo for the Atari 2600. The player controls skycaps working at an airport and tries to collect pieces of luggage that fall overhead from a frantic luggage carousel. A two-player mode, in which the second player controls the direction the luggage falls, is also available.

References

  1. 1 2 Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. 1 2 3 Gutmon, Don (January 1983). "Trouble in a video game company". Electronic Fun with Computers & Games . Fun & Games Publishing. p. 62. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Skeet Shoot". AllGame . All Media Network. February 18, 2003. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Stilphen, Scott (December 5, 2010). "DP Interviews... Ed Salvo". Digital Press. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Apollo, like its namesake, shoots for the video-gaming stars!". Videogaming Illustrated . Ion International. August 1982. pp. 7–8. ISSN   0739-4373 . Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Apollo Shoots for the Moon". Video Games. Pumpkin Press. October 1982. pp. 16, 18. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 "AGH – Third Party Profile: Apollo". Atari Gaming Headquarters. January 23, 2005. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  8. ↑ Weiss, Brett (March 7, 2012). Classic Home Video Games, 1972–1984: A Complete Reference Guide. McFarland & Company. p. 104. ISBN   978-0-7864-8755-4.
  9. ↑ Peppas, Lee (January 1982). "VCS Update". ANALOG Computing . p. 37. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Skeet Shoot". TV Gamer . Boytonbrook. June 1983. p. 31. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  11. ↑ Androvich, Mark (2010). "Five Atari 2600 Games Worse Than E.T." Classic Gamer . p. 21. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Games By Apollo". AllGame . All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 16, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Vid Game Firm Apollo Files Chapter XI". Billboard . Vol. 94, no. 48. Prometheus Global Media. December 4, 1982. ISSN   0006-2510 . Retrieved June 30, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.