 | |
| Developer(s) | James Wickstead Design Associates [1] |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | U.S. Games |
| Designer(s) | Henry Will Wes Trager [2] |
| Composer(s) | Todd Marshall [1] |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | 1-4 players taking turns |
Eggomania is an action video game released in January 1983 [3] 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.
A chicken at the top of the screen moves back and forth, dropping eggs. The paddle controller is used to move a blue bear holding a hat over its head left and right at the bottom of the screen. The goal is to catch the eggs in the hat. At the end of each round, the player has a chance to throw the eggs they have caught back at the chicken for bonus points. The speed of the game increases as the player progresses.
The game has two difficulties; the easier variation gives the player a larger hat for catching eggs. [4]
Electronic Games in June 1983 called Eggomania "delightful", stating that the game improved on Kaboom! and Avalanche as a "fully-animated delight that might even eclipse its inspiration" with "state-of-the-art graphics on the 2600". [5]
The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System, it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat and later Pac-Man. Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982, alongside the release of the Atari 5200.
Kaboom! is an action video game published in 1981 by Activision for the Atari 2600. The game involves a Mad Bomber dropping bombs at increasing speeds as the player controls a set of water buckets to catch them. The gameplay was based on the Atari arcade video game Avalanche (1978). Kaboom! was programmed by Larry Kaplan with David Crane coding the graphics for the buckets and Mad Bomber. It was the last game designed by Kaplan for Activision, who left the company shortly after it was released. The game was later ported by Paul Wilson for the Atari 5200 system.
Joust is an action game developed by Williams Electronics and released in arcades in 1982. While not the first two-player cooperative video game, Joust's success and polished implementation popularized the concept. Players assume the role of knights armed with lances and mounted on large birds, who must fly around the screen and defeat enemy knights riding buzzards.
Adventure is a 1980 action-adventure game developed by Warren Robinett and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari Video Computer System. 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 moves items around the game world. Adventure introduced new elements to console games, including enemies that continue to move when offscreen.
Berzerk is a multidirectional shooter designed by Alan McNeil and released for arcades in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago. Following Taito's Stratovox, it is one of the first arcade video games with speech synthesis. Berzerk places the player in a series of top-down, maze-like rooms containing armed robots. Home ports were published for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Vectrex.
Pitfall! is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is populated by enemies and hazards that variously cause the player to lose lives or points.
Crystal Castles is an arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. The player controls Bentley Bear who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies, some of whom are after the gems as well.
Phoenix is a fixed shooter video game developed for arcades in Japan and released in 1980 by Taito. The player controls a space ship shooting at incoming enemies that fly from the top of the screen down towards the player's ship. There are five stages which repeat endlessly. The fifth is a fight against a large enemy spaceship, making Phoenix one of the first shooters with a boss battle, an element that would become common for the genre.
Demon Attack is a fixed shooter video game created by Rob Fulop for the Atari 2600 and published by Imagic in 1982. The game involves the player controlling a laser cannon from the surface of a planet, shooting winged demons that fly down and attack the player in different sets of patterns.
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle is a 1982 video game published and developed by Coleco for the ColecoVision and Atari 2600. The game is based on the television series The Smurfs. In the game, the player must brave a series of obstacles to rescue Smurfette from Gargamel's castle.
Keystone Kapers is a platform game developed by Garry Kitchen for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1983. The game involves a Keystone Cops-theme, with the player controlling police officer Kelly, who traverses the many levels of a department store, dodging objects to catch the escaped thief Harry Hooligan.
Big Bird's Egg Catch is a video game for the Atari 2600 developed by Atari, Inc. and Children's Computer Workshop and published by Atari in 1983.
River Raid is a video game developed by Carol Shaw for the Atari Video Computer System and released in 1982 by Activision. The player controls a fighter jet over the River of No Return in a raid behind enemy lines. The goal is to navigate the flight by destroying enemy tankers, helicopters, fuel depots and bridges without running out of fuel or crashing.
Freeway is an action video game written by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1981. In the game, one or two players control chickens who cross a ten-lane highway filled with traffic. The goal is to set a high score in an allotted time. Every time a chicken gets across a point is earned for that player. Depending on the difficulty mode, a chicken is forced back a lane or sent back to the bottom of the screen when hit by a vehicle.
Synapse Software Corporation was an American software developer and publisher founded in 1981 by Ihor Wolosenko and Ken Grant. Synapse published application software and developer tools and was primarily known for video games. It initially focused on the Atari 8-bit computers, then later developed for the Commodore 64 and other systems. Synapse was purchased by Broderbund in late 1984 and the Synapse label retired in 1985.
Kick is an action video game where the player controls a clown on a unicycle catching falling balloons and Pac-Man characters on the clown's hat. It was released in arcades by Midway in 1981. The game was later renamed Kick Man. Commodore published a Commodore 64 port in 1982 without the space in the title as Kickman.
Avalanche is an arcade video game designed by Dennis Koble and released by Atari, Inc. in 1978. The object is to catch falling rocks with a controllable set of paddles that diminish in number and size as the rocks fall faster and faster. The concept gained a much wider audience after Activision released an unauthorized adaptation in 1981 as Kaboom! for the Atari 2600. The only official home port of Avalanche is for Atari 8-bit computers.
U.S. Games Corporation was a video game company founded by Donald Yu, which originally produced handheld electronic sports games. It pivoted to focus exclusively on video game software in 1981, and was acquired by cereal company Quaker Oats in 1982 to develop games for the Atari 2600. U.S. Games released their first game, Space Jockey for the Atari 2600, in January 1982, followed by 13 more cartridges in 1982 and 1983. Space Jockey and other early titles used the Vidtec brand name.
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.
Chicken is a video game for Atari 8-bit computers written by Mike Potter and published by Synapse Software in 1982. The game is similar to Atari, Inc.'s. 1978 arcade video game Avalanche, replacing the buckets and boulders with a hen trying to catch her eggs.
 | This action game–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article about a video game released on an Atari console is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |