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| Ice Hockey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Activision |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Designer(s) | Alan Miller |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2 player multiplayer |
Ice Hockey is an ice hockey video game designed by Alan Miller for the Atari VCS (later renamed the Atari 2600), and published by Activision in 1981. Actor and comedian Phil Hartman starred in the commercial for the game.
Ice Hockey is a game of two-on-two ice hockey. One player on each team is the goalie, and the other plays offensive (although, the goalie is not confined to the goal). As in the real sport, the object of the game is to take control of the puck and shoot it into the other goal to score points. When the puck is in the players control, it moves left and right along the blade of the hockey stick. The puck can be shot in any of 32 angles, depending on the position of the puck when it's hit.
Human players take control of the skater who is in possession of (or closest to) the puck. The puck can be stolen from its holder and shots can also be blocked by the blade of the hockey stick.
Prior to developing Ice Hockey, Alan Miller worked at Atari where he made his first game for the company with Surround (1977). When he left Atari, he was one of the founding members of Activision where he developed the games Checkers and Tennis . [1]
Miller decided to create a hockey game at Activision after watching the sport on television. Miller later said "I definitely wanted to put the opportunity to knock your opponent down, Ice Hockey was an improved version of Tennis. I'm actually more proud of it than Tennis." [2]
To create the game, Miller adapted the missile object, which in most games was a bullet, into the player hockey stick in the programming. [2] Other difficult coding tricks involved having different players have alternate clothing depending on what team they were on as well as getting four players on the screen than the usual two. [2]
Ice Hockey was released in 1981. [3]
Ice Hockey was favorably reviewed in 1982 by Video magazine where it was described as "yet another example of Activision's innovative approach to programmable video-game software" and suggested along with Championship Soccer the game "proves that cleverly conceived sports simulations can work on the Atari VCS". Reviewers identified several aspects setting Ice Hockey apart from other contemporary sports games including the ability of players to take actions which would normally result in penalties (e.g. tripping and slashing), and the fact that the game is playable in both solo and versus modes. [4]
Richard A. Edwards reviewed Ice Hockey in The Space Gamer No. 54. [5] Edwards commented "It's a good game overall, but not a great treatment of ice hockey. Due to the frustrations which can occur and the confusion involved in using two team members, this game straddles the fence on deciding about recommendation. Due to the price, it might be better left alone." [5]
When Bill Kunkel reviewed the Atari 8-bit computer game Hockey by Gamma Software, he wrote, "Gamma's version misses the level of realism attained in Activision's programmable version for the VCS, by quite a bit." [6]
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.
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.
Tennis is a sports video game for the Atari VCS which was written by Activision co-founder Alan Miller and published by Activision in 1981.
Starmaster is a video game written for the Atari 2600 by Alan Miller and published in June 1982 by Activision. The game involves the player travelling through space attacking enemy starfighters who are invading starbases. The player traverses through a map called the galactic chart to destroy all the enemies and survive against oncoming enemy attacks and crashing with meteors.
Robot Tank is a first-person shoot 'em up written by Alan Miller for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1983. It is similar in design to Atari, Inc.'s Battlezone tank combat arcade video game and more so to its 2600 port. Robot Tank adds different systems which can individually be damaged—instead of the vehicle always exploding upon being shot—and weather effects.
Chopper Command is a horizontally scrolling shooter released by Activision for the Atari 2600 in June 1982. It was written by Bob Whitehead. The player flies a helicopter left and right over a scrolling, wraparound landscape, shooting down enemy airplanes to protect a convoy of trucks below.
Haunted House is a 1982 adventure video game programmed by James Andreasen for the Atari Video Computer System and published by Atari. The player controls an avatar shaped like a pair of eyes who explores a mansion seeking out parts of an urn to return to the entrance. The game world is populated by roaming enemies including vampire bats, tarantulas, and a ghost. Haunted House was among the first games to use player-controlled scrolling between large portions of the visual space.
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.
Video Olympics is a video game programmed by Joe Decuir for the Atari 2600. It is one of the nine 2600 launch titles Atari, Inc. published when the 2600 system was released in September 1977. The cartridge is a collection of games from Atari's popular arcade Pong series. A similar collection in arcade machine form called Tournament Table was published by Atari in 1978.
Megamania is a fixed shooter video game developed by Steve Cartwright for the Atari 2600. It was published by Activision in 1982. In the game, a pilot of an intergalactic space cruiser has a nightmare where his ship is being attacked by food and household objects. Using the missile launcher from their space cruiser, the pilot fends off the attackers. The game was later released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computers.
Enduro is a racing video game designed by Larry Miller for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1983. The object of the game is to complete an endurance race, passing a certain number of cars each day to continue the next day. The visuals change from day to night, and there is occasional inclement weather.
Barnstorming is an Atari 2600 video game designed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. It was the first game designed by Cartwright. The idea for Barnstorming came to him as he watched a biplane one day while driving home from work.
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.
Dragster, released in 1980 for the Atari Video Computer System, is one of the first video games developed by Activision.
Laser Blast is a single-player video game developed and published by Activision in March 1981 for the Atari VCS console. Designed by David Crane, one of Activision's co-founders, Laser Blast places players in control of flying saucers attacking land targets.
Surround is a video game programmed by Alan Miller and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari Video Computer System. In the game, players navigate a continuously moving block around an enclosed space as a wall trails behind it. Every time the opposite player hits a wall with their block, the other player earns a single point. The first player to reach ten points is the winner.
Hockey is a ice hockey video game published by Gamma Software for Atari 8-bit computers in 1981. Gamma released the Atari 8-bit game Soccer the following year.
Othello is a 1980 video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for its Atari Video Computer System. It is based on the variant of Reversi of the same name, originally created in 1971. The VCS game was programmed by Ed Logg and Carol Shaw.
Video Checkers is a video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. in 1980 for the Atari VCS, renamed to Atari 2600.
Ice Hockey & Stampede In Stock
