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| Name This Game | |
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| Developer(s) | James Wickstead Design Associates |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
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| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Name This Game and Win $10,000, usually shortened to Name This Game, is a video game developed by U.S. Games for the Atari 2600.
The player controls a scuba diver who must protect a treasure from an octopus at the top of the screen: The octopus tries to capture the treasure with its tentacles. Meanwhile, a great white shark tries to distract the diver by swimming back and forth toward the bottom of the screen.
The diver loses a life if he is captured by the shark or the octopus's tentacles, or if the air meter runs out. The diver can refill his air meter by touching a long pole which extends from a boat that appears from time to time.
The game was conceived by Rob Dubren in February 1982. He offered it to Parker Bros., who owned the video game license for Jaws at the time. [1] After Parker Bros. lost the license, the game was shown to Jim Wickstead of James Wickstead Design Associates, who programmed it from August to October 1982. Originally developed as Treasures of the Deep, the game was picked up by U.S. Games as Guardians of Treasure.
U.S. Games decided to create a contest around the game, [2] releasing it as Name This Game and Win $10,000 with a cash prize to be awarded to the winning name after April 30, 1983. However, before the contest was completed, U.S. Games ceased operation.
Carrere Video Distribution released the game in Europe as Octopus.[ citation needed ] Amiga also planned to include the game in its Power Play Arcade #2 cartridge under the name Galleon's Gold, but development did not proceed past the prototype stage. [3]
In 1994, Digital Press held its own naming contest for the game. The winning title, coined by Russ Perry Jr., was Going Under, which alluded not only to the game content, but to the final days of its publisher. [4]
Atari is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, California, in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System from its release until November 1982, 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. The VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat and later Pac-Man.
Mario Bros. is a 1983 arcade game developed and published for arcades by Nintendo. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures emerging from the sewers by knocking them upside-down and kicking them away. The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System version is the first game produced by Intelligent Systems. It is part of the Mario franchise, but originally began as a spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.
Xenophobe is a video game developed Bally Midway and released in arcades in 1987. Starbases, moons, ships, and space cities are infested with aliens, and the players have to kill the aliens before each is completely overrun. The screen is split into three horizontally-scrolling windows, one for each of up to three players, yet all players are in the same game world.
Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one by one by crossing a busy road and navigating a river full of hazards.
Pitfall! is a platform video game designed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released by Activision in 1982. The player controls Pitfall Harry and is tasked with collecting all the treasures in a jungle within 20 minutes. The world consists of 255 screens which are horizontally connected in a flip screen manner. Each screen has one or more hazards: quicksand, tarpits, rolling logs, crocodiles, snakes, scorpions, campfires, and swinging vines.
Spy Hunter is a vehicular combat action game developed by Bally Midway and released for arcades in 1983. The game draws inspiration from the James Bond films and was originally supposed to carry the James Bond brand. The object of the game is to drive down roads in the technologically advanced "Interceptor" car and destroy various enemy vehicles with a variety of onboard weapons. Spy Hunter was produced in both sit-down and standard upright versions with the latter being more common. The game's controls consist of a steering wheel in the form of a futuristic aircraft-style yoke with several special-purpose buttons, a two-position stick shift, and a pedal used for acceleration.
Gauntlet is a 1985 fantasy-themed hack-and-slash arcade game developed and released by Atari Games. It is noted as being one of the first multiplayer dungeon crawl arcade games. The core design of Gauntlet comes from 1983 Atari 8-bit dungeon crawl game Dandy, which resulted in a threat of legal action. It also bears striking similarities to the action-adventure maze game Time Bandit (1983).
Donkey Kong is a 1981 arcade platform video game released by Nintendo. Its gameplay maneuvers Mario across platforms to ascend a construction site and rescue Pauline from the giant gorilla named Donkey Kong, all while avoiding or jumping over obstacles. It is the first game in both the Donkey Kong and Mario franchises.
1982 was the peak year for the golden age of arcade video games as well as the second generation of video game consoles. Many games were released that would spawn franchises, or at least sequels, including Dig Dug, Pole Position, Mr. Do!, Zaxxon, Q*bert, Time Pilot and Pitfall! The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, for the third year in a row, while the year's best-selling home system was the Atari 2600. Additional game consoles added to a crowded market, notably the ColecoVision and Atari 5200. Troubles at Atari late in the year triggered the video game crash of 1983.
Venture is a fantasy-themed action game released in arcades in 1981 by Exidy. The goal of Venture is to collect treasure from a dungeon as a round smiley-face named Winky. It was released as a launch title for the ColecoVision in 1982, then ported to the Atari 2600 and Intellivision.
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is a platform video game originally released for the Atari 2600 by Activision in 1984. It is the sequel to Pitfall! (1982). Both games were designed and programmed by David Crane and star jungle explorer Pitfall Harry. Pitfall II's major additions are a much larger world with vertical scrolling, swimmable rivers with deadly eels, music, and balloons for floating between locations.
Dodge 'Em is a driving-themed maze game programmed by Carla Meninsky and published in 1980 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS. Similar to Sega's 1979 Head On arcade game, Dodge 'Em is played on a single screen of four concentric roadways. Sears released the game for the "Sears Video Arcade" as Dodger Cars.
In the history of video games, the second-generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable platforms of the second generation include the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision. The generation began in November 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F. This was followed by the Atari 2600 in 1977, Magnavox Odyssey² in 1978, Intellivision in 1980 and then the Emerson Arcadia 2001, ColecoVision, Atari 5200, and Vectrex, all in 1982. By the end of the era, there were over 15 different consoles. It coincided with, and was partly fuelled by, the golden age of arcade video games. This peak era of popularity and innovation for the medium resulted in many games for second generation home consoles being ports of arcade games. Space Invaders, the first "killer app" arcade game to be ported, was released in 1980 for the Atari 2600, though earlier Atari-published arcade games were ported to the 2600 previously. Coleco packaged Nintendo's Donkey Kong with the ColecoVision when it was released in August 1982.
Garry Kitchen is a video game designer, programmer, and executive best known for developing games for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as co-founding Absolute Entertainment with ex-Activision developers. His port of Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 was a major hit for Coleco, selling over 4 million copies. His other 2600 work includes Keystone Kapers and Pressure Cooker for Activision and Space Jockey for U.S. Games. He also wrote Garry Kitchen's GameMaker and The Designer's Pencil for the Commodore 64.
Pac-Man is a 1982 maze video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. under official license by Namco, and an adaptation of the 1980 hit arcade game of the same name. The player controls the title character, who attempts to consume all of the wafers while avoiding four ghosts that pursue him. Eating flashing wafers at the corners of the screen will cause the ghosts to turn temporarily blue and flee, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points.
Megamania is an Atari 2600 game by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. Versions were released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family in 1983. Megamania is similar to Sega's 1981 arcade title Astro Blaster. Both games have nearly identical patterns of approaching enemies with the player relying on an "energy" meter. The player's ships are remarkably similar in both games.
Tutankham is a 1982 arcade action-adventure game developed and released by Konami, and released by Stern in North America. Named after the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, the game combines maze, shoot 'em up, puzzle-solving and adventure game elements. It debuted at the European ATE and IMA amusement shows in January 1982, before releasing worldwide in Summer 1982. The game was a critical and commercial success, and was ported to various home systems by Parker Brothers.
Shark Jaws is a single-player arcade game by Atari Inc. under the name of Horror Games, originally released in 1975. An unlicensed tie-in to the movie Jaws, and believed to be the first commercially released movie tie-in, it was created to be a game about sharks eating people. Atari head Nolan Bushnell originally tried to license the Jaws name for the game, but was unable to secure a license from Universal Pictures. Deciding to go ahead with the game anyway, it was retitled Shark JAWS, with the word Shark in tiny print and JAWS in large all caps print to create greater prominence. Bushnell also created a second hidden subsidiary corporation, Horror Games—the previous being Kee Games, to help isolate Atari from a possible lawsuit. According to Bushnell, the game was successful enough to sell approximately two thousand units.
Spider-Man is a vertical scrolling action game written by Laura Nikolich for the Atari 2600, and released in 1982 by Parker Brothers. It was both the first video game to feature Spider-Man and the first Marvel Comics based video game.