Zaxxon is a scrolling shooter developed and released by Sega as an arcade video game in 1982. The player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki was also involved in the game's development.
Miner 2049er is a platform game game developed by Big Five Software and published in December 1982. It is set in a mine, where the player controls the Mountie Bounty Bob. The player controls Bounty Bob through multiple levels of a mine, with the goal of traversing all of the platforms in each level all while avoiding enemies and within a set amount of time.
Moon Patrol is a 1982 arcade video game developed and released by Irem. It was licensed to Williams for distribution in North America. The player controls a Moon buggy which can jump over and shoot obstacles on a horizontally scrolling landscape as well as shoot aerial attackers. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, Moon Patrol is often credited with the introduction of full parallax scrolling in side-scrolling games. Cabinet art for the Williams version was done by Larry Day. Most of the home ports were from Atari, Inc., sometimes under the Atarisoft label.
Shamus is a shooter with light action-adventure game elements written by Cathryn Mataga and published by Synapse Software. The original Atari 8-bit computer version was released on disk and tape in 1982. According to Synapse co-founder Ihor Wolosenko, Shamus made the company famous by giving it a reputation for quality. "Funeral March of a Marionette", the theme song from Alfred Hitchcock Presents, plays on the title screen.
Caverns of Mars is a vertically scrolling shooter for Atari 8-bit computers. It was written by Greg Christensen, with some features later added by Richard Watts, and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. Caverns of Mars became the best selling APX software of all-time and was moved into Atari, Inc.'s official product line, first on diskette, then on cartridge.
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.
Astro Chase is a multidirectional shooter written by Fernando Herrera for Atari 8-bit computers. It was published by First Star Software in 1982 as the company's first game. Parker Brothers licensed it, releasing cartridge versions for the Atari 8-bit family and Atari 5200 console in 1983 and a Commodore 64 version in 1984. Exidy licensed it for arcade use with its Max-A-Flex cabinet.
Worms? is a puzzle video game written by David Maynard for Atari 8-bit computers and ported to the Commodore 64. It was released in 1983 as one of the first publications from Electronic Arts. Worms? is an interactive version of Paterson's Worms.
Monster Maze is a first-person maze video game written by Robert Schilling and published in 1982 by Epyx for the Atari 8-bit computers and VIC-20.
Wayout is a 3D first-person perspective video game programmed by Paul Allen Edelstein and published for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. It was released for the Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1983. Wayout is among the first maze games to offer full 360 degree 3D perspective and movement, and its graphics were considered state-of-the-art upon its release. There were many pseudo-3D maze games at the time, but they used a fixed perspective and limited the player to four orientations.
Protector is a 1981 scrolling shooter for Atari 8-bit computers programmed by Mike Potter and distributed first by Crystalware and then Synapse Software. A VIC-20 port was published by HesWare in 1983.
Attack at EP-CYG-4 is a shoot 'em up video game created by Mike Edwards for Atari 8-bit computers and published by his company BRAM, Inc. in 1982. It allows two players to cooperatively control the action against a computer enemy, in a fashion similar to Synapse Software's Survivor, also released in 1982. EP-CYG-4 was the first of Edwards' game efforts, and its success led to the creation of Zombies, which was published by Electronic Arts as Realm of Impossibility.
Picnic Paranoia is an action game written by Russ Segal for both the Atari 8-bit computers and Apple II and published by Synapse Software in 1982. A version for the TI-99/4A was published by Atarisoft in 1983. Although the gameplay is identical, all three versions of the game utilize slightly different graphics.
Airstrike is a horizontally scrolling shooter written by Steven A. Riding for Atari 8-bit computers. Having strong similarities to Konami's 1981 Scramble arcade game, it was published in 1982 as the first release from UK-based English Software. In Airstrike, the player flies through caverns while shooting and bombing targets, avoiding terrain, and managing fuel and ammunition. The company described the game as "Very, very, difficult!" in magazine advertisements, and reviewers agreed with that assessment.
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.
Soccer is a sports video game for Atari 8-bit computers published in 1982 by Gamma Software.
Claim Jumper is a video game written by Gray Chang for Atari 8-bit computers and published by Synapse Software in 1982. It is primarily designed as a two-player competitive game, but includes a separate shoot 'em up mode for either one or two players.
Tax Dodge is a maze video game for Atari 8-bit computers published by Island Graphics in 1982. It is the first game created by Free Fall Associates, a developer best known for Archon: The Light and the Dark.
PlatterMania is a video game written by Michael Farren for Atari 8-bit computers and published by Epyx in 1982.
Threshold is a space-themed fixed shooter written by Warren Schwader and Ken Williams for the Apple II and published by On-Line Systems in 1981. Inspired by Sega's Astro Blaster arcade video game, Threshold introduces many enemy ship types and wave formations as the game progresses. Reviewers found the variety distinguished the game from the many similar shoot 'em ups.
