Space Cowboy (video game)

Last updated
Space Cowboy
Space Cowboy (Cover).jpg
Publisher(s) Avalon Hill
Platform(s) Atari 8-bit
Release 1983

Space Cowboy is a video game written by Scott Lamb for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Avalon Hill Microcomputer Games in 1983. [1]

Contents

Gameplay

Space Cowboy is a game in which the Space Cowboy maneuvers along a walkway shown in three-quarter perspective, avoiding blasts from wall-mounted lasers. [2]

Reception

Bill Wallace reviewed Space Cowboy in Space Gamer No. 70. [2] Wallace commented that "The action is idiotic, wooden, boring after only a couple of minutes of play. If you'd never seen Zaxxon the three-quarter perspective would be interesting, though it doesn't really contribute to play." [2]

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.

<i>Pong</i> 1972 arcade game

Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released on 29 November 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.

<i>Star Raiders</i> 1980 video game

Star Raiders is a space combat simulator video game created by Doug Neubauer and published in 1980 by Atari. The player assumes the role of a starship fighter pilot, who must protect starbases from invading forces called Zylons. Piloting and combat are shown in the 3D cockpit view, while a 2D galactic map shows the state of the Zylon invasion. Neubauer made the game during in his spare time at Atari, inspired by contemporary media such as Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars, as well as the 1971 mainframe game Star Trek. Originally released on the Atari 400/800 computers, Star Raiders was later ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari ST.

<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 enemies that continue to move when offscreen.

<i>Gorf</i> 1981 video game

Gorf is an arcade video game released in 1981 by Midway Manufacturing, whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a fixed shooter with five distinct levels, the first of which is based on Space Invaders and another on Galaxian. The game makes heavy use of synthesized speech for the Gorfian robot which teases the player, powered by the Votrax speech chip. Gorf allows the player to buy two additional lives per quarter before starting the game, for a maximum of seven lives.

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

Warlords is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game resembles a combination of Breakout and Quadrapong ; up to four players play the game at the same time, and the "castles" in the four corners of the screen are brick walls that can be broken with a flaming ball.

<i>Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom</i> 1982 video game

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, known as Zoom 909 in Japan, is a pseudo-3D rail shooter released as an arcade video game by Sega in 1982. The player controls a spaceship in a third-person perspective, adapting the three-dimensional perspective of Sega's earlier racing game Turbo (1981) for the space shoot 'em up genre. It used the Buck Rogers license, referencing the space battles, though Buck himself is never seen.

<i>Demon Attack</i> Fixed shooter video game from 1982

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.

1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, including Pac-Man, Battlezone, Crazy Climber, Mystery House, Missile Command, Phoenix, Rally-X, Space Panic, Stratovox, Zork, Adventure, and Olympic Decathlon. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, while the best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch. The Atari VCS also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision.

1979 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Space Invaders Part II and Super Speed Race, along with new titles such as Asteroids, Football, Galaxian, Head On, Heiankyo Alien, Monaco GP, Sheriff and Warrior. For the second year in a row, the highest-grossing video game was Taito's arcade game Space Invaders and the best-selling home system was the Atari Video Computer System.

<i>Autoduel</i> 1985 video game

Autoduel is a role-playing video game published by Origin Systems for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM PC compatibles in 1985. It was released in 1987 for the Atari ST and in 1988 for the Amiga and Macintosh. The game is based on the Steve Jackson Games series Car Wars.

<i>Pit-Fighter</i> 1990 video game

Pit-Fighter is a fighting game developed by Atari Games and released as an arcade video game in 1990. It was Atari's first fighting game. The Japanese release was published by Konami. Home versions were published by Tengen.

<i>Megamania</i> 1982 video game

Megamania is a video game developed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. The game is a Fixed shooter, where a pilot of an intergalactic space cruiser who after eating a variety of food, has a nightmare where his ship is being attacked by food and house hold objects. Using the missile launcher from his space cruiser, he finds himself being attacked by various food items and house hold objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari video game burial</span> 1983 burial of unsold video games

The Atari video game burial was a mass burial of unsold video game cartridges, consoles, and computers in a New Mexico landfill site undertaken by the American video game and home computer company Atari, Inc. in 1983. Before 2014, the goods buried were rumored to be unsold copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), one of the largest commercial video game failures and often cited as one of the worst video games ever released, and the 1982 Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man, which was commercially successful but critically maligned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First-person (video games)</span> Graphical perspective

In video games, first-person is any graphical perspective rendered from the viewpoint of the player character, or from the inside of a device or vehicle controlled by the player character. It is one of two perspectives used in the vast majority of video games, with the other being third-person, the graphical perspective from outside of any character ; some games such as interactive fiction do not belong to either format.

<i>Superman</i> (1979 video game) Action-adventure game for the Atari 2600

Superman is a video game programmed by John Dunn for the Atari Video Computer System and released in 1979 by Atari, Inc. The player controls Superman, whose quest is to explore an open-ended environment to find three pieces of a bridge that was destroyed by Lex Luthor, capture Luthor and his criminal gang, and return to the Daily Planet building. The game world is populated by antagonists such as a helicopter that re-arranges the bridge pieces and roving kryptonite satellites that cause Superman to revert into Clark Kent.

<i>Surround</i> (video game) 1977 video game

Surround is a video game programmed by Alan Miller and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600. The game plays similarly to the arcade game Blockade (1976), which allows players to navigate a continuously moving block around an enclosed space as a wall trails behind it. Every time the opposite player has their brick hit a wall, the opposing player earns a single point, with the winner being the first to collect ten points.

<i>Jupiter Mission 1999</i> 1983 video game

Jupiter Mission 1999 is an action-adventure game written by Scott Lamb for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Avalon Hill Microcomputer Games in 1983. The game shipped on four floppy disks. It was followed by a sequel in 1984, Quest of the Space Beagle.

<i>Baja Buggies</i> 1982 video game

Baja Buggies is a desert-themed racing video game written by Dan Ugrin for the Atari 8-bit family. It uses a third-person, 2.5D perspective. The game was originally developed and sold as Night Rally by Arcade Plus before the company folded, then it was revamped and became the first release from Gamestar. Gamestar went on to publish a series of sports games for the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 before becoming a label of Activision.

<i>Pigs in Space</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Pigs in Space is a three-in-one 1983 video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600. It is based on the "Pigs in Space" sketch series on the then-popular television series The Muppet Show. The game is the last in a series of children-friendly games developed by Atari for the Atari 2600. Atari marketed the games as being good for the development of hand-to-eye coordination.

References

  1. "Space Cowboy". Atari Mania.
  2. 1 2 3 Wallace, Bill (July–August 1984). "Capsule Reviews". Space Gamer (70). Steve Jackson Games: 50.