Kaboom! is an action video game published in 1981 by Activision for the Atari VCS. It was programmed by Larry Kaplan, and David Crane coded the overlaid sprites. The game was well received and sold over one million cartridges by 1983.
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.
Mouse Trap is a maze video game developed by Exidy and released in arcades in 1981. It is similar to Pac-Man, with the main character replaced by a mouse, the dots with cheese, the ghosts with cats, and the energizers with bones. After collecting a bone, pressing a button turns the mouse into a dog for a brief period of time. Color-coded doors in the maze can be toggled by pressing a button of the same color. A hawk periodically flies across the maze, unrestricted by walls.
Demon Attack is a fixed shooter programmed by Rob Fulop for the Atari 2600 and published by Imagic in 1982. It sold over 2 million cartridges. Demon Attack was ported to the Intellivision, Magnavox Odyssey 2, Atari 8-bit family, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Tandy 1000, TRS-80, IBM PCjr, and TRS-80 Color Computer. There is also a port for the TI-99/4A titled Super Demon Attack.
Atlantis is a fixed shooter video game released by Imagic in July 1982 for the Atari 2600. It was written by Dennis Koble who also wrote Trick Shot, Solar Storm, and Shootin' Gallery for Imagic. Atlantis was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, VIC-20, Intellivision, and the Magnavox Odyssey 2. The game was inspired by Taito's 1981 Colony 7 arcade game.
Super Cobra is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Konami, originally released as an arcade video game in 1981. It was published by Konami in Japan in March 1981 and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North America on June 22. It is the spiritual sequel to the Scramble arcade game released earlier in 1981. Super Cobra contains eleven distinct sections, versus six in Scramble, and is significantly more difficult, requiring maneuvering through tight spaces early in the game.
Vanguard is a scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by TOSE. It was released by SNK in Japan and Europe in 1981, and licensed to Centuri for manufacture in North America in October and to Zaccaria in Italy the same year. Cinematronics converted the game to cocktail arcade cabinets in North America. The player flies a ship through forced-scrolling tunnels with sections that move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, to reach a boss at the end. The ship is controlled with an 8-way joystick, and it can fire in four directions via four buttons in a diamond arrangement.
Lock 'n' Chase (ロック・ン・チェイス) is a maze chase video game developed by Data East and released in arcades in Japan in 1981. It was licensed to Taito for distribution in North America. Lock 'n' Chase has similarities to Pac-Man, including a goal of collecting dots, with the addition of doors that periodically block pathways. Home versions for the Intellivision and Atari 2600 were published by Mattel in 1982 and an Apple II version in January 1983.
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.
Tutankham is a 1982 arcade video game developed and released by Konami and released by Stern in North America. Named after the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, the game combines a maze shoot 'em up with light puzzle-solving 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 home systems by Parker Brothers.
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.
Cube Quest is a shoot 'em up arcade laserdisc game by American company Simutrek released in 1983. It was primarily designed and programmed by Paul Allen Newell, who previously wrote some Atari 2600 games. It was introduced at Tokyo's Amusement Machine Show in September 1983 and then the AMOA show the following month, before releasing in North America in December 1983.
Fire Truck is a black-and-white 1978 arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. According to GamesRadar, it was the earliest video game with cooperative gameplay where two players have to work together. Fire Truck is built on the multi-directional scrolling technology created for Atari's Super Bug released the previous year.
Space Zap is a space-themed fixed shooter arcade video game developed by Game-A-Tron and licensed to Midway Manufacturing in 1980. The player controls the defenses of an immobile base in the center of the screen which is attacked from the top, bottom, left, and right. Pressing one of four oversized buttons moves the gun in the corresponding direction. A fifth button fires. Space Zap shipped in three form factors: standard upright, cocktail, and Bally's Mini-Myte reduced size cabinet.
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.
Entombed is an Atari 2600 game designed by Tom Sloper and programmed by Steven Sidley. It was released in 1982 by U.S. Games. It involves a player moving through a maze and avoiding enemies. The game's perplexing maze generation algorithm has attracted academic study.
Space Jockey is a horizontally scrolling shooter designed by Garry Kitchen for the Atari VCS. It was published under the Vidtec brand of U.S. Games in 1982 as the initial release from the company. The game shipped on a 2K cartridge at a time when most VCS games were 4K. Atari, Inc. stopped internal development of 2K games for the console in 1980.
Fire Fighter is a video game written by Brad Stewart for the Atari 2600 published by Imagic in 1982. The player uses fire fighting equipment in an attempt to extinguish the fire in a tall building and rescue the occupants.
