Contextualizing game history
The final March 1981 release, Tennis, is another sports game from the folks at Activision, which drew attention with titles like Boxing, Skiing and Dragster in its first year. While tennis as a sport has been a standby for game-makers almost as long as video games have existed, Alan Miller’s rendition was one of the [ ]
In addition to titles published by Atari and Sears, Activision had two releases in March 1981 as well. The company’s six offerings from 1980 were broadly considered to bring a new degree of graphical refinement and interesting subject matter to the VCS, and the developers at the company continued to produce inventive and impressive games [ ]
At first glance, Stellar Track seems like a minor VCS release, and it is – as a Sears exclusive that requires the instruction manual to learn to play, it’s hardly the first game people talk about when bringing up the all-time classics on the platform. But what makes Stellar Track interesting is that the game [ ]
March 1981 introduced a pair of novelties to the VCS library, in that they are first-party Atari games that are also retailer-exclusives. Steeplechase and Stellar Track are the first two of four games that had some kind of exclusivity to Sears, then one of the largest retailers in the United States and a partner of [ ]
At this point in the VCS’s history, the platform has hosted a slew of traditional, real world games. Chess, checkers, backgammon, blackjack, and several others have helped fill out the VCS library with ways for enthusiasts to enjoy these games by themselves – or at the least a venue to play them without the setup. [ ]
Atari didn’t take long to open up 1981 with a new release, as Championship Soccer – or Pele’s Championship Soccer, as it was quickly rebranded started reaching store shelves that February. Despite being initially planned for a fall 1980 release, the first real soccer game on the VCS was seemingly delayed until after the [ ]
Rounding out the blockbuster year of 1980, Bridge is perhaps the most niche release to come out of Activision on the VCS. In fact, it’s arguably the most niche game on the platform. This is a single-player conversion of the team card game of the same name – a card game, it should be noted, [ ]
While Atari itself may have wrapped up its 1980 wares in September, Activision had two final games for the year. The company itself announced these as shipping in December for sale in January, though it does appear at least some retailers started receiving and advertising them as available late in the month, shortly before the [ ]
September 1980 saw a surprising amount of maze-related content published on the VCS. In addition to Carla Meninsky s Dodge ‘Em, Atari also published Rick Maurer s follow-up to the smash hit Space Invaders: Maze Craze, also known as Maze Mania under its Sears title. And unlike Dodge Em or 1978 s Slot Racers, Maze Craze is less [ ]
At the same time Alan Miller was working on Activision s Checkers cartridge in late 1979, at Atari, Carol Shaw had started work on her own translation of the board game, with both designers oblivious to each others efforts. While not as visually striking as Miller s game, Video Checkers has more options and a stronger computer [ ]