Tag Archives: Canyon Bomber

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Canyon Bomber

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David Crane is probably most well-known for his classic (and genre-defining) platformer for Activision, Pitfall!

But the prolific programmer worked on a bunch of things for Atari before jumping ship to a company that was more than happy to credit its developers for their hard work. One such example was the Atari 2600 version of Canyon Bomber.

To call this a port is a bit unfair; it actually offers quite a bit more than the arcade version does in terms of ways to play — including the closest we’ll get to a home port of Destroyer!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Destroyer

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As we’ve previously seen with Canyon Bomber, sometimes all you need to make an addictive, enjoyable game is a simple concept… and perhaps some gimmicky controls.

Such is the case with Destroyer, a game that featured some satisfyingly clunky physical controls on its original arcade release, which are obviously lost somewhat in this home translation. Interestingly, this never got a home port of its own prior to the release in Atari Flashback Classics; it was instead incorporated into the Atari 2600 port of Canyon Bomber, which was developed by David “Pitfall” Crane.

It’s a simple idea, but an effective one… and one that really does not like being captured at 30fps, so if you can’t see the depth charges for part of this video… uh, sorry! Such are the limitations of my hardware!

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Canyon Bomber

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Time after time in gaming, we’ve seen that the simplest concepts can be some of the most effective and addictive.

Atari’s Canyon Bomber, originally released to arcades in 1977, is a prime example of this. You only need one button to play, and that button drops bombs. The concept is so simple anyone — even someone not at all familiar with video games — can understand and enjoy it. Drop bombs, hit things, score points. Whoever scores most points, wins.

And one of the best things about this game when compared to some of its contemporaries is that the simplistic concept means that it was very straightforward to implement a “computer-controlled” opponent to compete against if you didn’t happen to have a friend handy. So even those of us with no friends can still enjoy this game… and end up playing it a lot longer than you might expect!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.