Racing the Beam : the Atari Video Computer System - Index of

In U.S. toy industry reports and trade discussion, video games are
implicitly and explicitly named as a threat to the “traditional toy industry”
and revenues in these two categories are listed separately. Industry articles
cheer reports about videogame violence, hoping that popular opposition
will drive parents to spend more money on traditional toys. Yet toy
companies continue to diversify into making video and electronic games
and licensing their characters for use in video games. Today’s “embrace
and resist” approach to video gaming continues a complex history between
toy companies and home video gaming.
License to Program
To recall the very beginning of the VCS era: when the system launched
near the end of 1977, there were nine cartridges available from Atari.
These were Air-Sea Battle, Basic Math, Blackjack, Combat (which was
included with the system), Indy 500, Star Ship, Street Racer, Surround, and
Video Olympics. Of these, at least fi ve (Air-Sea Battle, Combat, Star Ship,
Surround, and Video Olympics) were based to some extent on specifi c arcade
games (Anti-Aircraft, Tank, Starship 1, Blockade, and Pong). Of the others,
one was educational and one was a card game. The remaining two were
racing games that also had arcade precedents, including games in the Gran
Trak and Sprint series.
The fi rst Parker Brothers catalog from 1982 also featured nine games,
a selection that refl ected how much the industry had changed in only a few
years. The games listed—some of them still “coming soon” at this point—
were Amidar, Frogger, Reactor, Sky Skipper, Spider-Man, Star Wars: Jedi Arena,
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Strawberry Shortcake Musical Matchups,
and Super Cobra. All of these nine were licensed games. Five were arcade
ports that bore the same names as the corresponding coin-ops. One of the
others was based on a comic book character, another drew on a greeting
card character, and the remaining two were the Star Wars games. Although
six of Atari’s launch titles supported two-player simultaneous play, only
one of the Parker Brothers games (Star Wars: Jedi Arena) let two people play
at the same time. There was one educational, or “edutainment,” title,
Strawberry Shortcake Musical Matchups, which was advertised as “a fi ne
fi rst video game for little girls.”
The fi rst licensed game for the Atari VCS was Superman, programmed
by John Dunn early in the history of the system, in 1978. Warner, the new
owner of Atari, already owned the license rights to the Superman character.
Although it’s not exactly clear that the game is based on the movie,
7 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back [123]