Tag: Lane Hauck
Atari has once again returned to the pool of arcade conversions for its second of three fall 1980 releases, Dodge ‘Em. Like Circus Atari or Space Invaders, it’s an excellent home version of a fairly popular game from the 1970s, Head-On, meaning that just like those two, it’s a classic home version of a classic game… albeit not an official one. Much as was the case with Circus Atari, Dodge ‘Em – or Dodger Cars, under the Sears branding – is another unlicensed clone of someone else’s game.
Ask someone what they know about Tron, and odds that if they know it at all, it’s probably because of the light cycle sequence. In it, cyclists create walls of light behind them as they move, trying to trap their opponent and cause them to crash. As it happens, that idea didn’t originate with Disney, but dates back to the 1976 Gremlin arcade game Blockade. And as we’ll see, Blockade would find itself cloned time and again, including by Atari for the VCS with Surround.