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.

After exiting Atari upon the completion of Video Chess and participating in the risky venture of starting up the novel idea of a third-party video game company, Bob Whitehead’s Activision debut showed up in August 1980 with another sports title, Boxing. This was his first project upon leaving Atari, but it’s very much in the same throughline as several of his previous games.