''Canyon Bomber'' is a black-and-white 1977

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

, developed and published by Atari, Inc. It was written by Wendi Allen (credited as Howard Delman) who previously programmed '' Super Bug'' for Atari. ''Canyon Bomber'' was rewritten in color and with a different visual style for the

Atari VCS The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

and published in 1979.

Gameplay

The player and an opponent fly a blimp or biplane over a canyon full of numbered, circular rocks, arranged in layers. The player does not control the flight of vehicles, but only presses a single button to drop a bomb which destroys rocks and gives points. Each rock is labeled with the points given for destroying it. As the number of rocks is reduced, it becomes harder to hit them without missing. The third time a player drops a bomb without hitting a rock, the game is over.

Development

To create ''Canyon Bomber'', Allen modified a '' Sprint 2'' board which she then programmed. The first version of the game required 3K of ROM. As ROMs were expensive at the time, Allen’s supervisor requested that she fit the game into 2K, which she did.

Ports

An Atari 2600 port was developed by then-Atari employee David Crane. It uses solid bricks rather than round rocks. Instead of visible point values, each layer of bricks has a color corresponding to its worth. It also includes ''Sea Bomber'' game modes where players destroy ships instead of rocks.

Legacy

The 1981

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit entry level home computer that was sold by Commodore International, Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commod ...

game '' Blitz'' was inspired by a description of ''Canyon Bomber'' and used buildings as the targets instead of rocks. That change inspired many subsequent ''Blitz'' clones for different systems. ''Canyon Bomber'' was re-released as part of Atari Collection 1 for the

Evercade The Evercade is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by British company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. The Evercade was released on 22 May 2020, and ...

in 2020 and The Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration in 2022 for multiple consoles.

References

External links