''Space Jockey'' is a horizontally

scrolling shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character m ...

Garry Kitchen Garry Kitchen (born August 18, 1955) is a video game designer, programmer, and executive best known for his work at Activision during the early years of the company's history. He has developed games for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Nintendo Ent ...

of James Wickstead Design Associates for the Atari VCS (renamed to the

Atari 2600 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 ...

later in the year). It was published under the Vidtec brand of

U.S. Games U.S. Games Corporation was a video game company founded by Donald Yu, which originally produced handheld electronic sports games. It pivoted to focus exclusively on video game software in 1981, and was acquired by cereal company Quaker Oats in ...

in 1982 as the initial release from the company. The game shipped on a 2K cartridge at a time when most VCS games were 4K. There are 16 game variations. ''Space Jockey'' was the first video game designed by Garry Kitchen. He went on to program the 2600 port of ''

Donkey Kong is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. It follows the adventures of Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong, a large, powerful gorilla, and other members of the List of Don ...

''.

Gameplay

The player controls an "attack saucer" that flies to the right over scrolling, undulating terrain. The saucer only moves vertically and stops just before it hits the ground. The goal is to shoot ground-based tanks and flying enemies: jet planes, propeller planes, helicopters, and

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...

s.Trees and houses appear on the ground as obstacles which can also be destroyed.

Development

''Space Jockey'' was developed by Gary Kitchen and was his first game for the

. It was created during a six-month effort to

reverse engineer Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

the console while working at James Wickstead Design Associates. Kitchen later described ''Space Jockey'' as "just a modestly fun game" and that it was predominantly a test bed for him during the process of reverse engineering the Atari VCS.

Release and reception

''Space Jockey'' was released in January 1982. According to a 2013 interview with Kitchen, ''Space Jockey'' sold over a million copies, but he believes most of those were at a discount. A February 1983 ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' article on retailers lowering game prices mentioned, "US Games recently sold off one of its older hits, the 2K ''Space Jockey'', at rock bottom prices through its distributors." Dan Gutman reviewed ''Space Jockey'' in the December 1982 issue of ''

Electronic Fun with Computers & Games ''Electronic Fun with Computers & Games'' was a video game magazine published in the United States from November 1982 to May 1984. For the last two issues it was renamed ''ComputerFun''. Content The magazine was split up into the following sec ...

''. Gutman compared the game to '' Defender'' (1981) and '' Chopper Command'' (1982) saying that "there is nothing meaty here ..but that doesn't mean it's bad" and that the game was "a pure test of your reaction time and doesn't pretend to be anything more". ''

Electronic Games ''Electronic Games'' was the first dedicated video game magazine published in the United States and ran from October 15, 1981, to 1997 under different titles. It was co-founded by Bill Kunkel, Joyce Worley, and Arnie Katz. History The h ...

'' found the game to be easy on the default difficulty setting: "the saucer can race through the first 20,000 points of what is intended to be a low-scoring game by just sticking to the lower-left corner of the playfield." ''Space Jockey'' was one of three runners-up for the "Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Videogame" category in the 1983 Arcade Awards. In a retrospective review, Brett Alan Weiss of online game database

AllGame RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

declared the game to be "a simplistic but enjoyable shooter".

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{cite web, url=http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=9280&tab=review, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141116153852/http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=9280&tab=review, publisher=

, last=Weiss, first=Brett Alan, title=Space Jockey, access-date=June 17, 2024, archive-date=November 16, 2014

External links

TV commercialGameplay video
1982 video games Atari 2600 games Atari 2600-only games Horizontally scrolling shooters Single-player video games U.S. Games games Video games designed by Garry Kitchen Video games developed in the United States