River Raid (Atari 2600)

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Description

River Raid is a vertically scrolling action game. You fly a jet up a river in an attempt to destroy bridges that are vital to the enemy. The river is heavily guarded, however, with balloons, ships, choppers, and enemy aircraft trying to stop you. Along the way, you will need to fly over fuel stations to refuel your jet and keep flying.

The plane is armed with a cannon with unlimited ammo. It can be used to destroy enemy vehicles and bridges, but a careless player can accidentally destroy a fuel station. Colliding with the riverbanks or with the enemy aircraft destroys your plane and makes you lose a life.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "Carol Shaw's River Raid" -- Alternate title
• "リバーレイド" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• BPjS / BPjM indexed games
• Gaming Service: Game Room
• Genre: Scrolling shoot 'em up
• River Raid series

User Reviews

An incredible game - one of the best ever	MagFram (43)
One of the best games on the Atari 2600	James Eldridge (66)

Critic Reviews

Tilt	Jul, 1983		100
Retroage	Aug 07, 2010	9.7 out of 10	97
The Atari Times	Dec 04, 2003	95 out of 100	95
All Game Guide	1998		90
neXGam	Jun 27, 2013	8.5 out of 10	85
VideoGame	Mar, 1991		80
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	Dec 10, 2003	8 out of 10	80
Atari HQ	2002	8 out of 10	80
TeleMatch	May, 1983	2 out of 6	80
Electronic Fun with Computers & Games	Mar, 1983	3 out of 4	75

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Trivia

German index

With this game, the German BPjS (Federal Examination Office for Youth-Endangering Publications) expanded into the area of computer games. Put on the German index for being, among other things, a "para-military training game for kids" on December 19, 1984. For about 18 years, this game was not just an adult only game in Germany, but it was also illegal to advertise for it and therefore (as advertise also means the pure presence on a store's shelf) it could only bought per request. However, it was eventually de-indexed by the BPjS in January 2003 after a verification request by Activision. Otherwise it would be on the index until December 2009 (25 year statute of limitations law appendix; originally, it wouldn't be de-indexed automatically).

Inspiration

River Raid was based on the arcade game Scramble; it was made into a vertically scrolling game as this allowed for smoother scrolling.

Programmer Bonus

The original Atari 2600 version sold very well. As a result the game's programmer Carol Shaw was awarded a cash bonus equivalent to her annual salary.

River Raider Patch

Players who were able to rack up 15,000 points or higher were eligible to receive the "River Raiders" patch from Activision if they sent in a screenshot to the company. Here is a picture of that patch at AtariAge.

Awards

• Flux Magazine
  • April 1995 (Issue #4) - #87 in Top 100 Video Games of All-Time
• Retro Gamer Magazine
  • January 2008 (Issue 46) - #3 in the “Top 25 Atari 2600” Games poll
• Zzap!
  • May 1985 (Issue 1) - #50 'It's the Zzap! 64 Top 64!'

Information also contributed by Big John WV, PCGamer77, and Xoleras

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