River Raid

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Screenshot of "River Raid" (Atari 2600)
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Screenshot of "River Raid" (Atari 2600)

River Raid is a scrolling shooter videogame and was released in 1982 by Activision for the Atari 2600, and later the Atari_8-bit, C64, ZX Spectrum,and MSX. The player controls an airplane in a top-down view over a river and gets points for shooting down enemy planes, helicopters, ships and balloons. By flying over fuel-stations, the plane's tank can be refilled. The player can change the speed of his plane, although a higher speed uses more fuel. Sections of the river are marked by bridges. The game was programmed by Carol Shaw, one of the Activision programmers who had previously worked at Atari and then Tandem Computers.

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[edit] Considered harmful

River Raid was especially popular in Germany, as it was the first videogame to be put on the Index by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons in German).

In the explanatory statement for indexation on December 19th 1984 it is written: "Minors should think as an uncompromising fighter and destroyer (...). A paramilitaristic education takes place in the childhood (...). With older minors, playing leads (...) to physical cramps, anger, aggressiveness, erratic thinking (...) and headaches." (BPjS-Aktuell Heft 2/84)

River Raid remained indexed as harmful to minors until 2002 when a publisher successfully lobbied to remove the game from the index in order to rerelease it in the Activision Anthology for the PlayStation 2. In a sign of how views had changed since 1984, the anthology was rated "Free for all ages" by the "Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle".

[edit] Other influences

The game also inspired a homonymous Brazilian rock band.[1]

[edit] Trivia

  • River Raid was developed by Carol Shaw who is said to be the first female video game designer (for her 3D Tic-Tac-Toe game released by Atari in 1979).
  • River Raid was followed by a sequel, River Raid II, programmed by David Lubar in 1988. It provided similar gameplay but with different landscapes and increased difficulty. Today, it is not as well remembered as the original, possibly because it was released during the Atari 2600's downfall.
  • Was included, along with many other games, on Activision Anthology, a Playstation 2 game featuring games and music of the 1980s.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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