Name This Game

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Screenshot of Name This Game.

Name This Game, also known as Octopus in Europe, is a video game for the Atari 2600 manufactured by US Games.

In the game, the player controls a diver who must protect a treasure from an octopus at the top of the screen that tries to capture the treasure with its tentacles. A shark also tries to distract the diver by swimming back and forth toward the bottom of the screen.

The diver loses a life if he is captured by the shark or the octopus's tentacles, or if the air meter runs out. The diver can refill his air meter by touching a long pole which extends from a boat that appears from time to time.

This game is called Name This Game in North America because of a contest in 1982 which challenged players to invent a name for the game. However, US Games went bankrupt and the contest was never completed. A common misconception is that the winning entry was called Octopus, the European name of the game. The winning title was actually Going Under, but no cartridges were ever produced with that name.