Bombs Away!

Drop Zone 4 and Bombs Away! "found" for the Atari VCS / Atari 2600 in time for its 40th birthday celebrations. Drop Zone 4 is the first commercial video game with a peace mode and first playable with one-button.

The coin-op author, David Main, was a peace protester in 1975. He wanted to include a "peace mode" into his game where if you managed to ditch all your bombs into the sea without hitting any signs of life, you would be awarded a bonus free game.

A year or so later (so the anecdote goes) David was shocked to see Bombs Away! up for sale from Atari on their brand new Atari VCS console. It felt as though he had been pirated. Try Air-Sea Battle game variation 19 and spot the differences.

The Atari VCS version of Bombs Away! comes from a parallel universe where this was released instead of Air-Sea Battle, the peace mode made it in and programmers, artists and technicians were all given a written credit. Also, a world where game accessibility was given a thought from the start. Massive thanks to David Main (still working as an Electrical Engineer), William Pilgrim and all who helped resurrect this game. Happy birthday to the Atari VCS at 40.

This remake is part of the One Switch 100 project, which will be highlighting some of the most accessible games in history as well as some of the important accessibility features that came about with the Atari VCS.