2K Programs

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Includes: 1) Moon-landing 2) Reaction Test 3) Hangman 4) Torpedo

3D Asteroids

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

In this game you have to fly your space craft at high speed through an asteroid storm.

3D Four Row

Acorn Atom - Released - 1983

With this program you can play "Four in a Row", but now it is 3-dimensional. This means the row may be either horizontal, vertical or diagonal. On input, firstly enter the height, followed by the width and then the depth.

3D Maze

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

A simple maze game in which you have to find your way out of a 3D maze, having been told where the exit is and where you are. 3D Maze is IJK Software's implementation of the popular pseudo 3D maze escape games that had a cult following in the early 1980s.

3-D Noughts and Crosses

Acorn Atom - Released - 1980

3-D Noughts and Crosses is an adaptation of the board game Qubic which is commonly known as 3D Tic-Tac-Toe. The game plays like the original pencil game Tic-Tac-Toe but adds an extra dimension. Despite the title this version does not render the graphics in 3D, but has the four boards placed side by side. The concept is still the same, though, with the player needing to get four in a row either on a single board, vertically in a column or diagonally through the boards. It is played against an AI opponent whose level can be selected from one to five. The game is entirely played by entering coordinates with the keyboard.

747

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Passengers and crew of a 747 Jumbo Jet are in your hands on a flight to land at England's busiest airport Heathrow. The huge aircraft is solely in your command as you fly in the pilot's hot seat through the suburbs of London. When you have located the position of two Heathrow runways you must start the descent and safely land the aircraft. Just how good a pilot you are will be revealed once you have completed the landing as you receive points for airmanship. Bug Byte's 747 Flight was actually written by a Jumbo Jet pilot for the Liverpool software supplier, so it earns top marks for its realism. On the screen you are confronted with various figures representing altitude, the state of the undercarriage, a compass, the rate of climb in feet per second, the speed of the aircraft in knots and the angle of the flaps in degrees, to name but a few. To help you on your flight, a map of Heathrow's environs has been included with the game. On it are marked the 10 stations (six of which are close to the two runways) and possible flight paths.

Acorn Kong

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

An arcade style game in the same exact vain as Donkey Kong. Your goal is to reach the top of the building and avoid all obstacles in your way.

Adventure

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Part of the Acornsoft Adventures compilation

Adventure I

Acorn Atom - Released

Adventures

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Adventures comprises the Adventure program plus three adventure games: DUNGEON Search for treasure in a maze of interconnected caverns, tunnels and caves, inhabited by friendly and unfriendly monsters. Find treasure and take it to the Throne Room. HOUSE You start on the doorstep of a haunted house, in whose rooms lurk the ghosts of some familiar people. Find treasure and take it to the Grand Banqueting Hall. INTERGALACTIC You play the part of an intergalactic traveller. Battle against the inhabitants of alien planets and return home to Earth with treasure.

Africa Diamond

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Air Attack

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Air Attack is an anti-aircraft simulator where the player controls a flak and the job is to destroy the attacking enemy aircrafts before they destroy your base. Somewhat rare at the time, the game is played from the first-person perspective.

Air Strike

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Amazing

Acorn Atom - Released

In this puzzling adventure, you play as a lone asterisk trying to make it through the dangers of a digital maze. During your wild adventure you must pick up as many points as possible. But beware the maze is changing!!

Amoeba

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Asteroid

Acorn Atom

Asteroid Belt

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Asteroids

Acorn Atom - Released - 1980

The objective of Asteroids is to destroy asteroids and saucers. The player controls a triangular ship that can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Once the ship begins moving in a direction, it will continue in that direction for a time without player intervention unless the player applies thrust in a different direction. The ship eventually comes to a stop when not thrusting. The player can also send the ship into hyperspace, causing it to disappear and reappear in a random location on the screen, at the risk of self-destructing or appearing on top of an asteroid

Astrafire

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Astro Warrior

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Astro Warrior is a shoot 'em up played from a top down perspective. The game's controls are different from other games of it's kind. The ship will automatically move forward once started and the player's input is limited to rotating it either left or right. The player's objective in each of the game's levels is to kill a certain number of aliens. There are four levels each with a different enemy and the number of kills required increase with the level. In addition to this the player has to keep track of the fuel level of the space ship. When running out of fuel a life is lost and to prevent this from happening the player has to move to a fuel dump in time. There are several fuel dumps on the screen but only one can be used at a certain time. The correct fuel dump is indicated next to the fuel meter in the HUD. Moving into the wrong fuel dump will lead to a crash and there will be one fuel source less in the game.

Astrobirds

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Astrobirds is a take on the classic Galaxian arcade game. The total invasion fleet of 19 Astrobirds shift back and forth across the screen dropping bombs. The Astrobirds carry out swooping attacks, one by one, on your laser base, which can be hit three times before the game is over. When you have successfully cleared the screen the next fleet appears. As the game goes on the Astrobirds move faster and drop more bombs until you can't cope.

Atom Adventure

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Atom Chess

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

A chess program for the Acorn Atom released in 1981 by Acornsoft on cassette. Atom Chess was an improved version of Chessnut by Geoffrey Bulmer which competed at the 2nd European Microcomputer Chess Championship. Atom Chess recognizes all legal chess moves, including castling, en passant, and promotes to queen only. The program uses pure coordinates for game notation and entering moves, allows to manually set up positions, and features 6 levels of play.

Atomstore

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Backgammon

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Bell Hop

Acorn Atom - 1982

Bell Hop is an arcade game and a version of Apple's Bellhop. The player plays as a bellhop, who tries to deliver the maximum number of gifts before their tip runs out. The player can move left and right. Gifts appear in the bottom right of the screen, and the player must ride an elevator to the upper floors to deliver them and return to the bottom right for another one. Unlike in the original game, Bell Hop features a ghost that occasionally steal the gifts.

Bit Bandit

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Bit Bandit is a slot machine simulator featuring ascii graphics.

Bone Hunt

Acorn Atom - Released - 1983

Bone Hunt is a small game where you simply choose a kennel and watch whether your dog finds the bone from one of the dog houses. Originally published in the book "Wake up your Atom!" that featured 20 different type-in games and programs.

Breakout

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Business Game

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Chaser

Acorn Atom - 1984

Constellation

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Cylon Attack

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Cylon Attack is a pseudo 3D space shooter played from a first-person perspective and clearly based on the American TV series Battlestar Galactica where the Cylon race is featured, but not carrying an official license. The player is the only interceptor pilot on an Earth supply mothership. He has to survive the different attack waves of the enemies while defending the ship. At the start of each wave he is launched in a fighter ship and needs to destroy all enemies to survive the wave, while flying around freely. There is only a limited amount of fuel available, but the player can return to the mothership at any time for a refuel, leaving the main base exposed for a moment. A radar map near the top of the screen shows the position of enemies and the main ship. The player's ship can climb up and down, and turn. When an alien vessel approaches, the sights (cross-hair) changes, indicating when there is a good chance of a hit. When it changes a second time, it locks onto the enemy. Only a laser weapon can be fired and it takes some time to recharge. The screen shows the player's score, the high score, the status of the mothership, the remaining strength of the shields, the amount of fuel left, and various indicators for climb/turn ratio and the lasers.

Dammen

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - 1982

Dammen is a Dutch checkers game.

Demon Dungeon

Acorn Atom - Released - December 5, 1980

The objective of Demon Dungeon is to escape from a dungeon full of monsters. The game is text based and the player makes his way through the dungeon by typing directional shortcuts (N, E, S, W). The player starts at level 1 and to escape has to make it to level 5 and beyond. To advance a level the player has to find a secret passage. Each cell on the map has a number that represents the likelihood of it containing something. This can be either treasure, magic stones or monsters. The game helps the player by showing his status as either red or blue. Red means that the player is moving in the right direction. When coming across a monster the player can do three actions: cast a spell, throw a magic stone or run away. Spells and magic stones have a 90% chance of killing the monster but only one spell can be used on each type of monster. Running away should only be used when the spell has been used and there are no magic stones left, since there is a 25% chance that the monster will follow and kill the player. The player only has one life and has to restart from the beginning when killed.

DFC 700

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - 1984

DFC 700, or "Depth-First Checkers" is an adaptation of the popular board game.

Early Warning

Acorn Atom - 1981

Egghead in Space

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - February 21, 2016

The Plot Remember how those aliens paid Egghead a visit a few years ago leaving his house in such a mess he had to go around clearing up after them? Obviously that wasn't un oeuf, because they're back again and this time they've abducted Egghead's favourite BBC/Electron games. Quick witted as ever, our "dairydevil" hero managed to "scramble" aboard one of the alien rocket ships before it took off for planet Zog and hitched a ride back with the extra-terrestrials to retrieve his precious software collection. Upon arriving, Egghead managed to teleport into the underground labyrinth and that was when his problems really began... The Mission Move Egghead around the screens leaping from platform to platform in search of the disc containing the computer games. Try not to fall too far as eggs are delicate, and avoid any green slime you may encounter. On the other hand, the green bubbles that rise from the slime are not deadly. Numerous items can be collected along the way to help Egghead in his quest. For example, a source of light will help illuminate a darkened room, and some sort of weapon might scare off some of those aliens. Once the computer disc has been located, Egghead needs to acquire some transport back to Earth.

Eliza

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, Eliza simulated conversation by using a 'pattern matching' and substitution methodology that gave users an illusion of understanding on the part of the program, but had no built in framework for contextualizing events. Directives on how to interact were provided by 'scripts', written originally in MAD-Slip, which allowed ELIZA to process user inputs and engage in discourse following the rules and directions of the script. The most famous script, DOCTOR, simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist and used rules, dictated in the script, to respond with non-directional questions to user inputs. As such, ELIZA was one of the first chatterbots and one of the first programs capable of attempting the Turing Test.

Fizzle Bricks

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Fruit Machine

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Fruit Machine is a three wheel simulation of slot machine for one player.

Galaxian

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Galaxian is a shoot 'em up in which the player is at the bottom of the screen, with an arrangement of aliens at the top. The player moves left and right to aim at an alien, then shoots a bullet up the screen, and the alien it hits is killed. Instead of the normal 4 alien types in Galaxian, the Acorn Atom version only has 2, but retains that those higher up the screen score more points when destroyed. At set intervals, an enemy will move down the screen towards you, which is a moment of high danger. Clear a wave and another is generated.

Games Pack 1

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Acornsoft Games Pack 1 is a collection of three games. - Asteroids is a version of the arcade game and plays as can be expected with the player in control of a space ship that moves forward with thrust and can rotate to aim and shoot at the asteroids that move around the screen. There are four asteroids on the screen and when shot they split into smaller ones. The larger ones are worth one point and the small ones two. - Sub Hunt is a text based simulation game where the player is in command of a destroyer and has to destroy a submarine. For every turn the player is given the distance to the submarine and can decide the speed and course of the destroyer. The submarine is automatically destroyed when the destroyer gets within one mile's distance of it. - Breakout is a version of Atari's game with the same name. It works the same with the player controlling a paddle that is used to hit bricks with a ball. For each brick the player earns points depending on how far off they are. Hitting the upper half will lead to increased speed and sending the ball through the wall will lead to the paddle shrinking. When all bricks are gone another set will appear. The player has three balls and game is over when they have all been lost.

Games Pack 10

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Acornsoft Games Pack 10 is a collection of ten games. Breakout is variant of the arcade game with the same name where a bat is used to destroy bricks with a ball. Hectic is a variant of the arcade game Avalanche where the player has to catch falling bricks so that they do not build up to the height of the paddle. Mastermind is an adaptation of the board game with the same name where the player gets ten attempts to figure out a four digit code. Ski is a skiing game where the player has to ski down a mountain and reach home safely without hitting any trees. Snake is a variant of a snake game where the player has to eat food that causes the snake to grow while avoiding colliding with walls or body. Track is a racing game where the player has to drive a car along a vertically scrolling race track without hitting any obstacles. Simon is an adaptation of the electronic game with the same name where the player sees letters flashing and then has to enter the correct sequence. Squash is a Pong-like game based on the sport where the player has to hit the walls as many times as possible before missing fifteen times. Moon is a variant of Lunar Lander where thrust controls are used to land a lunar module safely in the bottom of a crater. Bombs-Away is a variant of an artillery game where two players take turns shooting projectiles over a mountain in an attempt to hit the opponent.

Games Pack 11

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Comprises: Dominoes (Acornsoft), Missile Base (Acornsoft) and Snooker (Acornsoft)

Games Pack 2

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Acornsoft Games Pack 2 is a collection of three games. - Dogfight is a flight combat game similar to the arcade game Biplane and the console game Spitfire. The game is for two players only with no AI option available. The aim for each player is to simply shoot down the opponent without crashing into the ground or the top of the screen. The first player to reach a score of 100 wins the game. - Mastermind is an adaptation of the board game with the same name or the pencil game Bulls and Cows. It's played against an AI opponent whose four digit code the player has to guess on. For each guess the player gets to know the number of bulls (correct digits in the right position) and the number of cows (correct digits in the wrong position). At the same time the AI guesses on player's code who enters the numbers of bulls and cows manually. - Zombie is a variant of Chase (or Robots). The player is a survivor of a plane crash who finds himself surrounded by zombies. There are also swamps and the aim of the game is to lure the zombies into the swamps. The game is turn based and the player can move one square at a time in any direction and the zombies will do the same. The player dies when caught by a zombie and wins when all zombies have moved into the swamps.

Games Pack 3

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Comprises: Black Box (Acornsoft), Lunar Lander (Acornsoft) and Rat Trap (Acornsoft)

Games Pack 4

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Comprises: Four Row (Acornsoft), Space Attack (Acornsoft) and Star Trek (Acornsoft)

Games Pack 6

Acorn Atom - Released

Acornsoft Games Pack 6 contains the following three games: 1. Dodgems 2. Simon 3. Amoeba

Games Pack 7

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Acornsoft Games Pack 7 contains the following three games: Ballistics (Acornsoft), Green Things (Acornsoft) and Snake (Acornsoft)

Games Pack 8

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Comprises: Gomoku (Acornsoft), Robots (Acornsoft) and Stargate (Acornsoft)

Hyperfire

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Introductory Package 4: Games

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Invader Force

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Invader Force is a Space Invaders clone. The player moves a laser cannon left and right and has to shoot down all aliens that move back and forth above him while at the same time avoid getting hit by their fire. This variant has the same features as the Taito original including a mother ship that occasionally moves across the top of the screen and shields to hide behind. The game is endless and when all aliens have been killed another (more lethal) wave will take their place. The aim is simply to get as high score as possible. The score per kill depends on the position of the alien. Aliens on the bottom two rows are worth only ten points while those on the top row are worth four times as much. The player has three lives when starting out but an extra life is earned when a full wave has been destroyed. There are six difficulty levels that determine the starting position of the aliens, their descent rate and their firing rate.

Invaders

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Invaders is a clone of one of the most famous arcade games of all time, Space Invaders. It was developed and published by Bug-Byte Software in 1981.

Jet Set Willy

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - 2015

Willy owns a lavish mansion with over 60 rooms linked in a 3D plane, and must tidy it all before his housekeeper will let him sleep. Each room has its own hazards, such as spikes, revolving razors and ropes. The route through the house must be navigated carefully, due to the multiple entrances to some rooms - this is perhaps the first action game where mapping is an advantage.

Jet Set Willy 2

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - December 13, 2015

Labyrinth

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Life

Acorn Atom - Released

Manic Miner

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - February 1, 2017

Manic Miner of a faithful de-make of Matthew Smith's ZX Spectrum classic of the same name.

Maths Pack 2

Acorn Atom - Released

Meanies

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Minefield

Acorn Atom - January 1, 1984

Missile Base

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Missile Base was released for the Acorn Atom as part of the Acornsoft Games Pack 11 which also included the games Dominoes and Snooker. In Missile Base you must defend your cities from enemy attack with intercept missiles launched from the three ground bases.

Missiles

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

You must defend your cities from the falling missiles and the aircraft. You have 3 missile bases each containing 15 missiles.

Munchyman

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Omega Mission

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Painter

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Painter is a variation of the classic Amidar originally created for the arcades in 1981. Painter's gameplay is very similar to Amidar's bonus stages where the traditional boxes in the screen have points associated with. It can also be compared to Potty Painter in the Jungle which was one of the first Amidar variations for ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Painter's main goal is to fill all the boxes in each frame in a certain period of time by completing the pathways (lines) around them. This must be done before the "Bonus" value reaches zero. To complicate things the "Painter" has to avoid any collision with the "Chasers", some entities present in the game that will try to intercept him and destroy his work. The "Painter" will be forced to restart the phase all over again and one of his lives will be lost in the process. To defend himself during his gameplay and specially from the incredible speed the "Chasers" might get at the last skill factors of the game, the player has in his power a special tool: a gap creator. This weapon will create a temporary gap in the pathway lines preventing the "Chasers" from colliding with him. It can only be used three times at a time before any temporary gap is removed. The limit of Painter's skill factor is 6. "Chasers" intelligence and speed will increase proportionally to the skill factor and dramatically at this point of the gaming. Prepare yourself to be ambushed.

Peeko Computer

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

A working simulation as an aid to understanding microprocessors. The Peeko-Computer simulates the operation of a simplified microcomputer in order to teach the fundamentals of machine-code programming. The Peeko-Computer has ten easily learned instructions, and the display gives a visual analogy of the operation of a real microcomputer. Programs can be entered, single stepped, every step, to aid comprehension, each instruction mnemonic is displayed as it is encountered. The Peeko-Computer comes complete with a 16-page instruction manual, which contains examples to teach: The concepts of instructions and data Loads and stores Jumps, with conditions Addition, and the carry flag Multi Byte arithmetic Iteration.

Pinball

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Pirate Island

Acorn Atom - Released - 1984

Robot Nim

Acorn Atom

Soft Vdu

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Space Panic

Acorn Atom

Swarm

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Swarm is a variant of the arcade shooter Astro Invader. Killer bees are swarming the earth and they are intent on destroying the player's gun base. The queen bee is indestructible and is positioned in the middle of the screen. From there she releases bees which position themselves in columns. Once a column is full the bees begin descending down towards the player who has to shoot at them to prevent them from crashing into him. One difference from Astro Invader is that the enemies here shoot at the player while in the column. When the queen has delivered 100 bees she flies away and returns with a new batch. The player has three lives and when they are all lost the game is over and the queen is able to land.

The Protector

Acorn Atom - Released - 1982

Tomcat

Acorn Atom - Homebrew - 2016

Fly over a rogue island, avoiding the bullets from the gun turrets and the snaking formations of aliens.

Torpedo Run

Acorn Atom

UFO Bomber

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Word Tutor

Acorn Atom - Released - 1981

Comprises: Pairs (Acornsoft), Relations (Acornsoft) and Sentences (Acornsoft)

Write Your Own Adventure

Acorn Atom