Caverns of Mars

Caverns of Mars
scan of the box cover art of the cartridge release
Cartridge release
Publisher(s)Atari Program Exchange
Atari, Inc.
Designer(s)Greg Christensen
Programmer(s)Greg Christensen[3]
Richard Watts[4]
Platform(s)Atari 8-bit
ReleaseWinter 1981: APX[1]
April 1982: Atari (disk)[2]
1983: Atari (cartridge)
Genre(s)Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

Caverns of Mars is a vertically scrolling shooter for Atari 8-bit computers. It was written by Greg Christensen, with some features later added by Richard Watts, and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981.[3] Caverns of Mars became the best selling APX software of all-time and was moved into Atari, Inc.'s official product line, first on diskette, then on cartridge.

In Caverns of Mars, the player descends into cave and at the end must retrace their steps back to the top. Christensen wrote two less successful follow-ups, one of which scrolls horizontally and is very similar to Scramble.

  1. ^ APX Software Catalog. Atari Program Exchange. Winter 1981. p. 4.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference AC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference giantlist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Watts 2016.