At Random - River Raid by Activision 1982

Growing up in the 1980s I saw the 1st boom of home video arcade gaming. My parents bought me and my older brother an Atari. My bro was into girls by that time, so it was mainly me playing the Atari. But we were both smitten on "River Raid", this seemingly endless game where skill, patience and gambling mixed, but no matter what you did you always got killed.

The game was simple. Fly your plane through enemy territory, shoot down as many of their planes, helicopters and boats as you could, while dodging flying objects and the cruising boats; trying not to crash into the ground, or running out of fuel. Simple. Riiiiight.

It was designed to piss you off. It was designed to kill you. It was designed by a woman: Carol Shaw, and released in 1982. I was 10 years old. A few years back Atari released the Atari Flashback with like 25 - 50 games preloaded so it was plug and play. River Raid was one of them. I bought it for my son, not sure he would embrace the old technology. But he really liked it. The graphics were poor by his standards, but the games were still challenging.

Here's to my favorite video game as a kid. Here's to my favorite game as an adult. Here's to "River Raid" and all the hours I spent trying not to die.