Wizard (2005)

Release Date: December 31, 2005
Developer: Chris Crawford

Wizard was to be the last of Atari's 2600 games, but went unreleased in favor of the new 5200 games. Chris Crawford puts it this way: "Wizard was spec'd as a 2K game, but just four months later, when it was ready, the marketing people had decided that everything should be 4K, so they asked me if I could expand it to 4K. To be honest, I really didn't want to work on the 2600 -- I was eager to get going on the 800. So I told them that you don't just expand a 2K game to 4K: you start from scratch and design it for 4K from the ground up. That was true, and marketing lost interest, so I got to move to the 800." Since Wizard was never advertised in any Atari catalogs and it was never assigned a part number, most people don't even know if its existence. Wizard can best be described as a cross between Berzerk and Wizard of Wor. You control a wizard (at least I think he's a wizard), who must attempt to destroy the swirling star shaped creature. The board layout is a giant maze, which makes it hard to run from the creature and to get a clean shot off. Unfortunately the creature can move through the maze walls, but thankfully it can't shoot through them. Once you take a shot you'll notice that your wizard dims a bit, this means you are recharging, and cannot shoot. Once your wizard is done recharging he will light back up again, and you can take another shot. You don't have to worry about aiming you shots, as you will automatically shoot in the direction of the creature. This makes it easy to run away but still take shots at the creature.