Avalanche - Atari 2600

Avalanche!

There has been an avalanche reported on the north side of the mountain! Rush to the scene to stop the boulders from causing a roadblock and be the hero!

Avalanche is based on the old 1978 Atari arcade game of the same name. The original 1978 game is not very well known, but Activision borrowed the concept for the popular Atari 2600 game Kaboom!, released in 1981. Avalanche was ported to the Atari 2600 by John W. Champeau, who has a growing portfolio of Atari 2600 games developed under the Champ Games label (including Lady Bug, Conquest of Mars, Scramble, Super Cobra Arcade, Mappy, Galagon, and Zoo Keeper).

The original arcade game employs a paddle controller to move your on-screen paddles back and forth to capture the falling boulders. Avalanche for the 2600 takes advantage of the Atari 2600 paddle controllers to match the arcade's control scheme (as did Activision's Kaboom!)

Game Play

When the game starts, use the controller to move your row of paddles left and right. Press the button to start the level (it will also start automatically after four seconds). Position your paddles under the rocks to stop them. As the level progresses, the rocks will move faster and get smaller, and the number of paddles will decrease as well, making it more challenging to stop the incoming boulders. If a rock reaches the bottom of the screen, game play will pause for a few moments and you will be given another try. If you clear all the rocks, a new level will start with fewer paddles and faster rocks.

The game ends when a boulder is missed, there are no more attempts left, or you have earned the maximum 9999 points. Are you skilled enough to achieve the high score and earn the title of Awesome Avalancher? GOOD LUCK!

Game Options

Avalanche can be played by one or two players alternating turns, and there are three different skill levels: NOVICE, STANDARD and ADVANCED. Press the SELECT switch to cycle through the options. The NOVICE skill has fewer and slower rocks, and gives you more attempts, while the ADVANCED skill has more, faster moving rocks and you have less attempts than STANDARD.

Additionally, you can control the size of the paddles to be either large or small for each player using the difficulty switches (left switch for player 1, right switch for player 2). For larger paddles, set the difficulty switch to B. For smaller paddles, set the difficulty switch to A.

Gameplay Video

Screenshots

Get an Avalanche Box!

If you'd like a boxed copy of Avalanche, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Avalanche to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Avalanche cartridge in place. We want you to play our games, so we have not sealed or shrinkwrapped the boxes in any way, allowing you easy access to the game cartridge and manual.

These boxes are the same size as boxes Atari produced for their games "back in the day". They look great sitting on a shelf with your other boxed homebrew games, or alongside games from the classic Atari 2600 library. We only have a limited number of boxes for each game, and there is no guarantee they will become available again once our supplies are exhausted.

AtariVox Support

If you have an AtariVox or SaveKey plugged into joystick port 2, the top score for each skill level is saved, as well as the current skill level and number of players. Without an AtariVox or SaveKey, high scores and settings are reset when the game is powered off. To reset all high scores and settings, hold down the RESET switch while powering on the system.

Additional Information

Avalanche includes game cartridge and beautifully illustrated 8-page manual. You can optionally purchase a professionally printed box (see above). Avalanche is available in NTSC and PAL60 television formats--please select above. If you do not select an option, you will receive an NTSC cartridge by default.