Activision, the official publisher of the Call of Duty series, was founded in 1979 and Cold War takes place a little after. The developers clearly noticed this connection, especially when designing the level “Redlight, Greenlight.” During this level, Bell and Frank Woods stumble into what appears to be an arcade (actually part of a Spetznatz training course), complete with Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” playing over the loudspeakers and working cabinets of early Activision titles- and they’re playable! Bell can disregard the much bigger priority of getting intelligence on a dangerous terrorist planning to nuke Europe in favor of wasting time on old Atari games while receiving witty commentary from Woods.
5 Fishing Derby (1980)
Fishing Derby was one of the first games Activision produced, and seeing these graphics makes it hard to imagine them going on to produce something like Call of Duty. The premise is pretty self-explanatory. Two fishermen compete to catch a set amount of fish. There are multiple rows of fish, each with different weights- the ultimate goal being to catch 90 pounds.
Players cast their line and try to reel in the fish. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? Except there is a shark that swims back and forth between both docks that will try to catch and eat any fish caught by the players. First person to reach 90 pounds of fish wins!
4 Grand Prix (1982)
Before the F1 series, players looking for the experience of formula 1 racing had to make do with Activision’s Grand Prix. This was a racing game played from a top-down perspective, with the player driving a car along a straight line. The car can move from side to side, but players can also control its speed, being able to speed up and slow down as needed. There were four tracks which looked very similar but had different lengths and sets of obstacles.
However, despite the appearance of a racing game, the player does not actually compete against other racers. The “competitors” are instead hazards to avoid, and crashing into other cars reduces speed. The actual goal is to get the best time for completing the track. Grand Prix looks pretty crude by today’s standards. Next to racing games that have come since like Need For Speed, Mario Kart, or even LEGO Racers, the gameplay looks pretty dull. But it was a huge hit on the Atari and well-received by critics in its day.
3 River Raid (1982)
This vaguely air force-themed game casts players as a jet pilot going behind nondescript enemy lines in an unidentified war. The plane flies upwards along a straight river, and can be moved left or right. The objective is to score points by destroying enemy vehicles, but it is a lot more challenging than it sounds.
The player has to keep an eye on their fuel, which can be replenished from fuel stations scattered along the river- but which are also easy to shoot by mistake. The other catch is the player has to avoid crashing, which can easily happen by either flying into the edges of the map or flying into an enemy before they can be cleared. Failure causes the jet to explode.
2 Pitfall (1982)
This old game has become something of a classic, becoming the first in a series of side-scrolling adventures and even inspiring a short-lived animated series. Players control a man referred to as “Pitfall Harry” who has the challenge of navigating a treacherous jungle full of obstacles in search of treasure.
Each screen involves various obstacles like logs, snakes, scorpions, ponds full of crocodiles, quicksand/tar pits, and holes leading into the underground section requiring him to climb out and start over. Probably the most iconic part is needing to get over pits by jumping at just the right moment to grab a vine and swing across. The “pitfall” part of the game comes from how easy it is to fall into pits, many of which are lethal.
1 Kaboom! (1983)
1978 saw the release of an arcade game called Avalanche. The player moved a series of paddles back and forth along a screen, with a bunch of rocks at the top that would begin falling one by one. The objective was to catch rocks in the paddles, which would become more difficult as the rocks began to fall faster, and the player would fail if they missed any. The format was simple but challenging, and went on to inspire a few similarly-structured games. These included the airport-themed Lost Luggage, the chicken/egg-themed Chicken and Eggomania, and of course Activision’s Kaboom.
The basic gameplay was similar to Avalanche, with the player controlling objects that are used to catch falling projectiles in order to score points. The big change is the game now being about a “mad bomber” who throws explosives at the player with increasing speed. Points are scored by using the buckets to catch the bombs, but failing to catch one will cause all the on-screen bombs to detonate, hence the title Kaboom.
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