Crossbow Atari 2600

Crossbow Atari 2600

• The premise: You control an archer armed with a crossbow, protecting your five unarmed companions as they cross various dangerous environments to reach a castle and retrieve treasure.
• Levels and hazards: The game includes six “Danger Zones”: a desert, caverns, a volcano, a jungle, a drawbridge, and the castle hall. As your friends walk slowly across the screen, you must shoot incoming hazards, such as scorpions, bats, falling stalactites, and fireballs.
• Controlling the cursor: Since the Atari 2600 version does not use a light gun, you use a joystick to move a crosshair around the screen. Some reviews note that the cursor can feel a bit stiff to control.
• Adjustable difficulty: Using the difficulty switches on the console, you can adjust the speed of your shots. Higher difficulty levels can make the crosshair invisible until you shoot.
• Winning the game: To complete the game, you must get your friends to the end of the castle hall and shoot the flashing staff of a statue to reveal a trapdoor. This awards a bonus and restarts the game, but the treasure is never actually recovered in the 2600 version. 

Another great retro game available at Escapist Gamer – Desert Falcon (Atari 2600)