Atomic Runner

The player controls Chelnov's movements with the eight-way joystick, and the three buttons to attack, jump, or turn around. Six types of weapons can be obtained during the game: laser, fire rings, boomerangs, spike bola balls, spike ball whip, missiles. By collecting power-ups you can improve Chelnov's attack power, rapid-firing capability, attack range or jumping height.

The game is a forced side-scrolling game where the screen continually scrolls to the left at a constant speed unless the player is fighting a boss, in which the screen will stop scrolling. Chelnov will continue to run with the screen even if the player lets go of the joystick. Though the player can move to the left or right of the scrolling screen by entering the corresponding direction on the joystick, it is impossible to stop or move backwards except when fighting a boss (Chelnov can turn backwards while jumping). The main character's sprite animation is highly detailed and smooth for its time, comparable to the level of Karateka and the early Prince of Persia games. The ending screen appears when the player finishes all seven levels of the game.

Atomic Runner Chelnov was controversial at the time of release. The setting, where a coal miner is caught in a nuclear accident, a hammer and sickle visible on the game's opening screen, and the game's title (Chernobyl is written チェルノブイリ in Japanese) led many to interpret the game as a parody of the Chernobyl disaster. Data East responded in a television program that the name "Chelnov" was merely a relative of Karnov, the title character of one of the company's games, and was not at all influenced by the events at Chernobyl. Other development staff members later explained that the game had been planned under a different name, but the events at Chernobyl led to the name "Chelnov", which became the game's title.

Under this explanation, the parodic elements resulted purely out of coincidence, but over a year and a half passed from the accident to the first release of the game, which was ample time for the developers to reassess the suitability of the game's plot and content. The game's storyline was changed considerably to remove connotations of Chernobyl when the game was ported to the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Atomic Runner Chelnov as the thirteenth most successful table arcade unit of February 1988.

Chelnov also appears as an enemy character in Trio The Punch, Tumblepop (1991), and Fighter's History: Mizoguchi Kiki Ippatsu!! (1995), and can be seen being transported in a frozen container on a freight train in Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja (1988). In Sly Spy (1989), a poster showing Chelnov can be seen at the beginning of Stage 4. He can also be seen in Windjammers 2 (2020), as a member of the crowd on the Ring stage.