Boxing (Atari 2600)

Atari exclusive

Boxing is an action boxing game for one or two players which is played from an overhead point of view. The game lasts for two minutes, and the player who can earn the most points in that time wins. You earn one point for a long jab, two points for a close power punch, and if you can manage knockout it's worth one hundred points. Two difficulty levels are included which can be set individually for each player.

Released: 1 July 1980
Platforms: Atari 2600
Genres: Boxing Fighting Sports
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action
Country: United States

About

Boxing is a video game interpretation of the sport of boxing, developed by programmer Bob Whitehead for the Atari VCS (later renamed to the Atari 2600). It was published by Activision in 1980 and is one of the first video games developed by Activision. The game is based on Boxer, an unreleased 1978 arcade game from Whitehead's previous employer, Atari, Inc. Boxer was written by Mike Albaugh who also wrote Drag Race for Atari, a game cloned by Activision as Dragster.

Keywords

boxing
old school

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Boxing shows a top-down view of two boxers, one white and one black. When close enough, a boxer can hit his opponent with a punch (executed by pressing the fire button on the Atari joystick). This causes his opponent to reel back slightly. Long punches score one point, while closer punches (power punches, from the manual) score two.

There are no knockdowns or rounds. A match is completed either when one player lands 100 punches (a "knockout") or two minutes have elapsed (a "decision"). In the case of a decision, the player with more landed punches is the winner. Ties are possible.

Reception

Boxing was reviewed by Video magazine in its "Arcade Alley" column where it was described as "demonstrat[ing] Activision's willingness to strike out boldly in new directions" and praised for keeping things from "becoming needlessly complex" by making automatic punch-type selection for the player.

Legacy

Boxing was made available on Microsoft's Game Room service in 2010.

In 2011, an extended academic version of the game, called Clever Boxer, was developed as a benchmark for game AI.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Platform	Released	Regions
Atari 2600	31 December 1980	Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Included in: Activision's Atari 2600 Action Pack32 in 1A Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600A Collection of Intellivision Classic GamesActivision Hits Remixed Activision Anthology: Remix EditionAtari Flashback 8 Gold: Activision EditionActivision AnthologyActivision Collection 2