Fishing Derby

In Fishing Derby, two fishermen sit on opposite docks over a lake filled with fish (and a shark that passes through). Using the joystick the player is able to move the fishing line left, right, up, and down in the water. When a fish is hooked, the line slowly comes up to the surface of the water. Pressing the fire button on the joystick reels in the fish faster.

However, if both fishermen have hooked fish, only one person can reel it in (the one who first hooked the fish). The shark that roams the water will try to eat hooked fish before they surface.

David Crane described Fishing Derby as a technical experiment that was turned into a game. He was inspired by aquariums and began with goldfish which were limited to different bands of depth in the water. He also experimented in coding algorithms for sloping lines for a fishing line. As the only one fish could be reeled in at a time, Crane said that the it lacked gameplay and added a shark to provide a threat to the game.

In Video magazine's "Arcade Alley" column, Fishing Derby was characterized as "imaginative, colorful, and fun" providing children with "better animation than Saturday morning TV and provid[ing] adults with a subtle game of skill". Overall the reviewers recommended it as a family game.