Megamania

In Megamania, the player is a pilot of a machine referred to as both an intergalactic space cruiser and a mobile blaster. After a day of work, the pilot gorges themself on food ranging from ice cream to pizzas and begins to hallucinate. At home after falling asleep, the pilot finds themself in a nightmare being attacked by various food and household objects such as hamburgers, steam irons and bow ties. The player must control their fleet of mobile blasters that are under attack from these objects.

Megamania can be played with one player, or two players taking turns. The goal of Megamania is to accumulate points by knocking out as many enemy objects as possible by firing the ship's missile launcher at them before the players own fleet of three space cruisers is destroyed. The player can earn an extra space cruiser in reserve for every 10,000 points earned.

Megamania was designed by Steve Cartwright for Activision. Prior to working at the company, Cartwright had gone to college with David Crane at the DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix. When Crane and Alan Miller created their own company Activision, they found quick success leading them to hire new employees, which included Crane's friend Cartwright. Megamania was his second game for Activision following Barnstorming (1982).

He was inspired to create the game after seeing Astro Blaster at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. Cartwright developed a ship similar to that of Astro Blaster. Designing the ship showed him how simple the graphics had to be for the system, as he could only use eight bits and one color for the ship.

Critical response to the game was split. Critics who enjoyed the game complimented the graphics and variation on the genre. In JoyStik, an anonymous reviewer called it "one of the most original variations of the bottom-shooter concept ever created exclusively for home console" and said that "even the best Invaders players will find surprising new challenges". The reviewer gave the game high ratings for game play, longevity and graphics.

The Video Game Update declared the game a "dazzling and relentless action game" praising the challenge and sound effects. Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz of Electronic Games described it as "an example of Activision at its whimsical best" and praised the varied gameplay, graphics and sound effects, declaring that it was one of the most addicting games they had played in a long time. Lou Hudson writing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram gave the game a mixed-review, finding it too derivative of Space Invaders and that the graphic and theme was better than the game itself, while also describing it as "Space Invaders with a vengeance", noting the more complicated patterns that enemies use to approach the player in Megamania. Hudson concluded that "It's a nightmare all right, and in terms of color, detail, variety and toughness, it's a very good nightmare.

Following the release of Megamania, Cartwright continued to work at Activision, making games such as Plaque Attack (1983), Frostbite (1983), Hacker (1985) and Aliens: The Computer Game (1986).

Like Megamania, his other games such as Seaquest (1983) and Frostbite had roots in arcade games, such as Defender (1981) and Frogger (1981) respectively. Cartwright re-used the code for Megamania for Plaque Attack. He later worked on other series for other companies such as the Les Manley series for Accolade and the PGA Tour for Electronic Arts.