Ludography
Sky Jinks cover

1982 · Arcade · Racing

Sky Jinks

Atari exclusive

You control a small plane and have to fly slalom around a preset amount of pylons. You have to pass the red pylons on the right side and the blue ones on the left side. Missing a pylon will result in a three second penalty. Flying into the pylons, trees or hot-air balloons will cost you time as well.

Released
1982
Platforms
Atari 2600
Genres
ArcadeRacing
Developers
—
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Action
Country
United States
Age ratings
ESRB E
Languages
English

About

Sky Jinks is a vertically scrolling, air racing-themed video game developed by Bob Whitehead for the Atari 2600 and published by Activision in 1982.

Keywords

  • planes
  • balloon

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Sky Jinks, the player pilots a low-flying Seversky XP-41 airplane through a time trial. To complete a game level, the player must bank around a prescribed number of pylons (left for blue and right for red). The XP-41 can bank left and right, as well as accelerate and decelerate. Flying into a pylon (which counts), tree, or hot air balloon slows down the plane.

The game has four courses: Polo Grounds, Aero Race, Love Field, and Speedy Meadows. There is also a pseudo-randomly-generated course called Thompson Tourney.

Legacy

In the mid-1980s, social psychologist Roy Baumeister used the game in his psychological research into performance anxiety.

Activision anthologized Sky Jinks in the PlayStation title A Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600 (1998) and in the multi-platform collection Activision Anthology (2002).

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari 260015 November 1982North America

Editions and related releases

Included in
Activision's Atari 2600 Action PackA Collection of Activision Classic Games for the Atari 2600Activision AnthologyActivision Hits RemixedActivision Anthology: Remix EditionAtari Flashback 8 Gold: Activision EditionActivision Collection 1

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.