River Raid

Released 1982 · consists of 9 releases.

First released by Activision for the Atari 2600, River Raid is one of the first scrolling shooters ever made. Controlling a rogue fighter jet, players must destroy bridges, sink civilian ships, and take out the defending military trying to stop their rampage.

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River Raid

First release date	1982
Platform	Commodore 64 , MSX , ZX Spectrum , Atari 8-bit , Atari 2600 , ColecoVision , Intellivision , Atari 5200 , Xbox 360 Games Store , PC , Coleco Adam
Developer	Activision , Sydney Development Corp. , Micro Projects Engineering
Publisher	Activision , Pony Canyon, Inc.
Genre	Shoot 'Em Up
Theme	Modern Military
Franchises	River Raid
Aliases

Overview

Programmed entirely by Carol Shaw (one of the first female game designers), River Raid puts the player in control of a fighter jet tasked with flying over a river from a top-down, vertical perspective, shooting enemy vehicles like news helicopters, planes, and civilian cargo ships. Other than dodging enemy vehicles, your primary concern is your jet's fuel level, which slowly depletes over time, and can be replenished by flying over fuel pads found throughout the environment, however shooting a fuel tank will also boost your score by several points, making whether or not to fuel up or go for the points somewhat of a strategic decision. Inexplicably, the plane will also explode if it flies over land. While River Raid features the forced movement common in scrolling shooters, you can affect the speed of the scroll with your jet by pressing either up or down on the control stick.

Reception

River Raid was the first video game in history to be listed by the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons, cited for "its intent to compromise the minds of children by forcing a paramilitaristic [sic] education upon them, and the playing of which caused cramps, anger, headaches and aggressiveness". The Department finally admitted that River Raid was harmless in 2002.

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Specific release details

	River Raid
Platform	Xbox 360 Games Store
Region	United States
Developer
Publisher
Release date	March 24, 2010
Product code	None
Company code	None
Rating
Minimum Players	1
Maximum Players	N/A
Resolutions	N/A
Sound Systems	N/A
Single player Features	N/A
Multi player Features	N/A
Widescreen Support	No
Notes	N/A

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