21+ — flagged for gore
Horror GamesNo. 5295 · The 2026 edition
Halloween
Our own summary of the original — the full post and photos live at en.wikipedia.org.
About this
A Wikipedia article on Halloween, the 1983 Atari 2600 horror game adapted from John Carpenter's 1978 film of the same name. It covers the game's gameplay loop, its development by Tim Martin and Robert Barber under Wizard Video, its release and reception, and its legacy. The page also includes a franchise navigation box listing related films, soundtracks, characters and other games.
Facts from the original
- Halloween is a horror video game for the Atari 2600, released in October 1983 by Wizard Video.
- The game is based on the 1978 horror film Halloween.
- It was programmed by Tim Martin.
- Tim Martin and former Games by Apollo colleague Robert Barber developed Halloween after Games by Apollo went bankrupt.
- The developer is credited as MicroGraphicImage, with Wizard Video as publisher.
- Tim Martin and Robert Barber are credited as designers.
- The game is an action title with a single-player mode.
- The cover art uses the film's theatrical poster, and the game uses the movie's main music theme.
- The game itself never refers to any characters, including the killer, by their film names.
- Players take the role of a teenage babysitter (Laurie Strode) saving as many children as possible from an unnamed, knife-wielding killer (Michael Myers).
- Most versions of the game had no label on the cartridge, just a piece of tape with 'Halloween' written in marker.
- The game contained more gore than the film; when the babysitter is killed, her head disappears and is replaced by blood pulsating from her neck as she runs around exaggeratedly.
- The game's primary similarity to the film is the theme music that plays when the killer appears onscreen.
- Film director Charles Band created the independent home video company Media Home Entertainment in 1978, and shortly after, Wizard Video.
- Band saw how well Atari, Inc. was doing in the early 1980s and had already licensed home video rights to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978).
- Wizard Video presented The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 1983, both incomplete at the time.
- Both games were initially announced for release on March 1, 1983, for the Atari 2600.
- Tom Shea of InfoWorld wrote in February 1983 that versions would be made for the Atari 400 and 800 computers and the Commodore VIC-20 by June.
- AllGame gave Halloween a score of 2.5/5.
- Halloween received slightly better reception than Wizard Video's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and limited copies sold made both games highly valued among Atari collectors.
- An AllGame retrospective said most mature-themed Atari 2600 games of the early 1980s were crude in quality and handling, but found Halloween among the best of them, creating suspense despite repetitive gameplay and cartoonish violence.
- Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost wrote in Racing the Beam (2009) that Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1983) were designed to create controversy but failed to create much of a stir amid the video game crash of 1983.
From the original
Halloween is a horror video game for the Atari 2600, released in October 1983 by Wizard Video and based on the 1978 film of the same name. It was programmed by Tim Martin, who developed it with fellow former Games by Apollo employee Robert Barber after that company went bankrupt. Although it carried the Halloween name, the film's theatrical poster as cover art and the movie's main theme music, the game never names any of its characters. Players control a teenage babysitter, understood as Laurie Strode, trying to rescue children from an unnamed knife-wielding killer, understood as Michael Myers. Points come from escorting children to safe rooms at either end of each house floor and from stabbing the killer with a knife. A level is cleared by saving five children or stabbing the killer twice, and the killer speeds up with each level until the player's three lives are gone. The game was more gory than the film, and most cartridges shipped with only a hand-marked tape label. Development grew out of Charles Band's Wizard Video and its licensed horror home-video titles, and the game was shown incomplete at the January 1983 Winter CES before a planned March 1, 1983 release. Reception was modest but slightly better than Wizard's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with AllGame giving it 2.5/5 and later writers noting both games failed to cause much controversy amid the 1983 video game crash.
