Atari 2600: Chase the Chuck Wagon
November 24, 2008 - 1:11 pm - Posted by Sean
Chase the Chuck Wagon is one of the most famous games for the Atari 2600 system. Available only via an old Purina dog food promotion, this cartridge is extremely rare and highly sought-after by collectors.
Chase the Chuck Wagon is also regarded as being pretty awful, but that’s not entirely true. It may be a rehashed maze game, but it does feature multiple mazes, a bonus screen, a dog with a little wagging tail, and a nice-looking chuck wagon at the top of the screen.
Not too shabby, although I still haven’t figured out why colliding with the dogcatcher causes an explosion sound. Perhaps Spectravision was recycling the sound effects from another one of their games?
I remember seeing TV commercials for Purina dog food with the little dog running through the house chasing the chuck wagon but never knew they made a game based on it.
Sometimes I wonder if Purina has a stack of these left in an office somewhere. Maybe a disgruntled employee is supplementing his income by selling off that stack on eBay one cart at a time…
@Luke: All the Purina carts are probably in the landfill with all of the E.T. carts
somewhere in Mexico.