Fatal Run (1990)

'Fatal Run' is a 1990 vehicular combat game developed by Sculptured Software for the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800. It was published by Atari Corporation for both platforms.

Along with 'Klax' (another video game title), this was the last game Atari officially released for the Atari 2600. At 32KB of data, the game was also one of the biggest to be released for the Atari 2600. The game was only released in Europe.

The player is tasked with driving an anti-radiation vaccine through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The game centers around destroying other cars that attempt to stop the player and avoiding obstacles. The game has 32 levels, each of which has a password that allowed progress to be saved (an unusual feature in games at the time).

Depending on how quickly each level is finished, a number of onlookers at the end of each level will explode due to the late arrival of the vaccine. Various power-ups may be collected in each level, including additional weapons, deployable oil-slicks, nitro speed-boosts, and 'death crystals' which make the player's car immune to crash-damage when colliding with other cars. Money earned in each level can be spent on repairs and upgrades.