Minesweeper

Minesweeper © 1977 Amutech.

This game was two player only, you must have a real live person to play against, or else the other players boat will head directly for the bottom wall, which doesn't make for a very interesting game. Each player moves their little boat around leaving a solid line of mines behind them. All moves are made on an invisible grid, so you can only turn at 90 degree angles. To win you must last longer than your opponent before hitting something (first person to hit something loses). One good strategy is to try and box your opponent in to a small section of the screen, and then just move carefully until they crash. Pushing backwards on the stick will cause you to crash into your own mines, so avoid that at all cost.

The game was controlled with buttons rather than joysticks (this was cheaper to produce, and most of the other similar games of the time used buttons as well). Inserting a coin started the game at once. Both players got to play for a single coin. The game ended after one player chalked up six wins, but this was operator adjustable down to as low as three. The operator can also turn the sound on and off with internal switches as well.