Fishing Derby

Fishing Derby was released by Activision in 1980 and is one of the first games the company made for the Atari 2600. Two anglers sit on opposite docks, the water between them is full of fish, and the winner is whoever lands ninety-nine pounds first.

The whole game rests on one decision you keep repeating. The water holds six rows of fish: two-pounders in the top two rows, four-pounders in the middle, six-pounders at the bottom. Deeper means more weight, but the trip back up is longer — and a shark patrols the upper layer, ready to eat your catch just below the surface. Every cast is therefore a bet: a quick small fish for certain, or a heavy one with the risk of losing it at the last moment.

The other angler is fishing the same water, and only whoever hooked a fish first may reel it in. So the contest is about speed too — reach the fat one first and your opponent gets nothing. The joystick moves your line sideways and down, the fire button reels in faster, and that button is exactly where the shark battle is won or lost.

It is a simple game and twenty minutes show you all of it. Even so, you can see the design thinking: without the shark this would be dull clicking into the depths, and with it every round stays tense to the end. Against the computer the difficulty is respectable; with two people Fishing Derby is livelier and lasts far longer than anyone would expect of a 1980 release.

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