Arcade / Arcade - Platformer (Single Screen) · 1982

Canyon Climber

Published by Datasoft · Developed by [n/a]

atarimania.com — atari-400-800-xl-xe-games-canyon-climber-875

Information

Genre: Arcade - Platformer (Single Screen)
Language: Machine Language
Controls: Joystick
Players: 1
Programmer(s): Ferris, Tim
Graphic Artist(s): [n/a]
Sound: [n/a]
Cover Artist(s): Ross, Scott
Year: 1982
Publisher: Datasoft
Developer: [n/a]
Country: USA
License: Commercial
Medium: Tape, Disk
Rarity: 7 (Tape), 7 (Disk)
Serial: 1142

Votes / Statistics

Rating: 7.4/10 · Votes: 29 · Downloads: 3,599 · Hits: 53,998

Additional Comments

Many thanks to Farb for dumping this disk!

Screenshots (6)

Cover Art (3)

Instructions (1)

Ads (1)

All The Excitement Without The Quarters · 1982

Book / Magazine Reviews (1)

Electronic Fun · March, 1983 · Rating: 3 / 4

Canyon Climber is a multi-screen game of timing that has clearly been inspired by Donkey Kong. It's not quite as demanding as Donkey Kong but the concept is appealingly bizarre.

Picture this: you're a mad anarchist running amok in the wild and woolly West. Armed with a backpack full of dynamite, it is your improbable mission to blow up a bridge and then to try to escape. The bridge has four levels on which you plant your dynamite. Ladders lead up and down. Killer goats patrol the levels and you have to jump over them... or die. You jump by pressing the fire button on the joystick. At the top of the canyon, on the right side, there is a plunger. If you reach it alive, kaboom! No more goats, no more bridge, nothing except Indians.

In screen two, you're in Injun territory. You are running up a ramp toward a ladder, but there is an Indian here who keeps busy by shooting arrows at you. You can jump the arrows or protect yourself by grabbing a shield that's just above your head.

Screen three is perhaps the most bizarre of all and worth playing just to see it. You are scrambling across a mesa, jumping over crevices. Just so you'll have less than a sporting chance, there are some angry birds flying overhead, dropping... you guessed it. Except this ain't ordinary bird doo, 'cause it'll kill ya!

At the top of the mesa, a bugle sound will herald your success. But just so you don't get a swelled head, a goat from screen number one will roar out and butt you right off and you'll find yourself once again back at the bottom of the bridge in screen one.

I'd rate this game short-term addictive.

On screen two, press the control button as if to jump arrows even when you're holding a shield. That way, if your shield evaporates as an arrow is about to skewer you, you'll fly over it.

Comments (5)

the big m — 28 Jul 2023
This early ladders/ platform game was originally designed for Apple computers. You're climbing the Grand Canyon while avoiding obstacles. . While a simple timing game, it's quite fun as there are 3 screens and has a sense of humor. After completing a round, a goat knocks you back to the bottom as you flail your arms helplessly!
rave.N — 20 Oct 2015
File having no publisher is an early prototype with many bugs. Compare your two version screenshots on games list page and you'll see the bridge explosions are misaligned on the older prototype, this only happens in PAL not NTSC and this was fixed in the commercial release. I have a prototype with unique colors, and the goats can run backwards but also only when in PAL mode. These colors evoke European flavor, maybe at one point the author was trying to do something like "Matterhorn", two years before them. The 2nd screen is more like Spain with a burro kicking rocks instead of the American southwest having Indians shooting arrows. Whether or not the prototype music is "better" than the finished music, is matter of opinion. Prototype music is faster and the instrument voices are more European but all of the notes are identical, maybe. The finished music was changed to receive an Olde West flavor in the fashion of a "player-piano" sound (staccato) like found in a "saloon". It's not necessarily worse music.
Punkydudester — 21 Dec 2014
Great game and fun to play.
Velcro_SP — 7 Jun 2009
Just played this, scored 38,100. I see where the previous poster said he or she completed the game, but I was thinking it just kept repeating the three levels. I completed the three levels twice and ran out of lives after that. Canyon Climber is a good platform game. It has similarities to Donkey Kong, but it is its own thing too. I like the theme and colors of being out West, blowing up bridges while eluding rams, dodging arrows shot by Indians and rocks dropped by birds. You need good motor skills and timing to jump correctly. The game keeps you on edge. The box had cool cover art.
Dominic Trill — 22 Jan 2005
I remember my uncle buying this in October 1982 along with Bug Attack(Cavalier Computers) and Dodge Racer(Synapse) when he bought his Atari 800,many an hour spent on this one!Great platformer,still managed to complete it(after some practice) when i booted it up recently!