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Atari 5200 - Gremlins (1986)

Gremlins for Atari 5200

What better place to start than with a victim of the legendary video game crash of 1983? We all know the story, a deluge of awful games destroyed mainstream consumer interest in gaming. Atari was financially devastated and sold to the incompetent Jack Tramiel. The young Atari 5200 was canned in 1984, the year when Gremlins was developed. It was produced but sat in limbo for two years until the decision was made to clear out the remaining stock of 5200 games.

Gremlins is an enjoyable enough game. You control a sword-wielding Billy on a quest hack-up gremlins while preventing the fuzzy little Mogwai from joining their ranks. If you've seen the movie it makes sense.

The Atari 5200 has the dubious distinction of being the only system on this list that died before the system it was intended to replace. Although I suppose one could argue the 32X and Sega CD fit this criteria as well.