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Item came exactly as described and shipping from seller was Ultra fast! Would do business with seller again! Thank You :)
RighteousBlaze· September 2026
BoughtNinja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
River Raid
- $14.99
- Regular price
-
$17.99 - Sale price
- $14.99
- Unit price
- per
The cartridge or disc on its own, cleaned and tested — no box or manual. Game condition guide →
Ships in 1–2 business days·Tracking on every order·Signature required on orders $250+
Item Condition
Game only: the cartridge in a protective holder, no box or manual. For the specifics, look to the photos — they're of this exact cartridge. Every cartridge's shell, label and board are checked for authenticity when it comes into the store, and it's tested before it's listed. It ships in a collector's bag or a hard plastic case.
Item Description
Fuel is the real enemy in River Raid. Not the helicopters, not the tankers, not the jets that streak across the screen, but the needle sliding toward empty while you thread a channel barely wider than your plane. Carol Shaw, one of the industry's first prominent female game designers, built Activision's 1982 hit around that single pressure point, and this Atari 5200 release expands her original design.
You fly a jet up a winding river, blasting tankers, helicopters and enemy jets, and every fuel depot is a small dilemma: shoot it for points or fly over it to top up the tank. Bridges mark the end of each section, and blowing one up sets your restart point, so every bridge feels like a checkpoint you have earned. You can speed up to cover ground or ease off to pick your way through, and the river keeps narrowing while the enemies grow faster and more aggressive the farther you get.
The 5200 and Atari 400/800 versions build on the Atari 2600 original with new hazards, adding tanks that fire in unpredictable patterns and slow-drifting hot-air balloons that add one more obstacle to the narrow passages. They change the rhythm of a run, giving you more to read and more reasons to commit to a line or hold back.
River Raid's genius was how much it did with so little. Rather than storing a map, Shaw's original program generated the river from a compact mathematical routine that lays out the same course every game, so a long, varied river fit on a tiny cartridge and players could learn it bend by bend. It was Activision's top-selling game of 1983 and helped define the overhead scrolling shooter, and it still holds up because its tension lives in the rules rather than the graphics. On the 5200 it is the fuller version of a game nearly every Atari owner remembers.
Fast factsgame data via IGDB
- Released
- 1982
- Publisher
- Pony Canyon
- Developer
- Activision
- Players
- Single player
About the game
Mission: Code Name River Raid. Jet down the river. Break the enemy blockade and blast the bridges to halt enemy troop advances. Terrain: Code Name River of No Return. An ever-changing, ever-challenging waterway. Expect huge islands, narrow channels and treacherous bays crawling with enemy choppers, tankers and jets. Weaponry: Code Name StratoStrafer. Your B1 StratoWing Assault Jet has been retrofitted with sophisticated, rapid-fire guided missiles. Your craft is super-sensitive to the stick. Accelerate, slow or bank radically with only a touch. Tactics: Jet low to the river to avoid radar. Stop periodically at depots to refuel. A warning claxxon will alert you. Top speed! Best of luck!
Summary from the IGDB community database — the condition and contents of this listing are described above and in the photos.
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Atari 5200
River Raid
$14.99
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Atari 5200
River Raid
$14.99
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