Synapse Software Corporation

Alley Cat is an early video game in which the player controls a cat, navigating an alley screen and various challenge rooms. The player must enter a room and complete the objective inside, while avoid hazards such as objects being thrown out of windows, wandering dogs, giant spiders and the broomstick.

The Pharaoh's Curse

"In the centuries since the sealing of the Pharaoh's Tomb, even the dim memories of the fabulous treasure contained in the pyramid, have become infrequent whispers on the lips of mad adventurers. For three thousand years, the tomb has been a mystery and deathtrap. It is rumored that the chambers contain dark and terrible dangers for those that would make the pharaoh's treasure their own. And even more ghastly, the pharaoh and the guardian mummy are said to walk the chambers for all eternity, destroying all trespassers in the tomb. You've heard it all before and lived to tell about it and this is a chance of a lifetime. You've spent months finding these ruins and finally you're here at the fabled tomb. Still... what if the legends are true? As you descend into the first chamber, you hear footsteps..." --mobygames.com

Blue Max

Blue Max is a video game developed and published by Synapse Software, originally released for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers in 1983. In 1984 it was ported to the ZX Spectrum by U.S. Gold. in 1987 Atari Corp. published it in cartridge form for the then-new Atari XEGS. The player controls a Sopwith Camel biplane during World War I, attempting to shoot down enemy planes and bomb targets on the diagonally scrolling terrain. It has strong similarities to the arcade game Zaxxon. The game is named after the medal Pour le Mérite, informally known as Blue Max. Its theme song is "Rule, Britannia!". In 1984, Synapse released a sequel called Blue Max 2001 with a futuristic sci-fi setting, but otherwise similar in style to the original game.

Encounter

Novagen1983

1st person shooter

Zeppelin

William Mataga programmed this exploration-based shooter.

Drelbs

Drelbs is a maze game written by Kelly Jones for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Synapse Software in 1983. The playfield is a maze of gates, similar to the Lady Bug arcade game, which can be rotated 90 degrees by pushing into them. The player controls a walking eyeball called a drelb, with the goal of flipping the gates so they create closed boxes. Pursuing the drelb are square trollaboars who can also use the gates, but can't seal them into boxes. There is an empty border on the outside the maze patrolled by screwhead tanks which shoot at the drelb. Occasionally one of the boxes becomes what the manual calls a "drelbish window to the dark corridor." This leads to a separate screen where the goal is to free—by touching—as many drelbs as possible while avoiding gorgolytes. Completing the dark corridor, or kissing a randomly appearing "mystery lady", awards a bonus based on the number of completed boxes.

Rainbow Walker

Once upon a rainbow in a land at clouds and sky, a great misfortune occurred. One night. while the inhabitants slept someone stole the colors of the rainbow. The next morning, when the terrible deed was discovered, a great sorrow settled over the land. No longer did people go merrily gallumping about. No longer did minstrels sing the happy songs of the realm. And worst at all. not a single smile could be found on the faces of the children. They all stayed in the shadows listlessly mumbling to themselves. Only the wizard of the royal court was not hopeless. For in reading the ancient text, he discovered the spell of the magical, musical. shoes. When the King was told the colors might be restored through this spell. he sent for Cedrick. his bravest subject. When Cedrick put on the magic shoes. wherever he stepped. color and music burst forth. Armed With the shoes. Cedrick went to the tippity, toppity most cloud and saw where the darkened rainbow was and. with a mighty hop. launched himself upon it. Now this task was not for the taint of heart for there were borbuls, whirling devils, gruebirds. and all sorts of other nasties that were happy the rainbow was dark. and there were great gaps in the rainbow to fall through. And this is how Cedrick began. The rest of the story, however, dear player. is up to you. For through the wizard's magic. Cedrick the rainbow walker lives inside you.

New York City

Traverse the Big Apple and see the sights while avoiding muggers and oncoming traffic in New York City.

Quasimodo

1983

Stop enemies from scaling the castle walls and ring lots of bells in this platformer from Synapse.

Shamus

Shamus is a shooter with light action-adventure game elements written by Cathryn Mataga and published by Synapse Software. The original Atari 8-bit computer version was released on disk and tape in 1982. According to Synapse co-founder Ihor Wolosenko, Shamus made the company famous by giving it a reputation for quality. "Funeral March of a Marionette", the theme song from Alfred Hitchcock Presents, plays on the title screen.

Survivor

Space shooter

Shadow World

Side scrolling shooter

Slime

Aliens try to pollute the oceans with slime. Your task is to build barricades that prevent the slime from dropping into the sea.

Salmon Run

A top down action game for the Atari 8-bit featuring a playable salmon.

Fort Apocalypse

Fort Apocalypse is a 2D multi-directional scroller where the player navigates an underground prison in a helicopter, destroying or avoiding enemies while rescuing the prisoners.

Picnic Paranoia

Armed with a fly swatter the player guards four picnic tables and has to fend of an invasion of insects trying to steal the food placed on the tables.

Chicken

Home computer clone of Activisions Freeway in which you have to steer a chicken across a heavily frequented highway.

Protector II

An arcade style game with a loose basis on the arcade hit Defender, Protector II is a side-scrolling shooter. Like Defender, there are lots of different aliens to contend with, and some ground based enemies as well. There are no smart bombs, however. You have to rescue humans as well (twice) from both an alien ship, and later a city that will be overrun with lava from a volcano that erupts during the game; all the while protecting them from aliens. You then have to drop them one at a time (unlike Defender, you can only carry one human at a time) into a teleporter tube to get them off the planet entirely. The game is quite difficult, with some very precise flying required at times (probably even more difficult than Defender or Stargate). It also has more of a "plot" than the arcade games it is based on, with several sub-missions of rescue depending on what stage you are at (it should be noted that there is no breaks between "stages" - the whole game play is continuous).

Claim Jumper

You and your adversary are in a wild west town at the time of the gold rush. Gold bars wild randomly spawn on the screen. It is your task to collect the bars and bring them to the assay office. The assay office in turn converts gold bars into money which you have to deposit in your bank. Each player has his own bank in town, so it's a matter of who will get the money to his bank first. After having collected ten bundles of dough you earn a house and heaps of bonus points. You can shoot the other cowboy who wil be hospitalized for a few seconds, giving you the opportunity to collect some gold/money in the meantime. The two cowboys are also followed by snakes and tumbleweeds respectively. However, snakes only go after one of the two cowboys while the tumbleweeds follow the other one. After being touched by the snakes/tumbledweeds the cowboy will be paralyzed for a few seconds. Shooting a snake turns it into a tumbleweed (and vice versa) therefore enabling the player to raise the number of enemies for his opponent.

Nautilus