Canyon Bomber

Retro Coin Op Synopsis

Part of the beauty of early arcade games was the preponderance of “truth in advertising.” What you read was what you got, so when Atari released a game called Canyon Bomber, there was no doubt what it was about.

For some unexplained reason, a large canyon had been filled with numbered balls, and for some other unexplained reason, you had to clear it out. The fun part was, you got to use bombs. You had no control over the blimps and biplanes (only one at a time, thankfully) that flew over the canyon at random speeds. Your only job was to drop bombs, because dash it all, that’s what canyon bombers do.

Using the bomb release button (the only control at your disposal), you released your ordnance at just the right time to take out the numbered balls below, earning the amount of points labeled on the ball for a hit. Since the speed varied, you had to be a pretty good judge of physics to avoid missing the target completely. You were only allowed a limited number of misses—set anywhere from 3 to 6 by the operator—so accuracy was everything.

Canyon Bomber allowed either one- or two-player action. In the two-player version, the first player’s white aircraft entered from the left side, while the second player’s black aircraft came in from the right (and no, you couldn’t bomb each other, as hard as you tried).

Once a canyon was cleared, assuming you got that far without wasting all your misses, another one would appear to take its place. Such was the lonely life of the canyon bomber—another day, another ditch filled with numbered balls…

Arcade Machine Release History

1977 - Canyon Bomber

Arcade Game Sub Categories

other

Machine Manufacturer

Atari

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