The Game: You’re an intrepid explorer, swinging from vine to vine, braving a swim through crocodile-infested waters, leaping over and ducking under an avalanche of rocks both large and small, and trying to leap over angry natives, all to save a damsel in distress at the end of the game. (Atari, 1983)
Memories: One of the best arcade adaptations for the 5200, Jungle Hunt in cartridge form provided a very faithful port of the arcade game, right down to the jaunty music.
This is also a rare game – perhaps it was programmed slightly differently – in that I didn’t detect the 5200’s infamous controllers interfering with game play. (Compare this to Ms. Pac-Man, released the same year.) Atari may have realized it had a potential hit on its hands, because it created an ad campaign just for this game (see above). For a brief moment, this 5200 arcade port was the king of the Jungle.