Canyon Bomber
Canyon Bomber was an early, black and white Atari game that was released in 1978. Although it was a 70's game, we include it here because it was common to find at the local arcade in the early 80's. The Atari 2600 version of the game, which was in color, was released the same year. In this game, the player pilots a bomber, against an opponent, that flies over a canyon full of layered and numbered bricks. The goal is to drop bombs, using the paddle controllers, into the canyon below and destroy the brick (different numbered bricks having different values). The player with the highest score in the end is the winner.
Controls for this game were rather rudimentary. The player had no control over the plane, but instead only control over the timing of the bomb drops. As the bricks dwindled away, timing the hits became increasingly more difficult, and three misses meant the end of the game. In some ways, this game was like the inverse of Breakout (or Arkanoid).