Video Game / Cops N' Robbers (Atari)

Cops N' Robbers is an Atari Arcade Game from 1976, for 1 to 4 players (plus a computer player if there are 1 or 3 players). It's a Top-Down View, Player Versus Player Shoot 'em Up, set in The Roaring '20s or the early '30s. One or two players control police cars driving up a road on the left side of the screen, and one or two players control the robbers' cars on the right side. Gas pedals let you move the cars up and down the screen, and a joystick lets you aim and fire a gun sticking out of the side of the car. Beer trucks drive up the middle of the screen, getting in the way.

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Not to be confused with Maze Craze: A Game of Cops 'n Robbers for the Atari 2600, or the Commodore VIC-20/C64 game from 1985.

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Cops N' Robbers provides examples of:

• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: You crash for a few seconds, then off you go again.
• Every Bullet Is a Tracer
• One Bullet at a Time
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: The cars. The beer trucks are invincible.
• Painfully Slow Projectile
• Player Versus Player: Designed for this, though it can be played alone.
• Scoring Points
• Shoot 'em Up
• The Roaring '20s: A generic gangster setting, with late '20s or early '30s cars. The beer trucks may indicate that this is after Prohibition, or may just be a case of poor research.
• Timed Mission: Three minutes.
• Top-Down View
• Villain Protagonist: The game provides one of the earliest examples since the robbers are playable.

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