Barnstorming
Barnstorming is a racing video game for the Atari 2600 designed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. It was the first game designed by Cartwright. The idea for Barnstorming came to him as he watched a biplane while driving home from work.
Barnstorming
- Date
- 1982.
- Genre
- action game.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q4034859
In this article
The object
The object
The goal is to get the fastest time on each course while also flying through all of the barns.
Key facts
Key facts
• Title — Barnstorming • Developer — Activision • Publisher — Activision • Designer — Steve Cartwright • Released — March 1982 • Genre — Racing • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — Atari 2600
Gameplay
Gameplay
• Illustration — Gameplay screenshot The player must pilot a biplane through a series of barns in the shortest time possible while dodging windmills, weather vanes, and geese. Bumping into anything slows down the plane for a couple of seconds, increasing the overall time. There are four levels of play determined by the game select switch. Game 1 is Hedge Hopper (10 barns), game 2 is Crop Duster (15 barns), game 3 is Stunt Pilot (15 barns), and game 4 is Flying Ace (25 barns). In the first three games, the course layout of barns, windmills, and even geese do not change, making it easy to memorize the layout. Game 4 is the only game with a random course. Originally, a player with a time or better of 33.3 seconds on game 1, 51.0 seconds on game 2, or 54.0 seconds on game 3 could send Activision a picture of their screen and receive membership in the Activision Flying Aces and a Flying Aces patch.
Reviews
Reviews
• Tilt (Nov, 1982)
Reception
Barnstorming was released in March 1982. Richard A. Edwards reviewed Barnstorming in The Space Gamer, commenting that "This is a game no Atari VCS owner should be without. Buy it." From retrospective reviews, Scott Alan Marriott of AllGame noted the game's impressive visuals but that the game got dull on repeated playthroughs as the game noting that "all of the levels are structured the same way [...] Once you complete your objective, you can either have another go at it or see how fast the cartridge flies under chairs."
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Barnstorming (video game), revision 1342731833 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Atari VCS game release dates. Atari Archive. 2020.
- 2.Classic Gaming at GameSpy
- 3.Atari 2600 VCS Barnstorming : Scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms.
- 4.Numéro 002 - Novembre/Décembre 1982.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Activision. Activision Video Game Cartridge Catalog. 1981.
- Activision. Dateline. Activisions. 2. 1982.
- Edwards, Richard A. Capsule Reviews. The Space Gamer. Steve Jackson Games. 54. 28. August 1982.
- Marriott, Scott Alan. Barnstorming. AllGame.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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