The Atari 7800 conversion of Choplifter was developed by Ibid, Inc. and first released by Atari Corporation in 1987, and while it does at first glance look better than all the other Atari ports of the game, it unfortunately plays pretty poorly.

Firstly, the controls aren’t that great. You need to use a two-button ProLine controller to operate the game. The chopper itself sways wildly from side to side when you’re trying to land, or target a tank on the ground, because the controls are hugely over-sensitive.

Secondly, you almost always get hit by a bomb from a jet if you’re on the ground (which you need to be, when you’re picking up hostages), which is frustrating. There doesn’t seem to be much you can do about it, other than not land.

Thirdly, to offload rescued passengers, you have to land directly onto the landing circle back at base. If you’re not on the circle, they won’t come out. And actually landing on that circle can be a real pain in the butt because of the overly-sensitive controls.

Overall, the Atari 7800 version of Choplifter is not very good. And, considering that it came out in 1987, it is a rather unsophisticated game. Much more could have been done to enhance both the game and the gameplay for this port, but like a good proportion of Atari 7800 games, it was obviously just shovelware that they needed out the door as soon as possible.

More: Choplifter on Wikipedia