Barnstorming

Barnstorming arrived on the Atari 2600 in 1982 from Activision, then still a young studio founded by former Atari programmers that built its reputation on games with clearly readable but surprisingly demanding cores. The theme draws on the phenomenon of stunt pilots who became famous for low passes over farmland and daredevil tricks for spectators – the player sits at the controls of a biplane and must fly through a series of barns arranged across the landscape, with each successive barn adding a slightly smaller opening.

The goal of each level is to fly through the barn's opening without the plane touching the wall, while avoiding obstacles like windmills or flocks of birds that appear on the course and change the flying altitude the player must track. The player also tracks a score for speed and accuracy of the pass, turning the game into a competition against their own previous performance. The game runs on a tight schedule – an ideal pass through an entire level takes just a few dozen seconds, and even a minor collision slows down or ends the flight, so the best results require near-flawless repetition of the same route. The controls are notably sensitive: the joystick tilts the plane up and down more delicately than was typical for platformers of the era, making the game more an exercise in precision than an action romp, setting it apart from most of the competition at the time, which focused on shooting and collecting items.

Visually, this is typical Activision minimalist graphics – a drawn biplane against a bright blue sky, without unnecessary decoration, so the player always sees exactly where the safe route lies. The pace of the game accelerates with each successive barn, so even a short play session can really get the pulse racing, and the game is still remembered today as one of the most precise control challenges on the Atari 2600, appreciated by players looking for focused challenge rather than action mayhem.

Why play it: Tests fine control precision of a biplane through a series of increasingly tight barn passes.