Parker brothers began with simple hand-held games in the late seventies including Merlin, Master Merlin, Sorry, Split Second and Wildfire. 

Merlin was released in 1979 under the Palitoy brand name. It was less colourful than rival MB's Simon and Tandy's Electronic Arcade. Nevertheless, this simple 11-LED was bought in vast numbers. It had six games:

[1] THREE-IN-A-ROW
[2] MUSIC MACHINE
[3] ECHO
[4] BLACKJACK 13
[5] MAGIC SQUARE
[6] SECRET NUMBER

It's poor qualities were that it consumed 6 x AA batteries and had no SOUND-OFF switch!

Merlin
(1979)
 Photo: David Gowing

Later Parker Bros moved on to produce a range of cartridges for the Atari 2600 console. Many games were based on popular films and TV series of the late seventies.

Amidar, Action Force, Astrochase, Circus Charlie, Frogger II: Threedeep!, G.I. Joe: Cobra Strike, Gyruss, James Bond 007, Jaws, McDonald's, Montezuma's Revenge: Starring Panama Joe, Mr. Do!'s Castle, Popeye, Q*bert, Q*bert's Qubes, Reactor, Sky Skipper, Spider-Man, Strawberry Shortcake: Musical Match-ups, Super Cobra, The Incredible Hulk and Tutankham.

Amidar
(artwork)
Scan: David Gowing

Amidar
(screenshot from Atari 2600)

Never missing an opportunity to cash in on popular films, Parker Bros also released droves of games based on the original Star Wars Trilogy, including:

Star Wars: The Arcade Game
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Jedi Arena
Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi: Game I
Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi: Game II
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
(box)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
(screenshot from Atari 2600)
They also advertised an epic adventure based on 'The Lord of the Rings' book called Journey to Rivendell, but it doesn't seem to have ever made it into production.

Note: If you have any additional information or news relating to this manufacturer, or if you think this page could benefit from a link to your own additional information I'd be very happy to hear from you.

Please e-mail me, David Gowing, mail@stellatron.com

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© David Gowing 2000.