River Raid is a vertical scrolling top-down shooter released for the Atari in 1982. The game was designed and programmed by Carol Shaw (one of the first female designers/programmers in the industry). Over a million game cartridges of River Raid were sold. Activision would later port the game to the ColecoVision, Intellivision and the Commodore 64.
In River Raid the player is tasked with flying a jet over a seemingly endless river filled with enemy ships, jets, helicopters and bridges. The plane can move right to left and fire single bullets. The player can also accelerate/decelerate the speed of the aircraft by moving up and down on the joystick. Staying over the water is important in River Raid, as crashing into land will result in immediate death.