Name This Game, also known as Octopus in Europe, is a video game for the Atari 2600 manufactured by US Games. In the game, the player controls a diver who must protect a treasure from an octopus at the top of the screen that tries to capture the treasure with its tentacles. A shark also tries to distract the diver by swimming back and forth toward the bottom of the screen. The diver loses a life if he is captured by the shark or the octopus's tentacles, or if the air meter runs out. The diver can refill his air meter by touching a long pole which extends from a boat that appears from time to time.
The game was conceived by Rob Furen in February 1982, who offered it to Parker Bros. (then owners of the videogame license for Jaws). After the company lost the license, the game was shown to Jim Wickstead of James Wickstead Design Associates, who developed the game from August to October of 1982. Originally developed as Treasures of the Deep, the game was picked up by US Games as Guardians of Treasure. US Games then decided to create a contest around the game, releasing it as Name This Game and Win $10,000 with a cash prize to be awarded to the winning name after April 30th, 1983. However, before the contest was completed, US Games closed its doors. (In 1994 Digital Press held its own naming contest for the game; the winning title, coined by Russ Perry Jr., was Going Under - referencing not only the game's content, but the fate of its publisher.) The game has also been referred to by the shortened title Name This Game.
Carrere Video Distribution released the game in Europe as Octopus. Amiga also planned to include the game in its Power Play Arcade #2 cartridge under the name Galleon's Gold, but that cartridge did not get past the prototype stage.
More details about this game can be found on
Wikipedia.org.
Find digital download of this game on
GOG
or
Steam.
Videogame Console:
This version of Name This Game (Octopus) was designed for Atari 2600, which was commercially very successful video game console of second generation produced by Atari from 1977 to 1992. It was the first console that used removable memory modules with games. At the time of its greatest fame, more than 30 million units of this console were sold for about $ 200 a piece. To date, the game library for this console contains nearly 1,000 original games. More information about the
Atari 2600 can be found here.
Recommended Game Controllers:
You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB joystick that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a joystick, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.
Available online emulators:
5 different online emulators are available for Name This Game (Octopus). These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For
maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic
features of each emulator available for this game Name This Game (Octopus) are summarized in the following table:
If you like Name This Game (Octopus) you'll probably like also some of the similar games in the overview below. The games you see here
are selected based on title similarity, game genre, and keywords. However, the list is generated automatically and can therefore be very 'subjective'
especially for some specific games. To find a particular game, please use our search form.
This website is NOT sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Atari, Sega or by any other video games company.
RetroGames.cz makes no claim to the intellectual property contained in the individual games.
Text content of RetroGames.cz
is available under the
Creative Commons 3.0 License. You can copy it freely, but indicate the origin and keep the license.
This version of Name This Game (Octopus) was designed for Atari 2600, which was commercially very successful video game console of second generation produced by Atari from 1977 to 1992. It was the first console that used removable memory modules with games. At the time of its greatest fame, more than 30 million units of this console were sold for about $ 200 a piece. To date, the game library for this console contains nearly 1,000 original games. More information about the
Atari 2600 can be found 
