
Kung-Fu Master
1989 Beat 'em Up
Scrapyard Dog feels like a gritty, neon‑streaked romp through an urban junkyard, and the Atari 7800’s graphics and sound really push the console’s limits. The visual style is a mix of crumbling warehouses and flickering streetlights, while the soundtrack adds a tense, synth‑driven pulse that keeps the tension high.
You guide Louie through roughly fifteen to seventeen perilous stages, dodging thugs who’ve nabbed his beloved pooch and hunting down the shadowy Mr. Big. The game throws a steady stream of unique surprises at you—hidden pathways, odd enemy patterns, and environmental hazards that keep each jump feeling like a gamble.
Critics were split: GamePro gave it a 19 out of 25, praising its atmosphere, while Atari Gaming Headquarters scored it 7 out of 10. Retrospectives note the urban‑blighted world and inventive set‑pieces, but warn that some jumps feel unforgivingly cheap.
In Scrapyard Dog you step into the shoes of Louie, a junkyard worker whose beloved dog Scraps has been dognapped by the criminal mastermind Mr. Big. The game’s goal is to rescue Scraps by navigating a series of stages.
Louie can toss bombs and cans at foes—gangsters, rats, and mice—while deploying shields for protection. He must race against the clock to reach sixteen checkpoints, each with a time limit, before moving on to the next area. Successfully reaching all checkpoints frees Scraps and ends the chase.
Edited by Maya Carter

1989 Beat 'em Up

1986 Arcade

1988 Platformer

1990 Shooter