Atari announces physical release for Save Mary, following decades of being shelved

Atari is opening pre-orders for Save Mary, a long-shelved game that was originally developed back when the 2600 was still actively supported.

Save Mary is “another victim of the 1983 game crash,” Atari explains. Following decades of collecting dust, Tod Frye’s work-in-progress is finally seeing the light of day. The game was first in development for two years. Back in the ’80s, games could be made and released in relatively short instances. Frye, who worked on the 2600 version of Pac-Man and Swordquest, wasn’t able to launch Save Mary.

The game tasks players with saving the titular character, Mary. Using a crane to build platforms, players must race against time to lay a path for Mary to escape a canyon filling with water. “Use the crane to carefully lower the different blocks and piece together a platform that Mary can safely stand on — but be careful,” the description reads. Save Mary supports up to two players.

Save Mary marks the third 2600 game published by Atari since 1992. While homebrew continues to be released on the console, Atari pulled the plug on the system in the early ’90s as the Nintendo Entertainment System grew in popularity. That said, games like Mr. Run And Jump 2600 and Outlaw are getting similar physical releases.

As of the time of writing, the physical copy of Save Mary is in pre-production. Although Atari has released the cover art of the game, the publisher states it is subject to change.

Pre-orders are available now for $59.99 USD (around $81.73 CAD). Atari claims orders are expected to ship in three to four months. Once the pre-order window closes, all orders are considered final and cannot be cancelled.  

Image credit: Atari

Source: Atari