Crack'ed


Crack'ed, subtitled "An Egg-Citing Adventure," is a target shooting video game developed by Robert Craig for the Atari ST and released by Atari Corporation in 1988. An Atari 7800 port was published the same year. In Crack'ed the player must protect bird eggs by shooting predators.
An Atari 2600 version was in development, but never released.

Gameplay

The goal of Crack'ed is to protect the eggs in five nests during an attack by egg-stealing creatures. The controls are similar to that of light-gun games, except the ST mouse is used to position the crosshairs and the left mouse button shoots. On the 7800, the joystick is used instead of the mouse.
If a creature carries off an egg, the creature can be shot so it drops its prize. The falling egg can be caught with the crosshairs and placed back in a nest. If at the end of the raid at least one egg remains in a nest, then the level ends. There are five differently themed levels.

Development

In a 2003 interview, Robert Craig stated he was against the release of console ports, as Crack'ed was designed as a "mouse game."

Reception

In the August 1988 issue of ST Action magazine, the Atari ST version of Crack'ed received a 58% rating.
After playing the unreleased Atari 2600 prototype, a writer for AtariProtos commented, "While it may have been a mediocre title for the 7800, Crack'ed actually made a decent 2600 game."