Human Cannonball

Name:	Human Cannonball
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-2627
Programmer:	Unknown
Year:	1979
Released?	Yes
Notes:	The Sears release of this title (Cannon Man) is one of the hardest Sears carts to find.

Back when computers were only available at universities and calculators cost $300, the ability to crunch large numbers was seen as high tech.  Atari capitalized on this by releasing Human Cannonball, a trajectory calculating program thinly disguised as a game.  While Atari may have thought this was hot stuff, gamers were less enthusiastic.

Human Cannonball is your basic "calculate the wind and angle" game similar to such other popular games as Artillery Duel and Scorched Earth.  However, Human Cannonball lacks the violence that made those games fun.  Instead the player must try to launch himself into a water tower strategically placed at the other end of the screen.  If you fail your little man will slam into the hard unforgiving earth, becoming a human pancake (I guess there is violence in the game after all).  Some variations also have a moving window, which you must shoot your man through (which appears to be capable of floating in mid-air).

I guess if you're a fan of those calculation games, Human Cannonball isn't all that bad.  Unfortunately the one-player variations grow boring rather quickly, and the blocky graphics don't make you want to stick around for long.  Playing with two players can be fun in short spurts, but games usually degenerate into contests to see who can splat their man in the most painful way possible.  I don't know about you, but if I was just blasted into the side of a water tower and hit the ground, I'd have something more interesting to say than "ouch".

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