Oscar's Trash Race

Name:	Oscar's Trash Race
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-26101
Programmers:	Christopher Omarzu & Bruce Williams (Program), Preston Stuart (Graphics)
Year:	1983
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Part of the Children's Computer Television Workshop series.

In the early 80's video games were under a lot of scrutiny.  It was felt that children were wasting their time playing pointless and violent games.  In it an attempt to deflect some of this criticism, Atari proposed making a series of education games starring characters from Sesame Street.  Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Ernie, Big Bird, and Grover were all given their own games in the Children's Computer Workshop Series (CCW).  A sixth CCW title called Count's Castle was also planned but never finished. 

Oscar's Trash Race is a mildly amusing look into the secret life of one of Sesame Street's least understood creatures (no, I'm not talking about Mr. Gordon!)  I'm talking about that little trash demon known as Oscar the Grouch.  The goal of this game is to correctly pick the trash can that matches the number of objects shown and move the grouch in the trash can towards the junk strewn at the bottom of the screen.  Once you've picked up all the trash, Oscar must race back to the starting line before Slimy the worm reaches the other end of the screen.  You can further complicate things by selecting a rainy day variations in which mud puddles appear that you must jump for points.  Of course if I was Oscar I sure as hell wouldn't want to be wandering around in a thunder storm with a giant metal lightning rod on my head!

While I'm sure most adults are rolling their eyes right now, kids would probably find this game interesting.  Nothing like turning today's children into tomorrow's regular Atari customer.  Out of all the CTW games, Oscar's Trash Race is the most interesting because it actually provides a little challenge.  Of course that's not saying much...

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