by Beat Suter
The CH-Ludens research project has compiled a corpus of video games from the period 1980–2000 that were either developed in Switzerland or have a close connection to Switzerland. In addition to many other games, this corpus contains a good two dozen Atari games. The Atari games listed are spread across various platforms that emerged during these years and were used for the development and release of console and computer games.

Unfortunately, the first thing to note is that there is not a single game available for the early Atari consoles VCS, 2600, and 7800. There is only one retro game, which was created in an initial attempt at experimental archaeology. In 2014, René Bauer programmed the game AXE 1.0 as a homebrew project to find out how difficult it was around 1980 to develop a game that had to be adapted directly to the hardware of the Atari 2600 and VCS consoles. Bauer wrote the following about the release in 2014: “The Atari 2600 turned out to be hell for game programming. The console was designed around 1977. It was developed for home use and primarily intended for sports games on the computer: two opponent sprites, two shots, and a ball. The games had to manage without video RAM and with only 170 bytes. It was a sprint through hell.” (Bauer, René 2014) Bauer goes on to discuss the challenges of the difficult development process with severely limited assembler programming and no video RAM! The hack ‘n’ slash game was finally released in spring 2014 as a ROM file for emulators.

Atari games in the CH-Ludens corpus
Swiss games for Atari 8-bit machines are also few and far between. There are only two examples from the 1980s: a listing game by Bernard Dalle, Top Tennis (1985), and an educational game by Christian Balsiger, written in BASIC and released as freeware/shareware, Mathematique (1985).
The situation is slightly better for Atari games for 16-bit machines. So far, we have found five independently published games. Unfortunately, none of these games became particularly well known, even though they are of good quality. War Heli (1987) was published by developers Matthais Heubi and Matthias Kohler under their own label, Argonica. Later, it was also part of an Atari Powerpack. Since the games were very expensive for young users, Atari put together so-called Super Packs and Powerpacks some time after the initial release, which contained 10-20 complete games and were very popular. The game War Heli has well-functioning shooter mechanics and some unusual game features, so it should have found an audience in ist time. However, the developers were probably too ambitious with their self-invented copy protection, which obviously no one could crack at the time. Thus, the excellent copy protection probably prevented the game from being distributed more widely through unofficial channels.

In French-speaking Switzerland, Jean-Claude Schopfer impressed with his RPG adventure Aventura (1990), which won him the 1990 Credit Suisse Prize at the tenth Salon Suisse de l’informatique in Lausanne. The Atari ST game was rediscovered by CH-Ludens postdoc Pierre-Yves Hurel via the newspaper Le Temps and examined in more detail (Hurel, Pierre-Yves, 2024). It was inspired by the Ultima series and was an adventure game in which the player had to free the world from an evil being and save the inhabitants of a planet, always having to make the right decisions.
Also worth mentioning are game dev Jean Christophe Jacquet and the two members of the Alcatraz demo group Pascal Arn, and Grégoire Dini, with their sci-fi adventure The Short Grey (1992). This game was also released on Amiga and distributed by the French software company Accrosoft, which gave it slightly higher sales than the other Swiss games mentioned. However, the official release is said to have contained a virus, causing considerable problems for players. Nevertheless, the adventure’s Amiga version impresses with an exclusive Alcatraz intro, and both versions introduce the plot of the adventure narratively with a well-designed mission dialogue. Individual scenes are reminiscent of the design of the amazing game Another World (1990) by Frenchman Eric Chahy.

Portings
In addition to these original games, there are a large number of ported Swiss games. However, most of the games ported from Amiga to Atari ST were transferred by German developer crews. For example, the game Dugger (1988) from the Swiss label LINEL, produced by Markus Grimmer, was ported to Atari ST by the German crew Nightrider Software. This also shows how international the game developer and publisher scene was at the time. National borders were irrelevant for such projects. Grimmer searched Germany, Italy, and the UK for skilled programmers who could port his games to other platforms. And it was precisely these ports that were made specifically to appeal to other markets in other countries on other platforms. Atari ST, for example, was more widespread in the US than its competitor Amiga and was also used more in Germany than in Switzerland.
As a result, one or two original Atari ST games have made it into the list below. For example, the German strategy game Kaiser (1988), programmed by Dirk Beyelstein, whose original Atari ST version was ported to Amiga by Swiss publisher LINEL. The games Exolon (1988) and Eliminator (1988) from British publisher Hewson Consult were also ported to Amiga by LINEL. The work was done by developer Christian Haller with the help of Christian A. Weber and Roman Werner. Haller says about Eliminator: “We were able to take the source code almost one-to-one. The difficulty was […] to adapt the code so that it builds the graphics in memory the way the Amiga expects and not the way the (Atari) ST does. So with the Amiga, you have four or five bit planes in succession in memory, and with the (Atari) ST, they are nested inside each other […], where there are five bytes in succession representing one pixel. Ultimately, it was just a matter of adapting the way the graphics are generated – and we were able to adopt everything else.” (Krummenacher, Wild 2023, #02:20:52#)
Furthermore, Atari ST games such as Leonardo (1989) are also included in the list, which were ported exclusively by German teams, for example Carsten Mohr and Matthias Krenzel. In a few ports, such as Ringside (1989), Roland Petermann, alias Orlando, is at least mentioned as a Swiss graphic designer. However, the mentions may refer to the use of the original graphics from the Amiga versions. Only in the case of the LINEL game Traders – the intergalactic trading game (1992) was the Atari ST version also created by the same Swiss development team led by André Wüthrich.
A doubt
There is a big question mark over the Atari ST version of the LINEL game Insanity Fight (1987). It remains crossed out in the list because the important websites Mobygames and GameFAQs note the release of an Atari ST version of Insanity Fight by Microdeal in the UK. However, there is no further evidence. An Atari version was probably planned and announced, but ultimately could not be implemented due to the parallax scrolling of the background graphics – at least according to developer Christian Haller, who programmed the Amiga version. In a lengthy interview with CH-Ludens researchers David Krummenacher and Larissa Wild in 2023, Haller says that at the time, Insanity Fight was one of the few games in which the playing field filled the screen. The larger the moving area, the more time, i.e. performance, you needed. “The Amiga had a chip, the Blitter, that did this work for you, making it faster than an Atari ST.” The Amiga was the main competitor for the Atari ST at the time. And the Atari ST “didn’t have a Blitter, which is why all the moving playing fields in Atari games are much smaller, because it couldn’t do it. With 50 frames per second, you could move about that much, but certainly not as much. And with Insanity Fight, I was able to do just that. Back then, many companies first made the Atari version and then ported it one-to-one to the Amiga, cashing in twice with as little effort as possible. But we only made the Amiga version, which meant we earned much less, but we were able to exploit the technical possibilities of the Amiga to the fullest.” (Krummenacher, Wild 2023, #02:17:10#)
Unpublished Atari ST Games
And last but not least, there several unreleased Atari ST games from Switzerland or with a Swiss connection. The list currently includes eight titles. However, there are likely to be several more examples that we at CH-Ludens may not have discovered.
Jean-Claude Schopfer started a second RPG adventure under Aventura II (1989), but never finished it. C64 specialist and Amiga game designer Roman Werner mentions that he wrote two pieces of music for a sequel to the game Leonardo, which was planned for Atari ST and Amiga. The working title was: Leonardo 2 – In the Circus (1989). Werner goes on to say that Roland Petermann had started designing some great graphics, characters, and a title screen for the new game. The title screen showed Leonardo on a unicycle performing magic tricks from a hat. Unfortunately, the project was shelved after a while. Five more game projects for Atari ST and Amiga were planned by the Swiss publisher LINEL. Individual teams had already begun development. Markus Grimmer had even announced the titles in several magazines before they had to be discontinued. The adventure game Drachen von Laas (1991) by the two German developers Guido Henkel and Hans-Jürgen Brändle was already completed in 1989 and should have been released by LINEL. However, since in their eyes this did not happen soon enough, the two developers terminated their contract with Grimmer and finally released the game for Atari ST and Amiga under their own new label, Attic Entertainment.
The list with Swiss Atari game
Atari 2600/VCS
No historical games
AXE 1.0 (2014)
René Bauer, imp89
Homebrew, retro game as attempt of experimental archaeology
atariage.com/forums/topic/224560-homebrew-axe-10-released-la1n-2014
Text for the release: https://www.gamelab.ch/?p=6188
Atari 400/800 Games
Top Tennis (1985)
Bernard Dalle
Computronic Magazine 03-04 1986 > Listing (Scene)
For Atari 600 (+64k) and 800 XL
https://archive.org/details/Computronic_86_03-04/page/n51/mode/2up
Mathematique (1985)
Christian Balsiger
For Atari 400, written in BASIC and released as freeware/ shareware
Eduational game for geometry und algebra
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-mathematiques_39341.html
Atari ST
War Heli (1987)
Matthias Heubi, Matthias Kohler, Argonica
For Atari ST, STE, Mega ST(E), TT, Falcon with min 2MB RAM, (TT min 4MB)
Shoot’em up, vertical scrolling with levels
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-war-heli_28190.html
Kreml (1988)
Urs Hostettler, Spiele MaKroSoft/ Fata Morgana Spiele
For Atari ST
Atari ST version oft he boardgame Kreml, documented in Happy Computer 07/1988
https://www.stcarchiv.de/hc1988/07/kreml
Aventura I (1989)
Jean-Claude Schopfer
For Atari ST
The game was written in GFA Basic. It is an RPG in which you travel on foot, by boat, or on horseback. It comes with a comprehensive manual. In French.
http://www.dactar.ch/st/
The Short Grey (1992)
Jean Christophe Jacquet (Programmer), Pascal Arn (Graphics), Grégoire Dini (Music), Accrosoft Edition
Atari ST and Amiga
A Point’n’Click SciFi adventure
https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-short-grey-_24672.html
https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/the-short-grey
Flip Side (1994)
Jean und Simon Bovet (Neuchatel), Arizona Software
Atari ST, MacOS
Othello game, Freeware developed for Macintosh and Atari ST.
Portings (from Amiga to Atari ST)
Insanity Fight (1987)
Mobygames and GameFAQs note the release of an Atari ST version of Insanity Fight by Microdeal in the UK. However, there is no further evidence of this. The Atari version was probably planned but could not be implemented due to the parallax scrolling of the background graphics. At least, that is what emerges from an interview conducted by David Krummenacher and Larissa Wild with developer Christian Haller in 2023. We are therefore removing Insanity Fight from the Atari ST list, but leaving it in this text as a correction to the information on Mobygames and GameFAQs.
Microdeal
https://www.mobygames.com/game/16307/insanity-fight/releases/
Dugger (1988)
Till Bubeck (Programmierung), M. Maier, Torsten Zimmermann (Grafik), Jochen Hippel (Musik), Markus Grimmer (Producer); Nightrider Software, LINEL.
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/27063/dugger/credits/atari-st/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/dugger
Leonardo (1989)
Carsten Mohr (ST Conversion), Adrian Dalecki (Musik), Orlando Petermann (Graphics); Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/38043/leonardo/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/leonardo
Ringside (1989)
Ingo Massalski (Code), Roland Petermann alias Orlando (Original Graphics), Andreas Bahr (ST Graphics), W. Degener (Musik); Mentrox Goldline (Developer), EAS Gold (Publisher)
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/114780/ringside/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/ringside
Rings of Medusa (1989)
The Voice oft he Underground (idea and conzept), Till Bubeck (code), Jochen Hippel, Adrian Dalecki (music); Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/rings-of-medusa
https://www.mobygames.com/game/6203/rings-of-medusa/
Ooze (UK releases) (1989)
Guido Henkel, Hans Jürgen Brändle (code) Jon and Elsine Dean (story editing); Dragonware
Atari ST (UK)
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/ooze
https://www.mobygames.com/game/3996/ooze-creepy-nites/
Clown-o-mania (1990)
Carsten Mohr, Matthias Krenzel (code), Adrian Dalecki (Sound), Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/clown-o-mania
https://www.mobygames.com/game/54056/clown-o-mania/
Tie Break (1990)
Carsten Mohr (code and graphics conversion), Adrian Dalecki (mMusic and sound FX); Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/19776/tie-break/credits/amiga/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/tie-break
Transworld (1990)
Klaus-Peter Plog (code), Jochen Hippel (music); Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/50542/transworld/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/transworld
Rolling Ronny (1991)
Carsten Neubauer (code), Orlando Petermann (graphics), Adrian Dalecki (music); Starbyte Software
https://www.mobygames.com/game/4134/rolling-ronny/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/rolling-ronny
Traders, the Intergalactic Trading Game (1992)
André Wüthrich, Michael Tschögl (music), Markus Grimmer (concept); LINEL
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/4320/traders-the-intergalactic-trading-game/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/traders
Winzer (1991)
Holger Beisheim, Peter Sabath (code), Frank Ziemlinski, R. Saquet (graphics), Ralf Katscher (sound); Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/13070/winzer/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/winzer
Black Gold (1992)
Holger Beisheim (code), Maik Durnzig (graphics and music), Ingo Mesche (animations); Starbyte Software
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/37294/black-gold/
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/black-gold
Originals of Portings (from Atari ST to Amiga)
Kaiser (1988) [O]
Claudio Kronmüller, Wolfgang Schultz (code), Dirk Beyelstein (idea and concept); CCD
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/81761/kaiser/
Amiga portings by LINEL, by Markus Mergard and Claudio Krohnmüller
https://www.atarilegend.com/games/kaiser
Eliminator (1988) [O]
John M. Phillipps (code) and Pete Lyon Graphics; Hewson Consult (UK)
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/13335/eliminator/credits/atari-st/
Amiga Portierung by LINEL, Christian Haller, Christian Weber, Roman Werner (sound) und Michael Tschögl (title screen)
https://www.mobygames.com/game/13335/eliminator/
Exolon (1989) [O]
Martin J. Bysh (code), Gary P. Felix (graphics), J. Dave Rigers (music); Hewson Consult (UK)
Atari ST
https://www.mobygames.com/game/14493/exolon/credits/amiga/
Amiga Portierung by LINEL, Guido Henkel (code and sound)
https://www.mobygames.com/game/14493/exolon/
Unpublished
Aventura II (1989)
Jean-Claude Schopfer
Subtitle: The Book of Druids. Not released. Aventura II is a game launched in 1989 that runs on Atari ST. It was written in GFA Basic. Its gameplay (traveling on foot, by boat, or on horseback in the open air: 2D and 3D in dungeons) is inspired by games such as Ultima II, III, IV, and Dungeon Master. Aventura II is the sequel to Aventura I. Due to lack of time, this game was never completed.
http://www.dactar.ch/st/
Atari ST
Leonardo 2 (1989)
Starbyte Software
Mentioned by Roman Werner, who wrote two pieces of music for it. The working title was: Leonardo 2 – In the Circus. Werner: “Unfortunately this game never made it into the shelves. Orlando [Petermann] started designing some great artwork, characters and even a titlescreen for this game but somehow the project got buried after some time. Inspired by Orlando’s graphics I provided two songs for the circus theme. On the titlescreen you could see Leonardo on a unicycle doing some magic tricks out of a hat (As far as I remember).” (Blogpost October 11, 2005, https://kingromans.blogspot.com/2005/10/leonardo-2-in-circus.html )
Atari ST and Amiga (planned)
Crown (1989)
Zimmermann, A. Stoll; LINEL
Announced as a Linel product in Dugger Booklet (1989). A strategy game. Crown (1989) had also been announced by the French magazine Generation 4 as a strategy game reminiscent of Seven Cities Of Gold. “With almost 58 colors, the game, due for release on ST and Amiga in February 89, promises to be excellent.” The magazine prints one screen with a isometric map view of a city called Dead City showing the LINEL Logo as well as the title Crown.
Also mentioned in The Games Machine (UK) Issue 011, October 1988, p.15 https://retrocdn.net/images/0/05/TGM_UK_11.pdf
https://download.abandonware.org/magazines/Generation%204/generation4_numero006/Gen4%20%236%20-%20page%20111.jpg
Atari ST and Amiga (planned)
Solaria (1989)
LINEL
Solaria was intended for release in March 1989. Again, the French magazine Generation 4 knows that it is a game that is based on an Aztec sport.
Also mentioned in The Games Machine (UK) Issue 011, October 1988, p.15 https://retrocdn.net/images/0/05/TGM_UK_11.pdf
https://download.abandonware.org/magazines/Generation%204/generation4_numero006/Gen4%20%236%20-%20page%20111.jpg
Atari ST and Amiga (planned)
Ice & Fire (1989)
LINEL
Ice & Fire (1989) was announced in the Dugger booklet together with Dragonslayer as soon to follow release. The French magazine Generation 4 knows in its issue No.6 that the game is expected on Amiga and Atari ST. It had been announced as an adventure game with many original features such as offering several good endings.
https://download.abandonware.org/magazines/Generation%204/generation4_numero006/Gen4%20%236%20-%20page%20111.jpg
Atari ST and Amiga (planned)
Drachen von Laas (1989)
Guido Henkel, Hans-Jürgen Brändle (code, writing, music, graphics); Markus Grimmer, LINEL
Not released with LINEL, but later with the label Attic Entertainment Software (1991) – same as the Amiga version.
Atari ST und Amiga (planned by LINEL)
https://www.mobygames.com/game/6322/drachen-von-laas/
Lords of the sea (1000 BC) (1991)
Markus Grimmer (Producer) ; LINEL
Announced in the Necronom booklet, a confirmation of the start of the development oft he planned game is so far missing.
Atari ST, Amiga and PC (planned)
TECTO (1989)
René Bauer (imp)
A skill game that displays some greetings on the title screen next to the credits, like a cracktro.
Atari ST

Last on the list is René Bauer’s Atari ST game TECTO (1989). It is a skill game that looks almost like a cracktro on the title screen. CH-Ludens member René Bauer found the game on one of his old Atari ST floppy disks while researching old Atari ST games. So it is a game that probably only the developer and a few of his friends had seen at the time. However, such a find gives us hope that more such unreleased prototypes could be found and made known.
WANTED!
The CH-Ludens research group would be delighted if you could dig out your old floppy disks and browse through them. This also applies to floppy disks that you may have received from friends and relatives back then. If you have any further information or finds relating to Atari ST games from those years with a Swiss connection that we are not yet aware of, please let us know at gamelab.zurich at zhdk.ch or at info at chludens.ch. We welcome any useful information.
Sources
Bauer, René, 2014, “Homebrew oder AXE 1.0 an Atari 2600 / VCS Game released just now!.” In: GameLab Blog, April 19, 2014, https://www.gamelab.ch/?p=6188, (14.10.2025).
Pierre-Yves Hurel (April 25, 2024). The “Computer” exhibition of Lausanne. Part 5: When video games are no event. Confoederatio Ludens. Retrieved October 14, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/w9vo
Krummenacher, David und Wild, Larissa (2023), Interview with Christian Haller, CH-Ludens Corpus, conducted in Swiss German on 07.09.2023, unpublished.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Beat Suter (October 27, 2025). Wanted: Swiss Atari Games. Confoederatio Ludens. Retrieved November 14, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/151mm
