The 1970s comic that caught pop culture lightning in a cartridge

ATARI 2600 SUNSTRIKE AND THE INFINITE PYRAMID
This side-scrolling game consisted of 6 playable characters- an innovation, to be sure, in 1981- crossing a dozen playable fields. A blue fireball deposits Clay Reeves from Earth into the Temple of Inguz, where Merriwyn of Kolpar must make a timely rescue. From there, the duo grows in size to a half-dozen characters, battling foes such as the Voidons and Sulinar Vix, as they search the Pyramid for Ing, the mighty living rocket ship, who can lift them safely on their way.

The comics series originally had the origin story of Sunstrike and his companionship with Merriwyn and company in issue one, then did something unusual with issue two: a depiction of three variations of the plot of the previous issue, with a different destination of the dark side of the Moon for one, and the introduction of the Champion, who pointed Sunstrike towards the plane of the King of Swords. Issue three picked up the original ending of issue one, and one of the endings of issue two: space ship Ing takes everyone to a satellite at the end of the solar system, Danger- Naught, full of living, artificially-intelligent beings. (The middle story depicted an escapade where Shamilal Asano tried to take solo advantage of the opportunity to take a space ship, with darkly comical results.)

Issue four depicted a confrontation on the moon, revealing a smaller fragment of the moon also orbits Kolpar. The team narrowly escapes the Zavox, who seems the center of all Voidon activity to drain Kolpar of motivation and passion. Issue five finds everyone a guest of the King of Swords. Sunstrike finally receives training for all of his five basic powers. Issue six finds the Champion come to try to take the Sunstrike power for herself.

Issue seven follows the pattern of #2, and shows two alternative versions of the previous events, including a visit with the Queen of Dreams, and an astral assault by Sulinar Vix, who hunts for Sunstrike.


Issues eight through twelve revolve around a quest to find Merriwyn’s best friend and rescue him from a star cult. This leads to an ultimate confrontation with the Zavox, and ends with Sulinar Vix now split into an indefinite number- later revealed to be seven-versions of himself, scattered throughout the story scape, each with his power and believing himself to be the one true Sulinar. Here is where the Sunstrike Annual of 1977 (spring) tells the story that is the basis for the preview game, intended as a sequel to INFINITE PYRAMID, where Sunstrike now has more experience and greater powers. This game focused on Sunstrike as its main hero, for players one and two. There is a board where Peaches Kane, the mystic, is the main character for either player. Its sixteen boards on Atari, and 22 boards on ColecoVision, reflected the plot of the annual, which had been over double the length of a regular issue of SUNSTRIKE. (The book paused serial publication between #12 and #13 to release this product, a $1.75 release, in a different format, without competition from the book, which goes monthly shortly after the hiatus, allowing #15 to hit comics stores on June 12th, 1977. That game, however, was only released in Europe, in 1984. The smaller firm producing that game bankrupted early in its run. Its release in 1985 in America did not have a buying tidal wave, though lower income families were looking for bargain games for their newly-purchased sets. The limited chain distribution of SUNSTRIKE; Back in Time meant that the merchandise accompaniment intended was only done in test markets. Video games were not doing gang-buster home sales now, until the advent of Nintendo, arriving in a wave of 1986.

The new games are based today off issue one and annual number one. They are also inspired by the two insanely-rare game cartriges.

On board one, Clay falls through the fire ball into a Norse temple. The player character is Merriwyn, who must float and make contact, then safely bring them both down to the temple floor. Text captions introduce the two to each other. ON board two, Merriwyn and Clay run through the Forbidden City, avoiding the stone soldiers. Here, a two player option lets you play either one.

Board three is a differently-designed version of the Forbidden City chase, ending with their exit and meeting Shamilal Asano-9, who helps them across a mine field at the end.
Board four is where Tappandally, the living plant, taps into a special map envisioned when Merriwyn tries on a special helmet. Board five is where the player is Tap, trying to navigate a way down to the Starship Chambers. Board Six is where two players can each take Shamilal Asano or Merriwyn, who drifts down beside the extended stalk, and guide the party to the Starship Chamber using Tap’s foliage body.
Board Seven is where the player meets Vado Bujinka. As Vado, you must solve the message on the wall. Or, player two can fight off Voidons while Vado works.

Board Eight is where Shamilal Asano’s drone finds the command center controls. Now he must use his super computer and wits to find, open and empower the star rocket, Ing.
Board Nine is a differently-colored version of Board Three, with the Seekers trying to guard Ing, in place of the Forbidden City watch.
Board Ten is a differently-colored version of Board Six, only this time, the objective is to go up, following Tap up the side of the rocket ship, to the entrance.
Board Eleven is where Rip Bubba plays the pilot. The rocket ascends to the stars. The game was based on the 1974 quarterly first issue of SUNSTRIKE by Homer Press. Due to the timing of the story line going into starship battles with issue number fifteen, and that issue’s release within three weeks of the motion picture Star Wars, there was a special blip in interest in the title in 1977 and 1978. It was in this time period that Homer Press struck a deal with a developer, who took the game in 1980 to Atari. The game was scheduled for the summer of 1981. However, the new game went back into development until the last week of December, 1981.

Despite missing the Christmas season push, the game sold fine, though with limited pressings, and virtually no fanfare, save for the mention in the 1982 Atari Game Catalog. The lack of a cabinet game in arcades hindered the game’s popularity. A cartoon movie had been planned for BetaMax release, but this stack of publicity did not quite align at the time. By the time the re-release- with 24 boards of play- was prepared, the home video game market was experiencing its 1983 crash, severely curtailing the re-released game’s distribution. The resulting sales led to SUNSTRIKE getting the axe along with many other canceled games in early 1984. Rights remained tied up, so the series plan fell apart.