Miner 2049er

Miner 2049er is a platform game developed by Big Five Software and published in December 1982 for the Atari 8-bit computers. The player controls Mountie Bounty Bob through multiple levels of a mine, with the goal of traversing all of the platforms in each level all while avoiding enemies and within a set amount of time. Miner 2049er was widely ported, being released on a total of 22 different systems. Video magazine's editors commented on the game's popularity in January 1984, declaring it "the most widely played home electronic game of all time" and that "no home-arcade title has had the impact" that Miner 2049er had.

Programmer Bill Hogue blended ideas from popular arcade games, specifically Pac-Man (1980) and Donkey Kong (1981). It was the first game he developed for the Atari 8-bit computers. His previous games were monochromatic, and Hogue was excited at the opportunity to make the games in color for the system and wanted to surpass Donkey Kong. The resulting game has ten stages, most of them with unique gameplay elements. Big Five Software developed a custom 16 kilobyte ROM cartridge for the game compared to the standard 8 kilobyte cart for the Atari computers.

The game received positive press throughout 1983, appearing on best-of lists, with video game critics complimenting its colorful graphics, game design, and originality. After a cancelled attempt at a spin-off, the sequel Bounty Bob Strikes Back! was released in 1985, after which Big 5 closed its doors and Hogue stopped writing games. Richard Stanton, in his book A Brief History of Video Games (2015), said that Miner 2049er was generally forgotten in the wake of Super Mario Bros. (1985).