Warlords (1980 video game)

Warlords is a 1981 action video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for arcades; in Japan, it was distributed by Sega. The gameplay resembles a combination of Atari's earlier games Quadrapong (1974) and Breakout (1976), and has the player (or up to four players) attempt to destroy other castles in different corners of the screen by deflecting one or more fireballs with a shield. As with Pong and Breakout, players use paddle controllers to manipulate their shield.

Unlike most Atari arcade games of the time, Warlords began development as an Atari 2600 game that was later converted to an arcade game; the 2600 version was released shortly after the arcade version. The arcade version of Warlords came in both a two-player upright version and a four-player cocktail version. The game was considered a success, although a redesign for a smaller cabinet was necessary, as the large cabinet made it impossible to produce in large quantities and difficult to install.