Medieval Mayhem

Medieval Mayhem is a game developed for the Atari 2600 console as an updated version of the 1980 Atari, Inc. arcade game Warlords. It was written by Atari 2600 homebrew developer Darrell Spice Jr. and released under his SpiceWare label in 2006. David Vazquez and Erik Ehrling provided graphics and music for the game, respectively. Warlords was first ported to the Atari 2600 in 1981 by game designer Carla Meninsky. Spice’s version includes elements of the arcade version that were not included in the official 2600 port.

Medieval Mayhem is an action game that features a king in each of the four corners of the screen. Each king is protected by a brick castle. The object of the game is to destroy the opponents’ kings by breaking through the walls of the castle with a fireball. Up to four players can play simultaneously; each controls a shield in front of the castle. If there are fewer than four players, the remaining shields are controlled by the computer.

At the start of the game (and each round), a “launch dragon” appears and releases a fireball. As the game progresses, additional fireballs appear. A round is complete when three kings have been destroyed, leaving one remaining. The player with the surviving king wins the round, and a knight marches across the screen, carrying the banner of the winning player.