Blue Max is a scrolling shooter written by Bob Polin for Atari 8-bit computers and published by Synapse Software in 1983.

The player controls a Sopwith Camel biplane during World War I, attempting to shoot down enemy planes and bomb targets on diagonally scrolling terrain.

After selecting control and difficulty options and pressing start, the screen shows the aircraft speeding down the runway.

The player is required to push the joystick in order to take off, but not before the plane reaches a certain minimum speed.

The fire button shoots the machine guns continually, while pressing and moving the stick down at the same time causes a bomb to drop.

Each area contains various targets to destroy, including warships in the river that fire flak, tanks, bridges, buildings, and enemy biplanes which appear occasionally in front or behind and shoot at the player's aircraft.

"[1]The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984 gave the game an overall A rating, calling it "very enjoyable" with "a realistic sensation of flying," and concluded that it "has great depth of play to hold interest for a long time".

It stated that the game improved on Zaxxon, noting the functional instrument panel and need to land, refuel, and take off.

[11] A futuristic sequel otherwise similar in design, Blue Max 2001, was released in 1984 for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64.

Author Bob Polin made the assembly language source code of Blue Max publicly available in 2016.