The films generally focus on humans attempting to prevent the rise of Skynet, an artificial intelligence.

Other games based on the first film and its sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), were released over the next two years.

[1] By mid-1989, development was underway by Sunsoft on a Terminator game, which would be released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

Sunsoft reportedly lost the Terminator license because the game did not follow the plot of the film, instead focusing solely on Kyle Reese as he battles Skynet's machines in the future.

In mid-1990, Bethesda Softworks announced a deal with the Hemdale Film Corporation to create computer video games based on The Terminator.

The graphics and music took advantage of the Sega CD's capabilities, and the game includes the use of full motion video from the film.

A side-scrolling action game titled The Terminator was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in December 1992.

[14] Gary Whitta of Computer and Video Games (CVG) was critical of the graphics, and considered the gameplay outdated with no originality.

[16] Another side-scrolling action game, also titled The Terminator, was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

It features levels based on the film, including the future war in 2029, and the police station and nightclub in Los Angeles 1984.

The pieces are not taken on the chess board but in futuristic battlefield settings resembling the scenes of the man-machine war from the movie.

The game rates the player in accordance with the United States Chess Federation scale.

The magazine reported that it crashed so often that the chess engine could not be evaluated because no game was completed, the SVGA graphics were "unimpressive", transitioning between the board and battles was "painfully slow" and the pieces were poorly animated, and falsely claimed to have 4500 chess openings when it lacked an opening library.

Microgaming CEO Roger Raatgever said, "We've taken the core elements of the iconic Terminator 2 film to create an online slot that does the brand justice.

[46][47] A third-person shooter action game titled Terminator Salvation, based on the film of the same name, was released in 2009.

An arcade game based on the film, developed by Play Mechanix and published by Raw Thrills, was released in 2010.

[56][57] Jon Mundy of Pocket Gamer called it "another shallow movie tie-in, high on action, spectacle, and (especially) IAPS, but low on depth and content".

[58] In June 2016, Skydance Media granted Plarium the rights to develop a new mobile game based on the film.

It is an MMO strategy video game, set during the future war between humans and Skynet.

[61] Jessica Famularo of Pocket Gamer criticized the grinding gameplay and minimal storyline, and called it the "Terminator game you neither wanted nor asked for".

[73] Alex Avard of Empire found the quality of Terminator games to be inconsistent, but wrote that Dark Fate – Defiance, with its "tightly designed" gameplay, "may have just helped to raise that historically low bar a little bit higher.