River Raid is a 1982 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Activision for the Atari 2600.

Designed by Carol Shaw, the player controls a fighter jet over the River of No Return in a raid behind enemy lines.

In River Raid the player is in a B1 StratoWing Assault Jet that is retrofitted with rapid-fire guided missiles and has the ability to both accelerate and slow down easily.

The jet is going down the "River of No Return" where it is on a mission to break the enemy blockades and halt troop advances.

Players can shoot missiles with the joystick's button to destroy enemy tankers, helicopters, fuel depots and bridges.

[6][7] Shaw had started programming in High School coding in BASIC, which led her to pursue a career in computers.

While at university, she was in a work-study program that allowed her to work at various computer companies including a six-month position at Atari.

[9] Shaw recalled that there were a lot of video games with scrolling and thought it would be a good thing to do on the Atari 2600 as there had not been many that have done that.

[11] While doodling on graph paper, she found that she could design the game with a mirror image looking like a river with islands in the middle of it.

Shaw said that she had "pretty much mastered playing the game" and thought it would be more fun to be able to start at a higher level.

This led to the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften (Federal Department for Works Harmful to Young Persons, now called the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons) to monitor video games, leading to River Raid to be banned due to its military-themed content.

[20] Shaw responded to the sales stating "I knew it was a good game, but I didn't expect to hit number one.

[28] Craig Holyoak of the Deseret News praised River Raid on the ColecoVision as "one of the most playable and entertaining of all war games".

[33][34] The judges Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz described it as "provid[ing] the brand of non-stop excitement the blast brigaders adore".

[11] Matt Fox in his book The Video Games Guide (2013) echoed that the graphics and sound were impressive for the Atari 2600.

He was lukewarm on the gameplay, writing that with only moving and static hazards to avoid, nothing actively attacked the player's jet.

(1981), Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (1984), Ghostbusters (1984), Little Computer People (1985) and Alter Ego (1986), among the best games from Activision's classic period.

[45] For ports, the reviewers in Zzap!64 commented on the C64 version as having simple graphics and being "a little repetitive" by 1987 standards, though it was still deemed better than contemporary offerings like Xevious, Aftermath and Terra Cognita.

[5] Writing for AllGame, he found that what was "revolutionary" about River Raid—the sound and graphics for the Atari 2600—appeared dated on the ColecoVision.

[51] Activision released River Raid II, which was designed by Dan Kitchen and coded by David Lubar.

[51] River Raid II uses the same polynomial algorithm Shaw used to create the scrolling playfield to have the sequel resemble the original game.

[56] A third game, River Raid: The Mission of No Return, was shown at the 1991 Summer Consumer Electronics Show for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System but was never released.