Suicide Mission
Suicide Mission — frequently asked questions
- Is Suicide Mission on Steam?
- No. Suicide Mission is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.
- What platforms is Suicide Mission on?
- Suicide Mission is available on Atari 2600.
- When did Suicide Mission release?
- Suicide Mission was first released on December 31, 1982.
About Suicide Mission
Suicide Mission is an arcade action game similar to Asteroids. You control a microscopic submarine navigating the bloodstream of someone who has been infected by a virus. Your goal is to destroy the virus! Each time you shoot a cell infected with the virus, it will split up into smaller pieces. Eventually the pieces will be small enough that they can be destroyed. When everything has been destroyed, you can move on to the next, more difficult level. The game features three levels of difficulty, and you can choose one of two shooting styles for your submarine (single torpedoes, or rapid fire).
Summary via IGDB.
Game details
- Platforms
- Atari 2600
- Developer
- Arcadia Corporation
- Publisher
- Arcadia Corporation
- Game modes
- Single player, Multiplayer
- Themes
- Action, Science fiction
Details via IGDB.
Collector value & authenticity
Atari 2600 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-06
Release record
| Territory | Label | Catalog # | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America Starpath | Cassette | AR4102 | Scarce+ |
Source: Catalog numbers, label types, rarity, controllers and player counts: AtariAge 2600 software database
- Region
- NA+EU
- Released
- 1982
- Controller
- Atari Joystick
- Players
- 1 - 2
- Authenticity
- Low
One of Starpath's retail Supercharger tapes, cheap and little documented.
Suicide Mission is a Starpath Supercharger cassette released in North America in August 1982 and in PAL regions in 1983. Little is documented about it beyond its publisher and release dates.
What the press said at the time
| Computer Entertainer Vol. 1 No. 9 | December 1982 | Graphics ★★★ · Play-Action ★★½ |
| Electronic Fun with Computers & Games Vol. 1 No. 3 | January 1983 | 2 joysticks |
“However, game play is not sufficiently exciting or original to make this one a must for your collection. Not recommended”
“Now that same company has a game called Suicide Mission, and if the name isn't as colorful, it is accurate—play it long enough and you could bore yourself to death.”
“An entertaining Asteroids variant, Suicide Mission takes you inside a human body, where you must blast your way through a sea of killer amoebas. … In fact, it's a better Asteroids game than Atari's VCS version.”
Computer Entertainer rated graphics first and play action second, from four symbols (excellent) to one (poor) — stars in most years, diamonds in 1986–87 — comparing each game only with other games for the same system. Electronic Fun rated games out of four joysticks.
Cartridge & preservation record
Program size 8.3 KB (8,448 bytes), measured from the preserved dump.
Catalogue number as recorded for the physical release.
Before you buy
This is a cassette, not a cartridge. You need a Starpath Supercharger and a cassette player with an earphone output to play it. Ask the seller to confirm the tape loads, not just that it plays audio, and to try both sides (Side A is a quick load, Side B a standard load). Check that the label is printed on the cassette shell and be wary of a blank or home-labeled tape in an original box. No fraud cases are documented.
Authenticity & condition — Atari 2600
Specific to the format this title shipped in
Buying a Starpath Supercharger game
This game is an audio cassette, not a cartridge. It loads through the Starpath (originally "Arcadia") Supercharger, a long cartridge with extra RAM and a cable that plugs into a cassette player, so the tape on its own will not play on a 2600.
- You need three things: the Supercharger, a cassette player with an earphone (or "ear"/"monitor") output, and the Supercharger's built-in cable.
- Ask the seller to confirm the tape LOADS, not just that it plays audio. Side A is the quick-load side and Side B the standard load; Starpath's own manual warns some players will not load the quick side reliably, so a tape that loads from Side B only is normal. A tape that loads from neither side is the real failure.
- Set the player's volume and tone near maximum and keep it away from the TV, as Starpath's manual advises. Expect the occasional reload.
- The Supercharger works on the 2600, 2600 Jr. and Sears Video Arcade, but may fail on some later NTSC Atari 7800s. We found no confirmation that it works on the Atari 2600+, so assume it does not until you have tested it.
- A cassette is trivially copied. On the higher-value tapes, check that the label is printed on the cassette shell itself and that both sides load, and be wary of a blank or home-labelled tape in an original box. (Our inference; we found no documented fraud case.)
- Check the Supercharger's own cable for breaks near the strain relief — it is the single point of failure for every tape you own.
What a complete copy includes
- Cassette
- Instruction booklet
- Retail box or sleeve
- The Supercharger itself shipped with its attached cable, a manual and the Phaser Patrol tape. Early units are "Arcadia"-branded and later ones "Starpath"; both are genuine. The company had to drop the Arcadia name because Emerson's Arcadia 2001 console reached shelves first (Arcade Express, 26 September 1982).
Suicide Mission screenshots
Watch on YouTube
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