River Patrol
The first time I ever heard of this game is when I saw it on the top of Jerry G's most wanted video game list. I remember wanting to find it because he was willing to give the person a free Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a finder's fee (it isn't on his list anymore, so he must have finally found it). The River Patrol game looked sorta boring, but I did want to play Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Until it became available on MAME, I only figured it was an Atari 2600 game that probably sucked because it was so expensive and that is generally the rule.

Well, I soon came across the game again. This time it was on a new version of MAME. The name had rung a bell and the screen shot jarred a memory. I would now finally play this game. How is it you ask? Well, it is pretty decent. Nothing spectacular as the graphics are alright and the gameplay is fun, but not absorbing like many games.

The basic concept is to ride down the river and save people by running over them. I personally think this would injure or kill them, instead of saving them, but video games never followed conventional rules (much like cartoons). Of course there are obstacles in the way like rocks, whirlpools, alligators and other boats. As one would expect, you must avoid these.

Each level is a stretch of river and as you progress, there are more rocks to avoid and more gators and boats. I made it through three levels and from what I can tell, there isn't too much different from one level to the next. This kept me from playing too much as there was no "can't wait to see what is next" angle to keep me coming back.
While this game may be valuable for the Atari 2600, it is only mediocre for the arcade. It will provide you will some fun and keep you busy for a few hours, but the thrill is short lived. This game may be from the classic era, but is certainly is no classic. 

This is just a review of the arcade machine.  If you are looking for the actual arcade machine, you may want to check out ebay.  Click below to see if you can find this game.