Snow White (Atari 2600) - Games That Weren't

1983 Atari

Platform: Atari 2600 (VCS)

One of the more intriguing stories from Atari’s twilight years is Snow White, a licensed title that was developed for the Atari 2600 under Disney’s watch but never officially released. Originally designated CX26107, the game never appeared in Atari’s catalogues or in gaming magazines at the time, and only internal product lists hinted at its existence. That is, until a surprise prototype surfaced in 1999.

Developed between 1982–83, Snow White was created by Greg Easter, with artwork by Mimi Nyden. Though reportedly near completion, the game was ultimately shelved due to frequent marketing changes and Atari’s corporate instability. According to Greg, constant revisions led him to jokingly dub the project “Snow White and the Seven Versions.”

With the game, you play as the Seven Dwarfs, each a life in your quest to stop the Queen before she reaches Snow White. The game features impressive 2600-era graphics and atmospheric elements like a countdown “Queen Timer”, bats dropping rocks, and a final reward screen showing the dwarves dancing once Snow White is saved.

Despite passing through focus testing, packaging design and nearing full release, the title was abandoned during Atari’s internal collapse. Notably, Greg had even begun planning another game (Mark of the Mole), which was also cancelled.

The prototype of Snow White was eventually dumped and circulated among collectors. In 2002, Retro design produced 250 boxed copies for sale at Classic Gaming Expo (CGE) in Las Vegas. These came complete with packaging labelled Collector’s Edition No. One of those to get a copy was Paul Allen Newell who did a swap with his Cube Quest prototype to get hold of a boxed copy at the event.

Paul flagged up the title as a result to us, though it has been covered already very well by other preservation sites such as Atari Compendium and AtariProtos.com. However, we will now try and cover games that have been covered elsewhere, even with just some basic information to summarize and link through to the other sites. Just so that we can create some stub entries to expand the archive if people happen to search on here for certain titles.

For more information, please check out the resource links below. With thanks to Paul Allen Newell for highlighting and for the photos of his physical copy of the game, and to Atari Compendium, Atari Protos and Atari Mania for information about the game.