VIDEO GAME NEWS UPDATE

    A couple of popular computer games are scheduled for video game translations from Atari. Robert Neve's Crack'ed, a struggle to protect eggs from hungry creatures, will soon hatch for the 2600 and 7800. Spectrum Holobyte's classic GATO puts Atari XE system owners in control of a WWII sub. This complex computer game monitors speed, depth, heading and radar tracking, as the gamer tries to overcome the enemies' strategies. Cosmi's Super Huey turns the 7800 into a helicopter flight simulator, then charges the gamer with the rescue of stranded personnel, defense of military installations, and surveillance of unexplored territory.
    Sega's racing simulation, Out Run, made tracks as a top play-for-pay game. Now it's roaring onto the video game screen, via a 2-meg cartridge. This 2096K game is packed with an assortment of courses and road scenes, lane changes, hills, and curves that bring Out Run home with almost no changes in the appearance and action that made it a superhit.
    Here's a haunting echo of the first age of video games. Activision, the world's first second-party software house, is going to produce video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Atari 2600. The new games will reach the stores this autumn. There are also quite a few titles in inventory which were first introduced in the early part of the 80s.
    Several top designers of awardwinning software joined forces to found Absolute Entertainment, to publish video games for the Atari 2600. Carry "GameMaker" Kitchen, John "Computer Fireworks Celebration Kit" Van Ryzin, Dan "Greeting Card Maker" Kitchen and Alex "Great American Cross Country Road Race" De Meo combined talents on a pair of cartridges to be distributed by Activision. Title Match Pro Wrestling gives gamers a choice of four wrestlers, whom they can match against a computer opponent or battle in head-tohead mode. Skateboardin' is a wild and crazy ride through city streets and sidewalks, as the racer tries to get to school on time.
    Data East USA has seven games for the Nintendo Entertainment Svstem this year. The company promises the same thrills 'n chills from these translationsthat made them hits in the arcades. Among the titles announced are a trio of combat games: Ring King, Karate Champ and Tag Team Wrestling.
    CAPCOM U.S.A. has introduced five game packs for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Sunnyvale, California company, best known for its play-for-pay designs, has started marketing games for home computer and video gamers. The titles scheduled for play on the NES are: 1942, Commando, Trojan, Ghosts 'N Goblins and Section Z