Freeway

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Freeway cover.jpg
Freeway
Developer Activision
Publisher Activision
Platforms Activision Flashback Blast!, Atari 2600, Atari Flashback 8 Gold Activision Edition, Atari Flashback 9 Gold, Game Boy Advance, iOS, macOS, PS2, PSP, Windows, Xbox 360
Released Atari 2600
North America: July 1981
PlayStation 2 (Activision Anthology)
North America: November 25, 2002
Europe: March 6, 2003
Windows
NA (Activision Anthology): October 6, 2003
North America (Game Room, Pack 008): August 18, 2010
macOS (Activision Anthology)
North America: October 6, 2003
Game Boy Advance (Activision Anthology)
North America: December 8, 2003
PSP (Activision Hits Remixed)
North America: November 8, 2006
Europe: February 9, 2007
Oceania: February 14, 2007
Xbox 360 (Game Room, Game Pack 008)
North America: August 18, 2010
Atari Flashback 8 Gold Activision Edition
North America: September 22, 2017
Activision Flashback Blast!
North America: September 27, 2018
Atari Flashback 9 Gold
North America: November 15, 2018
Added to
Museum
Flashback Blast!: May 1, 2020
Flashback 8 Activision: May 30, 2022

Freeway is an Atari 2600 video game by Activision.

Plot

Chickens try to cross a busy freeway without getting hit by passing cars.

Development

There were several instances related to heavy traffic in Chicago, Illinois that inspired David Crane to create the original Bloody Human Freeway version of the game. The first inspiration involved Crane and his friends crossing the busiest road in the city from the wrong side of a building when one of his friends joked that it would make a great video game. The second involved the video game designer Larry Kaplan riding a bus when he witnessed a man crossing Lake Shore Drive. The third involved Crane himself witnessing a man trying to cross during rush-hour traffic while attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.

In 1981, Crane prototyped a game for the Atari 2600 about humans crossing a road full of traffic, however three days before the next CES show, the Activision CEO at the time, Jim Levy, suggested it should be a chicken to be a variation on the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke and so it can be promoted at the show by a person wearing a chicken suit.