Circus Atari is Atari's 1980 adaptation for the Atari 2600 of the Circus arcade game, which Exidy had released in 1977: two players control platforms at the bottom of the screen and use them to launch a clown upward to pop the rows of balloons hanging from the ceiling, with bounce physics as the only real challenge. It's essentially a thematic variation on the Breakout formula, with the added circus narrative.
It was one of the cartridges that helped establish the 2600 as the go-to console of those early years, thanks to that combination of simple rules and an aiming challenge that grew addictive game after game. Today it's remembered as one of the many "clones with personality of their own" that defined Atari's early catalog.
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