Seaquest, designed by Steve Cartwright for Activision in 1983, puts the player in command of a submarine that must rescue divers —up to six at a time— while dodging sharks and battling enemy submarines that fire torpedoes, in a game Cartwright himself described as an aquatic reinterpretation of the arcade game Defender. Resurfacing without a full load of six divers costs the player one of them, a risk-management mechanic that adds tension to every dive. The game even offered, within Activision's tradition of rewarding high scores, a cloth patch for anyone who mailed in a photo of their TV showing 50,000 points, a practice that today feels charmingly handmade compared to today's digital achievements.
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