Save Mary Explained

Save Mary
Publisher:Atari
Designer:Tod Frye
Released:August 2005
Modes:Single-player
Platforms:Atari Flashback, Atari 2600

Save Mary is a prototype video game designed by Tod Frye and made for the Atari 2600. The game involves Mary who is trapped in a valley that is slowly filling with water. The player must operate a crane to move blocks to allow Mary to escape the rising water and eventually be carried to safety by the player.

Frye had years of experience working for various companies including Atari where he made the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man (1982). Following the video game crash of 1983, he continued to develop games for the system at companies like Epyx and in 1989 at Axlon where he began developing Save Mary. The game was never released as the company began focusing on making games for the Atari Lynx.

Prototypes of Save Mary were later discovered and released as bootlegs cartridges and online. The game had an official release in 2005, being included on the Atari Flashback 2 dedicated console. The game had since been released in various Atari compilations, and was announced for its own unique Atari 2600 cartridge in 2023.