The "Snake" design dates back to the arcade game "Blockade", developed and published by Gremlin in 1976. It was cloned as "Bigfoot Bonkers" the same year. In 1977, Atari released two "Blockade"-inspired titles: the arcade game "Dominos" and Atari VCS game "Surround". "Surround" was one of the nine Atari VCS (later the Atari 2600) launch titles in the United States and was also sold by Sears under the name "Chase". That same year, a similar game was launched for the Bally Astrocade as "Checkmate".