Basically put, in Stampede, theres around, uh, 7-8 variations of roping steer. You're the yellow man on a yellow horse with a lariat, and you're going after black decoy steer/staled steer, slow moving dark yellow steer, faster light yellow steer, really slow dark brown steer. It's basically a resource management game - a fast moving one - where you need to bump the slower steer forward while roping up what you can, and making sure not to hit any of the skulls on the ground, or miss the black stalled/decoys. If 3 steer or decoys (or a mix thereof) pass your horse without being roped, it's game over.

Basically, it's a really good VERY short term game. So if you want to kill a few minutes with the Atari, this is a good one to pick. But unless you are really good, which is really hard to be, you probably won't run any very long campaigns with it. Some would argue the slow controls vs. the fast moving and slow moving characters makes it a "Bad" game, but to me it's not "bad", it's designed as a short-form of entertainment. If you want long, go play Adventure or Pitfall II, or even Starmaster, but if you want short-form, 15-minute, short spurt fun, then this game could be a good one.