I played this in the past a little bit on the simpler difficulties without really knowing what I was doing, but now that I sat down and figured out what this game is actually all about I can see why it's such a well-regarded atari game that's easy to pick up and play but has really deep and engaging gameplay thanks to various really smart design choices.
The game is a pretty typical single-screen shooter at first glance. There's you and the big bad guy, and you've gotta shoot out the bad guys shields to create an opening where you can deal the final blow with a cannon from across the screen. There's a pellet that wanders the screen homing into you constantly that you must outmaneuver, though there is a safe space in the middle of the screen where the pellet can't kill you at the cost of not being able to attack while inside. The bad guy occasionally turns into a vortex that shoots at you, and that can kill you regardless of whether or not you are inside the safe space. Hitting yourself with your own cannonfire also kills you, which makes firing the cannon from the left side of the screen more dangerous than shooting from the right.
Everything starts simple enough as the pellet initially moves really slowly, but as the levels keep going the pellet moves faster and faster to the point where there's a pretty calculated push-and-pull with how best to approach the bad guy. There's no way to cheese the game, as even tricks like using the vertically looping nature of the screen to juke out a fast-moving death pellet will inevitably prevent you from getting to the center of the screen, where you need to be in order to properly aim a cannon shot. There's also the ULTIMATE YARS difficulty option, where cannonfire can only be earned by doing specific things, and only activated by touching the far left side of the screen, which is also the most dangerous place to shoot the cannon. It's like shockingly well thought-out and designed compared to the typical space invaders and galaga clones that compose its peers, and it's always super engaging because of it. Just a really good example of good early 80's game design at play, definitely give it a go and try getting to the faster difficulties.
The game is a pretty typical single-screen shooter at first glance. There's you and the big bad guy, and you've gotta shoot out the bad guys shields to create an opening where you can deal the final blow with a cannon from across the screen. There's a pellet that wanders the screen homing into you constantly that you must outmaneuver, though there is a safe space in the middle of the screen where the pellet can't kill you at the cost of not being able to attack while inside. The bad guy occasionally turns into a vortex that shoots at you, and that can kill you regardless of whether or not you are inside the safe space. Hitting yourself with your own cannonfire also kills you, which makes firing the cannon from the left side of the screen more dangerous than shooting from the right.
Everything starts simple enough as the pellet initially moves really slowly, but as the levels keep going the pellet moves faster and faster to the point where there's a pretty calculated push-and-pull with how best to approach the bad guy. There's no way to cheese the game, as even tricks like using the vertically looping nature of the screen to juke out a fast-moving death pellet will inevitably prevent you from getting to the center of the screen, where you need to be in order to properly aim a cannon shot. There's also the ULTIMATE YARS difficulty option, where cannonfire can only be earned by doing specific things, and only activated by touching the far left side of the screen, which is also the most dangerous place to shoot the cannon. It's like shockingly well thought-out and designed compared to the typical space invaders and galaga clones that compose its peers, and it's always super engaging because of it. Just a really good example of good early 80's game design at play, definitely give it a go and try getting to the faster difficulties.
probably the best game on the 2600. one of those interesting games that feels like a masterpiece purely because of how deceptively simple it is. playing at night is scary. we're one week away from this game being touted as an abstract liminal horror masterpiece by middle schoolers.