Space Attack was developed by APh Technological and published by M-Network for the Atari 2600 in 1982.
Game Description
Space Attack is the Atari version of Space Battle for the Intellivision. Both games are essentially the same, but the gameplay and graphics were sightly simplified to accommodate the Atari.
Space Attack is a simple strategy game with first-person shooter action. As the commander, you must establish strategy with the three squadrons you have on the screen. Each squadron has three ships in. In each game, the player must defeat six fleets of alien squadron to win the game.
At the beginning of the game, the commander can dispatch his squadron to specific alien fleet. Only three fleets appear at once. Once two opposing fleet comes in contact, the game switch in the first person. In that mode, the number of ships in your squadron represent your hit counter. The aliens’ fleet will attack you in different ways. A maximum of three of them can appear on the screen at a time. If one of them hit the player on the crossbar, the player will loose one ship.
Destroying an alien produce an explosion that can destroy nearby alien, one of the earliest instances of splash damage in a video game. After destroying the whole fleet, the game will return the player to the radar screen.
The interesting aspect of Space Attack is its real-time nature. This mode can be activated when the right difficulty switch is set at “A”. When the player is in first-person shooter mode, the other fleets will continue to move around the radar, but in a slower motion.
It is possible to have multiple conflict between squadron and alien. When this happens, the CPU will fight for you until you take control of one of the squadrons by going in first-person shooter mode. While it can be strategic to let the CPU fight with you, it will most likely lose all its ship.
In radar mode, a siren will play if one of the aliens’ fleets is getting close to the Mother Ship, which is in the middle of the map. If an alien fleet touch the mothership for more than 30 seconds, it will be destroyed and the game will be over.
Space Attack Playthrough
Using the North American version of Space Attack, the goal is to defeat the six fleets of aliens without losing a single fighter. Both difficulty switches are set to “A” which mean Alien will be more aggressive and the real-time mode is activated as well.
TAS tools were used in this playthrough.