Combat was developed and published by Atari in 1977.
Game description
Combat for the Atari 2600 is 2 player shooting game. It is one of the nine launch title for the system and based on its model number, the first ever Atari 2600 game. It was packed with every Atari 2600 system until the Atari 2600 port of Pac-man. For games packed under Sears label, the game is known as Tank Plus, despite featuring aircraft as well.
The game is an adaption of the arcade game Tank, released in 1974 and Jet Fighter, released in 1975, both by Kee Games, subsidiary of Atari.
The goal of each variation is to get a higher score than the opponent before 2 minutes and 16 seconds hit in.
In the tank mode, you can choose between three battlefields: the Tank Open Playfield, the Tank Easy Maze Playfield and the Tank Complex Maze Playfield. It is also possible to control the shooting behaviors. Combat offers three variations related to that
- Straight shoot: The shoot will go toward the angle you have press the fire button
- Guided missile: After being shoot, the missile can be controlled with the joystick (either left or right)
- Billiard hit (Also known as Tank-PONG): After being shoot, the missile will bounce on the wall until hitting the opponent or disappear after a few bounces. You can’t hit yourself with your own projectile
There is also a variant named invisible tank. In this mode, both players are invisible unless they shoot
In the plane mode, you are fighting either in an open sky or a sky obstructed with cloud. In the latter case, it is possible to go underneath the clouds, but you are not immune to shots.
The first variation feature Bi-plane shooting at each other. You can either control one, two or three bi-plane at the same time. In the last case, the second player will control a bomber that shoot larger projectile. There is also variation that allow you to have machine guns in the biplane and shoot faster.
The second variation is the jet, directly based on the arcade original. In this mode, you can accelerate or move slower. Guided missile is also possible, based on the current direction of your aircraft.
In addition to this you can do 2 vs 2, or one large jet vs 3 small one.
In all tank and plane variation, player can activate a handicap mode on any side. With the left difficulty switch for player 1 and the right difficulty for player 2, this will cause your vehicle to be slower. Shoots will be slower as well.
Combat playthrough
The playthrough use the original USA launch title version of Combat. The goal is to go through all distinct mode of the game and play a single session of each in the same sitting.
Since it is a 2 player only game, the runs are performed with 2 persons. The game is played with minimal TAS tools to show as much action as possible.
It starts on the classic Tank game, followed by guided missile, billiard hit and invisible variation. The three battlefields are also seen.
On the biplane game, 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 and 1 vs 3 variation are shown. In these, the machine gun variation is also shown.
On the jet plane game, the 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 and 1 vs 3 are shown.
No priority was given and no session were fixed to have player 1 or player 2 wins in a predetermined way.
No cheat were used in this run. TAS tools were used to produce a high quality video.