Yars' Revenge

In this game you fly a fly like ship! You must conquer the think on the right side of the screen that is shielded by either a simple dome, or a moving rectangle shield. To destroy the shield you do a combination of shooting it with your very short range dot attack and eating of the shield. Beware! The thing you attack occasional turns into the swirly thing of dome and attacks you! If that is not bad enough, you must evade the ever present line that will hunt you down tirelessly! Once you have opened a hole to the thing that is protected by the two shield types or obliterated the shield all together you must launch your ultimate attack. I strange rectangle that appears to the left of the screen and when fired is the only thing that can destroy the thing you are supposed to destroy. It can even take that thing down in deadly swirly mode! It can also take out you, so you have to be careful when launching it. Like most Atari games the game play during the course of the game varies little. You alternate between the two shield types and after the destruction of the thing the shield changes color. I have gotten it to go to pink, whether there are more colors beyond that is for a better gamer than me to tell you. Pretty fun game, the changing shield color at least gives you something to keep moving forward and it is not like it gets as impossible as say space invaders where they go from one end to the other then crush you in the later stages.

I'll always remember Yars' Revenge as the first video game that wowed me so many years ago with its (innovative at the time) full-screen explosion. Of course, now it looks like a giant pixelated mess, but for this old-time player, it still has a nostalgic charm. Owners of this Atari classic will also remember the unforgettable sound of Yars Revenge, which interestingly mostly consists of a number of humming sounds (one of which pulsates like a Jacob's ladder). Newer gamers probably won't think anything of it, but back when the Atari reigned with games like Freeway, Kaboom, and Hounted House, the steady hum of Yars was something special.

In Yars' Revenge, the player takes control of a Yar spacecraft (that interestingly resembles an insect in an Atari 2600 kind of way) and take revenge on the Qotile while avoiding its destroyer missile. This destroyer missile relentlessly homes-in on the player's Yar vessel at quite a leisurely pace, proving quite easy to maneuver around (for now.) As for the Qotile, itself? It forever hovers on the right side of the screen, hidden behind one of two types of red shields. The Qotile (and the Destroyer missile) both change colors, and close observation reveals that this color change foretells the coming of "the swirl." Fading from blue to yellow and eventually to orange, the Qotile, itself, transforms into a weapon (aka the swirl) and flies full speed at the Yar ship (forget the slow-poke destroyer missile -- watch out for this thing). Initially, the swirl hovers in place for an extended period of time before launching its attack; however, as the game progresses the Qotile may spontaneously change and fire.

Clearly, the Yar vessel must first breach the shield by firing upon it with its own cannon, or the more daring (and those seeking a higher score) may consuming the shield via flying into it. Then it's showdown time with the Qotile -- touching the Qotile or eating the shield summons the Yars' own powerful missile (located along the left-side of the screen.) Aim, fire, and watch the first full-screen explosion in video game history, then marvel how far the graphics have come since then.

Like most older games, Yars' Revenge continues infinitely, gradually increasing in difficulty. This increase is based on two factors: 1, the number of Qotiles destroyed, and 2, the player's score. Each time the player destroys a Qotile, the speed of the destroyer missile increases in the next round of play going from a harmless inconvenience to the eternal chase from which the Yar vessel gets no breathers. Eventually, it gets to the point that it's forever a heartbeat behind the Yar ship.

Then the player hits 70,000 points, and the shields turns blue. Now the swirl transformations triple in frequency (when the Qotile, itself, turns blue, orange, and a yellow-ish green.) Around this time, the swirl tends to launch itself more spontaneously. Should the player survive this onslaught the shields turn grey at the 150,000pt marker where the Swirl gains the frightening ability to change direction multiple times in mid-flight. Good luck evading the new and improved swirl while continuing to dodge the destroyer missile. By 230,000pts it just gets insane.

Fortunately, the Yar has two advantages. The first and perhaps lesser of the two: a colorful ever-moving strip usually occupies the center of the screen, and flying into it cues a higher pitched humming sound. Enter the neutral zone where the destroyer missile can do no harm; unfortunately while in the neutral zone, the Yar ship cannot fire, the destroyer missile becomes harder to see, and the swirl can still destroy the Yar ship there. As the levels progress, the neutral zone goes away then returns, then goes away again, and then returns again. While great for beginners, I found myself more comfortable in levels without the neutral zone.

The reason? The Yar's second advantage: the Yar ship, and only the Yar ship, can fly through the top of the screen then come out the bottom of the screen (perhaps the only way of evading the direction-changing swirl.) Utilizing this built-in escape route while constantly staying in motion renders the neutral zone more or less obsolete.

For an even further challenge, Yars Revenge rewards players for living on the edge. The shield's destruction naturally gives the players points; however, consuming the shield racks up points faster than firing upon it (although, the cannon gets rid of it faster.) The Qotile's destruction yields a nice little bonus, but destroying it in swirl form doubles said bonus. Destroy the swirl in mid-flight? An even heftier bonus and an extra ship.

During the Atari reign in the early 80s, Yars offered one of the most complex (yet easy to pick up) game-play experiences with memorably graphics and top notch sound. It goes without saying that video games have clearly come a long way since Yars especially with how fast the technology has progressed, but upon replaying this Atari classic after almost two decades I wonder how much the industry has really gained with its obsessive focus on realism and story.