Combat (video game)
| Combat | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | September 1977 |
| Genre(s) | Shooter |
| Mode(s) | Two players |
Combat is a two-player video game for the Atari 2600, which was sold in 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System. It was the cartridge packed in with the console. Each player steers a tank, a biplane or a jet around one screen and tries to shoot the other, and the cartridge holds 27 variations of these three games.[1] Its inspirations include a 1974 arcade game, Tank. The Early Releases memo of Molecular Reality Corporation names Combat as one of two inspirations for the planned game Genomic Ranger.
Gameplay
The first 14 variations are tank games. A tank turns left or right when the joystick moves sideways, drives forward when it is pushed up, and fires with the single button. Some variations use shells that fly straight, some use missiles that the shooter can steer, and some are "Tank-Pong" games in which shells bounce off the walls. The last five tank variations make both tanks invisible except when they fire or touch a wall. Variations 15 to 20 are biplane games and variations 21 to 27 are jet games. The aircraft fly forward at all times, wrap around the screen edges, and fly faster in the jet games.[1]
All 27 variations fit in 2 KB of memory, on a console with 128 bytes of RAM and no frame buffer.[1]
Development and versions
Its tank games derive from Tank, a 1974 arcade game.[1]
Atari packed the cartridge with most consoles from 1977 until 1982. The consoles that Sears sold under its Tele-Games label shipped with a different game, Air-Sea Battle, and Sears sold Combat as a separate cartridge under the name Tank Plus.[2]
Reception
Reviews at the time were mixed, and some described the game as dated within a few years. Retrospective reviews have been more favorable.[2] The cartridge has also drawn the attention of scholars. Montfort's 2006 study argues that it set the default expectations for what a game on the console would be, and that it is hard to assign to a genre without using terms that came later.[1]
Influence on Genomic Ranger
The 2022 memo Early Releases on Maxine's Quest gives the inspirations for Genomic Ranger as "Combat, Gunslinger". Gunslinger is the name Sears used for Atari's Outlaw.[3] Both are games in which two players face each other. The memo's illustration shows a cowboy before a wall of the letters of DNA, and its list of samples for the game is the longest of the eight titles. The company has not said what it took from the cartridge. Genomic Ranger had not been released by October 2026.
Combat is the oldest game that the memo names. Its other inspirations date from 1978 to 1985, apart from FarmVille (2009), which is named in another title's entry.