Combat (video game)

Combat is a shooter video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. as a launch title for the 1977 Atari Video Computer System (later called the Atari 2600). Two players, controlling either tanks, biplanes, or jets, fire missiles at each other for two minutes and sixteen seconds. Points are scored by hitting the opponent, and the player with more points when the time runs out wins. Variations on the gameplay introduce elements such as invisible vehicles, missiles that ricochet off of walls, and different playing fields.

Based on Atari's 1974 arcade video game Tank, Combat was initially developed by Steve Mayer and Ron Milner. Joe Decuir tested it on the in-development Atari VCS hardware. Larry Wagner completed the game and added the two plane variations.

By the early 1980s, Combat 's graphics and gameplay were seen as being out-of-date. A sequel titled Combat Two was planned for the Atari 2600, but never completed. A prototype of the sequel was later released in various formats. Retrospective reception by publications such as Classic Gamer Magazine and AllGame have praised the game, while PCMag and Flux considered it to be one of the best Atari 2600 games and one of the greatest video games of all time.

Gameplay

Combat uses two four-directional joysticks, one for each player. The game has several modes of gameplay: "Tank", "Biplane

Reception

From contemporary reviews, Video compared the Atari VCS's launch titles, and gave tank pong the highest rating of the variations on Combat with a seven-and-one-half rating for Tank-Pong and Invisible Tank Pong, six-and-one-half for invisible tank game, and six for all the other variations. In comparison, Blackjack and Video Olympics received a ten and eight-and-one-half rating each, while Basic Math, Surround, Street Racer, and Star Ship all received lower ratings. By 1982, the game was receiving negative reception. Walter Lowe, Jr. ranked the game with a one-and-a-half star rating in Playboy's Guide to Rating Video Games while Ken Uston in Buying and Beating the Home Video Games declared "It's not fair to be too critical because, after all, this cartridge is nearly five years old; and in this age of rapid computer technology, that makes it almost an antique." Craig Kubey's The Winners' Book of Video Games simply described it as "adequate" with both Lowe, Jr. and Kubey both only finding the saving grace that it came included with the console. In the British publication TV Gamer from August 1983, Sonya Bradford found the controls took time to get used to and that the game "becomes a bit monotonous, which is not helped by the poor graphics."

From retrospective reviews, Brett Alan Weiss of the online video game database AllGame gave the game a four-and-a-half-star rating out of five, declaring that the simple graphics and sound fail to give a true impression of the game, noting its high replay value and "highly entertaining cat-and-mouse action." In the first issue of Classic Gamer Magazine (1999) D.B. Caufield declared Combat as "still an outstanding two-player game", finding that what it lacked in graphics it made up for in gameplay.

In 1995, Flux magazine ranked Combat #48 on their list of "Top 100 Video Games". The article stated that despite what the publication described as poor-quality graphics, the gameplay made Combat earn its position on the list. In 2012, PCMag included Combat in their "The Greatest Atari Games of All Time" list, with writer Eric Griffith noted the dated graphics by 2012 standards, while finding that the game felt "pretty magical in the 70s."

title	Combat
developer	Atari, Inc.
publisher	Atari, Inc.
platforms	Atari 2600
genre	Shooter
modes	Multiplayer
programmer	* Ron Milner Steve Mayer Joe Decuir Larry Wagner

Combat (video game)

Gameplay

Development

Release

Reception

Legacy

See also

References

Sources

External links