Yars' Revenge

"I'm usually opposed to unexplained vengeance, but for this classic it can slide."

Yars Revenge is a strong example of the good stand-alone games featured on the Atari. Most were either ports of arcade games or endorsed commercial products, but the sui generis ones(River Raid is another example) usually made out rather well compared to their counterparts that were based on an already-copyrighted idea. With no background history to rely on, writers for truly new games had to inject detail into the actual game. In Yars Revenge, you control a Yar, a fly with rapidly buzzing antennae, against something called a Qotile that bounces up and down on the screen's right edge. It has a shield you can ram or shoot through, and you must use the Zorlon Cannon, which appears at the left, to shoot the Qotile. To activate the cannon you need to ram the shield sufficiently or touch the Qotile. Meanwhile you must avoid a destructor missile that heads straight for you and gets faster with each level(up to your speed) and the Qotile itself when it turns certain colors or turns into a swirl and launches itself at you quickly. You must also stay out of the Zorlon Cannon's way. In some games and levels there is also a neutral zone where you can't shoot and are still vulnerable to the Qotile, but you are immune to the Destructor.

The controls are very sophisticated for the Atari. You can move diagonally--each direction at half the speed of the four main directions--and you can even scroll vertically, a necessity when the ultra-fast destructor missile sticks to you. You always fire in the direction you move, unless the appearance of the Zorlon Cannon overrides it, and there is a neat if slightly unfair bumping effect when you run into a shield; how it pushes you off is the main reason I get killed later on. Perhaps the best part, though, is that after you have completed a wave or lost a life, your previously invisible score pops up. Until you hit the joystick button, it will stay there. I imagine other early arcade games had the break capability, but Yars Revenge was one of the few to execute it. You also have choices between several game types: bouncing Zorlon cannon shots that you may have to avoid twice, slower destroyer missiles, and harder-to-get Zorlon cannons. Even the scoring is relatively sophisticated; ramming a shield will get you more points but is riskier.

The graphics have some variety; the neutral zone is a colorized version of ''white noise,'' and it is neat to see the swirl changing colors--it pulses in minor variations of a color before changing to the next family of colors. The shield even changes colors as you score more points--after which the game becomes tougher, and it's neat to note that score and Qotiles destroyed count toward the game's complexity. The shield that comes up on even levels(on odd ones, it's a Space Invaders-type bunker) is a bit annoying, as it's not clear what part of the shield scrolls where, and perhaps the end-of-scene explosion is not so great, but the graphics are not intended to be the main selling point.

Yars Revenge is a very well-designed game. The oddity of the names of the three main players(one starts with Y, one with Qa, one with Z) suggests it's got a lot of wrinkles in any one variation, so playing shouldn't get boring, even though there is only one real strategy(stay on the edge of the screen) as you get past the first shield color change at 70000. Although the flashing screen that results from destroying the Qotile may get nerve-racking, and the manual never really explains what the Yar is getting revenge for(oh well, makes the title catchier,) it's easy to throw away time on this game and enjoy it. Even trying for the rare shot and hit at the swirl the Qotile projects in mid-air(6000 points and an extra life) is a fun goal.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/02/01, Updated 08/02/01