A look at Spacechase from Games By Apollo

In 1980 Atari released their home version of the Taito arcade hit Space Invaders. It was a huge smash which pushed sales of the Video Computer System (later renamed the Atari 2600) into the stratosphere, making it the dominant home video game console on the market at the time. Due to this popularity, many third-party companies emerged to develop games for the system, the first and arguably most famous being Activision. Video game sales boomed in the early 1980's, but as many who are passionate about Atari and retrogaming in general are aware, this huge influx of companies would be a factor (one among many) in leading a few years later to the great video game crash of 1983. That was the year when the market for home, console-based video games started to reach a saturation point that over the next two years caused cartridge prices to plummet, revenues to drop, and many game manufacturers to go bankrupt (while bigger companies like Atari survived but were damaged).

"The Crash" is a fascinating topic of historical significance, and one I'd highly suggest reading more about at the Wikipedia page linked above as well as on other sites. What I've always found most interesting however, is the sheer number and variety of third-party developers that emerged before that happened. Some were new divisions of established companies, such as Parker Brothers, or M Network from Mattel Electronics, while many others were brand new startups. And interestingly enough, there were also games released by companies in seemingly unrelated industries, such as the rare titles Tooth Protectors from Johnson & Johnson (the pharmaceutical company), and Chase the Chuck Wagon from Purina Mills. But what I'd like to focus on here is a cool game from the startup company Games By Apollo, another early third-party publisher in the Golden Age of the Atari 2600. This Texas-based startup only released about a dozen titles in their short existence, but Spacechase, a space shooter which was one of their earliest releases (and best-selling titles), was quite a lot of fun and worthy of a second look. 

Spacechase from Games By Apollo

The 1981 title Spacechase is a relatively simple game. In it you are, according to the instruction manual, "commanding a squadron consisting of three heavily armed Mark 16 Starcruisers." The battle takes place over the scrolling landscape of the moon in either the day or night (depending on the game variation one chooses). In the early stages there are four enemies on screen attacking your ship in waves where they fly back and forth firing "neutron missiles", as well as the occasional "Lazer-directed Heat-Seeking Proton Missile". This latter missile type can home in on its target, and more enemies are added in later waves as the action speeds up.

Like many early Atari 2600 games, the graphics here are relatively simple. Your ship looks much like a chess piece, the first-stage enemies somewhat like the tanks in the system pack-in title Combat, with little green skull-like ships appearing after 10,000 points. Visual explosions are small white clouds for enemies and a flashing screen when your own ship is destroyed. The sounds are similarly simple, with bleeps and blips when missiles are fired, an appropriate boom sound for enemy ships being destroyed, and a more pronounced boom when you lose a Mark 16 Starcruiser.

Battling the first-stage enemies in Spacechase (daytime)

I enjoy Spacechase a lot and find it is a game to continually come back to. The first reason for this is because it has a nice difficulty progression and therefore inspires repeat play. It's simple enough that you can quickly get a feel for it from the first time playing and score some points before being wiped out by the enemies. Conversely, it's challenging enough that after scoring those points you'll want to hit that reset button to try and get farther into the enemy waves. That's not something that can be said about all Atari 2600 games, as some can be frustratingly difficult too quickly and others overly easy, with neither type encouraging the gamer to want to play again.

I also like the pace of the game, particularly the way the enemy ships zip back and forth in their attack formations over the scrolling landscape background. It's another aspect of that nice difficulty progression. Because although the action is frantic, I figured out pretty quickly that the trick is to aim your missiles just ahead of the moving targets, so they run into them. When done well, it's easy to get into a groove and move through stages quickly. However, this can be easier said than done while trying to avoid enemy fire. So, I'll often fall into the frustration of firing haphazardly instead and mostly missing. Either way, all of this keeps the fast-paced game fun and exciting, while I'm sure being great for hand-eye coordination (or something similarly beneficial like that). And it's also worth noting that the flexibility in being able to move the ship around in all directions in the lower third of the screen (similar to Gorf) facilitates the action nicely.

Spacechase - second box design

Additionally, I'd like to add that the simple graphics and sounds work fine for me. As noted, the gameplay moves quickly and is very addictive, which makes the simplicity of the shapes of the ships, missiles, etc. secondary. And I actually quite like the ship explosion sounds and have found that the loud boom of my ship being destroyed, combined with the flashing screen effect, can be quite startling. And being startled means that I was really focused on the on-screen action. I highly recommend this fun little game.

To watch some gameplay, see Classic Game Room's review of Spacechase.