The very first video game I covered from 1977 was Street Racer, a primitive racing game programmed by eventual Activision co-founder Larry Kaplan. As it just so happens, the final video game of the year was also created by Kaplan, being Air-Sea Battle. Like many early Atari 2600 games, Air-Sea Battle began life as a home console version of one of the company’s popular arcade games. Anti-Aircraft was a strictly two player game released in 1975 that tasked players with shooting down planes that fly overhead in random directions. The player that can shoot down the most planes in the time limit wins. The anti-aircraft guns were located in the lower left and right corners, and were controlled by three buttons (two to move the gun position up and down and another to fire). Like the other launch titles that cloned arcade games (Video Olympics, Combat, Surround), Kaplan took this idea and then formed 26 (slight) variations of it for the Air-Sea Battle cartridge.
Atari’s 1975 arcade game Anti-Aircraft
Image Credit: The Arcade Flyer Archive
The original Air-Sea Battle box: It really does capture all the included games, making them look more exciting than they are.
Image Credit: Moby Games
There are six different games on Air-Sea Battle, but I’ll briefly outline the variations that apply to each of them before looking at the games themselves. The variations are as follows:
Number of Players – Each of the six games have one or two player versions
Guided Missile – The guided missile variants allow the player to guide their missiles towards targets after they have been fired. Sadly this variant is not available for single player mode, as the computer opponent just wouldn’t have the AI to use it appropriately.
With Obstacles – Three out of the six games have variants where obstacles move across the screen, making it more difficult to hit targets. These obstacles (mines and blimps) can be destroyed with a direct hit, but the player receives no points for doing so.
The Air-Sea Battle program list: The “Computer Games” variant isn’t really necessary, as it’s just a duplication of 1 player option.
Image Credit: Atari Age
Games 1-6: Anti-Aircraft
The aim of Anti-Aircraft is simple. Shoot the helicopters and planes as they fly across the sky either left to right or right to left. In this particular game your gun location cannot be moved, but you can choose to fire straight upwards, at a 30 degree angle, or a 60 degree angle. A different amount of points are scored for each type of aircraft you hit (747 = 1 point, helicopter = 2 points, large jet = 3 points, small jet = 4 points). The six variants differ only in the amount of players, whether or not guided missiles are used, and whether or not blimps float across the lower screen.
Game 03: Anti-Aircraft with No Obstacles
Game 06: Anti-Aircraft with Obstacles (they’re blimps apparently)
Games 7-12: Torpedo
As the name suggests, Torpedo puts you in charge of firing torpedoes from a submarine. Unlike Anti-Aircraft, this game allows the player to move their torpedo launcher from left to right (limited to their half of the screen), but they can only fire straight upwards. It kind of looks like your shooting at boats that are floating across the sky, but I guess Kaplan did the best he could do with the technology available. Once again each type of target scores differently (freighter = 1 point, pirate ship = 2 points, aircraft carrier = 3 points, PT boat = 4 points), and the variants are the same as for Anti-Aircraft.
Game 09: Torpedo with No Obstacles
Game 12: Torpedo with Obstacles (they’re mines)
Games 13-15: Shooting Gallery
Shooting Gallery is basically Anti-Aircraft with a couple of minor changes. Firstly, players shoot at carnival like targets rather than vehicles, and secondly, the targets can change direction at any time, adding to the challenge. Hitting clowns scores 1 point, taking out ducks earns 2 points, and putting down rabbits adds 3 points to your total. It was really quite difficult to hit the smaller targets, particularly as it was often impossible to judge where they would be when your projectile reached the right distance due to them changing direction. I imagine guided missiles would make this one in particular a lot more satisfying to play. There are only three variants for Shooting Gallery, being one player, two player, and the aforementioned guided missiles option.
Game 15: Shooting Gallery
Games 16-18: Polaris
Polaris puts each player in a ship that moves across the bottom of the screen. The ships have three speeds (slow, normal and fast), and projectiles travel upwards on an angle proportionate to the ships speed (watch the video if that doesn’t make sense). It was actually quite tricky to master, and my technique ended up being to shoot while travelling slowly so I could time things properly, then speed across the screen to appear back on the other side (it loops). It wasn’t much fun really, particularly as you can’t change the speed of your ship while a missile is in flight. The targets are the same as in Anti-Aircraft, with the same scoring system, and the variants are the same as Shooting Gallery.
Game 18: Polaris (the players take control of the two ships at the bottom)
Games 19-21: Bomber
Bomber is the reverse of Polaris, putting players in charge of planes that drop bombs on ships. It’s otherwise exactly the same though, with three different speeds, and bombs that move at the same speed across the screen as your vehicle. The tactics are therefore exactly the same. The targets are the same as in Torpedo, with the same scoring system, and the variants are the same as Bomber. It’s all a bit samey really.
Game 21: Bomber (the players take control of the two planes at the top)
Games 22-27: Polaris vs Bomber
As the name suggests, Polaris vs Bomber puts one player in control of a ship and the other player (or computer) in charge of a plane. This was by far the most frustrating of the games included (in single player anyway), for the simple reason that you can’t change your plane or ship’s speed once a projectile is in flight. This makes for a game of timing as much as positioning, and I found myself watching helplessly as the computer’s randomly fired bomb headed towards me a fraction of a second in front of my missile. There was too much luck involved and not much skill.
Game 24: Polaris vs Bomber with No Obstacles (the player controls the boat, firing missiles at the plane)
Game 27: Polaris vs Bomber with Obstacles (the player controls the boat, firing missiles at the plane)
Here’s a video I made that shows all the single player variants for each game. I’ll refrain from including music from now on, as copyright laws are stricter in some countries than others. You should be able to tell which “player” is me, since the computer just fires straight ahead, over and over again.
There’s little doubt that Air-Sea Battle would be much more enjoyable in two player mode (and with guided missiles), but I don’t think it would come close to Combat for strategic or entertainment value. I had a bit of fun with the Anti-Aircraft, Torpedo and Shooting Gallery games, but the other three were tedious and unnecessary. This was the last of the nine Atari 2600 launch titles that I’ve covered (I can’t wait to move onto better things), so I’m finally in a position to comment on how Air-Sea Battle stacks up against the others. Below is an ordered list of the launch titles, taking into account my expectations of two player modes where I haven’t experienced them as much as I can.
- Combat
- Indy 500
- Video Olympics
- Air-Sea Battle
- Surround
- Street Racer
- Star Ship
- Blackjack
- Basic Math
An early ad for Air-Sea Battle: The colours always seem to be wrong in the images on these ads. False advertising.
Image Credit: Atari Age
The Air-Sea Battle (1977) RetroCard has now been added to the RetroCard Shop. It’s an uncommon card, so therefore costs 30 smacks and has a limited release of 60.
Featured Image Credit: The box artwork via Moby Games
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