Botss Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Extinction

Extinction

Developers Imagic (original)
neotokeo2001 (hack)
Publishers Imagic (original)
Freeware (hack)
System Atari 2600
Release dates 1982 (original)
2003 (hack)
Modes Single player
Two players alternating
Two players simultaneous
Media Cartridge (original)
ROM file (hack)

Story/background[]

(from the Extinction overview) "Humans are facing extinction from laser-shooting dinosaurs from outer space. Can you fend them off and secure humanities future?"

Demon Attack was originally released for the Atari 2600 in 1982. Extinction was a graphical hack made by Atari Age forum member neotokeo2001 in 2003.

Gameplay[]

The player’s(/s’) Laser Cannon faces an unending assault against flying dinosaurs[1], materializing out of thin air, appearing in groups of three. The dinosaurs vary in size, shape and attack patterns, as at first they stay confined to three areas of the screen: at the top, middle, and near players’ Cannons at the bottom. After a while, whenever a player destroys the lowest dinosaur, the next higher dinosaur will drop down to replace the closest dinosaur. They also start splitting when shot, turning into two smaller dinosaurs, only one of the two will fire at the player, along with diving down at the player’s(/s’) Cannon.

If a Laser Cannon is hit by a dinosaur or their fire, the Cannon is destroyed and the game will end if there are no more reserve Cannons (called "bunkers"[2]). An extra bunker is awarded with every wave of dinosaurs a player destroys without losing a Cannon, with a maximum of six reserve bunkers possible.

Controls[]

In-game[]

  • Move Laser Cannon–joystick (left/right)
  • Fire–button
  • Steer shot–joystick (for variations with tracer shots only)

Variables[]

  • Select game–Game Select switch
  • Start game–left joystick button or Game Reset switch
  • Change difficulty level–Difficulty Lever (A for "Aggressive Action", or the hardest setting)

Game variations[]

There are variations for a regular Extension game, along with tracer shots variations, which allow players to steer their shots after they have been fired. There are also variations for two players competing (which players’ turns alternate with the end of every wave), co-op (the Laser Cannon control alternates every four seconds per player, which the player’s turn is indicated by a color change of the Cannon), these options with tracer shots, and when a player gets hit, their partner scores an additional 500 points on the last two games (as this version has 10 games in all).

Scoring[]

  • Wave 1-2 dinosaur–10 points each
  • Wave 3-4 dinosaur–15 points
  • Wave 5-6 dinosaur–20 points Split dinosaur–40 points Diving dinosaur–80 points
  • Wave 7-8 dinosaur–25 points Split dinosaur–50 points Diving dinosaur–100 points
  • Wave 9-10 dinosaur–30 points Split dinosaur–60 points Diving dinosaur–120 points
  • Wave 11-12/on dinosaur–35 points Split dinosaur–70 points Diving dinosaur–140 points
  • Partner’s Laser Cannon hit–500 points (games 9-10 only)

Trivia[]

Due to programs being available to change games around, several other hacks were made of Demon Attack, being Custer's Revenge 2 (parents, Atari fans and the like are angry over the controversial game of Custer’s Revenge for the system), and Invader X (the most extensive of the bunch, as not only were the graphics changed [the Laser Cannon and Demons], but also gameplay elements were changed, as parts of the Demons are not visible and the score values were decreased).

Links[]

Extinction Atari Age page

References[]

  1. Atari Age Extinction page
  2. Demon Attack instruction manual.


This game was featured from January - April, 2019.

Advertisement