Yars' Revenge
| Yars' Revenge | |
|---|---|
Picture label cover art
|
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| Developer(s) | Atari, Inc |
| Publisher(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Designer(s) | Howard Scott Warshaw |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release date(s) | May 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Fixed shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Score |
| AllGame |
  (Atari 2600) (Game Boy Color)
|
| IGN | 7/10 (Game Boy Color) |
| Tilt | 5/6 (Atari 2600) |
Yars' Revenge is a video game released for the Atari 2600 in 1982. It was created by Howard Scott Warshaw. Yars' Revenge was Atari's best-selling original title for the 2600.
The player controls an insect-like creature called a Yar who must nibble or shoot through a barrier in order to fire his Zorlon Cannon into the breach. The objective is to destroy the evil Qotile, which exists on the other side of the barrier. The Qotile can shoot at the Yar, even if the barrier is undamaged, by turning into the Swirl. The player is warned before the shot is fired, and he can retreat to a safe distance to dodge the enemy's energy blast. The Yar can hide from a pursuing destroyer missile within a "neutral zone" in the middle of the screen, but the Yar cannot shoot while in the zone. The Swirl can kill the Yar anywhere, even inside the Neutral Zone.
To destroy the Qotile or the Swirl, the player has to either touch the Qotile or eat a piece of the shield to activate the Zorlon Cannon, aim the cannon by lining up with the Qotile or Swirl, then fire the cannon and fly out of the way of the cannon's shot.
The game has an Easter egg. After killing the Swirl in mid-air, a black vertical line will appear on the screen across the spot where the Swirl was shot (the line is referred to in the manual as the "Ghost of Yars" and warns the player to stay off its "mean streak"). If the player moves vertically along that line and is slightly below the middle of the screen when the explosion closes, the game will end and go into the Game Select screen with programmer's initials, HSW, shown both forwards and backwards in place of the word Select.
The game began as a licensed port of the Cinematronics arcade game Star Castle. Warshaw's original design for the Atari 2600 conversion was nearly identical to Star Castle: a powerful cannon is protected by three layers of counter-rotating shields. The player must shoot holes in these shields in order to destroy the cannon inside. But once these holes are made, the cannon can also shoot out at the player. If the outermost layer is completely destroyed, new layers of shields are grown. Harassing the player are three free-roaming mines that hunt the player's ship.
As the Atari version was developed, changes were repeatedly introduced until the final product had very little resemblance to the original.
A common belief is the Yar race and their planet Razak were named after Ray Kassar, CEO of Atari at the time. Warshaw wanted to call the game Yars' Revenge and so lied to one marketing employee that the CEO approved the name. He then swore that employee to secrecy, assuming "This guy is going to run back and tell everyone." The name was not changed.
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