Air-Sea Battle is a fixed shooter developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS.[a]Air-Sea Battle is partially based on the 1975 Atari arcade video game Anti-Aircraft where each player uses a ground-based gun to shoot passing aircraft. The cartridge adds other variants, such as planes dropping bombs on ships and a carnival-themed shooting gallery.
Sears published Air-Sea Battle as Target Fun and used it as the pack-in game for its Tele-Games rebranding of the VCS.
Gameplay
There are six basic types of games available in Air-Sea Battle and, for each type, there are one or two groups of three games, for a total of twenty-seven game variants.[2] Within each group, variant one is the standard game, variant two features guided missiles which can be directed left or right after being fired, and variant three pits a single player (using the right gun) against a computer opponent, which simply fires continuously at the default angle or speed. In every game, players shoot targets (enemy planes or ships, shooting gallery targets, or each other, depending on the game chosen) competing to get a higher score. Each round lasts two minutes and sixteen seconds; the player with the higher score after time expires is the winner, unless one player wins (and ends the game) by reaching 99 points before the time is up.
Anti-aircraft games
An anti-aircraft game variant
Variants 1–6 are anti-aircraft games, in which the player uses a stationary anti-aircraft gun that can be positioned at a 30, 60, or 90-degree angle to shoot down four different types of aircraft.[3] The planes typically appear in groups of three to five, and once every plane in a formation has been destroyed, a new formation appears. There are two groups of anti-aircraft games: in variants 1–3, each target hit is worth 1 point, while in 4–6, the various types of aircraft have different point values. Additionally, zero-point blimps are added as obstacles in games 4–6.
Torpedo games
The torpedo games (7–12) are similar to the anti-aircraft games, except that each player controls a submarine that can move left and right and fires at a 90 degree angle. The targets are ships instead of planes.[4] As with the anti-aircraft games, in games 7–9, all targets are worth one point, while games 10–12 have variable point values for targets and additional zero-point obstacles.
Shooting gallery games
The shooting gallery games (13–15) differ from the previous variants in that the player can both set the angle of the gun and move the gun left and right. Instead of planes or ships, clowns, ducks, and rabbits are the targets,[5] with point values of 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
Polaris games
The polaris games (16–18) put the player in control of a boat which moves back and forth across the bottom of the screen automatically. Instead of controlling the gun angle, the player controls the speed at which the ship moves,[6] attempting to shoot the same fleets of planes as in the anti-aircraft variants, with the point values of games 4–6.
Bomber games
In the bomber games (19–21), the player-controlled vehicle is a plane flying near the top of the screen dropping bombs on the ships from the torpedo games. As in the polaris games, the plane's speed is controlled by the player, and the point values are identical to those in games 10–12.
Polaris vs. bomber games
In the polaris vs. bomber games (22–27), one player controls the ship from the polaris games while the other controls the plane from the bomber games, with the goal being to destroy the other player's craft. Games 25–27 feature zero-point mines as obstacles.[7]
Development
In 1976, Warner Communications acquired Atari for $28 million.[8] With new funding from Warner, Atari was able to hire new engineering talent to make games for their new system, the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS).[9] Larry Kaplan recalled that he saw an ad for Atari and applied the job. Kaplan recalled he was told by Bob Brown that he was hired because he mentioned he has purchased an Altair 8800.[9]
Kaplan would design Air-Sea Battle for the system. Steven Fulton of Game Developer stated Kaplan's game was based on the arcade games Anti-Aircraft and Destroyer. Kaplan said the game based on Anti-Aircraft, explaining that "In those days, we just ripped off anything we could make work."[9]
Release
Air-Sea Battle was included with the release of the Tele-Games branded Atari 2600 (pictured) under the title Target Fun.
Air-Sea Battle was promoted as one of the titles available with the launch of the Atari VCS.[10][11] According to Weekly Television Digest from October 17, 1977 the Atari VCS was shipped to all major market areas by August 1977.[12] Other than Combat which was released with the Atari VCS, other promotional material from this period noted that these games had to be mail-ordered to pickup in the weeks following the release of the system.[11]Air-Sea Battle was bunded into with the Sears release of the Atari VCS under its Tele-Games label. Air-Sea Battle was titled Target Fun in this release.[13][14][15] The game would remain available on the market for years, with Atari having it in circulation by at least 1988.[16]
From contemporary reviews, Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz (under the name Frank T. Laney II) wrote in Video magazine, declaring it "the ultimate game for people who enjoy blowing things up".[21] The two praised the Torpedo variant #11 as the best variation of the game on the cartridge noting it's addictive qualities. The reviewers found the computer's inability to handle guided missile controls in single player mode and recommended playing the 2-player Torpedo variant #11 as a solo game if the player wished to experience a solitaire guided missile game.[21]
Katz and Kunkel announced the first game awards in the 1980 issue of Video.[22][23] For the first awards ceremony, their awards focused primarily on console games and all games released until 1980.[23]Air-Sea Battle received the award for the "Best Target Game".[22][24][23]
Aldred, Jessica (2012). "A Question of Character: Transmediation, Abstraction, and Identification in Early Games Licensed from Movies". In Wolf, Mark J. P. (ed.). Before the Crash. Wayne State University Press. ISBN978-0-8143-3450-8.
