Space Duel
American arcade flyer
Developer(s)	Atari Inc.
Publisher(s)	Atari Inc.
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	1982
Genre(s)	Multidirectional shooter

Space Duel is an arcade game released in 1982 by Atari, Inc. It is a direct descendant of the original Asteroids, with asteroids replaced by colorful geometric shapes like cubes, diamonds, and spinning pinwheels. Space Duel is the first and only multiplayer vector game by Atari. When Asteroids Deluxe did not sell well, this game was taken off the shelf and released to moderate success.

Gameplay

The player has five buttons: two to rotate the ship left or right, one to shoot, one to activate the thruster, and one for force field. Shooting all objects on the screen completes a level. Space Duel, Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, and Gravitar all use similar 5-button control system.

Legacy

Space Duel is included within the Atari Anthology^[1] for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation version of Atari Anniversary Edition. A port of Space Duel was released on the Atari Flashback 2, reproducing only the single-player mode.

A Space Duel cabinet is featured on the cover for The Who's 1982 album It's Hard.^[2]

Two teenage boys are shown playing the game in the Cagney & Lacey episode "Beyond the Golden Door" (airdate April 8, 1982).

There is a poster for Space Duel hanging in the bedroom of Dustin Henderson in the TV show Stranger Things.

David Plummer holds the official world record for 1 single Player, Single Ship version with 623,720 points.^[3][4]

Sam McNear holds the official world record for 1 single Player, Double Ship Style version with 403,610 points.

John McAllister and Sam McNear holds the official world record for Double Players, Double Ship Style version with 263,890 points.