Space Quarks

The Good
I remember playing Space Quarks on my old school's Apple //e computer. As stated in this review's one-line summary, the game is a mixture of those two famous games ever to hit the arcades in the 80s, which means that the object is simple. You control a tank who must clear wave after wave of these invaders, known as "Quarks". These Quarks are not scared to shoot back. In fact, almost every one of them will shower you with their bullets if you don't shoot first. Like Galaxian, one Quark will zig-zag its way down and you must shoot it before you get hit by it.

One big plus of the gameplay is that unlike Space Invaders or Galaxian, where the enemies all move in one spot, the invaders in this game move in a pattern. Level one, for example, has the Quarks move in a ring, whereas on level two, they start to make an invisible question mark from the right side of the screen. When you complete a level, you see yourself in a time warp that looks exactly like the one in Dino Eggs.

The graphics are fairly basic and not up to the same standard as other Apple ][ games. The invaders lack detail, and they consist of blue, green, and orange colors, and their shots are mostly green (maybe blue in some levels). The sound is not perfect either, little beeps and a petty explosion sound. The sound would not even have been improved with the Mockingboard add-on sound card that is supposed to make Apple ][s sound better.

The Bad
It is easy to miss the invaders when they are moving fast. I figured that the best way to deal with this is to start at the very edge and shoot your way to the other side of the screen, being careful not to be hit with their lasers. Of course, if that doesn't work, then you could always use a cheat.

The Bottom Line
If you love playing those classic games from the eighties, give this one a try. The gameplay varies from them, but you just have to put up with the poor graphics and sound.