Demon Attack
Description official descriptions
Demon Attack is an arcade action game with gameplay similar to Phoenix. You control a laser cannon at the bottom of the screen and need to destroy wave after wave of brightly colored demons. The demons bounce around the screen in bizarre patterns and try to destroy your cannon with bombs or lasers. When you shoot a demon, it will be replaced with another or will split into two smaller demons depending on which wave you are playing. When the required number of demons for the current round is finally destroyed, you can move on to the next, more difficult round.
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Credits (Atari 2600 version)
Designer |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 85% (based on 13 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 99 ratings with 4 reviews)
The Good
Another conversion made right. This arcade shooter conversion uses all new bells and whistles of 1984 PC. It means, if available, 320x200x16 colors graphics and 3-way sound on PCjr/Tandy. This made that game is looking (and sounding) closely to original arcade title and is much better than other CGA only arcade conversion of the time.
Regarding gameplay, nothing to object. Game is challenging, even bit hard, but 100% fair. Reaction to controller input is good, so it's really just about skill and to not make any error.
Another good point is that every new wave brings something slightly new. New enemy movement or shot type. It's not just "the same but more of it" like it was in Galaxian or Cosmic Crusader. This is refreshing.
The Bad
It's really overly simplistic game. There's not even main menu or high score table. It's just 'Press fire to start' and you're in action. If you're dead, only high score is remembered and again 'Press fire to start'. It gives me Atari 2600 vibes but on much stronger HW.
The Bottom Line
Very good space shooter. Ideal for evenings sessions on HTPC on big TV and with controller in hand. Again don't forget to setup your DOSBox / DOSBox-x to Tandy and enable Tandy sound as well for best experience.
PC Booter · by Vladimir Dienes · 2023
A beautiful version of a fun action game
The Good
Bright, colorful graphics, and a variety of different-looking enemies.
Good use of sound (different for each wave of alien).
Good use of speech.
Fast action .
Uncomplicated game.
Two different stages.
The Bad
Single-player only.
Game gets repetitive after a while.
The Bottom Line
In "Super Demon Attack" you begin the battle on the surface of the moon. You must destroy five waves of aliens. The start out wider than they are tall, making them somewhat easier targets, then become taller than they are wide, making them more difficult to hit.
After five waves, you launch into space to take on the Demon Base. You must first destroy a wave of small defending space ships before taking on the demon itself. You then repeat the entire sequence.
The graphics are very colorful. Each wave of aliens includes several ships, and two are on screen at a time with differing color combinations. The speech is excellent, although not every version has speech.
TI-99/4A · by Andy Frueh (173) · 2016
Hypnotic and Zen like minimalistic shooter. A classic.
The Good
The movement of the enemy demons is rhythmic perfection. The simple sounds rising in pitch slowly raise your adrenaline through each wave. The box artwork by Imagic was fantastic compared to what Atari was putting out.
The Bad
I liked this game and had to buy it when it first came out. Not long after I got the chance to play the 8 bit computer version and loved it. It was a few years before I was able to afford the computer to play it on.
And the only quirky thing about the game is that you warp back in after getting shot at the exact same spot often right back into enemy fire.
The Bottom Line
Wave after wave of demon birds descending on you dropping bombs and lasers trying to blow you up. They are very elusive and hard to hit. Some warping in to take the place of ones you blow up until you destroy the last in each wave. At higher levels they split in two as they get hit and then dive bomb your shooter. Shoot the bottom demon last that way it won't split and ones above can't split either. Make it through a wave without getting hit and get an extra shooter. You will need them.
Atari 2600 · by gametrader (208) · 2005
Trivia
Lawsuit
In 1982 Atari sued Imagic due to Demon Attack being to similar to Phoenix.
Version differences
The PC Booter version of Demon Attack was available on both a PCjr cartridge and a 5.25" disk. Both versions were identical, except the disk release had a title screen which was missing on the cartridge version (probably due to the more limited size of the PCjr cartridges.)
Awards
- Retro Gamer
- Issue 46 - #13 in the “Top 25 Atari 2600 Games" poll
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Demon Attack's Wikipedia page
Here you can find some info about the game.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Servo.
TI-99/4A added by Corn Popper. Videopac+ G7400 added by chirinea. Odyssey 2 added by Kabushi. Atari 8-bit added by Martin Smith. TRS-80 CoCo added by L. Curtis Boyle.
Additional contributors: RKL, Corn Popper, chirinea, Nélio, Patrick Bregger, S Olafsson, Rik Hideto.
Game added June 18, 2003. Last modified March 11, 2024.