Atlantis

aka: Ocean City Defender
Moby ID: 10248
Atari 2600 Specs
Included in See Also

Description official descriptions

The lost city of Atlantis is under attack! Wave after wave of Gorgon vessels are approaching, each armed with weapons capable of destroying a part of the city. You are in charge of the command posts at the edges of the city and need to defend it from the invaders. The various gorgon craft will keep flying by on the screen in varying numbers and in different flight patterns. At first they fly high in the sky but then progressively lower. If an enemy makes it low enough before you destroy it, it will use it's weapons and destroy one of the buildings in Atlantis. As you progress in the game, the enemy craft will keep increasing in speed. The game ends when all remaining buildings in the city have been destroyed.

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Credits (Atari 2600 version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 11 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 42 ratings with 3 reviews)

Good idea, but grows old far too fast

The Good
I very much liked the plot (defending Atlantis with stationary guns from airborne attackers), the graphics and the controls of Atlantis. I also liked the Missile Command esque setup, and the likenesses to Air-Sea Battle. It's definitely an intriguing idea.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the gameplay just isn't very addictive. Even when it came out brand new, Atlantis was never a game you could "sink your teeth into" for more than a few minutes, maybe once a week at most. Unlike Cosmic Ark and Demon Attack, made by the same group, Atlantis just didn't have the magic in Imagic.

The Bottom Line
The game is in most ways a combination of Missile Command and Air-Sea Battle. You control three stationary guns on the bottom of the screen that fire shots at passing plans and craft, which are shooting / bombing your city of Atlantis. It is amusing for a few minutes...and then...fade to black.

Atari 2600 · by Greg Mitchell (37) · 2006

The O2 version of Atlantis is very good

The Good
This game plays similar to other versions of Atlantis, with a couple of minor changes. You have only two gunners, but if you press up and fire, you also get one smart bomb burst per level that wipes out all the visible enemies.

Very nice presentation - the graphics are about as good as you get on the O2. Sounds effects are okay. Lots of onscreen colours and explosions.

The Bad
There's not much to dislike. About the only negatives are the lack of variations in gameplay - and where is the Cosmic Ark at the end, like in the 2600 version?

This cart is rare, and unfortunately very expensive to buy.

The Bottom Line
If you can find a copy for a reasonable price, buy it.

Odyssey 2 · by Bruce Clarke (60) · 2014

Atlantis Attacked, Plato despondent.

The Good
The concept behind this game was an intriguing one, as you strive to save Atlantis from its attackers. The graphics are quite good, and the gameplay is addictive, as you strive to get past one more wave in this well done shooter. I also enjoyed the ending of the game; when you die, a lone blip is seen leaving the ruins of Atlantis, representing the Cosmic Ark shuttling the survivors to a better place...and another Atari 2600 game.

The Bad
The gameplay and graphics were top-notch, but it would have been nice to have had good sound as well. The sound effects were adequate, but in a game of this caliber, their mediocrity stands out.

The Bottom Line
This is a shooter where you must defend your city of Atlantis from attack by destroying the never-ending waves of enemy ships.

Atari 2600 · by Foom (5) · 2004

Discussion

Subject By Date
So...All these Imagic games now need New added to their title? Alaka (105836) Jul 25, 2016

Trivia

Atari 2600 version

The Atari 2600 version came with two possible box and four possible cartridge covers. One box cover was a night time battle scene. The cartridge for this would have been a foil cover with the same picture. The other box cover was a daylight battle scene. The cartridges for this were either a foil cover with the same scene, a foil cover with no picture, just text or a blue cover with no picture, just black text. Most versions are, according to AtariAge, common, with the blue label being slightly more scarce.

Contest

Imagic ran a contest called Defend Atlantis in 1982. The top four, highest-scoring players were to be flown to Bermuda for the Great Defend Atlantis Shoot-Off on 11/14/1982. The next 250 highest-scoring players would get snorkeling sets and the next 1,000 highest-scoring players would get a free T-shirt. At the contest, the top player would win $10,000 and the other three would win $1,000. Unfortunately, more than four people maxed out the score on Atlantis so Imagic created Atlantis II as a tie-breaker. Atlantis II was faster, harder and scored lower. Players that maxed out Atlantis were sent the game, snorkeling sets and the T-shirt. Those sent the game would have two days to play and then submit their highest score so Imagic could determine the Bermuda trip winners. Further information as to the top winner or whether or not the contest was completed is, as of 2012, unknown.

Colony 7

Atlantis was inspired by the arcade game Colony 7 which had no home versions at the time, so it was the closest you could get to the arcade.

Ending

When the city of Atlantis is destroyed, and the game is over, a blip can be seen leaving the ruined city. This blip is the Cosmic Ark, a spaceship carrying the survivors to other worlds...and this game's sequel.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Servo.

Atari 8-bit added by Kabushi. Odyssey 2 added by Psionic.

Additional contributors: Foom, LepricahnsGold, S Olafsson.

Game added September 5, 2003. Last modified March 11, 2024.