Atom Splitting

"Based on the essence of science," as the game box declaims -- if not quite the reality of science -- Atom Splitting is a top-down shooting gallery in which you split atoms with carefully aimed electrons. Your atom smasher at the top of the screen can slide back and forth, but only kicks out one electron at a time, while atoms float side-to-side below.

Though atoms are replaced as they're split, they adopt an increasingly Brownian motion, changing speed and reversing direction. Direct hits become a matter not just of timing but good luck, and grazing hits don't even count. There aren't even high scores; this is nuclear physics, after all. Every game starts you off with 600 energy, while each electron shot uses 200 energy, and a split atom returns 300. You can ramp up your stored energy nicely at first, but as the increasingly Brownian motion begins to best your intuition, that energy drops to zero like quarters in an 80's arcade.