Yars' Revenge

Development

Yars' Revenge started life as Atari 2600 conversion of Star Castle. However, after Scott Warshaw saw that the hardware was too limited, he started to change the game elements to create this game.

Extras

The Atari 2600 version came with a small comic book that explained the origin of the sentient flies like Yar and about the approaching Qotile enemy.

Freeze

After you fire the cannon and successfully hit the Qotile fly along the vertical line that appears along the side of the explosion field, scrolling from the top to bottom of the screen. If you do this correctly a strange five digit code will appear in the middle of the screen and the game will freeze.

References to the game

Sound effects from Yars' Revenge make an appearance in the movie Airplane II: The Sequel. In a scene near the beginning of the movie, a landing shuttle has auto pilot engaged; a kid then comes by and begins fiddling with the controls at mission control causing the shuttle to lose control, all the while the game sounds are heard in the background.

Title

Yar is named after an Atari executive named Ray Kassar. Yar is Ray backwards.

Awards

• FLUX
  • Issue #4 - #90 on the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
• Retro Gamer
  • Issue #46 - #5 in the “Top 25 Atari 2600 Games" poll

Information also contributed by Big John WV, LepricahnsGold, PCGamer77; ru pauk and Servo