Combat

aka: 01 Combat, Combate, Front Line, Tank-Plus
Moby ID: 8851
Atari 2600 Specs
See Also

Description official descriptions

Combat is a two-player game where the players attempt to shoot each other's tanks or planes. Hitting the enemy vehicle pushes it back and gives the player one point. The game contains 27 levels, each of which has different rules and playing field layout. On the tank levels, the players have a selection of two different mazes or no walls at all, while on the plane levels, the players can choose to play with clouds that obscure part of the screen. The Atari 2600 difficulty settings can be used to change the range of a player's missiles, as well as the speed of one's airplanes in levels 15-27. All games have a time limit of 136 seconds.

The levels include:

  • 1-5: Tank levels. Levels 3 and 5 are "straight missile" levels where the players' projectiles simply fly forward. On the "guided missile" levels (1, 2, 4) the projectiles can be controlled with a joystick after firing.
  • 6-9: "Tank-pong" levels, where the players' missiles bounce off walls. In the "billiard hit" levels (8 and 9), there's an additional rule that a missile must bounce at least once before it can hit the enemy tank.
  • 10 and 11: Invisible tank levels, where the tanks only become briefly visible when they shoot, bump into a wall, or are hit by a missile. Both of these give the players guided missiles.
  • 12-14: Invisible "tank-pong" levels. Levels 13 and 14 use the "billiard hit" rule.
  • 15-20: Biplane levels, where the players fly planes that are constantly moving forward and wrap around to the other side when they fly off the screen. Levels 15 and 19 use guided missiles; 16 and 20 use straight missiles; on 17 and 18, the players use rapid-fire machine guns. Additionally, level 19 is a "2 vs. 2" level - both players have two planes each that move and shoot together - and level 20 is "1 vs. 3", where one player has three planes while the other has a single large plane.
  • 21-27: Jet fighter levels. The jet planes move faster than biplanes, but other than that gameplay remains similar. 22, 24, and 27 are straight missile levels, the rest are guided-missile levels. Additionally, 25 and 27 are "2 vs. 2" levels, while 26 is a "1 vs. 3" level.

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Screenshots

Credits (Atari 2600 version)

6 People

Conceived by
Programmer
Scoring system and last-minute bug fixes
Cover Artwork

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 12 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 52 ratings with 5 reviews)

Tanks for the memories...

The Good
Playing this game with a friend could yield hours of entertainment, as it is a shoot-'em-up at its most visceral. This ranks second only to Space Invaders as the best early 2600 game, and can be enjoyed even today.

The Bad
If you didn't have two players, it was a very dull game. The sound was primitive, even by the standards of the day, and there was no music.

The Bottom Line
This is a basic action shooter, Atari 2600 style, consisting of a pair of tanks, jet planes, or biplanes trying to shoot each other.

Atari 2600 · by Foom (5) · 2004

A classic, best when shared...

The Good
The Combat cartridge, like most of the early VCS games, included many games, giving the players a wide variety of options to choose from. So even if the tank games seem a little boring at first, the "pong" and invisible variations give some twist to the combat. And soon enough, you feel that the delight of blasting the opponent's tank grows on you. Interesting feature, you can fly your aircraft from to one side and reappear at the other, for some surprise shooting at the enemy's tail.

The Bad
You always need a partner to play Combat, so make sure to keep some friends around (and let them win once in a while). But it would have been nice to have some variations for a single player. Aiming is a little awkward when you dispose only of 8 possible angles. However from a tactical point of view, this limitation may prove not so negative. Please note that the tanks were probably very light at some time in history, because I've seen mine fly across a whole field when it got hit by the enemy. The graphics are quite simplistic. No use of music is made during the game, but the sound effects do their job.

The Bottom Line
Simple, yet effective. The game requires a little exploration, but once you find suitable variations, and an interesting partner, you can play for hours once you've developed some tactics. Ain't bad considering how early it got published!

Atari 2600 · by RobinHud (68) · 2005

How to hate your best friend in 10 seconds or less

The Good
It's the quick fix of violence that satisfies in COMBAT - no strategy, no negotiations, no resource mining and research trees. It's just you and the "FIRE" button on a blocky-abstract battlefield sent to put a hurtin' on that bastard in the other tank or airplane. There's nothing like lining up the enemy in your sights and knocking him spinning backwards, over and over and over again. The variety in settings helps keep it interesting past those first couple of matches, and the primitive mechanics lead to a few surprises of their own - how long did you laugh at your friend, curve-jerking bullets around the barriers into him, before you finally let him in on the secret?

The Bad
We're dealing with Pre-Cambrian technology here, so don't expect much presentational flair. Or music. Or color. And some of the multiple game modes you'll just skip on by. And they didn't exactly beta test this stuff, so if you don't have the constitution to be on the victimized end of some nail-pulling cheap tricks, stay away.

The Bottom Line
As pure and unadorned as its title, and user-friendly enough that anyone can pick it up and get a few minutes of fun even today.

Atari 2600 · by TheoryOfChaos (23) · 2006

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Combat appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Release

Combat was one of the nine games available for the launch of the Atari 2600 in 1977. It was supplied with the 2600 game console and even came with the Sears branded VCS.

References to the game

A copy of this game is visible on top of the lead character's television in the 1983 David Cronenberg film Videodrome.

Awards

  • FLUX
    • Issue #4 - #48 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
  • Retro Gamer
    • Issue #46 - #24 in the “Top 25 Atari 2600 Games" poll

Information also contributed by Big John WV, Depeche Mike, PCGamer77, Scott Monster and FatherJack

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8851
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by wanax.

Plex Arcade added by firefang9212. Windows, Xbox 360 added by Alaka. Antstream added by lights out party.

Additional contributors: RKL, Servo, chirinea, LepricahnsGold, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added April 11, 2003. Last modified March 12, 2024.