Air-Sea Battle

Air-Sea Battle was one of the Atari 2600's launch titles in 1977. It was a series of 27 Side View, one player or Player Versus Player, Shoot Em Ups. It was based on a 1975 Atari arcade game called Anti-Aircraft. Each game lasts 2 minutes and 16 seconds, and the object is to hit more targets than your opponent.


 * Games 1-6: Anti-Aircraft. There are two anti-aircraft guns, fixed in the lower part of the screen. Planes fly overhead. Aim your gun and shoot them down. Some variations have unguided shells, some have guided missiles. Some are for two players, and some have a computer opponent that just fires a continuous stream of shells.
 * Games 7-12: Torpedo. There are two submarines at the bottom of the screen, and you can move them left and right. Ships float by overhead. Position your sub and shoot them. Again, some have guided torpedoes, some unguided, and some have the computer opponent mindlessly shooting away.
 * Games 13-15: Shooting Gallery. Targets are clown faces, rubber ducks, and rabbits. This time, the player can both move and aim the guns.
 * Games 16-18: Polaris. The two players are ships floating across the bottom of the screen. Planes fly overhead, shoot them down. You can control the speed of your ship, but not stop it.
 * Games 19-21: Bomber, the reverse of Polaris. You fly the bombers, and drop bombs on ships.
 * Games 22-27: Polaris vs. Bomber. The only variations where the players can shoot each other.

The difficulty switches are used to handicap the games, changing the size of your missiles.

Air-Sea Battle provides examples of:

 * Anachronism Stew: The planes are a mix of modern jets, helicopters, and the biplanes from Combat. Also, the ships look like a mix of modern ships and galleons.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer
 * Every Bullet Is a Tracer
 * The Golden Age of Video Games
 * Lead the Target: An important skill in the variations with unguided weapons.
 * No Plot, No Problem
 * One Bullet At a Time
 * Painfully Slow Projectile: Very much so.
 * Palette Swap: Everything.
 * Player Versus Player: Most of them.
 * Shoot'Em Up
 * Side View
 * Timed Mission: 2:16 per round.
 * Wrap Around: Everything except the guns and submarines.