Tank (video game)
| Tank | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Poster art of Tank | |
| Developer(s) | Kee Games |
| Publisher(s) | Kee Games |
| Designer(s) |
Steve Bristow[1] Lyle Rains |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date(s) |
‹See Tfd›
|
| Genre(s) | Military strategy |
| Cabinet | custom |
| CPU | discrete |
| Sound | Amplified Stereo (two channels) |
| Display | Vertical orientation, Black-and-white raster display, Standard Resolution |
Tank is an arcade game developed by Kee Games, a subsidiary of Atari, and released in November 1974. It was the only original title by Kee Games, which was founded to sell clones of Atari games to distributors as a fake competitor, prior to the merger of the two companies. In the game, two players drive tanks through a maze, viewed from above, attempting to shoot each other and avoid mines, represented by X marks, in a central minefield. Each player controls their tank with a pair of joysticks, moving them forwards and back to drive, reverse, and steer.
Tank was designed by Steve Bristow, who had previously worked with the founders of Atari on Computer Space, the first arcade video game, and was developed by Lyle Rains. It was created as part of Bristow's vision to move the company away from only producing copies of Atari's games into also developing original titles. The game's cabinet was designed by Peter Takaichi. In September 1974, Atari announced the merger of the two companies, which went into effect a month after the release of the game in December.
The game was very commercially successful, selling over 10,000 units and buoying Atari's then-troubled finances. It led to three sequels, Tank II (1974), Tank 8 (1976), and Ultra Tank (1978). Variations on the game were included in the Atari 2600 game Combat, as well as in the Coleco Telstar game Telstar Combat!, both in 1977.
Gameplay
Tank uses a black and white Motorola television for its display.[2] The control panel consists of four military-style joysticks, two per player, with a fire button mounted on top of the right joystick of each pair. Inserting coins immediately starts the game, placing the players in the upper right and lower left corners of the maze respectively.[2] Players move their tanks through a maze on screen, avoiding mines and shooting each other. The players are represented by one black and one white tank sprite, and mines are denoted by an "X". Points are scored by shooting the opponent or when a player runs over a mine; the player with the highest score at the end of the time limit wins the game.
The tanks are controlled by two joysticks in a dual configuration. Pushing both joysticks moves the player's tank forward, and pulling them both back causes the tank to stop. Moving the right joystick forward while pulling the left joystick back causes the tank to turn right, while reversing the motion causes the tank to turn left.
Development
In the early 1970s, the arcade game market was split into manufacturers, distributors, and operators; manufacturers like Atari sold game machines to distributors—who handled several types of electronic machines—who in turn sold them to the operators of locations. Exclusivity agreements, in addition, meant that most distributors were tied to a single arcade game manufacturer. Atari, in 1973 just over a year old and largely based on their hit first game Pong, felt that as a smaller manufacturer this setup severely limited their ability to sell arcade games: they could only contract with a limited number of distributors, who would only buy a limited number of games per year.[3] To work around this, Atari set up a secret subsidiary company in September 1973, Kee Games, which was intended to sell clones of Atari's games, in effect doubling their potential reach. Despite this, the company did have its own manufacturing equipment and therefore the ability to develop original titles, and after several clone games lead engineer Steve Bristow developed the idea for a new title. Bristow, who had previously worked with the Atari founders on Computer Space, the first arcade video game, while thinking of how he would improve that game, came to the idea of replacing its difficult to control rocket ships with more direct tanks, and making it a two-player game as well instead of a single-player one.[4]
As the company's only engineer, Bristow rapidly developed a prototype himself, and then hired and turned the game over to Lyle Rains to develop into a finished product, codenamed K2 Tank. Rains added the maze and central minefield to the game design and developed the final hardware, including the simple control scheme. Peter Takaichi designed a large custom cabinet to house it.[5] Before the game could be completed, in September 1974 Atari announced plans to merge itself and Kee Games back together; Tank was released that November just prior to the merger in December 1974.[4]
Tank was the first game to use IC-based ROM to store graphical data.[6] Although Gran Trak 10, released in July 1974, was the first arcade game to use solid state ROM data, Gran-Trak's ROM used an earlier diode-based ROM technology.[5]
Legacy
Tank was very successful commercially, and is credited with buoying the finances of the newly merged Atari at a critical time for the company. It sold over 10,000 units, considered a large hit at the time.[7] A sequel, Tank II, was released in 1974. It was followed by two further sequels, the full color and Motorola 6800 microprocessor based Tank 8 (1976), and the 6502 microprocessor based Ultra Tank (1978). The Atari 2600 game Combat, released in 1977, includes several variations of Tank. The Coleco Telstar game Telstar Combat!, also released in 1977, played four variations of Kee Games' Tank using a General Instruments AY-3-8700 Tank chip.
Battlezone was released in 1980, using the same control mechanism. Designed by Ed Rotberg, the game play was moved to 3D first person format displayed by vector graphics. The player also now competed against computer-controlled opponents.
References
- ↑ Obituary: Gaming pioneer Steve Bristow helped design Tank, Breakout, by Kyle Orland, Feb 25, 2015, Ars Technica
- 1 2 Kee Games, Tank Operation and Service Manual, Kee Games
- ↑ Atari, Inc., p. 120
- 1 2 Atari, Inc., pp. 127–130
- 1 2 Fulton, Steve. "Atari Timeline: 1974". Archived from the original on October 23, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
- ↑ "Atari: From Boom to Bust and Back Again". Next Generation. Imagine Media (4): 37. April 1995.
- ↑ Atari, Inc., p. 131
Sources
- Goldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012-11-25). Atari Inc.: Business Is Fun. Syzygy Press. ISBN 978-0-9855974-0-5.
External links
- Armchair Arcade commentary
- Entries at Killer List of Videogames: Tank, Tank II, Tank 8, Ultra Tank
- PCB and Artwork images from Andy's Arcade