Random Game O' the Day: Cosmic Ark

[digitalpress]

The Fulopian Random de-Generating Collective (tm) has gone back to the good ol' Atari VCS to produce today's topic: Cosmic Ark by Imagic.

I had a reporter at my house on Saturday who had no experience with early Atari systems and wanted to get a sense of what was "magic" about these games both then and now. For some reason, Cosmic Ark always comes to mind when displaying impressive 2600 games - this title looks great, has that perfect "panic" factor, and is still easy to pick up an fun to play.

What do you think?

DP Guide sez:

Cosmic Ark (Atari 2600, by Imagic) $4/R2
Designed by Rob Fulop. Based on the 1980 Midway "Space Zap" coin-op. The tentative title for this game was "Reaction". The game started out as a version of Midway's arcade game, Space Zap, and later evolved to include the secondary game of flying to the planets. Scoring 30,000 in Cosmic Ark could get you a gold star sticker just by sending a picture of your game score to Imagic. EASTER EGGS: Some versions of this cart allow you to turn the star field on and off with the TV-Type switch. These have smaller & lighter type on their labels. #IA3204.

http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/atari2600/cosmicark-2.gif

[YoshiM]

Ahhh. Cosmic Ark. I remember this game quite well.

The first time I played it was back in early 80's when I lived in Nevada. My family had recently won an Atari VCS from a K-Mart Moonlight Madness raffle but we didn't have the cash to buy more carts. We discovered that a video store, specifically one called Omni Video, rented Atari games. This is where I first got Cosmic Ark. [quick question to Las Vegas residents: is Omni Video still around? Don't ask WHERE it was, I don't remember].

I played the hell out of this game. Supposedly there was an end to the game (at least I seem to remember there was) so I was bound and determined to get there. I think that was one of the few Atari games I actually sat down and played for practically hours on at a crack (Spider Fighter, Spy Hunter, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Asteroids are the others that come to mind). Never did find an end but that didn't stop me from getting my twitch gaming on.

[kainemaxwell]

Another game I used to play for hours in my youth.

[captain nintendo]

I love Comsmic Ark ! I would play that game for hours. And it looked really good for what was out at the time.

[geelw]

ah yeah! one of the first games i remember buying because of the nice silvery box (those imagic folks were packing design geniuses most of the time). i used to play this one and thunderground to death, and a friend of mine actually sat down and came up with a short story where both games were combined as one cart to tell some sort of rescue mission! i can see the sci-fi channel movie any day now, LOL...

[Dire 51]

Cosmic Ark = great. This is one of my favorite 2600 games ever.

Is it just me, or do not many people realize that CA is the sequel to Atlantis?

[YoshiM]

Cosmic Ark = great. This is one of my favorite 2600 games ever.

Is it just me, or do not many people realize that CA is the sequel to Atlantis?

Is that official? I always thought it was a spiritual sequel due to the story similarities and the fact they used the same saucer you see when Atlantis bites the dust (or when you use it to shoot stuff in the INTV version).

[Dire 51]

Hang on, I'll check...

Yep. Check this out:

From the Atlantis manual:

"Atlantis, its last installation devastated, explodes in a fury of fire and radiation.

But wait! A satellite streaks into space!
Where is it bound?
Has someone survived the Gorgon onslaught?
Can the Cosmic Ark repopulate the ocean metropolis?

The saga continues."

The CA manual continues with this:

"The sun of Alpha Ro is fading fast! Soon it will flicker out. The Cosmic Ark races to save creatures from doomed planets in that solar system. Meteor showers bombard the Ark, threatening its Atlantean crew - and planetary defense systems make this mission of mercy doubly treacherous! Time and energy slip away - work fast or these defenceless little beasties will disappear for all time."

[IntvGene]

I don't really care about the sequel issue, it doesn't feel like it, but it doesn't matter because the game is really fun, and I just loved the cute little beasties you had to save. It was one of the first games that really got my imagination going too for the VCS.

One thing that I only re-discovered is the two-player co-op play where one player controls the ship in space, and the other player beams up the aliens. A nice addition!

[djbeatmongrel]

i just started collecting vcs last year and cosmic ark has easily become one of my favorite vcs games along with river raid and breakout. visually, cosmic is the prettiest game i know of and its really creative. i might warm up my coleco,toss on my expansion module, and get ready to save some aliens and shoot some asteriods. :D

[Crush Crawfish]

Cosmic Ark Rules! I love abducting the little square people! LOL

[Sotenga]

An ancient gem this one is! CA was just too innovative for words... it was also one of the few 2600 games I know of that actually made good use of sound! I tried playing it once while listening to other music, so naturally, I couldn't hear the game. I haven't played it in a while, but when my lil' spaceship guy left the mothership, I instantly remembered, "CRAP! METEORS!" So I went back inside. I waited in there for a good fifteen seconds before any threats to my mothership came, completely forgetting that there was a warning siren given to indicate meteors. LOL

After a certain eBay auction goes off for me, (which is REAL soon, BTW) I'm gonna go play some CA, I believe. :)

[esquire]

Imagic games rule in general. I can't remeber ever playing a bad Imagic game on the 2600.

[kainemaxwell]

What was supposed to be the 3rd game in the Atlantis/CA trilogy again?

[gamergary]

One of the first video games that I have played. Didn't know what was going on then still don't now. Good game confusing at first but eventually you get the hang of it.

[ubersaurus]

When I was a little kid, I had an obsession with this game. Nevermind the fact that I could hardly ever get it running in my 7800-I loved playing it. I had a system down that worked well until the later rounds, when those laser posts started goin crazier.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I looooove me some Cosmic Ark. One thing I love about this game in hindsight is how non-violent it really is - you can't take any offensive action whatsoever in the game. Bad things can happen to you, but aside from the little defensive blasters on the planets, none of that is on an offensive level either (though you may say something offensive when your little saucer gets blasted). It's almost a pure exploration game. I love it. It's just so different.