Yars' Revenge

Name:	Yars' Revenge
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-2655
Programmer:	Howard Scott Warshaw
Year:	1981
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Originally called Time Freeze

Of course doing this isn't going to be easy.  Not only does the Qotile turn into a deadly swirl which will launch itself at you at random intervals, but will also shoot out  a Destroyer Missile.  The Destroyer Missile looks like a little dash that will slowly move out from the Qotile and seek out the player.  While the player cannot harm or destroy the Destroyer Missile, they can hide from it in the Neutral Zone which appears as glowing mass of lines in the center of the screen.  While in the Neutral Zone the player is impervious to the Destroyer Missile but can still be killed by the Qotile swirl.  Unfortunately while the player is in the Neutral Zone they cannot fire either regular shots or the Zorlon Cannon.  It's interesting to note that the 'graphics' for the Neutral Zone is actually made up of lines of game code that are displayed as graphics and randomly colored.  Some of Atari's lawyers were actually afraid that someone might be able to reverse engineer the game code if they were able to figure out how the Neutral Zone graphics were created.

There are two different shield configurations for the Qotile  The first is a simple 'Bow' shaped shield that will quickly fall apart when shot (each shot takes out a cross like chunk of the shield).  The second configuration is far more difficult.  At first this shield appears to be a solid rectangle, but after shooting it the player will soon notice that it's actually a rapidly moving barrier that wraps around from top to bottom.  Destroying this second shield takes much longer as the moving barrier keeps the player from just blowing a single hole in the shield.  The two shield configurations will then alternate over and over again except on variations 0 and 1 where only the first configuration is encountered.  The shield will also change color as the player reaches certain scoring thresholds.

Yars' Revenge features four different game variations for one to two players.  Variations 0 and 1 are the Children's Variations which feature a slow destroyer Missile and only the easier shield configuration.  Variations 2 and 3 are the standard variation with both shield configurations and a normal speed Destroyer Missile.  Variations 4 and 5 are similar to variations 2 and 3 except that the Zorlon Cannon will bounce off the shield instead of destroying a chunk of it (and take the player out if they're not careful).  Variations 6 and 7 are what the manual refers to as 'Ultimate Yars'.  In Ultimate Yars' the player must touch the left side of the screen to make the Zorlon Cannon appear, but not until they've collected at least five energy units called Trons.  The player can collect Trons in several different ways, eating a piece of shield yields one Tron, touching the Qotile gives you two Trons, while catching the Zorlon Cannon shot after it bounces off the shield (deadly in all other variations) will yield 4 Trons.  The player can stockpile up to 255 Trons after which the counter will roll over to zero.  This variation makes the game much more challenging and provides a fresh take on an already amazing game.

Although the name sounds random, Yar is actually an inside joke.  Yar is Ray spelled backwards, which was a reference to Ray Kassar the CEO of Atari from 79 to 83.  Ray Kassar had a reputation for being dismissive of Atari's engineers whom saw as "high-strung prima donnas" which made him less than popular with the rank and file.  Howard purposely named the main character Yar in hopes that Ray would notice and take a liking to the name (the tactic worked).  Of course being able to name a giant sentient house fly after your boss is revenge on a whole different level.  As was customary, HSW also hid his initials in the game.  To uncover them the player must shoot the swirl in midair and then line up the black spot on Yars back with the black line that appears in the glowing graphics.  If you did this correctly you should see HSWWSH appear on the status screen between levels.  HSW also hid his initials in E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, bit oddly not in his last game Saboteur.

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