Cosmic Ark
Imagic sets off on a mission of mercy
By Brian C. RittmeyerOctober 4, 2001
In many early video games, all the
action took place on a single screen. It wasn't until later that screens
"scrolled." Cosmic Ark by Imagic is notable for being a game with two
screens, a feature that helps give the game a story and contributes to its
excellent-to-this-day playability.
In the game, you are the pilot of the Cosmic Ark. It's your job
to rescue aliens before their worlds are destroyed. But if you're not careful,
you'll be destroyed yourself. In the first screen of the game, you must get your
ark through an asteroid bombardment. The asteroids come from above, below and
both sides, but your ship is adequately protected with guns in all directions.
You fire by pushing the joystick in the direction you want to fire. The
asteroids come out fast, and faster and faster as the game progresses. It will
often seem you're destroying asteroids just a hair away from your ship. But you
won't want to waste shots, for wasting shots wastes fuel - and when you run out
of fuel, you're a goner! Your fuel is represented by a red bar on the first
screen of the game, along with your score. Each shot you fire burns fuel, but
destroying the asteroids replenishes it, so if you're good you'll end up even.
The game really gets going on the second screen, which the ark travels to
simply by rising to the top of the screen and then falling, while the background
changes. Here, you guide a small scout ship out of the ark and descend to the
surface of the planet, where two aliens scared out of their wits are scurrying
around. It's your job to capture them one at a time with your transporter beam,
bring them up inside your ship and return to the ark. But you'll have to hurry -
there's an asteroid on the way! Your ship will signal an alert when an asteroid
is nearing, and you'll need to get the scout ship back before the asteroid comes
to defend the ark - if you don't, goodbye ark. It's preferable to get your job
done before an alert.
If you get both aliens, the level is completed, you travel through
another asteroid bombardment and have to rescue two more aliens from another
planet. If you don't get them both on the first try, you'll have to return for
the other one. After the first planet, an planetary defense system will
activate, making the rescue harder - it's a rising and falling energy line that
fires intermittently, and you'll have to avoid it. If you're destroyed, the
aliens you had onboard or in the transporter beam return to the surface. After
you're destroyed you can try again, if you have the time.
The game is based on the fuel of the ark - rescuing both aliens on the
first visit gives you fuel, while you lose fuel if your scout ship or the ark is
destroyed. The game ends when the ark is destroyed by an asteroid and you have
no fuel left. But not to fear, like in
Atlantis, there are survivors, who escape on a similar looking craft.
Could there be a connection to
Atlantis? Perhaps...
There is no game music in Cosmic Ark, only sound effects - the
sounds of the asteroids rushing towards the ark, your weapons fire, the ark
traveling between screens, the scout ship engine sound, the transporter beam,
the planetary defense system firing and the ark's alert. The graphics are crisp
and colorful, from the ark itself to the colorful, starry background. Changing
the difficulty makes the sides of the ark extend, making defending the ark more
difficult.
The two screens in Cosmic Ark lend substance to the game it
couldn't have with just one. You're on a mission, not to destroy, but to save.
These two aspects made Cosmic Ark different in its time.
Game Data |
Scores
|
| Title |
Cosmic Ark |
Graphics |
95% |
| Publisher |
Imagic |
Sound/Music |
90% |
| Genre |
Action |
Gameplay |
95% |
| System |
2600 |
Control |
N/A% |
|
|
Overall |
90% |
)
)
)
)
