Yars' Revenge

Yars' Revenge is a 1982 Atari 2600 video game developed and released by Atari in the USA on May 12, 1982. The player controls an insect-like creature called a Yar who must nibble or shoot through a barrier in order to fire its Zorlon Cannon into the breach. The objective is to destroy the evil Qotile, which exists on the other side of the barrier. The Qotile can attack the Yar, even if the barrier is undamaged, by turning into the Swirl and shooting across the screen. In early levels the player is warned before the Swirl is fired and can retreat to a safe distance to dodge the attack, and in later levels, the Swirl turns into a guided missile after firing and will chase the Yar until it scrolls off either the top or the bottom of the screen. The Yar can hide from a pursuing destroyer missile within a "neutral zone" in the middle of the screen, but the Yar cannot shoot while in the zone. The Swirl can kill the Yar anywhere, even inside the neutral zone. To destroy the Qotile or the Swirl, the player has to either touch the Qotile or eat a piece of the shield to activate the Zorlon Cannon, aim the cannon by leading with the Qotile or Swirl, then fire the cannon and fly the Yar out of the path of the cannon's shot. If the weapon finds its mark, the level ends. If the cannon blast hits a piece of the shield or misses, it is expended. The cannon itself is dangerous because, once activated, the fire button launches it instead of firing the Yar's usual shots and, as the cannon tracks the Yar's vertical position, players effectively use the Yar itself as a target and therefore must immediately maneuver to avoid being hit by their own shot. The cannon shot can also rebound off the shield in later levels. An extra life is earned if the player shoots the Swirl in mid-air. Easter Egg After killing the Swirl in mid-flight, a black vertical line appears on the screen across the spot where the Swirl was shot (the line is referred to in the manual as the "Ghost of Yars" and warns the player to stay off its "mean streak"). If the Yar is in the lower third of the screen and the black spot on its back across the vertical line at the moment the explosion vanishes, the game ends and goes into the "game select" screen with the programmer's initials, HSW, as HSWWSH in place of the player's score as an Easter egg.