Yars Revenge

Name:	Yars Revenge
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-2655
Programmer:	Howard Scott Warshaw
Year:	1981
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Started out as a home version of Star Castle.

Some games are classics the moment they're released, Yar's Revenge is one of those games.  The story line behind Yar's Revenge was so interesting that Atari decided to make it into a comic book packaged with the game.  You are a descendant of a house fly who was aboard a space shuttle that was bombarded with radiation.  The result is that you are an intelligent mutant insect who must now help his people defeat the evil Qotile Continuum.  To accomplish this you must either shoot or eat through the shield surrounding the Qotile then power up your Zorlon cannon by eating a bit of shield or touching the Qotile.  Once your cannon is powered up you must blast the Qotile out of existence (easier said than done).

The name of the game is really an inside joke.  Yar is Ray spelled backwards, which is suppose to be Ray Kassar the CEO of Atari from 79 to 83.  Ray who dismissed Atari engineers as "high-strung prima donnas," was so hated he was nicknamed "The Czar".  This was HSW's little revenge on the boss.  HSW also hid his initials in the game.  To uncover them, shoot the swirl in midair, and then line up the black spot on your back with the place where you hit it.  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.

Notice the strange colors and patterns in the neutral zone?  The zone is actually made up of bits of random code that are used to create color and shapes.  The explosion between rounds is also formed by random code.  HSW was one of the pioneers of code reuse!

Return to 2600 Software