Final Legacy

Name:	Final Legacy
Company:	Atari
Model #:	RX-8067
Programmers:	Dan Oliver (Program & Graphics), Brad Fuller (Audio), and Chris Horseman (Game Design)
Year:	1984
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Originally called Sea Protector, Sea Sentinel, Sub Sentinel, Sub-Mariner, and The Legacy.  Also code named Polaris during programming.

Final Legacy (originally The Legacy), is actually a collection of three mini action games in one.  While none of these games are particularly interesting on their own, when put together in one package they make for excellent game.

The year is 2051.  Fifty years after the world was nearly destroyed by nuclear war the threat has returned.  World leaders have begun to intercept radio signals from ancient computer systems in the long silent dead zone.  Mankind may have ended the war, but the computers are intent on finishing what they began fifty years ago.  You are captain of the Legacy, a futuristic battleship built to combat this new evil.  Your mission is to destroy all the remaining missile sites and save the world from a second nuclear war.

After some really cool title screen music, you are taken to the map screen.  This screen serves as your main navigation and decision screen.  From here you can choose one of four options: Navigation, Torpedo, Sea to Land, and Sea to Air.  If you're going to save the world from nuclear annihilation you're going to need to master all of these screens.

Navigation

As you probably guessed, this screen allows you to maneuver the Legacy around the map.  The map shows the locations of the three basic game units: Friendly Cities, Enemy Ships, and Enemy Missile Bases.  The map screen also displays vital statistics such as the number of missile bases remaining, damage done to the Legacy, and the amount of fuel remaining

As you move around the map the Legacy will use up more and more fuel.  If you run out of fuel it's game over so make sure you stop at a friendly city to refuel before it's too late.  If an enemy patrol gets too close to your ship you will begin to hear a warning sound, this is your cue to switch to the Torpedo screen and engage the enemy in combat.  Be quick about switching screens since the enemy can damage you even while you're on the Navigation screen.

Torpedo Screen

Although it's called the Torpedo screen, this screen has nothing to do with submarines.  This is your basic ship to ship combat simulator.  Using the joystick, you can move the Legacy forward, backwards, left, and right.  Pressing the fire button will launch a set of torpedoes at the enemy ship (funny I thought torpedoes were launched under the water).  Using the radar bar under the ship you can hunt down the enemy ships before they hunt you down.  Once the white blip is lined up in the center of the radar bar the enemy ship will come into focus.  There are three types of enemy ships in the game, each ship has its own behavior and properties.

As you're hunting down the enemy, be sure to make note of the number that appears below the bow of your ship.  This number is the damage percentage for the Legacy.  If it reaches 100% then you're sunk and it's game over!

Sea to Land

Once you approach a missile base you'll need to switch to this screen to destroy them. The Sea to Land screen is really a futuristic looking radar very similar in appearance to Activision's Beamrider.  On this screen you simply need to line the crosshairs up with the missile silos and blast away.  However once you attack an enemy missile base they will immediately launch a barrage of missiles at one of your cities.  Quickly destroy as many silos as you can and switch to the Sea to Air screen to take out the missiles.  You only have a limited amount of time to take out the missiles (as indicated by the Time to Impact timer) so be careful.

Also note that you need to use this screen to refuel the Legacy.  Simply switch to this screen while next to a friendly city, line up the city in your crosshairs, and begin the refueling process.  Watch out that you don't accidentally hit the fire button while refueling or you'll wipe out your own city!  Use the "1" key to switch back to the Navigation screen.

Sea to Air

You'll need to switch to this screen once an enemy missile base has launched its missiles at one of your cities.  This screen is similar to the Sea to Land screen, but the missiles move around the screen where as the silos were stationary.  Using the latest in killer satellite technology, line up the crosshairs with the enemy missile and press the fire button to wipe it out.  If the missiles get by you, but they aren't close enough to destroy the city, you'll see the words "Refocusing" appear at the bottom of the screen (humorously misspelled "Refocussing") and you'll get another chance to blast them at close range.  The current city under attack and the percentage of it left intact is shown at the top of the screen along with the time left to impact. You can also use the Trak-Ball controller for this screen by plugging it into port two.  The Track-Ball makes this screen a bit more fun, but the standard joystick works just fine.

You may have noticed the odd city names in the game.  The reason for these odd names is that they're actually abbreviations, even though there was space for their full names (as the above screenshot proves).  The manual only lists the city abbreviations, but they all have full names.  This may have been done intentionally for some reason:

Interestingly there was an international version of Final Legacy developed, but it is unknown if it was ever released.  In this version all the necessary text is replaced by icons and most of the unnecessary text has been eliminated.  This would have made it easier to release overseas as only one version would have to be made instead of one in each language.  Some of the differences are:

• There are no ranks listed, only numbers 1-6 (game variations)

• The Left Handed/Right Handed option selection is different
  

• The various screen names (Navigation, Sea to Air, Sea to Land, Torpedo) are all represented by icons

• The various status indicator names (# of enemy bases, damage, fuel) are all represented by icons

• All the text on the Sea to Land screen has been removed, but the word TIME still flashes over the Time To Impact indicator.

• The text on the Sea to Air screen has been simplified.  City Under Attack is now simply City, Time to Impact is now Time, and the % Intact is just shown as a percentage.  The text is also now centered.

• The word Refocussinig has been removed and is now represented by text (2X, 3X, etc.) showing how many times it can refocus before impact.

• Ship ranks are now denoted by stars (from one to three).  Also the text 'No Ships' is no longer shown after you destroy all the ships.

An Atari 5200 version of Final Legacy was also developed but was never released.  This version was based on the non-icon version as the Atari 5200 was never released outside the US. 

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