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What are Archive Reviews? Archive Reviews are of products released long before this web site's origins in 1999. They are meant as reference, both to the games loved by those of us at Techtite.com in the "good old days" of gaming, and as a source to link to whenever we mention these "classic" games in a more recent review.
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Cosmic Ark
(Animated Gif of actual game screen!) (Imagic, 1982, Atari 2600)A Techtite "Archive Review"
The game premise was simple: go planet to planet in your "cosmic ark" and save the little alien creatures on worlds doomed to oblivion. You would first enter their hostile solar systems by avoiding various meteor showers. This would be more or less a reflex game of sorts, where meteors would come in from above, below, and left and right, with you having to react before they meteor hit your ship. That's just part one of a two part game, though. Then the real fun would begin on the actual planet...
Later levels would have the added difficulty of faster meteor showers, and what's more; defense systems active on the planets you encounter. Hey; you're al alien after all, so don't expect the friendly welcome on later planets, doomed planet or no doomed planet. Sound like fun? Well, to Techtite.com it is, and if we were going to list our top 50 favorite games from the Atari/Coleco/Intellivision era, this would be one of them.
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
I
guess it's saying something when I tell someone that to the best of my
knowledge, I bought every game that Imagic ever made. While a cynic may say
they actually didn't make many games, the truth is that every game they made
was fresh, original, and inspired. Cosmic Ark was no exception.
Here's
the thing: you had to actually pick up the creatures on each world. The good
news is that you are the captain of a "cosmic ark," and that means
only two of each creature, on each world, is required. The bad news is that
these critters don't take kindly to being beamed up, Scotty, so you have to
chase them down with your little mini flying saucer. The worse news: your
ship is vulnerable to attack while doing this, so keep an ear out for the
red alert sound, which means your time is up and it's time to leave the
world, ready or not!