Intellivision Cosmic Avenger Review
Cosmic Avenger is a port of the 1981 arcade classic. It is a horizontal shooter along the same vane as Scramble. In it, you are piloting an Avenger space fighter craft. The screen scrolls right to left as you navigate the playfield, shooting enemies in the air and ground. You have to dodge enemy fire and flying alien ships. These enemies are tough, especially the ones coming from behind your ship. One of the key differences between this and Scramble is, as opposed to Scramble your ship in Cosmic Avenger has an unlimited fuel supply. The further you travel in the game, the battleground environment changes, throwing new challenges and hurdles your way. Cosmic Avenger for the Intellivision is a single-player game.
You start the game with four ships by pressing anything on the controller. You can use either controller. I love how the Intellivision title screen closely resembles the Arcade version with the key difference being, the text “press disc” rather than “insert coin” to play. The image depicted is of an eagle with its wings spread.
I would describe the gameplay in Cosmic Avenger, as hectic. Unfortunately, I am not very good at this game and for that reason, I find it difficult to advance too far into the game. The aliens and enemy fire that comes in from behind your ship is hard to dodge and can make the gameplay frustrating. Having said that, if you can make it past the first wave of the game, it does seem to get better. It feels great when you finally do make it into the second or third sections. This provides the impetus and adds tremendously to the replay value since you want to keep trying to make it further into the game. When your ship is destroyed, the next ship appears and you enjoy a few seconds of invincibility.
I would say controlling the ship with the Intellivision disc works well for this game. You have to use the two side buttons to fire at the enemies, (top button) and to drop your bombs, (bottom button). However, there are so many enemies constantly coming at you that your fingers do get tired from mashing the buttons so often. This is why several people have made the request to add an auto-fire option to the game. Included with the ROM purchase of the game, is a nice manual. According to it, the gameplay can be paused, although it is not clear which button pauses the game. Pressing “3” on the keypad will pause and un-pause the game. I think it is not explicitly shown in the manual because this game may have originally been intended to be released with Box, Manual, and Overlays, where it is shown.
The manual describes the scoring for the game as follows:
UFO…………………………………………..100
Chase Missile Station……………………………80
Counter Missile Station………………………….80
Station……………………………………….100
Anti-Aircraft Gun……………………………….50
Tank………………………………………….130
Submarine……………………………………..100
Mine…………………………………………..50
Depth Bomb……………………………………..50
X Station…………………………………….1000
Enemy rockets, missiles, and torpedoes score 30 points.
From what I can tell, there is no spare ship awarded in the game.
Strategy
You have to have quick reflexes when playing. Avoiding the aliens can be difficult, but according to the manual, there is a distinct warning sound played from the ship’s radar before they appear. Enemy rockets will follow you, but they are slower than your ship, and as long as you stay in front of them, there is a good chance the additional enemy fire will destroy its own rockets. The same holds true for the Alien ships. If you stay in front of them and don’t destroy all the enemy artillery, the Alien ships can sometimes be destroyed by their own fire. This last tip, I didn’t notice until making it to the third cavernous stage. You can control the speed of the scrolling in the game by pressing left on the disc to slow down the scrolling, it can be subtle, pressing right speeds it back up. This is especially helpful in the third stage where you have to maneuver your ship through tight spaces while taking enemy fire.
Graphics
The graphics in my opinion are arcade accurate and colorful. I appreciate the added detail such as the glimmering stars in the background which scroll by as you move. You will notice when you destroy enemy turrets, the whole block of graphics disappears and the game draws back the city behind it. I appreciate how there are multiple distinct environments that are brought in by introducing new scenery and gameplay.
Sound
The sound effects mimic the arcade version well. The intro music plays when the game starts. There is a constant background hum that plays. There are sound effects for your ship firing, for enemy rockets and fire, the alien radar has its own sound effect. There are explosion sound effects and there are additional sounds effects for the tanks and enemy mines.
Glitches
I only came across a few minor issues I thought I would point out. On the first one, as I am moving I explode one half of the “globe” city then the other half afterward it did not fill in the blank spot like it usually does. This happens infrequently. Other times after making it to the tank level, your ship can become flickery or jittery as you move about. This behavior does not stop until you lose a ship or advance to the next section. As I noted previously this does not happen frequently. On a final note when the game is paused, the background hum or siren sound is not silenced.
Ports
Cosmic Avenger was ported to the Colecovision where it enjoyed even more success than the arcade version according to the Wikipedia article.
Other reviews
Willie from the Arcade USA youtube channel posted his review of the game. Link in the description.
Purchasing Information
The ROM can currently be purchased along with the Wizard of Wor ROM, as a two-pack, for $25 on the Atariage forums. Link in the description. In order to play the ROMs, you must have an LTO Flash! Cart. This is to protect the developers from illegal copying and distribution. As for the physical release of Cosmic Avenger, I can only speculate based on the imagery in the included PDF manual, the fact there are overlays shown, may indicate a physical release of the game will come at some point.
Conclusion
Setting aside my initial gameplay frustrations, I am still quite impressed with this arcade port of Cosmic Avenger. The developer did a terrific job of adapting to the hardware restrictions of the Intellivision, while still capturing the spirit of the arcade game. Making it to the second, third or later sections of the game can be quite challenging but also is rewarding at the same time. I had a lot of fun playing this game.
The games’ developer “Dr. Ports Intellivision” on Youtube, has done a great job with this port along with Wizard of Wor, the only two games that have been released so far. I cannot wait to see what “Dr. Ports Intellivision” comes up with next.
Highly Recommended.
Youtube Description:
This is my quick review of the Dr. Ports Intellivision port of Cosmic Avenger.
Box Purchase Info from Good Deal Games:
http://www.gooddealgames.com/inventory/Intellivision.html
ROM purchase Site:
https://atariage.com/forums/topic/305394-intellivision-cosmic-avenger-wizard-of-wor-roms-for-sale/
Arcade USA review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svfcnb1oKhk
Youtube Original Post Date: 04/25/2020
