Cosmic Ark

Cosmic Ark for the Atari 2600

Cosmic Ark is an action game released by Imagic in 1982 for the Atari 2600. Players take on the role of captain of a cosmic ark; the goal is to save as many life forms as possible from the doomed Alpha Ro system. The game is a sequel (of sorts) to Imagic's earlier title Atlantis, although gameplay between the two is quite different.

Cosmic Ark takes place in the Alpha Ro planetary system; the central star of this system is about to go nova, and it is up to the pilot of the titular cosmic ark to visit all of the planets and rescue the life forms before they are destroyed. The system is a hostile place where deadly meteor storms and planetary defense systems will make this job an even greater challenge!

Gameplay in Cosmic Ark consists of two sequences which repeat with ever increasing difficulty. The first sequence is a meteor shower; the game screen shows the cosmic ark in the center of the screen and meteors will randomly appear from each of the four screen edges. Players need to quickly shoot the meteors before they can hit the ark. The second sequence shows the cosmic ark above a planet surface; players control a shuttleship with the goal of beaming up the life forms that are on the planet surface. The creatures will be running back and forth and may not be cooporative in being caught! Each planet (except the first one) also have planetetary defenses; this appear as bars moving up and down on the sides of the screen which occasionally fire lasers between them at various intervals. If players are hit, one of the creatures that has been captured will be dropped and needs to be captured again. Once both creatures are captured, players need to return to the ark so it can take off for the next planet. This sequence is timed; if players take too long, eventually another meteor will appear and threaten the ark (an alarm will sound alerting players that a meteor is approaching). If players have already returned to the ark the meteor can be destroyed (similar to in the first sequence), or if not the ark is destroyed. If players are forced to take off before capturing both life forms, the ark will return again to the same planet after surviving another meteor shower.

Players lose a life each time the ark is destroyed and the game ends when no more reserve arks remain. As the game progresses difficulty is increased by having more and faster meteors, more rapid planetary defense fire, more difficult to catch life forms, and less time on each planet. Also included are two difficulty levels. On the easier level, the ark is smaller making it further from the edges of the screen; this gives players a little more time to respond to the incoming meteors. There is a two player version of the game selectable; in this game variation, one of the Atari's joysticks controls the game during the meteor shower and the other controls the shuttleship so players alternate with each controlling one sequence of the game rather than competing.