Legendary Spear

About the game

You ride alone against a steady stream of enemy cavalry that crosses the screen in lanes, with rocks mixed in among them. Every rider you strike with your spear scores points and comes back faster for the next pass, while a rider or a rock that reaches you first takes away part of your health.

The author describes it as a small game study in the spirit of early arcade and Atari classics where waves of enemies keep coming. It is quick to learn, and the challenge is in timing the thrust as the riders speed up.

Playing it here

This is a homebrew game made for the Atari 2600: a new game by independent developers for the 1977 console, not a commercial release. It runs here in Stellerator, an Atari 2600 emulator written in JavaScript. Click Play now and press Space on the title screen to start.

There are no save states on this platform: like on the real console, a game lasts as long as you keep playing, and P pauses it. A gamepad works too.

Controls

A few things worth knowing

Readying the spear slows you down. While the button is held, the samurai moves at half speed, so get into the rider's lane before you start the thrust.

Strike at the right moment. A rider only counts as hit when the spear thrust connects; meeting a rider without striking costs health.

Rocks do not score. Rocks drift across the lanes too; they only hurt you, so steer around them.

99 is the target. The score stops at 99 points.

Credits and licence

Legendary Spear was made by DChristianson, with PAL60 colors mapped by Al_Nafuur. It is released under the MIT licence. The licence text is linked from this page.