How to play Combat Two online
- Left player (there is no computer opponent): arrow keys to drive, Space to fire
- Right player: T/F/G/H for up, left, down and right, A to fire
- Choose a playfield: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start the battle: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
Gameplay
After the title screen, the version on this site shows a green field split by a winding river with two bridges, a base in the top-left and bottom-right corners, and three tank symbols for each player at the bottom. AtariProtos describes the full design. Forests hide you, and you can drive through them, but you must shoot them away to hit a tank hiding inside. Brick walls stop tanks completely. Water slows you down, so the bridges are the quick way across.
Your base shields you from a few hits, and from inside it you can launch a cruise missile that homes in on the enemy and then needs time to recharge. Tanks have three levels of armour instead of dying from a single hit. A normal shot removes one level and a cruise missile two, and the armour slowly repairs itself. Each player has three lives, and the last tank standing wins. Not every version seems to work this way: Keita Iida’s review for Atari Gaming Headquarters found only three screens and a river that did not slow the tanks.
Tips
- Use the bridges. Crossing at a bridge keeps you moving at full speed while your opponent is stuck in the water.
- Save the cruise missile. It has to recharge, so fire it when your opponent is out in the open, not hidden in a forest.
Why it was never released
Atari gave Combat Two the model number CX-2663, a number that later went to Road Runner. The sources give no official reason for the cancellation, but AtariProtos argues that the game strayed too far from the quick, one-hit duels of the original, and that a two-player-only game would have been a hard sell by 1982. In 2001 Retrodesign produced a boxed edition with a manual for Classic Gaming Expo, where 200 copies were sold for $30, with 50 more for collectors outside the United States.
Similar games to play next
- Combat – Tank Plus – the Sears release of the original Combat, with all 27 variations
- Armor Ambush – M Network’s two-player tank battle over varied terrain
- Tank Brigade – defend your base against enemy tanks that fade in and out of view
- Robot Tank – Activision’s first-person tank game for one player