How to play He-Man online
- Move the Wind Raider or He-Man: arrow keys
- Fire / raise the Power Sword: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Starting level: F4 (left difficulty switch): A starts at level 1, B at level 3
- Pause: F9 (right difficulty switch)
- Single or rapid fire: F2 (TV type switch): black-and-white gives single shots, colour gives rapid fire
Gameplay
He-Man must travel 30 miles from Man-At-Arms’ workshop to Castle Grayskull, fighting Skeletor’s forces on the way. In the first half you fly the Wind Raider over a scrolling landscape. Evil Warriors on the ground fire Energy Bolts and homing Warp Trakkers at you. The fire button chooses your weapon for you: whenever a Warp Trakker is on screen it fires the Ion Cannon, and the rest of the time it drops Mutron Bombs. The bombs destroy Energy Bolts and can trap warriors in their craters.
Land on the castle and the second half begins. He-Man walks across a dungeon crossed by moving walls, each with three gaps, while Skeletor fires laser blasts at him. Hold up the Power Sword to block the blasts. Reach the far side, touch Skeletor, and you move on to the next level. There are eight levels; after level 8 you can keep playing, but it gets no harder.
Your score is kept in energy units. Bombing an Energy Bolt is worth 300, defeating an Evil Warrior 200, reaching Skeletor 200, and shooting a Warp Trakker or blocking a laser blast 100. According to the manual, your energy units are multiplied by the level you are on. Each loss costs 100 units. You start with three Wind Raiders, and you can buy a replacement at the workshop for 100 units times the current level. The game ends when all your Wind Raiders are gone.
Tips
- Fly at middle height. Warp Trakkers home in on you if you fly above the Ion Cannon’s level, and warriors can hit you if you fly right above them. The manual advises staying away from both the top and the bottom of the screen.
- Bomb the Energy Bolts. At 300 units they are the best points in the flying stage.
- Block often in the dungeon. Every blocked blast scores, so there is no need to rush to Skeletor.
- Try rapid fire. Set the TV type switch to colour if single shots feel too slow.
History
Mattel made its own Intellivision console but also sold games for the Atari 2600 under the M Network name. The He-Man game came out on Intellivision in November 1983 and on the 2600 in December. Each version had its own programmers: the 2600 game was designed and programmed by Mike Sanders and Jossef Wagner, with sound by Patricia Lewis Du Long.
Similar games to play next
- Adventures of Tron – another M Network game based on a licence
- Tron: Deadly Discs – M Network’s arena battle game
- Super Cobra – a scrolling shooter where you bomb and shoot ground targets
- Superman – Atari’s comic-book hero game