How to play Space Jockey online
- Move the saucer up and down: up and down arrow keys
- Move left and right (some variations only): left and right arrow keys
- Fire: Space bar (also starts the game)
- Choose one of the 16 variations: F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Reset the game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
- Enemy shot speed: F4 (left difficulty switch: A = fast, B = slow)
- Enemy shot frequency: F9 (right difficulty switch: A = frequent, B = less frequent)
Gameplay
Your saucer sits on the left of the screen while the landscape scrolls past. Tanks, jet planes, propeller planes and helicopters come in from the right and shoot at you. Hot air balloons, houses and trees donāt fire, but they are in your way. You start with three saucers and earn another for every 1,000 points.
| Target | Points |
|---|---|
| Jet plane, propeller plane, tank | 100 |
| Helicopter | 50 |
| Balloon | 25 |
| House or tree | 20 |
The 16 variations
The variations combine four options in every possible way: a missile you can direct, enemies that move at random, a saucer that can also move left and right, and collisions that destroy your saucer. Game 1 has none of them, game 16 has all four, and games 9 to 16 all include deadly collisions.
Tips
- Go for the 100-point targets. Planes and tanks are worth four or five times as much as balloons, houses and trees.
- Stay low in the easy games. A 1982 review noted that on the default settings you can score heavily just by hugging the lower-left of the screen.
The story behind Space Jockey
Garry Kitchen made Space Jockey during about six months of reverse-engineering the Atari VCS at Wickstead, and he later described it as a test bed and ājust a modestly fun gameā. It fit on a 2K cartridge at a time when most games were 4K. Released in January 1982, it was a runner-up for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Videogame at the 1983 Arcade Awards. Kitchen has said it sold over a million copies, most of them at a discount. Carrere Video brought it to Europe in late 1983. Kitchen went on to program the 2600 version of Donkey Kong and Activisionās Keystone Kapers.
