How to play Space Tunnel online
- Move your ship: arrow keys (left, right, up and down)
- Fire: Space bar
- Choose game 1 to 4: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Change the size of your ship: F4 (the Player 1 difficulty switch)
Gameplay
The story: on the way to a new planet you stray into a space tunnel full of strange UFOs. After you press Reset, your reserve ships are lined up at the top of the screen and, after a short opening, one of them enters the tunnel. UFOs come and go in different shapes, each with its own sound, and their missiles bounce back off the walls if they miss you the first time. According to the leaflet, your energy bombs travel in the same direction as your ship.
You lose a ship if you are hit by a missile or fly into a UFO or a wall. The action then stops; move your ship to a safe spot and press fire to carry on. The four games differ in speed: the UFOs move and shoot faster from game 1 (easy) to game 4 (most difficult).
| Enemy | Wall colour | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Single UFO | Yellow | 30 |
| Big UFO | Light blue | 40 |
| Two UFOs | Light purple | 50 |
| Three UFOs | Red | 80 |
Every 500 points a short tune plays and the background changes colour. Every 1,000 points you get an extra ship, up to a maximum of seven in reserve. The highest possible score is 99,990.
Tips
- Watch the rebound. A missile that misses is not gone. Follow it to the wall and be ready for it to come back.
- Read the wall colour. It tells you which enemy wave you are facing and how much it is worth; groups of three UFOs pay the most.
- Try the other ship size. The difficulty switch changes how big your ship is, so pick the size you find easier to steer.
Other names and versions
Bit Corporation, based in Taipei, sold its 2600 games under its own name and the Puzzy brand, and also through partner companies in other countries. Space Tunnel therefore turns up under many labels. In North America Zimag sold it as Cosmic Corridor, the site’s Weltraumtunnel page runs the same Space Tunnel cartridge (sources disagree on which game Quelle’s German “Weltraumtunnel” release actually contained), and a French-titled version is also on this site as Le Tunnel de L’Espace. Other releases came from Goliath in Germany and from CCE and Polyvox in Brazil. The game is not related to Imagic’s Laser Gates, although some listings mix the two up.
Similar games to play next
- Cosmic Corridor – the same game, sold in North America by Zimag
- Phantom UFO – another space game from Bit Corporation
- Open, Sesame! – another Bit Corporation game, one of the few 2600 cartridges with speech
- Demon Attack – Imagic’s fast shooter against waves of attackers