How to play Air Raiders online
The stick works like a real aircraft’s: pull back to climb, push forward to dive.
- Climb / dive: down / up arrow keys
- Bank left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Start the take-off run and fire: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Heavier or lighter flak: F4 (left difficulty switch; A is harder)
- Save and load: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each flight starts on the runway. Press fire, wait about four seconds to build up speed, then pull back to lift off. Too early and you crash; too late and you run out of runway.
Enemy planes usually fly in threes. Get one in your gunsight and fire to blow it up. Flak from the ground makes you lose height fast whenever it hits. The panel shows your altitude (up to 40, meaning 40,000 feet), your hits, your ammunition (99 rounds at the start) and your fuel, plus a position bar with a red heavy-flak zone. Drop below 10 and you need to climb before you crash. Climbing burns about four times as much fuel as diving and twice as much as flying level.
To refuel, dive to 00, wait for the runway and push forward until the horizon is level. You may only take off again if you shot down at least 10 planes on that flight, and your new ammunition equals the hits you made. The game ends when you crash or have no ammunition left to take off with. There is no points score; the manual ranks you by planes shot down, from Student Pilot up to Triple Ace (more than 90 in one game).
Tips
- Make every flight count. Your hits become your next load of ammunition, so keep shooting until fuel is really low.
- Climb when flak is near your sight. If you are already climbing when it hits, you lose less height.
- Fly level when you can. It saves fuel, and a full tank means more time to score hits.
- Stay out of the red zone on the position bar, especially at low altitude.
History
Mattel Electronics, the maker of the Intellivision, used the M Network name for its Atari 2600 games. Air Raiders was called Air Battle during development, and at least one prototype with an “Air Battle” label has been found. INTV later reissued the cartridge, and several editions appeared in South America. Opinions are mixed: some players call it an underrated early flight game, others find it looks better than it plays.
