How to play Beamrider online
- Move from beam to beam: left and right arrow keys
- Fire the laser lariat: Space bar
- Fire a torpedo: up arrow key (pushing the joystick forward)
- Start a new game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch), then move the joystick to begin
- Basic or advanced game: F4 toggles the left difficulty switch (A is advanced, B is basic)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0ā9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0ā9 loads it
Gameplay
Aliens have wrapped the Earth in the Restrictor Shield, a grid of light beams split into 99 sectors. As the Beamrider, you have to fight your way through them one at a time. In each sector you must destroy 15 white enemy saucers. When the last one goes down, the Sector Sentinel, a large mothership, glides across the top of the screen. Only a torpedo can destroy it, and you get just three torpedoes per sector, so the game keeps asking you whether to use them now or keep one for the Sentinel.
The laser lariat is a short-range shot that only works on some enemies. Every other sector adds a new type of enemy. Some can be shot with the laser, some bounce your shot away, and others, like the Blockers and Trackers, can only be stopped with a torpedo or avoided. Brown space debris has to be dodged. Every enemy is worth more points the further you get.
Now and then a yellow Rejuvenator floats down the beams. Let it reach your ship and you get an extra ship. Shoot it by mistake and it turns into red debris that will destroy you if it hits you.
Tips
- Tap, donāt hold. Quick taps of the arrow key move you exactly one beam. Holding the key can carry you straight into trouble.
- Stay near the middle. From the centre beams you can always escape to either side. On the outer beams it is easy to get trapped.
- Hit saucers early. Shoot the white saucers while they are still far away, before they get close enough to fire at you.
- Keep a torpedo for the Sentinel. Destroying it gives a bonus, and nothing but a torpedo can touch it.
- Donāt sit where you shoot from. The green Blockers move onto the beam you are on, so wait on one beam and move to another only to fire.
- Hold your fire when a Rejuvenator appears. Losing an extra ship to your own laser is painful.
The story behind Beamrider
Beamrider started life on the Intellivision in 1983. Dave Rolfe created it through his company Action Graphics. The following year Activision released it on many other systems, including the ColecoVision, the Commodore 64, the Atari 5200 and 8-bit computers, the ZX Spectrum and MSX computers. The Atari 2600 conversion was handled by Cheshire Engineering. Because the 2600 had so little power, a few features were dropped: the Space Station control panel from the Intellivision version is missing, and so are two of the later enemies, the Red Zig Bombs and the Magnetic Mines.
Like many Activision games, Beamrider came with a challenge. Players who reached Sector 14 with at least 40,000 points could send in a photo of their screen to get an official Beamriders patch. The 2600 version still gets high marks from retro reviewers today.
