How to play Demon Attack online
- Move the laser cannon: left and right arrow keys
- Fire: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game (1–10): F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Demon aggression: F4 toggles Player 1’s difficulty switch, F9 Player 2’s
- Player 2: F and H to move, A to fire
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
The manual strands you on the ice planet Krybor. Demons fly in from the sides of the screen and hover above you, firing down at your cannon. Your lives are the reserve bunkers at the bottom left. You start with three, and each hit costs one. Once they are gone, the next hit ends the game. Survive a whole wave without being hit and you earn an extra bunker, up to six.
Each wave brings new movements and weapons, such as long laser streams. From wave 5, a demon you hit splits into two smaller, bird-like creatures, which eventually dive at your cannon. Points rise in later waves:
| Wave | Demon | Split demon | Diving demon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | 10 | – | – |
| 3–4 | 15 | – | – |
| 5–6 | 20 | 40 | 80 |
| 7–8 | 25 | 50 | 100 |
| 9–10 | 30 | 60 | 120 |
| 11 and later | 35 | 70 | 140 |
Game variations and switches
- Games 1, 3, 5 and 7 are for one player and get harder as the number rises. Games 5 and 7 are the Advanced versions.
- Games 3 and 7 use tracer shots, which you can steer after firing.
- Games 2, 4, 6 and 8 are the same games for two players, taking turns wave by wave, each with their own cannon, bunkers and score.
- Games 9 and 10 are co-operative: the players share one cannon and its bunkers, and control swaps every four seconds. Game 10 uses tracer shots.
The difficulty switches set how the demons attack: A is aggressive, B is basic. In two-player games each player has their own switch, which lets a stronger player take on A.
Tips
- Protect your bunkers early. Every perfect wave adds one, so a clean start builds a cushion for the harder waves.
- Don’t park under a demon. Wait off to the side and slide in to fire when there is a gap in the shots.
- Finish off split demons quickly. They are worth double, a diving one four times as much, and left alone they will come diving at your cannon.
The story behind Demon Attack
At Atari, Rob Fulop had programmed Night Driver and Missile Command for the 2600. After his Space Invaders conversion for the Atari 8-bit computers sold well, he has said, his Christmas bonus was a voucher for a free turkey. He left and in 1981 co-founded Imagic, where he made Demon Attack in about nine months, modelling it on Galaxian. Artist Michael Becker drew the demons’ eight-frame animations. Fulop wanted to call it Death from Above, but the marketing team changed the name.
Released in March 1982 alongside Imagic’s Star Voyager and Trick Shot, Demon Attack was the year’s third best-selling console game after Pitfall! and Pac-Man. The Intellivision version, by Gary Kato, added a boss mothership much like the one in the arcade game Phoenix. Atari held the console rights to Phoenix and sued Imagic; the case was settled in January 1983. Ports for the Odyssey 2, Commodore 64 and other systems followed.
Similar games to play next
- Phoenix – Atari’s version of the arcade game at the centre of the lawsuit
- Galaxian – the arcade game Rob Fulop named as his model
- Atlantis – Imagic’s game about defending an underwater city from alien ships
- Cosmic Ark – Rob Fulop’s next Imagic game, which continues where Atlantis ends