How to play Depth Charge online
- Bring up the targeting sight: hold down Space
- Aim: left and right arrow keys while holding Space
- Fire a torpedo: release Space
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
Gameplay
Six kinds of ship cross the screen, each with its own size and speed. A direct hit sinks a ship at once and scores more; a glancing hit may need to be followed by more. The smallest and fastest is the Torpedo Boat, and it is the real threat: if one gets all the way across the screen, it sinks your submarine and the game is over. You start with a fixed supply of torpedoes. Holding the button shows how many are left. When your torpedoes are gone you can still move the sight, but you can only wait for the next Torpedo Boat to finish you off.
There are six variations. You choose 30, 60 or 90 torpedoes, and either fixed torpedoes, which run straight from where you fired them, or guided ones, which you can keep steering until they hit.
Tips
- Always shoot the Torpedo Boat first. Any other ship can sail past without harm; that one cannot.
- Start with guided torpedoes. Steering a torpedo onto a moving ship is much easier than leading it with a fixed shot.
The story behind Depth Charge
Before it became famous for its computer, Amiga raised money by making joysticks and game cartridges for consoles such as the 2600. Depth Charge was planned as a cassette game for the Amiga Power Module, an add-on in the style of the Starpath Supercharger that loaded games from tape. It was described as the first āmachine-interactive video gameā, with two players facing off head to head, one commanding the submarine and the other the ship. Only the submarine half was finished. Amiga then switched to its Power Play Arcade cartridges, dropped Depth Charge, and soon stopped making games altogether to concentrate on its computer.
Jerry Lawson had led the development of the Fairchild Channel F, a home console designed from the start for swappable game cartridges, before founding Videosoft in 1980. Videosoft never released a game of its own. Its unfinished titles, Depth Charge among them, were saved, and in 2010 they were sold to collectors as boxed cartridges.
