How to play Duck Attack! online
- Move the robot: arrow keys, including diagonals
- Drop objects or throw the zapper: Space bar (hold a direction to aim the throw)
- Choose the starting level and Random Mode: F11 (Select), then up/down for the level and left/right for Random Mode off/on
- Start the game: F12 (Reset) or Space on the selection screen
- Pause: F2 (the TV type switch); press it again to carry on
- Speed of fireballs and traps / speed of the ducks: F4 / F9 (difficulty switches, A = fast, B = normal)
- Save and load: Ctrl + 0–9 saves, Alt + 0–9 loads
The goal of the game
A mad scientist breeds mutant ducks that lay plutonium eggs, and your robot has to fetch them from his lair. Leave the starting score room through the blue door on the left. When you find an egg, touch it to pick it up and carry it to the door it unlocks, which on early levels has the same colour. The door opens and the egg goes onto the egg shelf. Collect all the eggs on a level to move on. Level 1 has only two eggs, and finishing Level 12 means you have collected 25.
The robot can only be hurt through the coloured CPU in the middle of its body; arms, legs and antenna can brush against danger safely. Ducks spit fireballs from across a room and eat you up close. Snakes, bees, tanks, deadly rivers, closing walls and trick doors add to the danger. If you get stuck, pressing Reset gives up the current life.
Tools, balloons and scoring
A thrown lightning-bolt zapper stuns a duck, then must be recharged at a flashing outlet (touch it with the zapper, never the robot). Later levels add a magnet, a shield and a flashlight for dark rooms. Balloons give bonuses: green is an extra life, pink gives speed and one free hit, blue lets you float over walls and rivers, and gold is worth 5,000 points. You can carry two objects at once.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Use an egg to open a door | 200 |
| Hit a duck with a thrown zapper | 400 |
| Hit a snake / a bee with the zapper | 300 / 500 |
| Complete a level | 1,000 |
There are ten variations: start on Levels 1 to 5, with Random Mode off or on. With Random Mode on, the eggs, ducks and tools are placed differently every game.
Tips
- Learn the map with Random Mode off. Objects stay in the same places, so you can plan a route.
- Use the safe rooms. Nothing can attack you in the score room, the egg shelf room or the credits room. Black antenna and boots mean you are safe.
- Drop the zapper in a duck’s path. In tight rooms a duck that walks into it is still stunned, for fewer points.
- Keep the blue balloon when crossing water. Letting go over a river drowns you, and letting go inside a wall traps you.
About the game
Duck Attack! was Will Nicholes’ first Atari 2600 game. It fits in 32K of ROM, uses only the console’s 128 bytes of RAM, and draws its oversized characters with an unusual three-line kernel. Nathan Strum drew the label art. The cartridge version continues well past Level 12 and can save high scores and games to an AtariVox or SaveKey, while the free demo version ends after Level 12.
Similar games to play next
- Adventure – the 1980 original that inspired Duck Attack!
- Haunted House – explore dark rooms and collect pieces of an urn
- Halo 2600 – a homebrew room-by-room action adventure
- Lady Bug – a homebrew maze game the author recommends
- Medieval Mayhem – another homebrew from the same AtariAge scene