How to play Laser Volley online
- Fly your ship: arrow keys (pushing left or right also turns the ship to face that way)
- Start the game and fire your laser: Space bar
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
The screen is split in two: the scrolling tunnel on top and an instrument panel below that shows your energy, your shields and the time left to reach the next Detonator. Energy drains as you fly and only comes back when you pick up Energy Pods, while every scrape against a wall or hit by an enemy wears down your shields. Along the way you have to blast through columns, dodge mortars, missiles and bats, and time your run through flashing and crushing forcefields. The Laser Gates page has the full rules, the scoring table and tips.
Where Laser Volley comes from
Zellers shelves carried a number of 2600 cartridges made in Taiwan without a licence from the companies that wrote them, usually under new names. AtariMania files Laser Volley under “Zellers / Taiwan – 2600 Compatible” and credits it to Dan Oliver, the programmer of Laser Gates. AtariMania lists several more names for the same game, among them Ataque Laser, Space Channel and Innerspace, the title Oliver originally gave it. Some listings also connect Laser Volley with Bit Corporation’s Space Tunnel, but that is a different game: a tunnel shooter where UFO missiles bounce off the walls.
Similar games to play next
- Laser Gates – the original Imagic release of this game
- Rescue Terra I – Dan Oliver’s earlier VentureVision shooter
- Space Cavern – Dan Oliver’s game for Games by Apollo
- Farmer Dan – another Zellers cartridge, a copy of US Games’ Gopher