How to play Phaser Patrol online
- Steer your ship: arrow keys. Down makes the ship climb and up makes it dive, like a pilot’s stick; left and right turn.
- Fire torpedoes, or warp to the chosen sector on the map: Space bar
- Switch between the Sector Map and combat view: F4 (the left difficulty switch: B = map, A = combat)
- Shields on or off: F2 (the TV type switch: colour = shields on, black-and-white = shields off)
- Challenge level: F9 (the right difficulty switch: B is easier, A is harder), set before you start
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch). The Select switch is not used.
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
The Dracons have broken a peace treaty and attacked the Human Federation’s farming galaxy, and you fly the only interceptor left to stop them. The game has two screens. On the Sector Map you see the galaxy as a grid: empty sectors, friendly starbases, Dracon-occupied sectors and unknown ones. You move a white marker to a destination and press fire to warp there. Each jump costs energy, shown on the display before you go. Wait at a starbase and it repairs your damage and refills your energy.
In combat you look out of the cockpit. A radar screen shows where the Dracon fighters are, a rangefinder tells you how far away they are, and a torpedo sight changes colour when you have a lock. A torpedo fired with a lock chases its target. Hits from Dracon torpedoes damage your shields, computer, long-range scanner or torpedoes, and the status lights at the bottom of the screen turn from green to yellow to red.
There is no ordinary score. When the mission ends you get a rank and a level, from Greenhorn, Level D up to Hero, Level A. Destroying Dracons raises your rating, while wasted energy and elapsed time lower it. Clearing the whole armada moves you up a full rank.
Tips
- Wait for the lock. Fire only when the sight changes colour. Each torpedo costs 15 units of energy, and unguided shots often miss.
- Strike from a distance. Your torpedoes reach further than the Dracon weapons, so use the rangefinder and attack before they get close.
- Shields off when it is quiet. Shields drain energy, but a hit without them costs twice as much, so switch them on only when fighters are near.
- Keep jumps short. A long warp can cost up to 900 units. Clear neighbouring sectors one after another and plan your route to end near a starbase.
History
Arcadia was founded in 1981 and changed its name to Starpath shortly after the Supercharger launched, because Emerson had released a console called the Arcadia 2001. Phaser Patrol borrows heavily from Star Raiders, the Atari 8-bit computer game. BYTE magazine found it addictive, with a good mix of skill and strategy, and it was a runner-up for “Best Video Game Audiovisual Effects” at the 4th Arkie Awards.
Similar games to play next
- Star Raiders – Atari’s own 2600 version of the game that inspired Phaser Patrol
- Starmaster – Activision’s take on the same map-and-cockpit idea
- Solaris – a later Atari space war where you also warp between sectors on a map
- Communist Mutants from Space – the next Supercharger game from Starpath