How to play Phoenix online
- Move your laser cannon: left and right arrow keys
- Force field: down arrow
- Fire: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch), or Space after a game ends
- Turn off the bird cries: F4 (Player 1 difficulty to A). Select is not used; this is a one-player game
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You have five lives to get through four flocks of mutant Phoenix birds and then destroy the alien spaceship behind them. The first two waves are small birds that weave across the screen and swoop down at you. The third and fourth waves are big birds. Hit them in the centre; a clipped wing grows back.
The spaceship comes last. To reach the alien pilot you have to shoot through the coloured layers of the hull right under the cockpit. One of them, the blue layer, keeps sliding along the length of the ship, so you need to time your shot for when the hole you made passes under the pilot.
Pulling the joystick back raises a force field around your cannon for about one and a half seconds. You can’t move while it is up, but you can still fire, and any bird that touches it is destroyed. Then it needs about three and a half seconds to recharge. Only one of your shots can be on screen at a time.
| Target | Points |
|---|---|
| Small bird, flying sideways | 20 |
| Small bird, diving at you | 80 |
| Large bird, wing hit only | 20 |
| Large bird, destroyed | 100–500 (more when it is closer to you) |
| Alien spaceship, first round | 1,000–4,000 (more for a faster kill) |
Each time you meet the spaceship again, its top value rises by 1,000 points, up to 9,000.
Tips
- Hold the button in wave two. In the second wave of small birds only, holding fire gives you continuous shots. Everywhere else you have to press it for each shot.
- Don’t chase points early. The small birds are worth little. Stay safe and save your lives for the big birds and the spaceship.
- Chip the ship from the edges. In your first two spaceship fights, firing near the ends far from the cockpit is safe from bombs. Two shots at the same spot open a hole in the blue layer.
- Save the force field for emergencies. A bird that hits your unprotected cannon takes you down with it, so watch out for low flyers.
History
The arcade Phoenix was released in Japan in late 1980 and in North America in early 1981, distributed there by Centuri. Its final mothership stage makes it one of the first shooters with a boss fight. For the 2600 version, the programmers had to cut more than a third of their original code to fit it into an 8 KB cartridge. The music, star field and some enemies were among the things left out.
Reviews at the time were mostly very positive, and the cartridge won an Arkie Award in 1984 for best science fiction or fantasy videogame. Atari, which held the home console rights, sued Imagic because it felt Demon Attack was too close to Phoenix. The two companies settled, and Demon Attack stayed on sale.
Similar games to play next
- Demon Attack – Imagic’s shooter with birdlike demons, the game Atari took to court
- Galaxian – the diving-alien shooter that came just before Phoenix
- Space Invaders – the game that started the fixed-screen shooter
- Gorf – another arcade shooter with several different stages, including a flagship battle