How to play Plaque Attack online
- Move the tube: left and right arrow keys
- Aim at the upper teeth: up arrow
- Aim at the lower teeth: down arrow
- Squirt toothpaste: Space bar (hold it down for continuous fire)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Fast or slow fire: F4 toggles the Player 1 difficulty switch (F9 for Player 2)
Gameplay
The screen shows an open mouth, with a row of teeth at the top and another at the bottom. Food drifts across the space between them, looking for a tooth to attack. If you don’t shoot the food in time, it decays the tooth it is attacking and the tooth disappears. When a tooth is attacked, all the food reverses direction.
Each wave lasts 35 seconds. Your tube shrinks as the time runs out, which works as the wave timer. At the end of the wave you get bonus points for each remaining tooth and each second left over. You never run out of shots; the only limits are the clock and your teeth. You start with eight teeth, and every 2,000 points earns a bonus tooth, which is added at the start of the next wave. The game ends when all your teeth are gone and your toothpaste has run out.
There are eight kinds of food, and each wave is worth more than the one before. After ice cream cones, the cycle starts again, but faster:
| Wave | Food | Points per hit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamburgers | 5 |
| 2 | Hot dogs | 10 |
| 3 | French fries | 15 |
| 4 | Strawberries | 20 |
| 5 | Gum drops | 25 |
| 6 | Donuts | 30 |
| 7 | Candy canes | 35 |
| 8 | Ice cream cones | 40 |
Variations and switches
There are four games. Games 1 and 2 are the advanced versions, for one and two players, where the difficulty rises quickly. Games 3 and 4 are beginner versions for one and two players, where it rises more slowly. With the difficulty switch in position B, holding the fire button gives a fast stream of toothpaste; in position A the stream is slower.
Tips
- Collect bonus teeth early. The first waves are slow and cheap, so play aggressively then, and switch to defending once the food gets fast.
- Turn around after a save. The food reverses whenever a tooth is attacked, so rescue the tooth, then turn your tube to the other row right away.
- Finish waves quickly. Every second left over is added to your score as a bonus.
- Keep the switch on B. Fast continuous fire makes it much easier to clear a crowded screen.
History
Plaque Attack came out in February 1983, and it only appeared on the Atari 2600. Like many Activision games of the time, it offered a reward: players who scored more than 35,000 points could claim an Activision patch. Later that year, Activision ran a promotion with Aquafresh toothpaste. Reviews at the time were mixed: one magazine found the game cute and busy but nothing more, and another dismissed it as just another slide-and-shoot game.
