How to play Reactor online
- Move your ship (eight directions): arrow keys
- Release a decoy: Space bar
- Player 2 (two-player games): T/F/G/H to move, A for a decoy
- Choose a game number: F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
- Fast or slow acceleration: F4 for Player 1, F9 for Player 2
Gameplay
The reactor is surrounded by a kill wall. Particles that hit it hard enough are destroyed, and your ship dies instantly if the particles shove it into the wall. Your ship has no weapon. Instead you ram particles and knock them away, so speed and angle matter. In the centre sits the core, which keeps growing during the round and leaves you less and less room to move.
Two sets of control rods stick out from the kill wall on the left and right. Knock particles hard into every rod of one set and the core shrinks. Destroying both sets earns you an extra decoy. Two bonus chambers also sit at the edges. Push a particle inside one and it bounces around, scoring points on every bounce. Decoys lure the particles away from your ship for about ten seconds. You start each game with three decoys and three ships.
Each round brings more particles, and they get faster and heavier, so they are harder to knock out. Positrons and photons are the lighter types, while neutrinos and leptons are worth more. Some games replace the solid core with a spinning vortex that pulls your ship in if you get too close. In others the kill walls are invisible, so you have to remember where they are.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Positron or photon destroyed | 50 |
| Neutrino or lepton destroyed | 200 |
| Control rod destroyed | 50 |
| Each bounce inside a bonus chamber | 15 (falling to 10) |
| Each unused decoy | 500 |
You earn an extra ship every 10,000 points. In two-player games the players take turns, with the left player going first. A player whose ships are all gone drops out, and the other carries on.
Tips
- Go for the control rods early. Shrinking the core gives you room to move, and room is what keeps you alive in later rounds.
- Keep your back away from the wall. Try to hit particles so they fly towards the wall while you stay closer to the centre.
- Save your decoys. Each one left over is worth 500 points, so use them only when you are cornered.
- Try the B difficulty setting first. With slower acceleration the ship is easier to control, which helps a lot when you are learning.
History
The Reactor arcade machine, released by Gottlieb in 1982, was the first arcade game to show its designerās name on the title screen. Parker Brothers published the 2600 version in January 1983. It can be played with a joystick or a trackball, it has no speech, and it does not show the bonus counter on screen, unlike the arcade machine.
