How to play Tanks But No Tanks online
- Drive your tank: arrow keys (the tank turns to face the way you push)
- Fire: Space bar (you shoot in the direction you are facing)
- Player 2 in two-player games: T/F/G/H to drive, A to fire
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
Gameplay
Each screen sends twenty phantom tanks at your base, a few at a time, and a counter below the base shows how many are still to come. Only one of your shells can be on screen at once, so every miss leaves you open for a moment. You start with five tanks.
Each of the three screens gives you less cover than the last: a maze of walls and corners, then only a small island in front of your base, then open ground.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Shooting an enemy tank | 100 |
| Ramming an enemy tank (you lose your tank too) | 200 |
The cartridge has four variations. Games 1 and 3 are for one player, with Game 3 the harder of the two; Games 2 and 4 are the same games for two players, with the second joystick in the right port.
Tips
- Hold the middle-to-lower part of the screen. The manual suggests waiting there for tanks to come level with you, so you stay near your base instead of chasing enemies.
- Don’t waste your one shell. Turn to face an enemy and wait until it is lined up before you fire.
- Use the walls on screen one. It is the only screen with real cover.
One game, many names
Phantom Tank was sold by many companies, and AtariMania lists about twenty titles for it, from Ghost Tank to Tanks War. Zimag’s manual has a sense of humour: it promises a “Low Sanity Medal” to anyone who rams an enemy on purpose.
Two other releases of the same game are on this site. Tank Brigade is Panda’s North American version with redrawn graphics, and Phantom-Panzer is the German PAL cartridge that the mail-order company Quelle sold. The rules are the same in all of them.
