How to play Targ online
- Steer your car through the streets: arrow keys
- Fire: Space bar
- Start a game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl+0–9 saves a state, Alt+0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You drive the Wummel, a small green car, around the Crystal City, a grid of streets between square blocks. Red wedge-shaped ships called Targs, also known as Ram ships, hunt you through the streets. They never shoot. They try to crash into you instead, so you have to shoot every one of them before they catch you. The Wummel keeps rolling forward the whole time, and slowing down or turning back takes a moment, so every turn is a small gamble. The further you get, the faster both you and the Targs go.
The 2600 city has five rows of blocks, fewer than the arcade’s, which leaves less room to get away. The arcade’s Spectar Smuggler, a bonus ship that appears from time to time and is worth extra points, is missing from this prototype.
Why Targ was never released
Exidy released Targ in arcades in 1980, and Play Meter listed it among the 20 highest-earning arcade games of that year. CBS Electronics got fairly far with this 2600 version, catalogue number 80110, but shelved it as the video game market collapsed in 1983. Who programmed it, and how the prototype surfaced, is not recorded.
Years later, Telegames picked up the game, completed it and released it as Universal Chaos, with a new name and changed graphics for licensing reasons. That version includes the Spectar Smuggler, which suggests the CBS cartridge was not quite finished. Targ never got an official home release under its own name.
