How to play Xevious online
- Fly your ship: arrow keys
- Fire at air targets and drop a bomb at the same time: Space bar
- Scrolling speed: F4 / F9 (difficulty switches): A is slow, B is fast
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
As in the arcade game, the landscape scrolls down the screen while you shoot flying enemies and bomb targets on the ground. The arcade machine had separate buttons for the two weapons. The 2600 joystick has only one, so each press fires a shot and also releases a bomb that arcs down to the spot under your targeting sight. Enemies include Toroids, Torkan scouts, Jarra spinners, indestructible mirrors and Zoshi death squads, as well as ground installations. The Andor Genesis, a huge flying fortress, appears as a boss and is beaten by bombing its reactor core.
Being unfinished, it has some rough edges. Fast scrolling is choppy, the boss has a graphics glitch, and scoring is generous, so extra lives come easily. Your ship also flickers and is drawn larger than in the arcade.
Why it was never released
Frye was moved off SwordQuest: Airworld to work on Xevious. Several prototype versions exist, dated from May 1983 to January 1984. The project survived Atari’s 1983 review that stopped most 2600 games, but it was cancelled as the video game market collapsed. A 5200 version was also completed and shelved. Only the Atari 7800 version was ever sold.
Similar games to play next
- River Raid – Activision’s vertically scrolling shooter
- Super Cobra – a scrolling shooter that also mixes shots and bombs
- Vanguard – another arcade shooter converted by Atari
- Zaxxon – a fortress-attack shooter from the same arcade era