How to play Z-Tack online
- Fly up, down, left and right: arrow keys
- Fire: hold Space and press an arrow key to shoot in that direction
- Choose a game: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
Gameplay
Your craft (the manual calls it a jet) moves freely through the sky, and the bases sit at ground level below. You can shoot in all four directions. The bases launch missiles into the sky at random, and some of them turn into floating balls that then become heat-seeking missiles and chase you. You have three lives, and you lose one if a missile hits you or you fly into a ball. Destroy every base to reach the next city.
There are six different cities in one cycle. Each new level brings more bases, more balls and faster missiles, and after the sixth city the pattern starts again. The score counter goes up to 999,999.
Four games are available: games 1 and 2 are the beginner level for one or two players, and games 3 and 4 are the advanced level for one or two players. In the two-player games the players take turns.
Tips
- Expect it to get harder, then loop. Each city adds bases and speeds up the missiles, but after the sixth the cycle starts over, so learning the six layouts pays off.
- Attack from the side. Firing sideways or downwards lets you hit a base without hovering straight above its missiles.
- Keep your distance from the balls. They become homing missiles, so move away from them early.
History of Z-Tack
Bomb was a small label that sold 2600 cartridges in 1983, and Wikipedia lists releases of Z-Tack in the UK, Germany and North America. AtariAge credits the programming to Robert L. Esken Jr. and rates the cartridge as extremely rare. The same game was also sold under several other names, including Base Attack, Cosmic Town, Sky Scraper and the German Raumbasen-Attacke.
Reviews at the time were mixed. The British magazine TV Gamer called it “not a world-beating game but well worth having a look” and rated only Bomb’s Assault higher among the company’s games. Videogaming Illustrated liked the gameplay but not the graphics, while the Australian magazine Score found the graphics and sound colourful, though simple. Writing in 2018, Kieran Hawken gave it 7/10, mainly for its graphics.
