How to play A.E. online
- Move your missile battery: left and right arrow keys
- Fire: hold Z to send the missile up, release it to detonate
- Start: Enter
- Pause: P
- The keypad has no known function in this prototype.
Gameplay
Robot rays sweep across the screen in curved paths rather than settling into rows. Your one weapon is a missile: hold the button to push it higher, let go and it explodes, taking out every ray near the blast, much like Missile Command. Each stage asks you to wipe out three formations, and rays that escape regroup. The 5200 build has four stages, where the Atari 8-bit disk version had five and the Apple II original eight, and each stage opens with a slow drawing of the background.
About this prototype
The original A.E. was designed by Jun Wada and Makoto Horai and published by Broderbund in 1982 for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit computers. According to AtariProtos, Atari never announced a 5200 cartridge, the programmer is unknown, and the game turned up when a collector found it in a box of old 5200 prototypes. Builds dated 4 and 13 January 1984 look almost finished, but the game was never released. The AtariProtos reviewer felt the graphics and the long pauses between stages fell short of what the 5200 could do.
