How to play Berzerk online
- Move: arrow keys. Your humanoid shoots in the direction you last pushed.
- Fire: Z or X. You cannot shoot while running or with the stick centred, so stop first.
- Skill level: the minus key – (the keypad’s * key) steps through the eleven levels. Wait a few seconds and the robot you are about to face shows off its shooting.
- One or two players: the = key (the keypad’s # key). Players alternate; player 2 uses I J K L with N or M to fire.
- Voice off and on: press K to open the on-screen keypad, pick 9 and press Z to silence the robots; press 7 to switch the voice back on.
- Start: Enter. Pause: P.
- Full screen, Restart and save states are in the emulator’s toolbar; move the mouse over the screen to see it.
Gameplay
You are a lone humanoid in a maze of electrified walls full of robots. Every robot you destroy is worth 50 points, and if you clear the whole room you get an extra 10 points per robot on top. Robots explode when your laser hits them, but they are clumsy too: they also die if they walk into a wall, into each other or into Evil Otto, and those kills count for you. Leave the maze through any open side and a fresh maze appears.
Linger too long and the voice warns “Intruder alert!” as Evil Otto, a bouncing smiley face, enters from the side you came in. He cannot be shot, passes through walls and keeps coming until you leave. A single touch of a wall, a robot, a robot’s laser or Evil Otto costs a life. You start with three, earn bonus lives at 5,000 and 10,000 points, and can hold at most four in reserve. The game ends when your last life is gone.
Skill levels
There are eleven skill levels. On the lowest the robots barely move and shoot slowly; higher levels make them faster, let them fire more often and put more shots on screen at once. Your next life always continues at the level you were on.
Tips
- Hold fire as you enter. Robots take a moment to wake up, so you often get the first shot in a new maze.
- Head away from the door you came in. That is where Evil Otto will appear.
- Prefer the side exits. Otto bounces up and down, so a long run to a top or bottom exit is riskier than a dash to the left or right.
The story behind Berzerk on the 5200
Alan McNeil designed Berzerk for Stern Electronics, which shipped the arcade machine in November 1980. It was one of the first arcade games with speech, and the taunting robot voices became its trademark. McNeil added Evil Otto to stop players camping in a cleared room. Atari bought the home rights and released a 2600 version in 1982, without the voice.
The 5200 cartridge (model CX5221) was programmed by Carlos Smith and Mike Horowitz at General Computer Corporation. According to AtariProtos it was the first voice-enhanced 5200 game, and Atari considered dropping the speech because the larger ROM cost more; a June 1983 prototype has no voice at all, and the final code is dated August 1983. Reviewers liked the cold, metallic voice but had mixed feelings about the controls: Michael Blanchet found the controller less responsive than it should be, and Brett Weiss thought the humanoid moved a little too slowly. The 5200 version is included in the 2022 collection Atari 50.
