Continuing my trend of copying every game that I currently enjoyed, I attempted to create a Missile Command clone.  I still only knew how to program in Applesoft BASIC and I barely had a grasp of Hi-Res graphics, but I wouldn't let non-knowledge stop me!  Heh, heh.

Okay, I'll tell you right now that this game is just disgusting.  You can try it out if you'd like, but it is just awful.  I tried, though, I tried.

I just didn't get one single thing right.  The "missiles" come down and mostly go through the ground (hahaha that is so lame),  you can barely see your blinking crosshair on the screen, and you never really know when the game is supposed to end.

The name for Phazzar just came to me pretty easily - it's so easy to come up with cheesy 80's game titles.  I thought of the player shooting phasors (Star Trek terminology) at the incoming missiles, so I decided to change up the spelling of the word and make it the legendary PHAZZAR!

Phazzar exhibits the same kind of linear programming that plagued Alien Attack.  When you fire at an incoming missile, everything stops as a line is drawn from the base to the crosshair.   Then, if a missile is hit, everything still waits as the explosion draws and the missile moves back up to the top of the screen.  After this further delay, play resumes.

It would be four more games (Maze Craze) before I would be able to code a game where everything kept working all at the same time.  But I do believe that Phazzar is just a smidgeon more fun than Alien Attack.  I recognized this fact and knew that I would get better if I just kept making games.

My sound effect programming knowledge was still limited to clicking the speaker and playing the CTRL-G beep.  It would be a while before I actually learned how to create a tone routine, because that took 6502 Assembly knowledge.

In Closing...

I drew an advertisement for Phazzar back when I was doing a bunch at once.  The ad looks 10 times better than the game..... and that is kinda sad.

All in all, I believe it took me about a week to finish coding Phazzar.  Even though it didn't turn out as cool as I wanted, it gave me hope that I could do a better version.  And so, that became my next project:
Missle Defense!

(Yes, "Missile" is misspelled. :)

Gameplay Instructions

Objective:

Use your crosshair to shoot the incoming missiles.  Don't let your 3 cities get hit by the incoming missiles.

CONTROLS:

Joystick moves the crosshair and 1,2,3 keys fire from their respective bases.

EXTRA INFO:

The game is wretched.  Play at your own risk of brain damage!