Laser Blast

The best way to describe this game is Missile Command in reverse. You control several ships that swoop out of the sky to attack the cities of a hostile planet. The bases at the bottom of the screen fire at you constantly. You have to keep your little ship moving in order to take them out.

HOW TO BECOME AN ACE AT LASER BLAST
BY ACTIVISION

Tips from David Crane, designer of Laser Blast

David Crane is also the designer of Dragster and Fishing Derby
by ACTIVISION. He prides himself in taking on some of the most
challenging game assignments possible.*


"As you will quickly discover, Laser Blast is a game not only of skill
but also of *endurance*. There's really no time for taking breathers.

"And that brings me to my most important tip. Always keep your ship in
motion and fire quickly! A *moving* object is much harder to hit than
one standing still. Since the attackers are continuously aiming and
firing, you much be quick enough to dodge their fire, move into attack
position and destroy their forces. Then quickly move on.

"It is possible to stay in one place and fire quickly enough to destroy
your attackers before they zero in on you. But this is a very tough
strategy to execute and demands superior skill and concentration.

"The game can get a little frustrating at times. But keep at it and
you'll soon be eligible for membership in the Activision Federation of
Laser Blasters. And take time out from your space battles to drop me a
line. I'd love to hear from you."

David Crane

This game is valued at around $2 USD. Games with boxes and manuals are worth more.

Read TheBooBooKitty's writeup above to read the main info about this game, what is below is a description of what it was like to play this game. (And I should know, I've played this game for hundreds of hours.)

This game was fun, despite being extremely repetitive: You were a small UFO and there were three laser bases on the ground. Always three. You could either move around with the joystick, or you would press your fire button, and then press the direction you wanted your laser to fire. If you hit a base, it was destroyed. If the base fired at you, you lost a life.

They would be firing at you with increasing accuracy, but they had a delay before they were allowed to fire at you. You destroy all three bases and then you go onto the next, faster, level. Eventually, you got free lives after a few levels. I remember the free lives being in short supply when I first got the game, and then feeling like they were overgenerous after a while.

In the classic style of the game you "cannot win," it would just get harder and harder as you played. But for some reason, that delay before they fired always stayed at a "reasonable" amount. So, if you got into the "groove" and could destroy all three before they were allowed to fire at you. (And if you missed, you were in the right spot where you would be unable to be shot at.)

I got into that groove. For hours at a time, for days upon days. For some odd reason, I didn't think that after 6 hours of playing that the game would actually keep going on. But, this is one of those games where I definitely qualified for that little patch that they would give out. Well, heck, I rolled the score over and could get maximum free lives. (But never sent in for the patch, because I never thought about it.)

But, to this day, I think I can make the appropriate hand movements to win this game. For hours.