Tank (video game)

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This article is about the arcade game. For the 1985 SNK video game T.A.N.K., see TNK III. For other uses, see Tank (disambiguation).

Tank
Designer(s)
Steve Bristow
Lyle Rains
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
  • NA: November 1974
  • JP: September 1975[1]
Genre(s)Maze
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Tank is an

clones
of Atari games to distributors as a fake competitor prior to the merger of the two companies. In the game, two players drive tanks through a maze viewed from above while attempting to shoot each other and avoid mines, represented by X marks, in a central minefield. Each player controls their tank with a pair of joysticks, moving them forwards and back to drive, reverse, and steer, and firing shells with a button to attempt to destroy the other tank. The destruction of a tank from a mine or shell earns the opposing player a point, and tanks reappear after being destroyed. The winner is the player with more points when time runs out, with each game typically one or two minutes long.

Tank was designed by Steve Bristow, who had previously worked with the founders of Atari on

Telstar
game Telstar Combat!, both in 1977.

Gameplay

Tank is a two-player maze game in which the players, each controlling a tank, attempt to shoot each other. The maze is a set of blocks set at right angles to each other with an empty square central area all viewed from above; the shape of the maze is not symmetric, and is the same between games. One of the tank sprites is white and the other is black, while the central area is filled with black X marks representing land mines. The tanks can fire shells, which destroy the other tank if they hit; tanks are also destroyed if they hit a land mine. The destruction of a tank grants the opposing player a point and causes a brief explosion and accompanying sound, during which time the other tank cannot shoot, before restoring the tank at the same position. Destroyed land mines do not return.[2] Points are displayed above the play area, and flash during the final twenty seconds of the round. The game continues until the time runs out, after which the player with the higher point value wins the match. Each game typically costs a quarter and lasts for 60 seconds, but an internal toggle adjusts it to two quarters and 120 seconds. The time can be further adjusted by operators.[3]

The game is displayed on a black-and-white television screen, and the tanks are controlled by two joysticks each. Pushing both joysticks moves the player's tank forward, and pulling them both back causes the tank to stop. Pulling them in different directions or amounts causes the tank to turn in place or while moving, respectively. A button on the top of the right joystick fires a shell.[3]

Development

Photo of gameplay; the two tanks are at the bottom and neither player has scored.

The arcade game market is split into manufacturers, distributors, and operators; manufacturers like Atari sell game machines to distributors—who handle several types of electronic machines—who in turn sell them to the operators of locations. In the early 1970s, distributors bought games on an exclusive basis, meaning that only one distributor in each distribution region would carry products from a given arcade game manufacturer, restricting the manufacturer to only the operators that distributor sold to. Atari, in 1973 just over a year old and largely based on their hit first game Pong, felt that as a smaller manufacturer this setup severely limited their ability to sell arcade games: they could only contract with a limited number of distributors, who would only buy a limited number of games per year.[4] To work around this, Atari set up a secret subsidiary company in September 1973, Kee Games, which was intended to sell clones of Atari's games, in effect doubling their potential reach. Kee did have its own manufacturing equipment and therefore the ability to develop original titles, and after several clone games lead engineer Steve Bristow developed the idea for a new title. Bristow, who had previously worked with the Atari founders on Computer Space, the first arcade video game, came up with the idea while thinking of how he could improve Computer Space. His idea to correct the perceived shortcomings of the game were to replace its difficult to control rocket ships with more straightforward tanks, and to make it a two-player game instead of a single-player one.[5]

As the company's only engineer, Bristow rapidly developed a prototype himself before turning the game over to new hire

mask ROM (read-only memory)—to store graphical data, rather than the diode arrays that previous arcade games used; it is sometimes claimed in sources to be the very first, but was preceded at minimum by Atari's Gran Trak 10 (1974).[7][8][9] Integrated circuit-based memory thereafter became the standard for arcade and console video games.[7][8] Before the game could be completed, Kee Games was merged into Atari in September 1974; Tank was released that November.[5][10]

Reception and legacy

Tank was a commercial success and is credited with buoying the finances of the newly merged Atari at a critical time for the company.

cocktail cabinet form in which the two players sat across a circular table from each other.[12] Tank sold over 10,000 units, considered a large hit at the time, though Ralph H. Baer claims that was only the 1974 sales, with a further 5,000 sold in 1975.[13][14] This would make Tank the best-selling arcade video game of 1974 in the United States as well as the second best-selling title of 1975 in America (below Wheels), according to Baer.[15]

A sequel, Tank II, was released in 1974 to sales of around 1,000 units; gameplay was identical, though the maze could be changed to a new format by modifying the circuitry and more sound effects were added.

electro-mechanical game F-1).[18] It was followed by three further sequels: Tank III in 1975, the first game to be third in a series;[19][20] the color Tank 8 in 1976, which featured eight tanks and players simultaneously;[21] and Ultra Tank in 1978, which reverted to a two-player black and white game with the ability to select multiple different maze types and have invisible tanks.[22]

A

Telstar game Telstar Combat! plays four variations of Tank, and was released prior to the Atari 2600 and Combat.[8]

The success of Tank, along with 1975 title

Western Gun (Gun Fight), led to the popularization of one-on-one dueling video games.[24] The 1980 arcade first-person shooter game Battlezone (1980) was primarily inspired by Tank. According to Battlezone designer Ed Rotberg, his concept was to update Tank with the advent of vector graphics in the arcades.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b Akagi, p. 51
  2. ^ Fox, p. 291
  3. ^ a b Tank Operation and Service Manual (PDF). Kee Games. November 1974. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  4. ^ Goldberg, Vendel, p. 120
  5. ^ a b c Goldberg, Vendel, pp. 127–130
  6. ^ US patent D243624, Peter Takaichi, "Game cabinet", issued 1977-03-08, assigned to Atari, Inc. 
  7. ^
    ISSN 1078-9693
    .
  8. ^ a b c Bogost, Montfort, pp. 19–21
  9. ^ Goldberg, Vendel, p. 249
  10. ISSN 0733-6780. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2018-04-03. Retrieved 2018-10-12.
  11. ISSN 1058-918X
    . Kee releases Tank, the top game of the year, and surpasses Atari in sales, while opening distribution routes that Atari could never have opened on its own. Kee is later revealed to be a subsidiary of Atari and merges back with its parent company, successful in having widened the reach of the biggest game maker in the arcade industry.
  12. ^ "Tank". International Arcade Museum. Archived from the original on 2016-09-15. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  13. ^ Goldberg, Vendel, p. 131
  14. ^ a b Smith, Keith (2012-08-30). "What Was The Best-Selling U.S. Arcade Video Game Prior to Space Invaders?". The Golden Age Arcade Historian. Archived from the original on 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  15. ^ Baer, pp. 31–32
  16. ^ "Tank II". International Arcade Museum. Archived from the original on 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  17. ISSN 1534-2328
    .
  18. ^ "Top Arcade Games". Play Meter. November 1977.
  19. ^ "Tank III". International Arcade Museum. Archived from the original on 2017-06-13. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  20. ^ Wolf 2007, p. 39
  21. ^ "Tank 8". International Arcade Museum. Archived from the original on 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  22. ^ "Ultra Tank". International Arcade Museum. Archived from the original on 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  23. ^ Lapetino, p. 300
  24. ^ Smith, pp. 188–195
  25. ^ Wolf 2012, pp. 35-36

Sources

External links

  • Tank at the
    Killer List of Videogames Edit this at Wikidata
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