Cosmic Ark
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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(Straight) Conversion of the Atari 2600 game.

The Alpha Ro solar system is in crisis! Their sun is about to go supernova, meaning the death of all the many planets and the exotic lifeforms who call them home. Luckily, though, the noble Atlanteans have heard of Alpha Ro's plight and have sent a vast Cosmic Ark thousands of light-years across the galaxy to try and save as many species as possible. As the captain of the Ark, the player will have to contend with deadly meteor storms and planetary defense systems to succeed the mission.

Cosmic Ark features two play screens: On the first, the player will have to blast meteors with four-way cannons. Blast enough and the player can go on to the second screen. The Ark descends low over one of Alpha Ro's planets. The player will then have to guide a shuttle craft down and beam aboard two creatures, while avoiding any laser defense system that may be in operation. The player will have to get the creatures back on board quickly, because another meteor shower could happen at any moment. Then it's off to the next planet!


Trivia

Atlantis connections

Cosmic Ark is the sequel to Imagic's earlier (and very different) game, Atlantis.

The last section in the Atlantis manual reads:

Atlantis, its last installation devastated, explodes in a fury of fire and radiation.

But wait! A satellite streaks into space!
Where is it bound?
Has someone survived the Gorgon onslaught?
Can the Cosmic Ark repopulate the ocean metropolis?

The saga continues.

And indeed, when you lose a game of Atlantis, the last thing you see is a small green shape flying off into the stars! Incidentally, this is the same thing you see when you lose at Cosmic Ark.

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Never played the original but this looks like a very solid conversion. No other feedback to give really - solid all-round and it's always good to see games on the C64 that never existed previously." (Alex Ross-Shaw)

"Initially this looked like a great Atari 2600 conversion. The original game is a classic, and I thought it would translate perfectly to the C64, with some great artwork to augment the simplistic VCS graphics. However it turns out that the game is slightly modified from the original, which makes it somewhat harder and less predictable. Still unsure whether this is a good or a bad thing, as it's been many years (or rather decades) since I've played it. But if you consider the game without comparing it to its commercial ancestor, it holds up fairly well. Of course the gameplay is somewhat stale late 70s arcade stuff, but the difficulty ramps up nicely and it soon becomes a real challenge. This is a game that requires skill and lots of practice. I'm just not sure if people these days are ready to invest the time to master it." (Andreas Varga/Mr. SID)

"Cosmic Ark is certainly brimming with pangs of nostalgia. It's a love letter to the space/star games of the early days of arcade. I found this entry enjoyable and challenging. Visually it's a little stark and certainly looks like an Atari game - should the author continue development, I would suggest an investment in this area, as nice as the homage is - the C64 is capable of so much more. Nostalgic." (Anton MacArthur)

"Having never played the Atari original, I did not know what to expect, but right from the great presentation with a beautiful title screen, highscore table and music (which reminded me of some of the best Ocean/Imagine loading tunes from back in the day) I was in for a treat! The game is very hard on the later levels, but this is probably the way the old Atari version played as well, so it fits the arcade style gameplay. Sound effects are very good, and I enjoy the whole cosmic setting provided by the starfield background and asteroids attack. Great fun for a quick blast!" (Flemming Dupont)

"A stunning conversion of the Atari 2600 classic! This conversion is very faithful and has a good blend of VCS-like visuals (which I think Max has done extremely well to capture that feel), but with the right blend of C64 style and sounds to really make this game shine. The concept itself is pretty straight forward, but it is a solid conversion of a fun and unique concept to the C64 with plenty of polish. It is clear that a lot of blood and sweat has gone into this conversion as a whole, especially when you see the stunning title screen presentation which looks just like the original box artwork and is just brilliantly done. Because the original was a fairly simple concept, it won't keep you playing as long as some of the other titles in the competition - but when you do play it, you will enjoy it and is certainly one of the highlights." (Frank Gasking)

"The game itself is a little hard to get into and very repetitive, but it is an extremely well made port of the original. The title screen looks absolutely fantastic." (Jacob Voos/Jak T Rip)

"Cosmic Ark is as old-school as you can get, and it's pretty much a perfect port of the Atari 2600 game of the same name. If there was a prize awarded for 'best classic game conversion', Max Hall would have won it. The design is simple, as is the presentation, but the title music and sound effects are just superb. Unfortunately, a couple of randomly occuring game-breaking bugs meant that I scored this lower than I'd initially intended - I seem to frequently encounter an issue where the meteor shower sequence never ends and I eventually lose all my lives. I even witnessed this never-ending onslaught of rocks once whilst on a planet's surface, which was kind of fun :)" (James Monkman/Heavy Stylus)

"I am not familiar with the original Atari 2600 game, but all the same I felt I was being transported back to the early 80s when I played this. (In a good way!) It feels like a faithful conversion, and the music, graphics and sound effects are done in a very sympathetic manner. The music and effects create a great atmosphere. The game itself becomes extremely difficult after about six or seven levels, unfortunately. Unless you have unnaturally fast reflexes the meteor showers will just get too difficult so even the generous allocation of fourteen lives is not enough." (John Dennis)

"Visually rather a 100% clone than a port. Very well executed. Quite some effort put already in the nice title pic. Quite polished and almost a one man project. Brings nothing new over the beloved original but its still fun and was severely missing on the C64." (Martin Wendt/Enthusi)

"A faithful recreation of the Atari 2600 original, which like many games, starts slow and gradually builds in speed and intensity. It also means the gameplay doesn't vary much, but it is refined to a degree where it doesn't really matter. There's the odd graphical and gameplay bug, such as the meteors curving completely out of laser range, but they don't occur frequently enough to be a problem." (Matt Allen/Mayhem)


http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-2600/cosmic-ark
http://www.rgcd.co.uk/search/label/competition
