| Caverns of Mars | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Greg Christensen |
| Publisher(s) | Atari Program Exchange |
| Designer(s) | Greg Christensen |
| Engine | Assembler |
| Platform(s) | Atari 8-bit |
| Release date(s) | 1981, 1982, 1983 |
| Genre(s) | scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | single player |
| Media/distribution | floppy disk, cassette, cartridge |
| System requirements
Atari 8-bit computer with 16K, cartridge, cassette, disk drive (32K) |
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Caverns of Mars is a computer game for the Atari 8-bit computers, programmed by Greg Christensen and published by Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. Christensen, a high-school student at the time, won a $3,000 prize from Atari, and his first royalty check was $18,000. He would go on to receive over $100,000 in royalties from the game, making it the most popular APX title.[1]
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Caverns of Mars is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up similar in concept and visual style to the 1981 arcade game Scramble.[2] Christensen changed the orientation of the caverns from Scramble, having the player fly down into them as opposed to sideways through them. Due to technical details of the Atari platform, vertical scrolling was somewhat simpler to implement. Using a joystick, the player controls a ship descending into the tunnels of Mars, firing at targets along the way. Unlike Scramble, the targets generally did not move relative to the map.
There are several different sections of the map, with easier skill levels removing the more difficult sections from the areas through which the player has to fly. The easiest skill level has only three sections, the hardest has six. At any level the last section of the map a reactor, which the player lands on and thereby sets to explode. The player then has to reverse course and fly up and out of the caverns to escape before the reactor explodes.
Christensen followed Caverns in 1981 with a lesser-known sequel, Phobos, also sold through the Atari Program Exchange. Phobos was effectively a version of Caverns with improved graphics, although there were other minor modifications as well. The levels were broken down into sub-levels with letters as names; after being killed the action restarts at the top of the sub-level, as opposed to the top of the whole level. The system is similar to the one used in Moon Patrol.
Phobos was followed by Caverns of Mars II in 1982. This version was much more similar to the original Scramble, including rockets that launched upwards from the ground. These were Scramble's main opponent for most of the game. It isn't clear if Caverns II was ever sold through the Atari Program Exchange, but it was sold through the Antic Software catalog—the successor to APX.
In 1983, Atari released Caverns of Mars on a cartridge (RX8021) as an official Atari product, one of the few user-submitted programs to ever become an official Atari product. In 2005, a version of "Caverns of Mars" was included on the Atari Flashback 2 classic game console. In 2006 a homebrew version of the original Caverns of Mars, titled Conquest of Mars, was released in cartridge form via AtariAge for the Atari 2600 system.