Achieved at : 2025-11-09
Rank : 2
(15% worse)
Lups : 159
Approved :
Yes
Voting completed : 2025-12-09
| General Rules: |
Play with default settings unless otherwise specified. No use of trainers, cheats, saved game files, auto-fire (when not default present in-game), emulator save states, or other emulator advantages. No use of code modifications that give the player an advantage over other players. 1 player only. No continues. Due to the unusual placement of some keys on the Acorn Atom keyboard, it is acceptable to redefine the keys used under emulation. It is discouraged and may lead to voters not accepting your score to - excessively point farm - use glitches or other game exploits |
| Specific Rules: | Play the game in 1 player mode selecting Skill 6 = Difficult. |
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TGP
Martians is a simple arcade game for the Acorn Atom by Program Power. It starts to appear in magazine adverts in the computer press in late 1981 and the game copyright is July of that year. The game is called "The Martians" internally. A later version of this game for the BBC Micro is credited to Richard Hanson, so it is possible he also wrote the earlier Atom version as well.
The story behind the game is that the Martians are invading. They will drop from the sky and land - if they manage to make a tower six Martians tall, the invasion will proceed, and the game is lost. You have a forcefield which you can move left and right to intercept and destroy them. There are three types of Martian to experience. The most common are the Invaders - these can be intercepted normally. More dangerous are the Destroyers. If these collide with your forcefield, they destroy it and it is game over - avoid these at all costs. The final and most annoying type are the Imposters. These start falling as Invaders but change to Destroyers on the way down. These are the most likely type to bring your game to an end.
A build-up of Martians is inevitable - you will miss some Invaders and the Destroyers cannot be intercepted. At 10,000 points, and every 5,000 points thereafter, the normal gameplay pauses, and you get the chance to drop some bombs on the Martians. Use this opportunity to clear some of the taller structures that have built up.
This is a simple game, especially looking back at it now, but not that unusual for the time. It has close resemblances to games such as Atari's 1978 arcade game Avalanche or Activision's Atari 2600 hit Kaboom! The graphics move smoothly by the standards of the time - many other games of the period were happy to show movement in jerky character blocks. This is a reminder of gamings early days, when controlling anything on a TV was a novelty.
The game is being played here using the Atomulator emulator, running on PC. The date of play was the 9th November 2025. Skill level 6 (Difficult) was selected and the final score was 2,250 points.
Time stamps:
00:30 Instructions.
01:10 Skill level selection. Skill 6 / Difficult is selected.
01:15 Game start.
01:16 First Martian is an Imposter and it is Game Over!
01:21 Try again.
02:12 1,000 points passed.
03:29 2,000 points passed.
03:38 Imposter gets me. Game Over! Final score 2,250 points.
03:41 Initials entry and high score table.
The story behind the game is that the Martians are invading. They will drop from the sky and land - if they manage to make a tower six Martians tall, the invasion will proceed, and the game is lost. You have a forcefield which you can move left and right to intercept and destroy them. There are three types of Martian to experience. The most common are the Invaders - these can be intercepted normally. More dangerous are the Destroyers. If these collide with your forcefield, they destroy it and it is game over - avoid these at all costs. The final and most annoying type are the Imposters. These start falling as Invaders but change to Destroyers on the way down. These are the most likely type to bring your game to an end.
A build-up of Martians is inevitable - you will miss some Invaders and the Destroyers cannot be intercepted. At 10,000 points, and every 5,000 points thereafter, the normal gameplay pauses, and you get the chance to drop some bombs on the Martians. Use this opportunity to clear some of the taller structures that have built up.
This is a simple game, especially looking back at it now, but not that unusual for the time. It has close resemblances to games such as Atari's 1978 arcade game Avalanche or Activision's Atari 2600 hit Kaboom! The graphics move smoothly by the standards of the time - many other games of the period were happy to show movement in jerky character blocks. This is a reminder of gamings early days, when controlling anything on a TV was a novelty.
The game is being played here using the Atomulator emulator, running on PC. The date of play was the 9th November 2025. Skill level 6 (Difficult) was selected and the final score was 2,250 points.
Time stamps:
00:30 Instructions.
01:10 Skill level selection. Skill 6 / Difficult is selected.
01:15 Game start.
01:16 First Martian is an Imposter and it is Game Over!
01:21 Try again.
02:12 1,000 points passed.
03:29 2,000 points passed.
03:38 Imposter gets me. Game Over! Final score 2,250 points.
03:41 Initials entry and high score table.