Meltdown (1990 video game)

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Meltdown
Meltdown Atari 7800 1990 Cover Art.jpg
Developer(s) Atari Corporation
Publisher(s) Atari Corporation
Platform(s) Atari 7800
Release1990 [1]
Genre(s) Light gun shooter [1]
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Meltdown is a light gun shooter video game developed by Atari Corporation and published in 1990 for the Atari 7800. It is one of five 7800 games compatible with the Atari XG-1 light gun accessory. [2]

Contents

Gameplay

The object of the game is to protect the 20 nuclear reactor cores from sparkx. At the title screen, the player chooses one or two players and novice or expert difficulty. [3] [4]

The player must shoot the sparkx before they damage the reactor core. If the player misses, a barrier temporarily appears. [1] A maximum of four barriers can appear at a time. Sparkx will bounce off of the barriers adding a defensive strategy to the game. Sometimes power ups will appear on screen called power crystals and bonus blocks. The playfield area eventually shrinks, constraining the shooting area. If the reactor survives at the end of the round, the player is assigned a password to continue progress later, or can shoot to continue to the next reactor.

The game ends when either the control rods are destroyed or if the player saves all 20 reactors.

Plot

This game is set in a world where international terrorists have threatened to destroy the world. To accomplish this, the terrorists unleashed a weapon known as "sparkx" to attack 20 nuclear reactors. This weapon attacks the control rods of each reactor until forcing a nuclear meltdown. The player takes on the role of an unnamed hero tasked with destroying the sparkx within each reactor to save the world. [5]

Reception

GamePro gave Meltdown a score of 14/25 on release in October 1990, commenting that it isn't the most glamorous game in the world, but the fun of using a light gun, along with the fast action, make up for it nicely. [6] Writing for Retro Gamer , Kieren Hawken ranked Meltdown among the best games for the 7800, [7] and in the top five 7800-exclusive games, saying that Meltdownmight not look like much, but the frantic shooting action will leave you sweating. [8] Brett Weiss in the book Classic Home Video Games compared the game to Reactor and noted the temporary barrier system as an inventive idea. [1] Andy Slaven in his book Video Game Bible called the gameplay, graphics, and sound "dull". [9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Weiss, Brett (July 6, 2009). "Meltdown". Classic Home Video Games, 1985-1988: A Complete Reference Guide. McFarland & Company. ISBN   9781476601410.
  2. ↑ Wardyga, Brian J. (August 6, 2018). "ATARI 7800 PROSYSTEM". The Video Games Textbook: History • Business • Technology. CRC Press. ISBN   9781000868227. [...] XG-1 light gun [...] worked with five 7800 titles, including [...] Meltdown [...]
  3. ↑ Meltdown Atari 7800 Game Manual. Sunnyvale, California: Atari Corporation. 1990. pp. 2–5.
  4. ↑ "MeltDown (Atari 7800)". VideoGameGeek. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  5. ↑ Meltdown Atari 7800 Game Manual. Sunnyvale, California: Atari Corporation. 1990. p. 1.
  6. ↑ Normal, Abby (October 1990). "Atari ProView: Meltdown" (PDF). GamePro . p. 86.
  7. ↑ Hawken, Kieren. "Minority Report: Atari 7800 Special". Retro Gamer. No. 121. p. 87. Retrieved 11 Aug 2025.
  8. ↑ Hawken, Kieren. "Atari 7800 Prosystem". Retro Gamer. No. 132. p. 24. PMID   2 . Retrieved 11 Aug 2025.
  9. ↑ Slaven, Andy (2002). Video Game Bible, 1985-2002. Trafford Publishing. p. 45. ISBN   9781553697312.
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