| Submarine Commander | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Sears |
| Programmer(s) | Matthew Hubbard [1] |
| Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
| Release | September 1982 [2] |
| Genre(s) | Shoot 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Submarine Commander is a shoot 'em up video game for the Atari 2600, developed by Matthew Hubbard at Atari, Inc. [1] It was released exclusively under the Sears Tele-Games label in 1982. [3] [4]
The player controls a submarine going through enemy territory, and must shoot targets in order to win the game. [4] The player views the action via a periscope that can be rotated 360 degrees, a rarity for the time. Information provided to the player includes a radar scope, a depth charge detector, a fuel gauge, and an engine temperature gauge for detecting engine overheating. There are eight modes of play, made up of single and two-player mode and four different levels of difficulty for each. [5]
The game was one of three 2600 titles developed by Atari exclusively for Sears, the others being Stellar Track and a port of the arcade game Steeplechase . [6] Submarine Commander was based on the 1978 Midway arcade game Sea Wolf II , which was played with a periscope. [7]
A December 1982 review in Joystik magazine described Submarine Commander as a "very basic shooting-gallery type game." [4]
A retrospective review at 8-Bit Central said the game was "not a visually pleasing experience", but that it the complexity of the gameplay made it "worth playing". 8-Bit Central gave the game 2.5/5 overall. [5] A December 2012 review on the Video Games Critic website called it "an eye-opening experience", praising its faux-3D graphics and action; the review gave the game an overall grade of "B+". [8]